Pacific Western Airlines Flight 3801

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Pacific Western Airlines Flight 3801
C-FPWJ B707-351C Pacific Western MAN MAR74 (6051901183) .jpg

A Boeing 707-300 aircraft , similar to the aircraft that crashed
Accident summary
Accident type Controlled flight into terrain by underqualified crew members under difficult landing conditions
place near Leduc , CanadaCanadaCanada 
date 2nd January 1973
Fatalities 5
Survivors 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type United StatesUnited States Boeing 707-321C
operator CanadaCanada Pacific Western Airlines
Mark CanadaCanada CF-PWZ
Departure airport Toronto Pearson Airport , CanadaCanadaCanada 
Stopover Edmonton International Airport , CanadaCanadaCanada 
Destination airport Seoul Airport , South KoreaKorea SouthSouth Korea 
Passengers 2
crew 3
Lists of aviation accidents

Pacific Western Airlines flight 3801 (flight number: PW3801 ) was a cargo flight operated by the Canadian airline Pacific Western Airlines . On January 2, 1973, a Boeing 707-321C , which had started in Toronto and carried out a cattle transport to Seoul in South Korea , crashed on this flight , shortly before the stopover at Edmonton International Airport . Five occupants and the 86 cattle transported died in the accident.

plane

The aircraft used on the flight was a Boeing 707-321C operated by Pacific Western Airlines. It was the 389th Boeing 707 ever built with the serial number 18826. The machine was registered on September 17, 1964 for its first owner Continental Airlines and from July 26, 1972 with the aircraft registration CF-PWZ for Pacific Western Airlines. By the time of the accident, the machine had completed 33,059 flight hours in 9,458 take-offs and landings.

Inmates and cargo

The flight was carried out with a crew of three. The experienced captain was a veteran of the air force. The 27-year-old first officer, who had little flying experience with the Boeing 707 and had only recently acquired his type rating for this type of aircraft, had been on vacation 6 weeks before the flight.

The machine was loaded with 86 Holstein cattle and there were two animal keepers on board in addition to the three-person crew consisting of the captain, first officer and flight engineer.

Flight history

The flight was supposed to be from Toronto to Seoul . In Edmonton , the machine should be landed for a refueling. The first leg of the flight had passed without any special incidents until shortly before Edmonton.

the accident

There was a snow storm in the Edmonton area on approach . At this point in time, the machine was being controlled by the relatively inexperienced first officer. The approach with the heavily loaded machine in poor visibility, wind and signs of fatigue caused him obvious difficulties. The captain took the wheel late and tried to stop the machine's sink rate, which was too high. However, he did not succeed - the machine initially brushed several poplars three kilometers from its destination airport . Then the fuselage brushed the ground while the stern carried power lines with it. Eventually the machine crashed on an elevation in a gravel pit. The bow and the cockpit section tore off, the cattle were catapulted out of the open fuselage up to 100 meters forward by the force of the impact. All five crew members died and a fire broke out.

Debris finds in 2017

In the summer of 2017, the city council of Leduc carried out green works north of Telford Lake as part of the planning for the construction of a lion park. A large amount of debris from the crashed Boeing 707 was found, the largest of which was about seven to eight meters long. The curator of the Alberta Aviation Museum inspected and documented the rubble with a team of archaeologists, a piece of rubble about two by two meters is to be exhibited there.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Terry Jorden: Remnants of aviation tragedy uncovered , Edmonton Prime Times (English) of December 28, 2017, accessed on March 10, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Accident report B-707-321C, CF-PWZ Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 10, 2019.
  3. ↑ Operating History B-707-321C, CF-PWZ Jetphotos.com, accessed March 10, 2019.

Coordinates: 53 ° 16'19.7 "  N , 113 ° 31'52.9"  W.