Accident | |
---|---|
Date | April 27, 1976 |
Summary | Runway overrun caused by pilot error |
Site | Harry S. Truman Airport, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands 18°20′28″N64°57′39″W / 18.34111°N 64.96083°W |
Total fatalities | 37 |
Total injuries | 39 |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Boeing 727-23 [lower-alpha 1] |
Operator | American Airlines |
Registration | N1963 |
Flight origin | T. F. Green Airport, Providence, Rhode Island |
Stopover | John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, New York |
Destination | Harry S. Truman Airport, Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands |
Occupants | 88 |
Passengers | 81 |
Crew | 7 |
Fatalities | 37 |
Injuries | 38 |
Survivors | 51 |
Ground casualties | |
Ground injuries | 1 |
American Airlines Flight 625, a Boeing 727-100, crashed at St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands on April 27, 1976, while on a domestic scheduled passenger flight originating at T. F. Green Airport in Rhode Island and ending at Saint Thomas, United States Virgin Islands, with an intermediate stop at John F. Kennedy International Airport. 37 out of the 88 passengers on board died in the accident. [1]
The American Airlines Boeing 727-23, registration N1963, [2] overran the departure end of Runway 9 when landing at Harry S. Truman airport. The aircraft struck an Instrument Landing System antenna, crashed through a chain link fence, and traveled another 1,040 feet (320 m) until stopped by a gas station. The aircraft was destroyed.
The airport in St. Thomas was notorious among pilots for its short (4,658 feet (1,420 m)) runway. In fact, the Boeing 727 was the heaviest aircraft type authorized to use it, and even then it was only authorized in one direction.
Ultimately, the NTSB attributed the crash to pilot error on the approach. The maximum flap setting of 40 degrees was never applied, which meant that the aircraft's speed was 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) higher than VREF as it crossed the runway threshold. This, combined with the fact that the aircraft 'floated' from turbulent winds in the area, meant that it was already 2,300 feet (700 m) down the runway at the point of touchdown. The pilots did not brake, and proceeded to apply full throttle three seconds after touchdown in an attempt at a go-around. However, they were unable to reach takeoff speed because the 727's engines are slow-responding, taking about 6.6 seconds to power up. After five seconds of waiting for power, and with only 700 feet (210 m) of runway left, the pilot panicked, according to the report, and applied full brakes. Further, the pilot forgot to apply reverse engine thrust until immediately before impact.
Ultimately, the aircraft ran off the end of the runway and into a Shell gas station, killing 37 (35 passengers and 2 flight attendants) of the 88 on board. Thirty-eight other passengers and crew were injured, and one person on the ground was seriously injured. The probable cause was the captain's actions and his judgment in not being aware that when he touched down 2,300 feet (700 m) down the 4,658-foot (1,420 m) runway, he did not have enough distance to perform a go-around. [3]
As a result of the crash, American Airlines ended all jet flights to St. Thomas, flying instead to St. Croix (which had a 7,600 foot runway at the time). American Airlines passengers were then flown to St. Thomas in Convair 440 propeller-driven aircraft from St. Croix, with these flights being operated by a wholly owned subsidiary, American Inter-Island Airlines. [4] The Convair 440 aircraft were owned by American Airlines and flown and maintained via contract by Antilles Air Boats, a seaplane operator in the U.S. Virgin Islands. [5] Jet flights operated by American resumed when a new runway at St. Thomas was constructed with a length of 7,000 feet (2,100 m).
American Airlines Flight 625 was specifically mentioned in the movie Rain Man . [6]
Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 was a scheduled flight on September 25, 1978, by Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA), from Sacramento to San Diego (SAN), with a stopover at Los Angeles (LAX). The aircraft serving the flight, a Boeing 727-214, collided mid-air with a private Cessna 172 over San Diego, California. It was Pacific Southwest Airlines' first fatal accident, and it remains the deadliest air disaster in California history. At the time, it was the deadliest air crash to occur in the United States, and remained so until the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 in May 1979.
Santa Barbara Municipal Airport is 7 miles west of downtown Santa Barbara, California, United States. The airfield covers 948 acres (384 ha) of land and has three runways.
Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight between Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, and Salt Lake City, Utah. On August 31, 1988, the flight, using a Boeing 727-200 series aircraft, crashed during takeoff at Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), resulting in 14 deaths and 76 injuries among the 108 on board.
