On April 7, 1994, Federal Express Flight 705, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 cargo jet carrying electronics equipment across the United States from Memphis, Tennessee, to San Jose, California, was the subject of a hijack attempt by Auburn R. Calloway, a Federal Express employee facing possible dismissal for having lied about his flight hours.[3]
Calloway boarded the scheduled flight as a deadhead passenger carrying a guitar case concealing several hammers and a speargun. He planned to crash the aircraft hoping that he would appear to be an employee killed in an accident, so that his family could collect on a $2.5 million life insurance policy provided by Federal Express.[4] Calloway tried to switch off the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder (CVR) before takeoff, but the flight engineer noticed and turned it back on believing that he had neglected to turn it on. Once airborne, he attempted to kill the crew with hammers so their injuries would appear consistent with an accident rather than a hijacking.[4] Despite severe injuries, the crew fought back, subdued Calloway, and landed the aircraft safely.
During his trial, the prosecution argued Calloway was trying to commit suicide. Calloway's legal representation attempted to invoke an insanity defense. Still, he was found guilty of multiple charges, including attempted murder, attempted aircraft piracy, and interference with flight crew operations. He received two consecutive life sentences; unlike many states, federal law provides no chance for parole. Calloway successfully appealed the interference conviction, which was ruled a lesser included offense of the attempted piracy conviction.[5][6] The life sentence was upheld.
Flight crew and hijacker
Three flight crew members were in the cockpit on this flight: 49-year-old Captain David G. Sanders, who had worked for FedEx for 20 years and previously served with the U.S. Navy for nine years during the Vietnam War; 42-year-old First Officer James M. Tucker Jr., who had worked for FedEx for 10 years and previously served with the U.S. Navy for 12 years during the Vietnam War and People Express Airlines for three years; and 39-year-old Flight Engineer Andrew H. Peterson, who had worked for FedEx for 5 years.[7] The previous flight crew had gone one minute over their eight-hour flight limit the previous day, so they were replaced by Sanders, Tucker, and Peterson.[3]
Also in the airplane was 42-year-old FedEx flight engineer Auburn Calloway, an alumnus of Stanford University and a former Navy pilot and martial-arts expert. Calloway, who was divorced from his wife four years earlier, wanted to ensure that their two children were financially secure enough to attend college. However, Calloway felt that FedEx discriminated against him as an Afro-American by assigning him only as a flight engineer despite being a qualified pilot. Furthermore he was facing a hearing scheduled the following day for falsifying his flight hours, and believed that dismissal was inevitable, although a colleague who had previously flown with Calloway stated that it was unlikely that FedEx would terminate an employee for such an offense.[6][3] Boarding as a deadhead passenger, Calloway planned to hijack and crash the plane while disguising it as an accident, so his family would benefit from FedEx's life-insurance policy worth US$2.5 million (equivalent to $5.1million in 2023). Calloway intended to murder the flight crew using blunt force. To accomplish this, he brought on board two claw hammers, two club hammers, a speargun, and a knife (which was not used) concealed inside a guitar case.[6][8] He also carried with him a note written to his ex-wife "describing the author's apparent despair".[6] Just before the flight, Calloway had transferred over US$54,000 (equivalent to $111,000in 2023) in securities and cashier's checks to his ex-wife.[6]
Flight details
Artist's depiction of the DC-10 during the attempted hijack
Before takeoff, as part of Calloway's plan to disguise the intended attack as an accident, he attempted to disable the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) by pulling its circuit breaker to interrupt power. When the flight crew arrived they noticed that Calloway's presence in the cockpit was a breach of etiquette for a deadheading passenger, although they did not suspect hostile intent at the time. During the standard preflight checks, Peterson, the flight engineer, noticed the pulled breaker and reset it before takeoff, reactivating the CVR. However, if Calloway had killed the crew members with the CVR still on, he would simply have had to fly for 30 minutes to erase any trace of a struggle from the CVR's 30-minute loop.[9]
About 26 minutes after takeoff, as the plane was passing 19,000 feet, and the flight crew carried on a casual conversation, Calloway went into the back to get his weapons, entered the flight deck, and attacked Peterson, Tucker, and Sanders. All three members of the crew received multiple blows from a hammer. Both Peterson and Tucker, the first officer, suffered fractured skulls, and Peterson's temporal artery was severed.[6] The blow to Tucker's head drilled shards of bone into his brain and temporarily rendered him unable to move or react, but he was still conscious. Captain Sanders reported that during the beginning of the attack, he could not discern any emotion from Calloway, just "simply a face and his eyes".[4]
