[7] Nine of 11 crewmembers, 63 of 77 passengers died; thus 72 fatalities of the 88 aboard the plane. Linked below is the website created by Eduardo Valenciana, one of two surviving f/a's. Both military and civil versions, Blimps / Airships Before that time not such manuver was ever recorded in the>Jepsen Maunal or anywhere else to any U.S. airline.">. [7] Ground fatalities were reported as being just one (the driver of the truck parked on Runway 23L) to as many as three (the driver and two people in the Eastern Airlines building). Western Airlines Flight 2605 was an international scheduled passenger flight fromLos Angeles, California, toMexico City,Mexico. The aircraft was destroyed. Airport workers Sunday also found the decomposed remains of an unidentified woman under the planes twisted wreckage, officials said Monday.. Thirty days, After thecrash, the FAA went to Mexico and along side La Officina De NavagacionEspacio Mexicana, developed a side step manuver for U.S. pilots into BenitoJuarez Airport. When the aircraft was on final approach, the control tower operator repeated that the runway in use was 23 Right and drew the attention of the pilot to the fact that he was left of the flight path he should be following to land on the runway in use. The gear leg separated and struck the right tailplane and elevator, causing substantial damage. I opened my seatbelt and came out of the plane. SimplePlanes | DC-10 Western Airlines The bank angle increased until the flap of the right wing struck the cab of anexcavator1,500 meters from the runway threshold. We thank you for your support and hope you'll join the largest aviation community on the web. Seventy-two persons on board the aircraft and one person on the ground were killed in the accident. Three seconds before the collision with the truck the engine throttles were opened. 100-101 & 106-107. NTSB writes that there was one. 11-1-1979, A12. On-site investigation of this terrible tragedy was conducted under the auspices of Servicio a La Navegacion en el Espacio Aereo Mexicano (SENEAM), the Mexican equivalent of the FAA. The end of the right wing eventually struck the corner of an aircraft repair hangar, causing damage to the hangar and also fracturing the DC-10's right wing. ), Nov 1, Annibali (as told to UPI): An Italian student, Alessandro Annibali, 22, survived the crashThis is his story. This caused the landing gear leg complete with the two rear tires, wheels and brake units to be thrown about 70 m beyond the point of collision with the truck. My left hand and my foot is burned and my shoulder is dislocated. Accessed 10-6-2016 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/us/indiana/logansport/logansport-pharos-tribune/1979/11-01/page-21?tag, Wikipedia. This is a challenging airport and approach in vmc conditions. Although the aircraft was cleared for a Tepexpan arrival and was advised that the landing runway was 23R, the crew continued the approach to runway 23L, which had been closed for repairs. I have thought about this more since my previous post (#12) and I think it is a mischaracterisation of the event to say they landed on the wrong runway. I decided long ago that since he did notremember anything, I would not torture him by bringing him into the madnessthat was my world. At the time of the accident, Runway 23L had full instrument approach equipment, including an instrument landing system (ILS), while Runway 23R did not. Before today, I've only seen one black and white picture from above of what remained of the crushed DC-10. Of the 17 surviving passengers, 15 were injured. This runway was closed for repairs at the time. This meant that the flight was to follow the instrument landing system's glide path toward Runway 23L, and, as soon as they sighted Runway 23R through the cockpit window, they would reorient their aircraft to land on it instead. 26 (Circular 173-AN/109). Thanks for the link! And besides, side-step maneuvers are not uncommon at>airports with parallel runways, and there generally aren't published>procedures for the approach. The controller several times refers to "23 right" but the crew neverreads back "23 right." As it touched down, the airplane clipped a loaded dumptruck parked on a closed runway. Aircraft flying government officials, Helicopters Charles Gilbert, a 30-year veteran who also died in the crash. The fate of the others was not immediately known. One part of the DC-10's left wing travelled well off airport grounds, impacting a residential building on Matamoros Street in the Pen de los Baoscoloniaand causing a fire there as well. There are a few youtube videos of the cockpit voice transcript from this accident. Chip was not mobile due to a leg injury, so Eddy had to help him out. Accessed 10-7-2016 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/us/kansas/hutchinson/hutchinson-news/1979/12-15?tag, United Press International, Mexico City. I've never seen pics from this crash at allamazing how much wreckage there is! [citation needed] Accident details Mexico City International Airport has two runways: Runway 23 Left (23L), and Runway 23 Right (23R). The October 31, 1979 flight left Los Angeles International Airport at 1:40 AM PST, and was scheduled to land well before sunrise in Mexico City. Reply 25th Jan 2014, 08:03 # 8 ( permalink) Newforest2 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Germany Posts: 552 Likes: 0 Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts Investigators probe DC-10 crash site. The Daily Herald, Arlington Heights, IL, 11-2-1979, p. 2-7. The procedure is shown as a straight-in approach to an adjacent runway, as a circling approach to the sidestep runway, or as a note at the bottom of the chart giving ceiling and visibility minima. 