ALM flight 980
| ALM flight 980 | |
|---|---|
 A Douglas DC-9-33 of the ONA, similar to the accident machine |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Ditching due to lack of fuel, passengers sometimes not wearing their seat belts |
| place | Caribbean Sea |
| date | May 2nd 1970 |
| Fatalities | 23 |
| Survivors | 40 |
| Injured | 37 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Douglas DC-9-33CF
|
| operator |
Overseas National Airways for ALM Antillean Airlines.svg){kind=small}
|
| Mark |
N935F
|
| Departure airport |
John F. Kennedy International Airport , New York City , New York , United States
|
| Stopover |
|
| Destination airport |
St. Croix Airport , U.S. Virgin Islands (alternate airport)
|
| Passengers | 57 |
| crew | 6th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On May 2, 1970, a Douglas DC-9-33CF of Overseas National Airways crashed on ALM flight 980 (flight number: LM980 ) , with which on behalf of ALM Antillean Airlines a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Princess Juliana Airport was carried out in the Netherlands Antilles . When the crew had to abort the approach due to the weather and return to St. Croix Airport , the aircraft ran out of fuel. During the subsequent ditching , 23 of 63 people on board were killed.
plane
The plane that crashed was a Douglas DC-9-33CF, which was finally assembled at the McDonnell Douglas plant in Long Beach , California and delivered to Overseas National Airways in March 1969 . The machine was registered with the aircraft registration number N935F and was given the name Carib Queen . The aircraft had the factory number 47407, it was the 457. Douglas DC-9 from ongoing production. The twin- engined , narrow -body aircraft was equipped with two Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines. At the time of the accident, the machine was operating for 2505 hours.
Course of the flight and course of the accident
The take-off of the machine from John F. Kennedy International Airport and its flight to the Caribbean initially went smoothly. After the crew was cleared to descend to 10,000 feet (approx. 3000 meters), regional air traffic control informed the pilots that the weather conditions in St. Maarten were below the minimum required for a landing. The captain decided to return to San Juan, but shortly afterwards air traffic control in St. Maarten informed the crew that the weather had improved and a landing was now possible. The machine made an approach to St. Maarten, but the pilots could not see the runway and decided to make a missed approach .
The pilots then made a second attempt to land, which also failed due to a lack of visual contact with the runway. After another missed approach, the crew attempted another approach, but the aircraft flew too high for a safe landing to be possible. The pilots then decided to turn back to Saint Croix due to the weather and their running out of fuel and received the vectors and clearance to carry out the approach. Shortly afterwards, the pilots noticed a possible discrepancy between the indicated fuel level and the calculated amount of kerosene that should be in the tanks. The captain told air traffic control that he intended the machine crash land and began an approach to the water from a low height. At 3:49 p.m. local time, the machine touched down in the waters of the Caribbean. The rescue workers had already been informed beforehand.
Although the pilots had switched on the seatbelts before ditching, the passengers and flight attendants in the cabin were not aware that the aircraft should be placed on the surface of the water. For this reason, an unknown number of passengers and crew members had either not sat in their seats or were not wearing their seat belts when the machine hit the water.
The air cell remained relatively intact after ditching, but sank to a depth of around 1,500 meters (5,000 ft) after about 10 minutes. The survivors use one of the inflatable life slides as a life raft or to hold on to it. Helicopters began to pick up survivors after about an hour; previously, life rafts had already been dropped from aircraft, but they landed too far away or could not be brought to the main group of survivors. None of the five life rafts on board the aircraft were used either, but one of them inadvertently inflated inside during the evacuation, blocking one of the escape routes and temporarily pressing a crew member against a cabin wall. The first officer was picked up as the last survivor one hour after the rescue began.
23 people were killed in the accident and 37 of the 40 survivors were injured. Both pilots survived. Much of the wreck was never recovered.
The US Coast Guard , the US Navy and the US Marine Corps were also involved in the rescue operation .
Accident investigation
The investigation into the accident was conducted by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). In the final report, poor monitoring of the fuel supplies was noted, which was compounded by the inattention of the crew and their distraction by the missed approaches in bad weather. According to the authority, the cause of the accident was a lack of fuel, which resulted from repeated missed approaches to St. Maarten, which were continued until there was not enough fuel left to reach an alternative airport.
The chances of survival in the accident had been reduced by the poor coordination of the crew before and during the emergency landing.
The recommendations in the final report included warning passengers as an item on the checklists for emergency landings and ditching. Airlines have also been instructed to replace outdated belt systems with more modern ones.
swell
- The machine in the FAA's registration database
- Aircraft Accident Report: Overseas National Airways, Inc. Douglas DC-9 N935F, Operating as Antillaanse Luchtvaart Flight 980, Near St. Croix, Virgin Islands, May 2, 1970 , * National Transportation Safety Board
- Accident Report DC-9-33 N935F , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed November 8, 2019.
- Computer animation of the incident on YouTube
- Pictures of the recovery of the rear of the machine
Coordinates: 18 ° 0 ′ 0 ″ N , 64 ° 0 ′ 0 ″ W.