Plane went down in a thunderstorm, smashing across Rockaway Blvd., and leaving a trail of bodies in its wake. 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. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Following is a tentative list of passengers on Flight 66, issued by Eastern Airlines: LINDSAY, Jackie, flight attendant McCULLOUGH. Collect, curate and comment on your files. Sure, I warn you when I am giving you my personal techniques, but you should always follow your primary guidance (aircraft manuals, government regulations, etc.) 148 Williman Street An unidentified crewmember said, "I . #6 Eastern Airlines Flight 66 wikimedia commons Wind shear at JFK Airport causes a flight inbound from New Orleans to crash into Jamaica, Queens on June 24th, 1975. , Post and Courier, an Evening Post Publishing Newspaper Group. . To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. The aircraft was on an ILS approach to the runway through a very strong thunderstorm that was located astride the ILS localizer course. :1 Fujita named this phenomenon "downburst cells" and determined that a plane can be "seriously affected" by "a downburst of air current". I think it is very important for pilots to have mentors and aviation heroes. "Okay." 39 Louisianians Died In Tuesday's Jet Crash, https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/26/archives/39-louisianians-died-in-tuesdays-jet-crash.html. Higher wind gusts possible. The captain replied, "got it?" A great tragedy has fallen upon this city, Mayor Moon Landrieu said. The first officer was 34-year-old William Eberhart, who had been with Eastern Air Lines for nearly nine years. The two flight attendants who survived sustained one or more fractures and multiple contusions and abrasions. So I pulled up the NTSB aviation accident report on Eastern Air Lines 66 and read about a Flying Tiger Line DC-8 captain who landed just prior who worried about his ground speed and pleaded with ground control to change the active runway. . . noon when two airplanes approaching John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) The Captain you are asking about was Jack Bliss. . The airspeed dropped to about 10 kn below bug and our rate of descent was up to 1,500 feet a minute, so we put takeoff power on and we went around at a hundred feet. . Two flight attendants miraculously walk away after Eastern Airlines crash at JFK in 1975 NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Jun 24, 2016 at 2:25 pm Expand Flight attendants Robert Hoefler, 29 (1. 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. As the investigation progressed, it was found that 10 minutes before Flight 66's crash, a Flying Tiger Line Douglas DC-8 cargo jet landing on Runway 22L reported tremendous wind shear on the ground. would suggest that you do." She said her brother got a telephone call at 7 p.m. from a minister at Jamaica Hospital who told her that although her husband was seriously injured in the crash he would survive. He was able to crawl toward safety from his assigned seat at the back of the aircraft. By 1975 many U.S. based airlines had already seen several disastrous windshear mishaps, including one in Pago Pago just a year previous, where a Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 crashed and killed 97 of the 101 crew and passengers. The accident will forever be part of Charleston's history, if only for the randomness of the 72 lives that were lost: An admiral who'd just been promoted; a former spokesman for the governor who'd switched jobs to work in Charleston TV; business leaders with prominent Charleston names; three department heads from the precursor of The Post and Courier; the father and two brothers of now-comedian Stephen Colbert. Windy with showers developing after midnight. https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/25/archives/list-of-passengers-and-crew-on-flight-66.html. Fujita identified "cells of intense downdrafts" during the storm that caused aircraft flying through them "considerable difficulties in landing". nothing." The runway visual range is---not available, and Eastern 66 descend and maintain four thousand, Kennedy radar one three two four.'' When we were on the ground we were in the Tiger building and it hit us. [1]:2, At 15:53, Flight 66 was switched to another frequency for final approach to Runway 22L. On Tuesday June 24, 1975, Flight 66 was operated using a Boeing 727 trijet, registration number N8845E. The other 11 people on board, including nine passengers and two flight attendants, were injured but survived. :3. I believe the captain on that flight, Flying Tiger Line 161, was the person that taught me the minimum ground speed method. I try to give you the facts from the source materials but maybe I got it wrong, maybe I'm out of date. civic and personal contributions made by these Louisianans were many. Eastern 66 acknowledged the transmission. Infantino served in Vietnam, but it was this flight, not war that brought him closest to death. and a second later, at 1605:10.2, an unintelligible exclamation was recorded, and the first officer commanded, "Takeoff thrust." The crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 66 at Kennedy International Airport was termed the worst aviation disaster involving residents from the New Orleans area. The local controller responded, "Okay, we're indicating wind right down the runway at 15 kn when you landed. All but 11 people perished in the crash. In accordance with regulation, the NTSB counted this deceased passenger among the 12 "nonfatal" injuries. I was sitting in our operations office when his copilot walked in and sat down next to me. "Well its difficult, we were only married 20 days, and we were both 26 years old, and she was my first love to be honest with you. By noon, it was already pouring and . Paul Moran, a 23-year-old Nassau County police officer who had just got off duty, was at the scene moments after the plane crashed and saw Miss Mooney and Hoefler walking dazed toward him. before listening to me. . air-traffic controllers allowed the planes to land on the runway. 