How Many Recall This Accident....

[fantom]

...besides Bob Belville, that is?  

 

By Felicia Fonseca

<<<FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) -- In the mid-1950s, air travel was a shadow of the highly advanced operation of checks and rules seen today. The skies were largely uncontrolled, and pilots outside major U.S. cities relied on sight to avoid catastrophes.

Then, two commercial airplanes crashed over the Grand Canyon in June 1956, killing all 128 people aboard in the deadliest aviation disaster of the time and helping spur an overhaul to flight safety. A country already grappling with increasingly busy skies pressured Congress for major changes to improve air traffic control and radar systems and to create a federal agency to regulate it.

"It really did underscore for the general public, for the first time, that much of the air space in America was uncontrolled at that time," said Peter Goelz, former managing director for the National Transportation Safety Board. "Once you got up to 20,000 feet and beyond the terminal radars, it was see and be seen."

Grand Canyon National Park will mark the designation of the crash site Tuesday as a National Historic Landmark in a ceremony overlooking the gorge on the east end where the wreckage was scattered over 1.5 square miles. Some of the victim's remains never were identified, and most of those that were have been buried together in mass at cemeteries at the Grand Canyon and the northern Arizona city of Flagstaff.

The United Airlines Douglas DC-7 and a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation both left California on June 30, 1956, eventually cruising at the same altitude - 21,000 feet - after the TWA pilot requested to fly above the clouds. Shortly before 10 a.m., both pilots reported to different communications stations that they would be crossing over the canyon at the same position at 10:31 a.m.

The Salt Lake City controller who had that information was not obligated to tell either of the pilots they could be on a crash course. It was the sole responsibility of the pilots to avoid other aircraft in uncontrolled airspace.

At 10:31, a message from the United flight was later determined to be: "Salt Lake, United 718 ... ah ... we're going in." The TWA flight was not heard from again.

The investigative agency, the Civil Aeronautics Board, determined simply that the pilots did not see one another. The agency speculated that the pilots were treating passengers to views of the Grand Canyon while flying through scattered cloud buildup.

Meanwhile, pressure mounted on Congress to move faster to make air travel safer. In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Airways Modernization Act, and airliners were required to have flight data recorders. What's now known as the Federal Aviation Administration began operating late that year.

The investigators on the Grand Canyon crash pieced together what happened based on the wreckage. No one saw the planes collide.

The family of Leon David Cook Jr., a passenger on the United flight destined for Chicago, was huddled around the television that night awaiting word on what happened. The next morning, dozens of reporters were staked out in front of their Detroit home, said Cook's son Ray, then 12.

The TWA wreckage was found first. More than a mile away and several days later, the United wreckage was discovered.

Ray Cook said the crash destroyed his family. His mother died 14 years later when she drove drunk off an embankment, and his brother committed suicide at 37. Cook, who broke free from heavy drinking after 25 years, couldn't come to terms with the death for several years.

"I used to think every night that my father would walk out of the Grand Canyon, sunburned and scraggly, saying, `They screwed up, I'm fine, here I am,'" he said.

The recovery operation was one of the most extensive and dangerous in the history of the National Park Service. Rescuers had to contend with harsh terrain, swirling winds and the remoteness of the crash sites where the wreckage was twisted, broken and melted. United brought in a Swiss mountain rescue group and the Colorado Mountain Club to help.

Former Associated Press writer Frank Wetzel wrote of military personnel silently lifting olive-drab body bags into aircraft.

"It was my first look at Grand Canyon," the 88-year-old said in an interview. "I hadn't any concept of its grandeur. At the time, the wreckage was spread out because the impact must have been terrible."

The crash sites near the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers now are closed off to the public and being preserved for their place in history.

Grand Canyon National Park archaeologist Ian Hough said the sites can serve as a learning tool for understanding the significance of the disaster and its impact on families, some of whom shared their stories recently with park officials as part of an oral history project.

"The Park Service has to manage those sites as the resting place for those 128 souls," he said. "In many different ways, those people are still there."

Jennifer Reed, the only child of United passenger Dwight B. Nims, has just started to grieve. She was 4 when the plane crashed, having been told that her father, a military veteran who was on a business trip, would be back soon. She eventually stopped asking her mother when.

She said the trauma runs deep but she is comforted knowing she can talk about the crash more openly now and that it helped spur major safety changes.

"Their deaths were not in vain," she said.>>>

[1964-M20E]

There is a movie about this incident I do not recall the name of it.

[FBCK]

The tv show Mayday, actually did an episode on it.

[RangerJim]

Thank you for a superb writeup.

 

I have rafted and hiked past the site without knowing it was there.  Lends credence to the statement that many of the FARs are written in blood.