When Calloway ceased his hammer attack, Peterson and Sanders began to get out of their seats to go after Calloway. Calloway left the cockpit and retrieved his speargun. He came back into the cockpit and threatened everyone to sit back down in their seats. Despite a loud ringing in his ear and being unbalanced and dazed, Peterson grabbed the gun by the spear between the barbs and the barrel. Tucker, an ex-Navy pilot, performed extreme aerial maneuvers with the aircraft as the struggle between Calloway and the other crew members ensued.[10] He pulled the plane into a sudden 15° climb, throwing Sanders, Peterson, and Calloway out of the cockpit and into the galley. To try to throw Calloway off balance, Tucker then turned the plane into a left roll, almost on its side. This rolled the men along the smoke curtain onto the left side of the galley.[4]
Eventually, Tucker rolled the plane almost upside down at 140°, while attempting to maintain a visual reference of the environment around him through the windows. Peterson, Sanders, and Calloway were then pinned to the plane's ceiling. Calloway managed to wrench his hammer hand free and hit Sanders in the head again. Just then, Tucker put the plane into a steep dive.[4][10] This pushed the men back to the smoke curtain, but the wings and elevators started to flutter. At this point, Tucker could hear the wind rushing against the cockpit windows. At a speed of 460 knots (850km/h; 530mph), the plane's elevators fluttered so much that the control surfaces became unresponsive due to the disrupted airflow. This lack of control tested the aircraft’s safety limits. Tucker also began to sense a Mach tuck effect as the airflow over the wings approached the speed of sound. Tucker realized the throttles were at full power, increasing the speed of the aircraft. Releasing his only usable hand to pull back the throttles to idle, he managed to pull the plane out of the dive as it slowed down.[4][10]
As the DC-10 leveled off at 5,000 feet, Calloway managed to hit Sanders again while the struggle continued, and this time the blow nearly knocked him unconscious. Sanders was losing strength, and Peterson was bleeding from his ruptured temporal artery and was starting to go into shock. In spite of his diminishing strength, Sanders grabbed the hammer out of Calloway's hand and attacked him with it. When the plane was completely level, Tucker alerted Memphis Center, telling them about the attack and requesting a vector back to Memphis.[10] He requested an ambulance and "armed intervention", meaning he wanted a SWAT team to storm the plane.[11] The flight crew eventually succeeded in restraining and disarming Calloway.
With Calloway momentarily under control, Captain Sanders took control of the aircraft from First Officer Tucker, who by then had his sense of touch severely diminished and had additionally become paralyzed on the right side of his body. Tucker went back to assist Peterson in restraining Calloway. Sanders communicated with air traffic control, preparing for an emergency landing back at Memphis International Airport. Meanwhile, Calloway started fighting with the crew again.[10]
Fully loaded with fuel and cargo, the plane was approaching too fast and too high to land on the scheduled runway 9. Due to the plane's weight, speed, and height, it was at risk of breaking up upon landing under these conditions. Sanders requested by radio to land on the longer runway 36L.[10] Ignoring warnings from the Ground Proximity Warning System and using a series of sharp turns that further tested the DC-10's safety limits, Sanders landed the jet safely on the runway at 35,000lb (16,000kg) over its maximum designed landing weight.[4] By that time, Calloway was defeated. Emergency personnel and police entered the plane via the escape slide and ladder. Inside, they found the interior of the galley and cockpit covered in blood.[9] Calloway was then arrested, taken off the plane, and—along with Peterson, Tucker, and Sanders—was taken to a nearby hospital.[10]
Aftermath
The crew of Flight 705 survived the attack but were seriously injured.[6] The left side of First Officer Tucker's skull was severely fractured, causing motor control problems in his right arm and right leg. Calloway had also dislocated Tucker's jaw, attempted to gouge out one of his eyes, and stabbed his right arm. Captain Sanders suffered several deep gashes in his head, and doctors had to sew his right ear back in place. Flight Engineer Peterson's skull was fractured and his temporal artery severed. The aircraft itself incurred $800,000 worth of damage.[6]
On May 26, 1994, the Air Line Pilots Association awarded Dave Sanders, Jim Tucker, and Andy Peterson the Gold Medal Award for heroism, the highest award a civilian pilot can receive. Due to the severity of their injuries, none of the crew was re-certified as medically fit to fly commercially.[4] However, Jim Tucker returned to recreational flying in his Luscombe 8A by 2002.[14]
The McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 aircraft involved, N306FE, was repaired after the incident then returned to service.[citation needed] In 2008, it was upgraded to an MD-10 which, among other improvements, eliminated the need for a flight engineer.[citation needed] Later, on June 7, 2022, the aircraft experienced a fire in the rear lower cargo hold but was able to successfully divert to Tulsa.[citation needed] On December 31, 2022, it was among the last of FedEx's MD-10 fleet to be retired, having made its maiden flight on November 5, 1985, and having been delivered to FedEx on January 24, 1986.[15][verification needed] It is currently stored at Victorville Airport where it will be scrapped.[16]
In popular culture
The attempted hijacking of Flight 705 was featured in "Fight for Your Life", a season-three (2005) episode of the Canadian TV series Mayday[4] (called Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the U.S., and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and Australia), which included interviews with the flight crew. The dramatization was broadcast with the title "Suicide Attack" in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Asia.[citation needed]
The sixth episode of UK TV series Black Box (called Survival in the Sky in the U.S.), "Sky Crimes", also features the attempted takeover using audio between air traffic control and the crew.[17]
The book Hijacked: The True Story of the Heroes of Flight 705, written by Dave Hirschman, was published in 1997.[14][18]
The American History comedic podcast The Dollop covered this incident in its 160th episode.[19]
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. Dating from the earliest of hijackings, most cases involve the pilot being forced to fly according to the hijacker's demands. There have also been incidents where the hijackers have overpowered the flight crew, made unauthorized entry into the cockpit and flown them into buildings – most notably in the September 11 attacks – and in some cases, planes have been hijacked by the official pilot or co-pilot, such as with Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702.
United Airlines Flight 93 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight that was hijacked by four al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijackers planned to crash the plane into a federal government building in the national capital of Washington, D.C. The mission became a partial failure when the passengers fought back, forcing the terrorists to crash the plane in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, preventing them from reaching al-Qaeda's intended target, but killing everyone aboard the flight. The airliner involved, a Boeing 757-200 with 44 passengers and crew, was flying United Airlines' daily scheduled morning flight from Newark International Airport in New Jersey to San Francisco International Airport in California, making it the only plane hijacked that day not to be a Los Angeles–bound flight.
Memphis International Airport is a civil-military airport located 7 mi (11 km) southeast of Downtown Memphis in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. It is the primary international airport serving Memphis. It covers 3,900 acres (1,600 ha) and has four runways.
Air France Flight 8969 was an Air France flight that was hijacked on 24 December 1994 by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA) at Houari Boumediene Airport, Algiers. The Militants murdered three passengers and their intention was either to detonate the aircraft over the Eiffel Tower or the Tour Montparnasse in Paris. When the aircraft reached Marseille, the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN), a tier one counterterrorism and hostage rescue unit of the French National Gendarmerie, stormed the plane and killed all four hijackers.
Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight between Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Texas, and Salt Lake City International Airport, Utah. On August 31, 1988, the flight, using a Boeing 727-200 series aircraft, crashed during takeoff at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, resulting in 14 deaths and 76 injuries among the 108 on board.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was a scheduled international flight serving the route Addis Ababa–Nairobi–Brazzaville–Lagos–Abidjan. On 23 November 1996, the aircraft serving the flight, a Boeing 767-200ER, was hijacked en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi by three Ethiopians seeking asylum in Australia. The plane crash-landed in the Indian Ocean near Grande Comore, Comoros Islands, due to fuel exhaustion; 125 of the 175 passengers and crew on board, including the three hijackers, died. This is the first recorded instance of a ditching utilizing a wide-body aircraft.
Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 was a scheduled flight along the West Coast of the United States, from Los Angeles, California, to San Francisco. On December 7, 1987, the British Aerospace 146-200A, registration N350PS, crashed in San Luis Obispo County near Cayucos, after being hijacked by a passenger.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1994.
