ATC - 25 Best Years -
(1958-83)
Album #
6.
(1970)
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The hijacker, 8 months later, hanged himself while awaiting trial. |
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The next part of the NAS En Route Stage A automation would be
Radar Data Processing (RDP). |
![]() The government's conflict with Air Traffic Controllers involved a challenge to the efficacy of FAA equipment and safety procedures as well as salary, working conditions and rivalry among unions.
FAA decided to ignore PATCO's protests and carry out the involuntary
transfer of 3 controllers from the Baton Rouge combined station-tower. The
absentees claimed sick leave, but the DOT viewed their action as a strike
against the U.S. government and hence illegal. |
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Central Flow Control, with 5 NWS weather forecasters, and
direct access to 20 ARTCC's, as well as some key TRACONS
(e.g. O'Hare and NY TRACONS), identified potential trouble areas and
suggested restrictions or rerouting of aircraft. |
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![]() ![]() 2. A Beacon Transponder and 3. a VOR or TACAN Navigational Receiver. (The number of near midair collisions were
dramatically reduced and the TCA became one of the FAA's most important
advances in air safety.) |
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The ATC System Command Center regulates air traffic when weather, equipment, runway closures, or other conditions put stress on the National Airspace System (NAS). In cooperation with
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![]() ![]() This was the first hijacking of the newly-introduced B-747 to Cuba and Premiere Fidel Castro came out to Havana's Jose Marti Airport to see the new airliner for himself. Castro reportedly met in person with the Pan Am pilot Captain Augustus Watkins and expressed concerns over the ability of the big plane to take off safely from the small airport, but was reassured by the Pan Am captain..
2013 UPDATE: "Captain Watkins was quite shaken by the time the jet was on the ground at Havana, and when Cuban officials came to the flight deck, the Co-pilot, Leo John Riso, was presented to them as the captain. Co-pilot Riso was taken to meet Fidel Castro face-to-face, and they had a brief conversation in which he was reassured that the aircraft would be allowed to depart once payment had been made for services rendered (refueling, landing fees etc.)" "These facts are known to me because the Co-pilot, John Riso, was my father and this story was kept within the family for many years out of consideration of Captain Watkins." "The original news story was based solely on a contemporary Associated Press item which was widely published." "My father, John Riso, died in November, 2013 and to the best of my knowledge, Captain Watkins is no longer living." -- Robert
Joseph Riso |
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The Martin-404, (20 years old), had been in storage until a month before the crash, and the plane had not been registered until the day before it crashed. Also the company was not certified to fly any craft heavier than 12,500 pounds, and that the Martin-404 weighed nearly four times that much. Additionally, the plane may have been as much as 4,000 pounds overweight when it struck the mountain. Probable cause: Pilot errors, including poor in-flight decisions and
inadequate pre-flight planning led to the crash. The intentional operation
of the Martin-404 over a mountain route at an altitude from which they
could neither climb over, nor execute a course reversal was a causal
factor. Another was the overloaded condition of the aircraft and a lack of
understanding of the crew of the performance capabilities and limitations
of the |
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Air Traffic Control advised the crew that there was "rain, fog, smoke and a ragged ceiling" making landing more difficult, but not impossible. When the crew reported passing the outer marker, they received a landing clearance.
On final approach the DC-9 collided with the tops of trees on a
hillside a mile west of the runway, and burst into flames. The NTSB
report said the accident was 'unsurvivable'. The DC-9 had dipped to
the right, almost inverted and had crashed into a hollow 'nose-first'. The
fire was very intense and the fuselage was reduced to a 'powder-like
substance.
Thirty-six players and 5 coaches of the Marshall University
Thundering Herd
football team were killed. The remains of six passengers were never identified. Many boosters and prominent citizens were on the plane including a state legislator and four physicians. Seventy children lost at least one parent in the crash, with 18 of them left orphaned. (75 Fatalities)
The NTSB concluded that the accident was the result of a descent
below Minimum Descent Altitude during a non-precision approach under
adverse operating conditions, without visual contact with the runway.. |
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(1971)
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(Midair
Collision)
-California
Some eyewitnesses reported that the F-4B's left wing impacted the center of the DC-9 fuselage immediately after performing a barrel roll. Others claimed the F-4B ripped a large hole in the fuselage of the DC-9. The NTSB report said the F-4B had attempted to swerve away from the DC-9 immediately prior to impact, and that an additional 10' would have averted the collision. They also confirmed that the fighter had impacted the DC-9 in two places, with its left wing impacting the DC-9's forward passenger cabin and the vertical stabilizer 'slicing through' the cockpit.