[Piloto]

Sometimes ATC may induce to a collision as it happened in the Canary Islands and over Germany.

 

Watch this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx29dHq2TBM

 

Always be on the look out.

 

José

[Guest]

Which crash in the Canary Islands?

Clarence

[Oscar Avalle]

Which crash in the Canary Islands?

Clarence

The ground collision between KLM and PANAM.

[Hank]

The ground collision between KLM and PANAM.

 

ATC didn't cause that one. Seems one plane missed its turn off the runway in fog and was struck by the other one taking off. Sure, ATC had to clear jet #2 for departure, but only after being asked . . . It comes back to ADM. I occasionally fly in low IMC [meaning less than 1000' agl ceiling], but I never take off if the ceiling is too low to come back if needed. I've missed a few trips due to widespread morning fog.

[Piloto]

Canary Islands crash video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LepaN0QI-Bs

 

Over 500 killed onboard two B747

 

Although there were several factors that contributed to this accident to me the root cause was the controllers having two planes on the same runway in foggy conditions. The planes should have taxi to the departure end via the taxiway and not via the runway. Why did the controllers line up the planes for taxing in the opposite direction along the runway in the first place? Or why instead of departing on rwy 30 depart just depart on rwy 22?. If there was fog on the airport there would have been little or no wind. Departing from rwy 22 would have expedited traffic quicker. As per the above video this question never came up.

 

José

[Guest]

If I'm not mistaken the KLM flight (with the KLM's Chief pilot in command) initiated his take off without a clearance to do so. He hit the other aircraft which was crossing the runway in the fog.

Seems to have little to do with an ATC error.

In my mind its like trying to blame ATC because you landed gear up after they cleared you to land.

Clarence

[jetdriven]

Theres a great show about that one.

 

1. bomb threat, disrupting air travel

2. Taking fuel on the ramp stops PanAm behind KLM. They must now take off first.

3. KLM must get off by 5:30 or else they have to stay the night.

4. Controllers unfamiliar with 747s, overloaded with many diverts. The 747 pilots unfamiliar with the airport.

5. Language barriers, poor english. confusing instructions.

6. Pan Am missed the turnoff in the fog, still on the runway. radio confusion as to which taxiway to take.

7. the big one, the tower tells the KLM "OK, stand by for takeoff" at the same time Pan Am says they are still on the runway. The KLM crew only heard, OK" before the rest was blocked by the transmitting Pan Am, and the KLM captain said "we go".   Van Zanten took off without a definite, clear takeoff clearance.  Everyone agreed with this but the Dutch.

 

there are other factors as well.

 

Then the whole procedural idea of two airplanes on the runway at the same time, and further complicated with the fog and they cannot see each other.  It took 30 years, but now airplanes cannot position and hold at night at towered airports due to some accidents caused by that.  I once positioned and held in broad daylight in a turboprop, and during the takeoff roll had a 182 ghost right over top of us, land right in front of us while we were going 80 knots.  That was interesting.

 

here are two more videos. The second video portrays the KLM captain as an asshole, I dont believe that for a second. Maybe he was strong-willed, but not like that.   but otherwise great videos of the whole situation.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKEClDv8It8

[Piloto]

If the controller would had directed the planes via the taxiway to rwy 30 or just depart from rwy 22 the collision would have never occurred even if the KLM pilot takeoff without clearance. The controller overlook the fact that is not trivial making a U-turn on such a small area for a B747 and having two airplanes in opposite direction on the same runway with no visual contact. In this scenario even if the KLM would not have taken off the PAN AM jet would have needed a tow truck to get it off the runway. This was a case of very poor handling of ground traffic. The Spanish government simply didn't want to take the blame.

 

José

[jetdriven]

There were quite a few planes on the taxiway behind the 747s. They only had two options, depart 12 right there, or backtaxi on 30 to turn off.

[Guest]

Please recheck the runway info for the airport Los Rodeos, 12/30, 11,135 feet long. There appears to be no runway 22/04, different airport perhaps?

Clarence

[Piloto]

My mistake I meant rwy 12 not 22. I still wonder why the controllers chose 30 instead of 12. Even if the wind would have changed at the last minute any of these planes would had no problem taking off with a tail wind.

 

José

[Bob_Belville]

 

...besides Bob Belville, that is?  

 

 

Very funny, Gary... 

[Marauder]

Very funny, Gary...

Why does it appear the caption for this picture should be: "I own a Mooney, want to see it?" (Bob -- I kept it clean).

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Mcstealth]

Looks like Nicolas Cage, sort of, kinda, maybe

[flyboy0681]

At least the producers of the documentary had the wherewithal to use a real 747 cockpit for their reenactments. The graphical re-creation of the two 747's however are very hokey.