21. [end of p. 101]. Between the time of their beginning the approach and the crash, they were advised that the landing runway was 23R four times by approach control or the tower. Of the 89 people on board, 72 were killed, in addition to a maintenance worker who died when the plane struck his vehicle. Western Airlines 2605 is a crash that sticks out in my mind as one of the most mysterious accidents of all time, as comparatively little about the accident itself has been released to the public. Probably nothing, but it could give me a competitive edge over Kilroy atAD.com. The Douglas DC10, even before 1979 suffered multiple hull loses and even for a time, held the accolade of being the aircraft involved in the deadliest air disaster to have occurred at that time.. Mexico City International Airport was forced to close to flights temporarily, and 2,000 people were reported to have traveled to the airport to view the crash site and wreckage on Friday, November 2. Western Airlines Flight 2605 Explained Airliners.net is the leading community for discovering and sharing high-quality aviation photography. I just saw that the plane was tilted a little bit toward the right, and it touched down with the right tire. Before that time not such manuver was ever recorded in theJepsen Maunal or anywhere else to any U.S. airline.". Failure to comply with the aircraft's operating procedures during the approach phase, and landing on a runway closed to traffic. Most survivors were found in a 20-foot-long (6-meter) section of fuselage that did not burn. 26 (Circular 173-AN/109). The approach lights are on runway 23-left. [p. 102], Twenty minutes before the accident to aircraft N-903WA, a B-727 aircraft of the Mexicana Airline which was performing Flight No. Nov 1, UPI: Mexico City (UPI) Confusion over two parallel runways sent 74 people to their deaths in the fiery crash of a Western Airlines DC-10 at the fog-shrouded Mexico City airport. I believed he was in shock after the crash, and though his first thought was to open a door and rescue others, he clearly was unable to do so due to his injuries. Oct 31, AP: Mexico City (AP) A Western Airlines DC-10 jetliner bound from Los Angeles with 88 persons reported aboard crashed while landing in fog and smog at the Mexico City airport today, plowing into two buildings, and Red Cross officials at the scene said they had recovered 55 bodies from the wreckage. One of the passengers, Ken Lucoff, was an ABC field producer who covered the American Airlines 191 crash at O'Hare in Chicago. In the accident case, the Mexico City chart for runway 23 right contained only ceiling and visibility minima. Seventy-two persons on board the aircraft and one person on the ground were killed in the accident. Maybe I can sell the story to Hard Copy. The tower operator informed the crew that the runway in use was 23 Right and provided the crew with information on the weather conditions prevailing at Mexico City International Airport, and landing data. Ask?..No, it was not pilot error.". First of all I don't believe there ever was an official NTSB report on this accident. The instrument landing procedure authorized in the aeronautical information publication (AIP) for Runway 23 Left with transition to 23 Right specifies that if the pilot does not have the runway in sight at 600 ft during an instrument landing approach, he must break off the approach and climb to 8,500 ft. Details of its findings were republished in International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) circular 173-AN/109. 75 UPI, Mexico City. Accident description31 October 1979Western Air Lines.[7], 73 Garrison, Peter. On October 31, 1979, at 5:42 a.m. the flight. ", A further investigation was executed by the Air Line Pilots Association, and its results were summarized in the December 1983 issue of Flying magazine. The captain further stated that they were in fact (still) on the approach to 23L, saying "No, this is the approach to the goddamned left". They would have been better off had they just pulled the power to idle and gone straight ahead. Confusion Over Runways Caused DC-10 Crash. Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, IN, 11-1-1979, p. Pedro Jose, a surviving passenger, said: It was a normal flight all the way from Los Angeles up to Mexico City airport. Photos taken by airborne photographers of airborne aircraft, Special Paint Schemes On October 19, 1979, anotice to airmenwas issued stating that Runway 23L would be closed until further notice for resurfacing work. [8] Fatality number refers to 73 passenger and crew deaths and the driver of the dump truck, while noting There were an undisclosed number of casualties among ground personnel, including, needless to say, the driver of thetruck. Editorial at the end notes: This article is based on the Air Line Pilots Associations [ALPA] report of the accident and is intended to bring the issues raised by that report to the attention of our readers. Thus a pilot point of view is being brought to an understanding of this accident. Cockpit voice recording audio of the last seconds of the flight indicated that the first officer and captain agreed that they were cleared for 23R (not the runway they were still on approach to). Avoid These Airlines: A List of the Most Hated in Africa | Business I was a Western Airlines FA during the time of the WAL 2605 crash, and I flew many times to Mexico City without any incidents or concerns with the three pilots who died on WAL 2605. But then again, as we have seen in the TWA800 debate, some people will believe anything. Inside the plane there was a lot of fire and a lot of dead people. [3], 74 AP. Rafael Martinez, 31, a Mexican resident of Los Angeles, died Sunday [Nov 18] at the American British Cowdray Hospital from multiple injuries he suffered in the Oct. 31 crash, hospital spokesmen said Monday.
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