11. The Captain of Flying Tiger 161 stated that during his approach to runway 22L he entered precipitation at about 1.000 feet, and he experienced severe changes of wind direction, turbulence, and downdrafts between the OM and the airport. After the initial impact, the plane banked to the left and continued to strike the approach lights until it burst into flames and scattered the wreckage along Rockaway Boulevard, which runs along the northeast perimeter of the airport. After the DC-8, an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 landing on the same runway nearly crashed. ), and. On the morning of June 24, 1975, New York City (NYC) was preparing Cockpit chatter showed the crew seemed at ease, discussing school desegregation, politics and the increasing price of gasoline. Then we heard the explosion and saw the fire.". As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. I thought this might be the guy. The NTSB also concluded that failure of either air traffic controllers or the flight crew to abort the landing, given the severe weather conditions, also contributed to the crash: Contributing to the accident was the continued use of runway 22L when it should have become evident to both air traffic control personnel and the flight crew that a severe weather hazard existed along the approach path. Tell people you love them. [7]:1 Fujita proposed new methods of detecting and identifying downbursts, including installation of additional weather monitoring equipment at the approach ends of active runways, and also proposed development of new procedures for immediately communicating downburst detection to incoming aircraft. At 9:35 p.m. Sandy Dispenza, 9, was moved in a mobile emergency room bus from Jamaica Hospital to the Burn Treatment Center at Jacobi Hospital Treatment Center at Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx. Boeing 727 approached the runway, it was swept down by wind shear The crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 66 at Kennedy International Airport was termed the worst aviation disaster involving residents from the New Orleans area. . In addition to the deaths of the Right Rev. . The flight crew consisted of the following: A severe thunderstorm arrived at JFK just as Flight 66 was approaching the New York City area. After the DC-8, an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 landing on the same runway nearly crashed. was wind a problem?" Miss Mooney, from Tulsa, Okla., suffered burns and injuries to her back and ankle. He was administering a required flight check on Geurin. The aircraft rapidly began to deviate below the glideslope, and 4 seconds later, the airspeed decreased from 138 kn to 123 kn in 2.5 seconds. I can't believe the plane caught fire so fast. . However, despite these reports, Mrs. Marchesi rushed to the hospital and left Nancy to take care of her two younger sisters and brother. "We both hobbled away from the crash and then we heard an explosion. 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. I've never met my mentor, but I will never forget him either. The wind changed from about a 10-kn headwind at 600 feet to an approximate 25-kn headwind at 500 feet. "Fortunate," survivor and former Domino Sugar executive Charles Weaver of Summerville said during an interview this week. The first officer responded, "in case he's right.". "We came in just after 4 p.m. and I said to myself, 'We're getting in late.' In 1964, five New Orleanians were killed when a United Airlines DC8 disappeared in Lake Pontchartrain. :2 At 15:52, the approach controller warned all incoming aircraft that the airport was experiencing "very light rain showers and haze" and zero visibility, and that all approaching aircraft would need to land using instrument flight rules. . :1, Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from New Orleans, Louisiana's New Orleans International Airport (renamed in 2001 to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport) to John F. Kennedy International Airport in Jamaica, Queens, New York. Although the NTSB's final report only lists 112 "fatal" injuries, a total of 113 people died as a result of the crash. "I was sitting in the right place at the right time," said Weaver, who is celebrating 57 years of marriage this year. As the plane's runway approach lined up, some passengers reported seeing treetops going past at window level. Approaching Charlotte through fog, the twin-jet DC-9 crashed into a muddy cornfield, skidded for hundreds of feet and came to rest in a line of trees. We're trying to build a memorial out there to try to honor that not only the survivals but the ones who died, ron About 1605 e. d. t. on June 24, 1975, Eastern Air Lines Flight 66, a Boeing 727-225, crashed into the approach lights to runway 22L at the John F. Kennedy International Airport., Jamaica, New York. It gives us something to aspire to and something to inspire us to learn and become better than we are. All three died. . Another flight attendant who survived the crash with her, Robert Hoefler, 29, was in the same hospital with burns and internal injuries. Gov. Moran turned over to a New York City police sergeant, who drove them to the hospital. 