Allegheny Airlines was a local service carrier that operated out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1952 to 1979, with routes primarily located in the eastern U.S. It was the forerunner of USAir that was subsequently renamed US Airways, which itself merged with American Airlines. Its headquarters were at Washington National Airport in Arlington County, Virginia.
Pan Am Flight 759 was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight from Miami to San Diego, with en route stops in New Orleans and Las Vegas. On July 9, 1982, the Boeing 727 flying this route crashed in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner after being forced down by a microburst shortly after takeoff. All 145 on board, as well as eight people on the ground, were killed.
Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 was a regularly scheduled flight from New Orleans to New York City that crashed on June 24, 1975, while on approach to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing 113 of the 124 people on board. The crash was determined to be caused by wind shear caused by a microburst, but the failure of the airport and the flight crew to recognize the severe weather hazard was also a contributing factor.
Billings Logan International Airport is in the western United States, two miles northwest of downtown Billings, in Yellowstone County, Montana. It is the fourth busiest airport in Montana, having been surpassed in recent years by Bozeman, Missoula, and Flathead County (Kalispell) in number of annual enplanements. Owned by the city of Billings, the airport is on top of the Rims, a 500-foot (150 m) cliff overlooking the downtown core, and covers 2,500 acres of land.
Cyril E. King Airport is a public airport located two miles (3 km) west of the central business district of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. It is currently the busiest airport in the United States Virgin Islands, and one of the busiest in the eastern Caribbean, servicing 1,403,000 passengers from July 2015 through June 2016. The airport also serves the island of St. John and is additionally often used by those travelling to the nearby British Virgin Islands.
Ketchikan International Airport is a state-owned, public-use airport located one nautical mile (2 km) west of the central business district of Ketchikan, a city in Ketchikan Gateway Borough in Alaska, that has no direct road access to the outside world or to the airport. The airport is located on Gravina Island, just west of Ketchikan on the other side of the Tongass Narrows. Passengers must take a seven-minute ferry ride across the water to get to the airport from the town.
United Airlines Flight 389 was a scheduled flight from LaGuardia Airport, New York City, New York, to O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois. On August 16, 1965, at approximately 21:21 EST, the Boeing 727 crashed into Lake Michigan 20 miles east of Fort Sheridan, near Lake Forest, while descending from 35,000 feet (11,000 m) mean sea level (MSL). There was no indication of any unusual problem prior to impact. All 30 persons aboard, including six crew members and 24 passengers, were killed.
American Airlines Flight 383 was a nonstop flight from New York City to Cincinnati on November 8, 1965. The aircraft was a Boeing 727, with 57 passengers, and 5 crew on board. The aircraft crashed on final approach to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport located in Hebron, Kentucky, United States. Only three passengers and one flight attendant survived the crash.
Piedmont Airlines Flight 22 was a Piedmont Airlines Boeing 727-22 that collided with a twin-engine Cessna 310 on July 19, 1967, over Hendersonville, North Carolina, United States. Both aircraft were destroyed and all passengers and crew were killed, including John T. McNaughton, an advisor to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. The aircraft were both operating under instrument flight rules and were in radio contact with the Asheville control tower, though on different frequencies. The accident investigation was the first of a major scale conducted by the newly created National Transportation Safety Board. A review of the investigation conducted 39 years after the crash upheld the original findings that had placed primary responsibility on the Cessna pilot.
On 22 December 2009, an American Airlines Boeing 737-800, operating American Airlines Flight 331 and carrying 148 passengers and six crew, overran runway 12 on landing at Kingston in poor weather. The plane continued on the ground outside the airport perimeter and broke apart on the beach, causing injuries.
On December 27, 1968, North Central Airlines Flight 458 crashed into a hangar while attempting a night landing in poor weather at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Of the 41 passengers and four crew members, only 17 passengers and one crew member survived. One person was killed and six were injured on the ground.
FedEx Express Flight 1478 was a scheduled domestic cargo flight from Memphis International Airport to Tallahassee International Airport. On July 26, 2002, the Boeing 727-232F aircraft flying this route crashed during landing at Tallahassee. All three flight crew members survived the accident with serious injuries, but the aircraft was destroyed.
The crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 60 was an accident involving a Boeing 727-81 of the American airline Alaska Airlines at Ketchikan International Airport in Ketchikan, Alaska, United States, on April 5, 1976, resulting in the death of a passenger with 32 serious and 17 minor injured survivors among the initial 50 passengers and crew on board.