User:MCB/ALM

ALM Flight 980 was a flight scheduled to fly from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, New York to Princess Juliana International Airport in St. Maarten, Netherland Antilles. After several unsuccessful landing attempts, the aircraft's fuel was exhausted and it made a forced water landing (ditching) in the Caribbean Sea 48 km (30 mi) off St. Croix, with 23 fatalities and 40 survivors. The accident is one a very small number of intentional ditchings of jet airliners.

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft was a twin-engine Douglas DC-9-33CF operated on behalf of ALM by Overseas National Airways (ONA), with an ONA aircraft and flight crew, and an ALM cabin crew. It was registered in the United States with FAA tail number N935Fdisaster^[2]. The flight carried 57 passengers and 6 crew. ^[3]

Flight and ditching

Flight 980 made a normal departure from Kennedy Airport and had an uneventful flight to the Caribbean. After the flight was given descent clearance to 10,000 feet, regional air traffic control (ATC) advised that weather in St. Maarten was below landing minimums. The captain elected to divert to San Juan; however, shortly after that, the tower at St. Maarten advised them that the weather had improved sufficiently for landing. The flight made an initial approach to St. Maarten, but failed to sight the runway in time to line up for landing, and made a missed approach.

Flight 980 then made a second landing attempt, but it, too, was unsuccessful because of alighnment with the runway. After breaking off that approach, the crew made a third attempt, but the aircraft was too high to land safely. After assessing the weather and fuel situation, the crew elected to divert to St. Thomas, and received a vector and clearance. At this point the crew noticed a possible discrepancy between the fuel gauges and what had been computed as the amount fuel remaining. The captain advised ATC of his intention to ditch the aircraft, and began a low approach over the water. Flight 980 ditched in the Caribbean Sea at 3:49 PM local time. ^[3]

Rescue efforts included units from the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy, and a number of survivors were rescued by helicopter. The aircraft remained relatively intact after the water landing, but sank after the accident in about 5,000 feet of water, and was never recovered. The accident resulted in 23 fatalities and 37 injuries, with 3 additional uninjured survivors.

Investigation and aftermath

The accident was investigated by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The report concluded that the cause of the accident was poor fuel management, complicated by the crew's inattention and distraction caused by the weather situation and multiple diversions. Some specific issues cited include miscalculation of the rate of fuel consumption, misreading fuel gauges, and incorrect computation of the amount of fuel expected to be remaining at the time of landing. The NTSB report stated, "The Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was fuel exhaustion which resulted from continued, unsuccessful attempts to land at St. Maarten until insufficient fuel remained to reach an alternate airport. ^[3]

The NTSB also concluded that the chances of survival in the accident were made worse because of poor coordination among the crew before and during the ditching.

The recommendations in the report included adding "warn passengers" to the checklist of procedures for emergency landings and ditchings, requiring that flights not be dispatched without a working public address system, and phasing out an older type of seat belt then in use in favor of more modern designs.

See also

• List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners

References

[[Category:Fuel exhaustion on commercial airliners]] [[Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1970]] [[Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States Virgin Islands]]