1. It would be North Carolina's second-worst air disaster, behind the 82 lives lost in a mid-air collision seven years earlier over Hendersonville. Over the years I've made efforts, but nobody seemed to know. Thirteen people survived the initial impact, including the co-pilot and one flight attendant who walked away with no serious injuries; however, three more ultimately died from severe burn injuries. This story was written by Patrick Doyle and Harry Stathos. ", Eastern 902's wind shear report to the final vector controller was recorded on Eastern 66's cockpit voice recorder (CVR). Egon Luftaas of Bergen, Norway, another survivor, was badly burned all over the body. They were headed to a meeting with another newspaper in Charleston, W.Va. Also lost were John Merriman, news editor for Walter Cronkite on CBS' Evening News; Harold Newton; vice president of Greenback Stamp Co. in Charleston; and Martin McCarter, manager of horticulture at the Lipton research farm in Charleston. On Tuesday June 24, 1975, Flight 66 was operated using a Boeing 727 trijet, registration number N8845E . [a], At the time, the crash was the deadliest in United States history, and would remain so until the 1978 Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 crash. This accident led to the development of the original low level wind shear alert system by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in 1976, which was installed at 110 FAA towered airports between 1977 and 1987. The first officer was 34-year-old William Eberhart, who had been with Eastern Air Lines for nearly nine years. "September 11 is a sad day for us and it has been for 35 years.". The plane descended out of the sky as pilots were distracted over a landing gear warning light. On June 24th, 1975, a tragic aircraft accident occurred at John F. Kennedy airport in New York City , when Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 crashed, killing 113 of the 124 persons on board. would you classify that as severe wind shift, correction, shear?" One fatality, a passenger who initially survived the crash but died 9 days later, was officially recorded by the NTSB as a "nonfatal" injury. N8845E continued to deviate further below the glideslope, and at 1605:06.2, when the aircraft was at 150 feet, the captain said, "runway in sight." . At 1603:12.4, the flight established communications with Kennedy tower local controller and reported that they were, "outer marker, inbound. . Two flight attendants died of multiple extreme impact injuries. These Valuable Pennies Are Worth Thousands, First Woman Miami-Dade Transit Bus Operator Wins Roadeo in Competition's 40-Year History, Pa. Woman Went Missing in 1992 and Declared Dead. UNITED STATES - JUNE 25: Eastern Airlines 727, flight 66 at Kennedy Airport. Eastern Airlines Flight 66, crashed on swamp road 1975 Posted on January 18, 2013 by mikewright4377 back in 1975, Eastern Airlines Flight 66 crashed on approach to jfk airport during a terrible storm. . wind 210 at 10, altimeter 30.15. We looked for other people. correction . we had . :1 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. . Required Communications Performance (RCP), Fatalities: 6 of 8 crew, 107 of 116 passengers, Airports: (Departure) New Orleans International Airport, LA (MSY, KMSY), Airports: (Destination) New York-John F. Kennedy International Airport, NY (JFK, KJFK), Eastern 66 arrived in the New York City terminal area without reported difficulty, and, beginning at 1535:11, Kennedy approach control (Southgate arrival controller) provided radar vectors to sequence the flight with other traffic and to position it for an instrument landing system (ILS) approach to runway 22L at the Kennedy airport. One woman who lost her teenage son on Flight 212 said she found the strength to go on because there were other children that needed love, guidance, security and a future. Eastern Air Lines Flight 45 was a domestic commercial airline flight that had a mid-air collision with a USAAF A-26 Invader bomber over northeastern South Carolina on July 12, 1945, forcing an emergency landing in a field by the airliner, and resulting in the crash of the bomber. [6] The accident also led to the discovery of downbursts, a weather phenomenon that creates vertical wind shear and poses dangers to landing aircraft, which ultimately sparked decades of research into downburst and microburst phenomena and their effects on aircraft. Lieut. At 1601:49.5, the first officer, who was flying the aircraft called for completion of the final checklist. Asked if he remembered anything after the crash, he sobbed: "I don't see nothing at all. . Then we hit. The flight crew died from multiple extreme impact injuries. The concept of downbursts was not yet understood when Flight 66 crashed. one more hour and we'd come down whether we wanted to or not. Peter D., second officer supervisor, See the article in its original context from. Low 63F. The victims included American Basketball Association player Wendell Ladner, a member of the 1974 champion, New York Nets,[4] and Iveson B. Noland, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana. On June 24th, 1975, flight 66 was operated by a Boeing 727-200 registered as N8845E. At 1602:58.7, Eastern 66 reported over the OM, and the final vector controller cleared the flight to contact the Kennedy tower. N8453 then was passing through 400 feet, and its rate of descent increased from an average of about 675 feet per minute (fpm) to 1,500 fpm. Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph. ", At 1602:42, the final vector controller asked Eastern 902, ". which runs along the north boundry of Kennedy Airport would . [1]:3 At 16:02, the crew was told to contact the JFK tower controller for landing clearance. At 1603:44, the Kennedy tower local controller cleared Eastern 66 to land. The other 11 people on board, including nine passengers and two flight attendants, were injured but survived. The aircraft began to drift rapidly to the left, and he eventually had to apply 25 to 30 of heading correction to overcome the drift. The fact that 10 people survived was considered a miracle. ?" The controller then established the flight's position as being 5 miles from the outer marker (OM) and cleared the flight for an 1LS approach to runway 22L. :46. :3 At 16:02, the crew was told to contact the JFK tower controller for landing clearance. The flight crew's delayed recognition and correction of the high descent rate were probably associated with their reliance upon visual cues rather than on flight instrument reference.