Accident | |
---|---|
Date | July 27, 1970 |
Summary | Controlled Flight Into Terrain presumably caused by unusual meteorological conditions |
Site | Naha Air Force Base, Okinawa, U.S. Civil Admin. of the Ryukyu Is. |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Douglas DC-8-63F |
Operator | Flying Tiger Line |
Registration | N785FT |
Flight origin | Los Angeles International Airport, Westchester, Los Angeles, California, USA |
Stopover | San Francisco International Airport, San Mateo County, California, USA |
1st stopover | Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, SeaTac, Washington, USA |
2nd stopover | Cold Bay Airport, Cold Bay, Alaska, USA |
3rd stopover | Haneda Airport, Ōta, Tokyo, Japan |
4th stopover | Naha Air Force Base, Okinawa |
5th stopover | Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong |
Last stopover | Cam Ranh Bay Air Force Base, Khánh Hòa, Republic of Vietnam |
Destination | Da Nang Air Base, Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam |
Passengers | 0 |
Crew | 4 |
Fatalities | 4 |
Injuries | 0 |
Missing | 0 |
Survivors | 0 |
Flying Tiger Line Flight 45 was a regularly scheduled cargo flight by Flying Tiger Line from Los Angeles to Da Nang Air Base in South Vietnam, with intermediate stops at San Francisco, Seattle, Cold Bay, Tokyo, Naha, Hong Kong, and Cam Ranh. [1] On July 27, 1970, the flight, a Douglas DC-8-63F with the registration N785FT crashed on final approach as it was trying to make its 4th stopover at Naha Airport (then Naha Air Base) in Okinawa, which was under US administration at the time.
The aircraft involved in the incident was a Douglas DC 8-63F with the registration number N785FT and serial number 46009, and powered by four Pratt & Whitney JT3D-7 engines. The aircraft was delivered to Flying Tiger Line on November 19, 1968. At the time of the incident, the aircraft had accumulated a total of 6047.2 hours. [2] The aircraft took off from Los Angeles International Airport at 20:53PM on July 25 and after 3 scheduled stops arrived at Haneda Airport at 22:44PM on July 26. The aircraft and crew stayed over at Tokyo for the night before taking off on 9:29AM for Naha Air Base. [1] [3]
The aircraft was making its final approach to Naha Air Base's Runway 18 using precision radar approach at around 11:35AM when the aircraft's rate of descent increased and subsequently crashed 2,000 feet short of the runway. [1] [3] [4] All four crew members did not survive the crash. [1]
Flying Tiger Line Flight 45 flew from Tokyo to Naha using IFR, and crashed on final approach just as it had passed a low level raincloud. [1] [3]
The investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board concludes that the aircraft encountered a tropical storm while on approach with visibility not reaching 1 mile, only for visibility to increase by 10 to a 100 times once the clouds cleared, blinding the piloting crews and making the approach difficult. [4]
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1974.
Naha Airport is a second class airport located 4 km (2.5 mi) west of the city hall in Naha, Okinawa. It is Japan's seventh busiest airport and the primary air terminal for passengers and cargo traveling to and from Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It handles scheduled international traffic to Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and mainland China. The airport is also home to Naha Air Base of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.
Flying Tiger Line, also known as Flying Tigers, was the first scheduled cargo airline in the United States and a major military charter operator during the Cold War era for both cargo and personnel. The airline was bought by Federal Express in 1988.
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.
On May 30, 1972, Delta Air Lines Flight 9570 crashed while attempting to land at the Greater Southwest International Airport (GSW) in Fort Worth, Texas during a training flight. All four occupants aboard the training flight were killed. The crash was determined to be caused by the aircraft flying through wake turbulence, and led to sweeping changes in procedures for maintaining minimum safe distance behind aircraft that generate substantial wake turbulence.
Delta Air Lines Flight 723 was a flight operated by a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 twin-engine jetliner, operating as a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Burlington, Vermont, to Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, with an intermediate stop in Manchester, New Hampshire. On July 31, 1973, at 11:08 a.m., while on an instrument landing system (ILS) instrument approach into Logan in low clouds and fog, the aircraft descended below the glidepath, struck a seawall, and crashed. 88 of the 89 occupants aboard were killed.
Alaska Airlines Flight 779 was a contract cargo flight operated on 21 July 1961 by an Alaska Airlines Douglas DC-6A that crashed short of the runway at Shemya Air Force Base with the loss of all six crew members on board.
Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 901, was a scheduled international flight operated by the Scandinavian Airlines System, that overran the runway at its destination at John F. Kennedy International Airport on February 28, 1984. The flight, using a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, originated at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, Sweden, before a stopover at Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, Norway. All 177 passengers and crew members on board survived, although 12 were injured. The runway overshoot was due to the crew's failure to monitor their airspeed and overreliance on the aircraft's autothrottle.
Air Transport International Flight 805 was a regularly scheduled domestic cargo flight from Seattle to Toledo operated by Burlington Air Express. On February 15, 1992, the Douglas DC-8 operating the flight crashed during a second go-around attempt at Toledo Express Airport, killing all four people on board. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the accident was caused by pilot error due to the aircraft's control not being maintained.
Air Transport International Flight 782 was a ferry flight from Kansas City International Airport in Missouri to Westover Metropolitan Airport in Springfield, Massachusetts using a Douglas DC-8-63 with one of its 4 engines inoperative. On February 16, 1995, the aircraft failed to takeoff from Kansas City, went off the runway, and crashed. All three flight crew members, the only occupants on board, were killed. The cause was deemed to be improper training, which resulted in the crew failing to understand a three-engine takeoff procedure. In addition, the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA)'s oversight of rest regulations and the airline were both poor.
On 23 December 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 084 (KAL084), a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 performing a cargo flight, collided during its takeoff roll with SouthCentral Air Flight 59 (SCA59), a Piper PA-31-350, on runway 06L/24R at Anchorage International Airport, as a result of the KAL084 flight crew becoming disoriented while taxiing in dense fog and attempting to take off on the wrong runway. Both aircraft were destroyed, but no fatalities resulted.
Capitol International Airways Flight C2C3/26 was a chartered McDonnell Douglas DC-8 Military Airlift Command (MAC) contract flight operated by Capitol Air from McChord Field in Tacoma to Cam Ranh Bay in Southern Vietnam via stopovers at Anchorage and at Yokota Air Base in Japan. The aircraft crashed after a botched take-off attempt from Runway 6R at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on November 27, 1970. Of the 229 persons aboard the jet, 47 perished due to the post-crash fire with 49 persons injured.
On November 12, 2022, two World War II–era aircraft, a B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra, collided mid-air and crashed during the Wings Over Dallas airshow at Dallas Executive Airport in Dallas, Texas, United States. The collision occurred at 1:22 p.m. local time. The airshow, which coincided with Veterans Day commemorations, was organized by the Commemorative Air Force.