Eastern Air Lines Flight 980
 An Eastern Boeing 727-200 similar to the one involved in the accident | |
| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 1 January 1985 |
| Summary | Controlled flight into terrain |
| Site | Mount Illimani, Bolivia |
| Passengers | 19 |
| Crew | 10 |
| Fatalities | 29 (all) |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 727-225 Advanced |
| Operator | Eastern Air Lines |
| Registration | N819EA |
| Flight origin | Silvio Pettirossi International Airport, Asunción, Paraguay |
| 1st stopover | El Alto International Airport, La Paz, Bolivia |
| 2nd stopover | José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport, Guayaquil, Ecuador |
| Destination | Miami International Airport, Florida, USA |
Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 was a scheduled international flight from Asunción, Paraguay, to Miami, Florida, United States, with stops in La Paz and Guayaquil. On January 1, 1985, it struck Mount Illimani at an altitude of 19,600 feet (6,000 m). All 19 passengers and 10 crew were killed.
Accident
On January 1, 1985, Eastern Airlines Flight 980, a Boeing 727 jetliner, departed Asunción at 17:57. On board were 19 passengers and a crew of 10.
The Houston-based cockpit crew consisted of Captain Larry Campbell, First Officer Kenneth Rhodes, and Flight Engineer Mark Bird. The cabin crew comprised five Chilean flight attendants based in Santiago: Paul Adler, Pablo Letelier, Marilyn MacQueen, Robert O'Brien, and Paula Valenzuela.
The 19 passengers were from Paraguay, Ecuador, and the United States. Among the passengers was the wife of the U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay, Marian Davis, and two Eastern pilots flying as passengers.
At 19:37 the pilot told controllers in La Paz he estimated landing at 19:47. Flight 980 was cleared to descend from 25,000 feet to 18,000 feet. At some point after this exchange, the aircraft steered significantly off the airway for unknown reasons, possibly to avoid weather. The accident occurred 25 miles from runway 9R at El Alto Airport.[1]
On-site investigation
In October 1985, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) selected Greg Feith, an air safety investigator, to lead a team of U.S. investigators and Bolivian mountain guides to conduct an on-site examination of the wreckage of Flight 980, which had come to rest around 6,126 metres (20,098 ft). Feith conducted the on-site investigation with the goal of finding the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), as well as retrieving other critical information; however, because the wreckage was spread over a vast area and covered by 6 to 9 m (20 to 30 ft) of snow, his fellow team members and he were unable to locate either of the "black boxes". He did retrieve various small parts of the aircraft cockpit, official flight-related paperwork, and some items from the passenger cabin. To date, this remains the highest controlled flight into terrain commercial aviation accident site in history.[2]
Discovery of the wreckage
Over the years, the debris moved along with the glacier and eventually emerged enough that climbers were able to uncover wreckage in 2006. No bodies were found, though various personal effects of the passengers were recovered. Local climbers believed it was only a matter of time before bodies, the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder emerged from the ice.[3]
Discovery of flight recorder remnants
On June 4, 2016, after one of the warmest years on record in the area, human remains, the cockpit voice recorder and many smashed parts of the plane's flight data recorder were recovered by a team of three in the Andes mountains. The box was in several pieces and is unlikely to contain much, if any, recoverable data from the crash 31 years prior. Dan Futrell and Isaac Stoner of Operation Thonapa recovered six large metal segments and several damaged pieces of magnetic tape.[4][5][6][7]
See also
References
- ↑ Harro Ranter (1 January 1985). "ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 727-225 N819EA Nevado Illimani". Retrieved 19 March 2016.
- ↑ U.S. NTSB-public docket information is stored on NTSB microfiche number 29062. Accident identification: Tuesday, January 1, 1985 in LA PAZ, Bolivia Aircraft: BOEING 727-225, registration: N819EA Injuries: 29 Fatal. DCA85RA007
- ↑ Simon Romero (15 January 2011). "Melting in Andes Reveals Remains and Wreckage". International Herald Tribune.
- ↑ "Operation Thonapa". Retrieved 5 June 2016.
- ↑ "Two Massachusetts men say they have found long-lost 'black boxes' in Bolivia - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2016-06-06.
- ↑ Dan Futrell (4 June 2016). "31 years later, we found the flight recorders". Operation Thonapa.
- ↑ Peter Frick-Wright (18 October 2016). "What Happened to Eastern Airlines Flight 980?". Outside Online.
External links
- Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
- New York Times article
- "What Happened to Eastern Airlines Flight 980" by Peter Frick-Wright (who explored the crash site), 18 October 2016
Coordinates: 16°38′10″S 67°47′21″W / 16.63611°S 67.78917°W