Federal Express Flight 705
| Federal Express Flight 705 | |
|---|---|
,_FedEx_JP7375978.jpg) |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Attempted takeout suicide |
| place |
 Memphis , Tennessee
|
| date | April 7, 1994 |
| Fatalities | 0 |
| Survivors | 4 (all) |
| Injured | 4 (with kidnapper) |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30AF |
| operator | Federal Express |
| Mark | N306FE |
| Departure airport |
Memphis International Airport
|
| Destination airport |
San Jose International Airport
|
| Passengers | 1 (kidnapper) |
| crew | 3 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On 7 April 1994, was Federal Express Flight 705 , a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 - cargo plane , that of Memphis to San Jose should lead, kidnapped a suicidal conduct.
Auburn Calloway, a Federal Express employee who might have been fired for fraud in the accounting of his flight hours, boarded the flight as a dead-head passenger with a guitar case that contained several hammers and a harpoon . He planned to turn off the cockpit voice recorder before take off, and once the plane was in the air, use the hammers to kill the crew. The harpoon was intended as a reserve weapon. Then he wanted to smash the plane on the ground and make the incident look like an accident. In the event of an accident, his family would have been paid $ 2.5 million in life insurance .
Calloway's plan was unsuccessful. Although she had suffered serious injuries, the crew was able to defend themselves, arrest Calloway and land the aircraft safely. In court, the defense pleaded unsuccessfully to be insane. Calloway was found guilty of attempted murder and attempted air piracy, among other things, and was sentenced to two life imprisonment.
Flight details
Originally, Calloway was designated as the flight engineer for this flight. Since he and his crew had exceeded the maximum flight time by one minute the day before, a new crew was put together, which consisted of the 49-year-old captain David Sanders, the 42-year-old first officer James Tucker and the 39-year-old flight engineer Andrew Peterson. The cargo consisted of electronics destined for Silicon Valley .
The kidnapper
The then 42-year-old FedEx flight engineer Auburn Calloway, a former student of Stanford University and a Navy -Pilot, brought two claw hammers and sledgehammers and a harpoon into a guitar case on the plane. Just before the flight, Calloway transferred a total of $ 54,000 to his ex-wife.
The abduction
As part of the plan to disguise the incident as an accident, Calloway attempted to turn off the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) by disabling the circuit breaker . During the standardized preflight checks before take-off, the flight engineer noticed the deactivated switch and reactivated the CVR. If the attack on the crew had succeeded, the aircraft would still have had to fly another 30 minutes in order to transfer the recordings. Around 20 minutes after take off, Calloway entered the flight deck and began his attack. Each crew member in the cockpit suffered multiple hammer blows which fractured Peterson and Tucker's skulls and disrupted Peterson's superficial temporal artery . Sanders reported that he couldn't read any emotions on Calloway's face during the first few puffs of the attack. A lengthy fight ensued while Tucker, also a former Navy pilot, carried out extreme flight maneuvers, such as flying upside down to throw the kidnapper off balance.
In the end, Calloway was overwhelmed by the crew, albeit only after moments of the reverse transonic flow , for which the aircraft was actually not built. Sanders took over the plane and Tucker, having lost the right side of his body, went back to keep Calloway at bay with Peterson. Sanders communicated with air traffic control to make an emergency landing at Memphis Airport . Meanwhile, after yelling he was out of breath, Calloway began fighting the crew again.
Heavily loaded with kerosene and cargo, the aircraft was far too fast and too high to land on runway 9 as intended. Sanders asked if he could land on the longer runway 36. Ignoring warning messages from the computer and making a series of sharp turns that pushed the DC-10 to its limit, flying, and although the aircraft weight was well above the maximum allowable landing weight, Sanders was able to land the aircraft safely. At that time, Calloway was again in the hands of the crew. Rescue teams entered the aircraft via the evacuation slides and found a cockpit covered with blood.
After the kidnapping
Some of the crew suffered serious injuries. Tucker suffered a severe multiple fracture of the skull, which caused motor problems with his right side of the body; in addition, his jaw was dislocated by Calloway. Calloway also tried to tear one of his eyes out and stabbed him in the right arm. Sanders sustained several deep cuts on the head; in addition, his right ear had to be sewn back on. Peterson's skull was damaged and his superficial temporal artery disrupted. The damage to the aircraft amounted to 800,000 USD (1,272,923 USD, when adjusted for inflation).
Calloway pleaded temporary incapacity but was sentenced to two life sentences for attempted murder and attempted air piracy. Calloway is serving his sentence in the Atwater Penitentiary near Atwater , California .
On May 26, 1994, the Air Line Pilots Association, International awarded the crew a gold medal for heroism. The medal is the highest honor a civil pilot can achieve. The attempted kidnapping was the subject of Mayday - Cockpit Alarm (also known as Mayday , Air Crash Investigation or Air Emergency ) on the Canadian Discovery Channel . The episode in question (season 3, episode 4) was broadcast under the title Fight for Your Life .
As of August 2020, the affected aircraft is still in transit for FedEx under the same registration number N306FE. The expiration date is valid until August 31, 2022.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c National Geographic , Mayday ( Air Crash Investigation or Air Emergency ). Episode (Season 3, Episode 4), "Fight for Your Life (Suicide Attack)"
- ↑ a b c d e U.S. v. CALLOWAY; No. 95-6206 .; 116 F.3d 1129 (1997); UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff Appellee, v. Auburn CALLOWAY, Defendant Appellant .; United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit .; Argued December 2, 1996., Decided June 20, 1997., Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing Denied July 25, 1997.
- ↑ a b Cockpit Voice Recorder Database, April 7, 1994 - Fedex 705
- ↑ FAA REGISTRY - N-Number Inquiry Results - N306FE is Assigned