Probable Cause: Failure of both crews to see and avoid each other. Also a very
high closure rate and commingling of IFR and VFR traffic in an
area where the limitation of the ATC system precludes effective
separation of such traffic. Also the failure of the crew of the F-4B to
request radar advisory service, particularly since they had an inoperable
transponder. |
![]() Additionally, the FAA and the Department of Defense cooperated
to develop a program to mitigate collisions and near-misses between
civilian and military aircraft. |
Probable cause: The captain's decision to descend below the prescribed
minimum descent altitude without adequate forward visibility or sighting
the runway. The captain disregarded advisories from his first officer that
minimum descent altitude had been reached and the CV-580 continued
descent at a normal rate and airspeed.. |
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(Douglas
DC-10)
July 29, 1971 - The First McDonnell Douglas DC-10 (380 passengers) medium to long range trijet airliner was type-certified by the FAA.
KC-10 Production of the DC-10 ended in 1989 with 386 delivered to airlines and 60 to the USAF as air-to-air refueling tankers (KC-10). The KC-10 was central to the airlift and aerial refueling effort in the Gulf War. McDonnell Douglas, in 1990, replaced the DC-10 with the MD-11, with increased wingspan with winglets, new engines and increased use of composite materials, and reduced the flight deck crew from three to two by eliminating the necessity for a flight engineer. 200 MD-11's were built.
Federal Express, US cargo airline was the largest operator of the DC-10's. |
The B-727 impacted the eastern slope of a canyon in the Chilkat Range of the Tongass Naional Forest at the 2,500' level (22 miles West of Juneau). (111 Fatalities)
The probable cause of the crash was a display of misleading navigational
information concerning the flight's progress along the localizer course. |
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The hijacker showed a flight attendant what appeared to be a bomb (wires and what looked like dynamite); then he sent a message to the pilot to keep the plane in the air and a request for the ransom money and parachutes. The flight landed in Seattle, and FBI agents provided the ransom money (21 pounds of $20 bills $200,000) which he strapped to his chest, and parachutes. D.B. Cooper used cash to buy a one-way ticket on Northwest Flight #305, leaving Portland, OR bound for Seattle. He wore a business suit with a black tie and white shirt. After ordering a bourbon and soda, he passed a note to a stewardess that explained he had a bomb in his briefcase. The stunned stewardess did as she was told. Opening a cheap attaché case, Cooper showed her a glimpse of a mass of wires and red colored sticks and demanded that she write down what he told her. She took the new note to the captain that demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in twenty-dollar bills. Cooper demanded the $200,000 in 'negotiable' American currency; 4 parachutes (two primary and two reserve); and a fuel truck standing by in Seattle to refuel the aircraft upon arrival. The pilot, William Scott, through Seattle-Tacoma Airport Air Traffic Control informed local and federal authorities. The 36 other passengers were informed that their arrival in Seattle would be delayed because of a "minor mechanical difficulty". Northwest Airlines president, Donald Nyrop, authorized payment of the ransom and ordered all employees to cooperate fully with the hijacker. The aircraft circled Puget Sound for approximately two hours to allow Seattle police and the FBI time to assemble Cooper's parachutes and ransom money and to mobilize emergency personnel.
D. B. Cooper then released all passengers and one flight attendant. After refueling, the aircraft took off again and flew toward Reno, NV. He demanded that the pilot fly with landing gear down, flaps set to 15 degrees and not to exceed 170 mph. Cooper opened the aft stairs and jumped from the plane with a parachute during a heavy rainstorm, from 10,000' into the black night. The temperature outside the plane was 7 below and the wind chill 70 below zero. The aircraft was forced to land with the aft stairs deployed. The case is still unsolved, but the FBI believes Cooper most likely did not survive. An FBI Special Agent said: "No experienced parachutist would have jumped in the pitch-black-night, in the rain, with a 200-mile-an-hour wind in his face, wearing loafers and a trench coat. It was simply too risky. He also missed that his reserve chute was only for training and had been sewn shut -- something a skilled skydiver would have checked. Consequently FBI investigators believed he was not an experienced skydiver, possibly with military experience. On January 6, 1972, in a 'Sled Drop' test conducted by the FBI, NWA, and the USAF, two 250 lb. sleds from the actual hijacked jet using one of the original Flight Crew as pilot.
In February, 1980, and 8-year old boy was digging in the sand along the Columbia River (between Washington and Oregon) and found three bundles of twenties ($5,800) in deteriorating condition. They were turned over to the FBI, serial numbers were matched from the ransom money.
The FBI has many theories and conjectures about this case and several
pages of information can be found on Wikipedia at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper
"D.B. Cooper Days" - Ariel, Washington -- Every year since 2011 the D.B.
Cooper Days are held at the Ariel Store and Tavern, celebrating the
skyjacking case of D.B. Cooper, who hijacked the Northwest B-727 in 1971.
July 12, 2016 -- The FBI is no longer investigating the mystery of the D.B. Cooper skyjacker. Nearly 45 years ago D.B. Cooper vanished out the back of a Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing-727 into freezing Northwest rain wearing a business suit, a parachute and a pack with $200,000 in cash.
Evidence obtained during the course of the investigation will now be
preserved for historical purposes at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. |
Last revised: August 31, 2016
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