- ALM Flight 980
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ALM Flight 980 Accident summary Date 2 May 1970 Type Fuel exhaustion due to pilot error Site Caribbean Sea Passengers 57 Crew 6 Injuries 37 Fatalities 23 Survivors 40 Aircraft type Douglas DC-9-33CF Operator ALM Tail number N935F Flight origin John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York Destination Princess Juliana International Airport, St. Maarten ALM Flight 980 was a flight scheduled to fly from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, New York to Princess Juliana International Airport in St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles, on 2 May 1970. After several unsuccessful landing attempts, the aircraft's fuel was exhausted and it made a forced water landing (ditching) in the Caribbean Sea 48 km (30 mi) off St. Croix, with 23 fatalities and 40 survivors. The accident is one of a small number of intentional water ditchings of jet airliners.
Contents
Aircraft and crew
The aircraft was a twin-engine Douglas DC-9-33CF operated on behalf of ALM by Overseas National Airways (ONA), with an ONA aircraft and flight crew, and an ALM cabin crew. It was registered in the United States with FAA tail number N935F. The flight carried 57 passengers and 6 crew. [1]
Flight and ditching
Flight 980 made a normal departure from Kennedy Airport and had an uneventful flight to the Caribbean. After the flight was given descent clearance to 10,000 feet (3,000 m), regional air traffic control (ATC) advised that weather in St. Maarten was below landing minimums. The captain elected to divert to San Juan; however, shortly after that, the tower at St. Maarten advised them that the weather had improved sufficiently for landing. The flight made an initial approach to St. Maarten, but failed to sight the runway in time to line up for landing, and announced a missed approach.
Flight 980 then made a second landing attempt, but it, too, was unsuccessful because of alignment with the runway. After breaking off that approach, the crew made a third attempt, but the aircraft was too high to land safely. After assessing the weather and fuel situation, the crew elected to divert to St. Thomas, and received a vector and clearance. At this point the crew noticed a possible discrepancy between the fuel gauges and what had been computed as the amount of fuel remaining. The captain advised ATC of his intention to ditch the aircraft, and began a low approach over the water. Flight 980 ditched in the Caribbean Sea at 3:49 PM local time. [1]
Although the pilots flashed the seat belt signs just prior to ditching, there was insufficient understanding in the cabin that the aircraft was about to touch down. Consequently, an unknown number of passengers and crew were either standing up, or had their seat belts unfastened when the aircraft struck the water.
The aircraft remained relatively intact after the water landing, but sank after the accident in about 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of water, and was never recovered. The accident resulted in 23 fatalities and 37 injuries, with three additional uninjured survivors. Both pilots survived. The injured survivors waited for hours in the water to be rescued.
Rescue efforts included units from the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, and a number of survivors were rescued by helicopter.
Investigation and aftermath
The accident was investigated by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The report concluded that the cause of the accident was poor fuel management, complicated by the crew's inattention and distraction caused by the weather situation and multiple diversions. Some specific issues cited include miscalculation of the rate of fuel consumption, misreading fuel gauges, and incorrect computation of the amount of fuel expected to be remaining at the time of landing. The NTSB report stated, "The Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was fuel exhaustion which resulted from continued, unsuccessful attempts to land at St. Maarten until insufficient fuel remained to reach an alternate airport. [1]
The NTSB also concluded that the chances of survival in the accident were made worse because of poor coordination among the crew before and during the ditching.
The recommendations in the report included adding "warn passengers" to the checklist of procedures for emergency landings and ditchings, requiring that flights not be dispatched without a working public address system, and phasing out an older type of seat belt then in use in favor of more modern designs.
See also
- Water landing
- List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
References
- ^ a b c (PDF) Aircraft Accident Report: Overseas National Airways, Inc. Douglas DC-9 N935F, Operating as Antillaanse Luchtvaart Flight 980, Near St. Croix, Virgin Islands, 2 May 1970. National Transportation Safety Board Report No. AAR-71-08. 1971-03-31. http://www.airdisaster.com/reports/ntsb/AAR71-08.pdf. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
External links
- 35 Miles From Shore - includes image gallery, maps, charts, diagrams
Commercial aircraft ditchings KLM Flight 633 (1954) · Pan Am Flight 845/26 (1955) · Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2 (1956) · Pan Am Flight 6 (1956) · Aeroflot Tupolev 124 (1963) · Japan Airlines Flight 2 (1968) · ALM Flight 980 (1970) · Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 (1996) · Garuda Indonesia Flight 421 (2002) · Tuninter Flight 1153 (2005) · US Airways Flight 1549 (2009)← 1969 · Aviation accidents and incidents in 1970 · 1971 → Feb 04 Aerolineas Argentinas Flight 707
Feb 15 Dominicana DC-9 disaster
Feb 21 Swissair Flight 330
Mar 17 Eastern Airlines Flight 1320
Mar 31 Japan Airlines Flight 351
Apr 21 Philippine Airlines Flight 215May 02 ALM Flight 980
May 15 Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair
Jul 05 Air Canada Flight 621
Aug 09 LANSA Flight 502
Aug 12 China Airlines Flight 206Sep 06 Dawson's Field hijackings
Oct 02 Wichita State Univ football team
Oct 15 Aeroflot Flight 244
Nov 14 Southern Airways Flight 932Incidents resulting in at least 50 deaths shown in italics. Deadliest incident shown in bold smallcaps.Coordinates: 17°43′29″N 64°50′05″W / 17.724597°N -64.834799°E
Categories:- Airliner accidents and incidents caused by fuel exhaustion
- Aviation accidents and incidents in 1970
- Accidents and incidents on commercial airliners in the United States Virgin Islands
- Commercial airline water landings
- Accidents and incidents involving the McDonnell Douglas DC-9
- 1970 in the United States Virgin Islands
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