Air Canada Flight 797 was an international passenger flight operating from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Montréal–Dorval International Airport, with an intermediate stop at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 was a Fairchild F27A Friendship airliner that crashed on May 7, 1964, near Danville, California, a suburb east of Oakland. The crash was most likely the first instance in the United States of an airliner's pilots being shot by a passenger as part of a murder–suicide. Francisco Paula Gonzales, 27, shot both pilots before turning the gun on himself, causing the plane to crash, killing all 44 aboard.
Helios Airways Flight 522 was a scheduled passenger flight from Larnaca, Cyprus, to Prague, Czech Republic, with a stopover in Athens, Greece. Shortly after take-off on 14 August 2005, Nicosia air traffic control (ATC) lost contact with the pilots operating the flight, named Olympia; it eventually crashed near Grammatiko, Greece, killing all 121 passengers and crew on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident in Greek history.
Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 was a controlled flight into terrain accident of a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 during approach to Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina. The accident occurred on September 11, 1974, killing 72 of the 82 people on board. The scheduled flight was from Charleston Municipal Airport to Chicago O'Hare, with an intermediate stop in Charlotte.
TWA Flight 841 was a scheduled passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, en route to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On the evening of April 4, 1979 while flying over Saginaw, Michigan, the Boeing 727-31 airliner began a sharp, uncommanded roll to the right, and subsequently went into a spiral dive. The pilots were able to regain control of the aircraft and made an emergency landing at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
On 2 October 1990, a hijacked Boeing 737, operating Xiamen Airlines Flight 8301, collided with two other aircraft on the runways of the old Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport while attempting to land. The hijacked aircraft struck parked China Southwest Airlines Flight 4305 first, inflicting only minor damage, but then collided with China Southern Airlines Flight 3523, a Boeing 757 waiting to take off, flipping onto its back. A total of 128 people were killed, including seven of nine crew members and 75 of 93 passengers on Flight 8301 and 46 of 110 passengers on Flight 3523.
Flight envelope protection is a human machine interface extension of an aircraft's control system that prevents the pilot of an aircraft from making control commands that would force the aircraft to exceed its structural and aerodynamic operating limits. It is used in some form in all modern commercial fly-by-wire aircraft. The professed advantage of flight envelope protection systems is that they restrict a pilot's excessive control inputs, whether in surprise reaction to emergencies or otherwise, from translating into excessive flight control surface movements. Notionally, this allows pilots to react quickly to an emergency while blunting the effect of an excessive control input resulting from "startle," by electronically limiting excessive control surface movements that could over-stress the airframe and endanger the safety of the aircraft.
Flying Tiger Line Flight 66 was a scheduled international cargo flight from Singapore Changi Airport to Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport via a stopover at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia. On February 19, 1989, the FedEx-owned Boeing 747-249F-SCD crashed while on its final approach. The aircraft impacted a hillside 437 ft (133 m) above sea level and 12 km from Kuala Lumpur, resulting in all four occupants being killed.
Suicide by pilot is an aviation event in which a pilot deliberately crashes or attempts to crash an aircraft as a suicide act, with or without the intention of causing harm to passengers on board or people on the ground. If others are killed, it may be considered a type of murder–suicide. It is suspected to have been a possible cause in several commercial flight crashes and has been confirmed as the cause in other instances. Determining the motives of pilots can be challenging for crash investigators, as pilots may intentionally disable recording devices or engage in other actions to impede future investigations. Consequently, definitively proving pilot suicide can be difficult.
Deadheading is the practice of carrying, free of charge, a transport company's own staff on a normal passenger trip so that they can be in the right place to begin their duties. In United States railway usage, the term may also be used for movement of train crews to or from a train using another means of vehicular transportation, as passenger train service is infrequent or nonexistent in many areas.
Evergreen International Airlines Flight 17 (4U17/EIA17) was a cargo flight operated by Evergreen International Airlines and flown by a McDonnell Douglas DC-9. On March 18, 1989, the flight's planned route was scheduled to take it from Kelly Air Force Base to Tinker Air Force Base, with a stop at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas. The two pilots were the only occupants on board. Shortly after taking off from Carswell, the aircraft's main cargo door opened, the crew lost control of the aircraft and it subsequently crashed while attempting an emergency landing, killing both pilots.
This list is incomplete. An asterisk (*) denotes an incident that took place in either a U.S. territory or Guantanamo Bay. 1980–1989 ◄ 1990–1999 ► 2000–2009
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