Plane crashes from around the United States

Part 5: Florida

These two plane crashes take us to the state of Florida, which is located next to the following states: Georgia and Alabama.

WARNINGS OF PLANE CRASHES

Number 1- The Crash of Flight 401

Pictured above is the accident aircraft.

Eastern Airlines Flight 401, registered as November 310 Echo Alpha (N310EA), was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport (IATA: JFK, ICAO: KJFK), New York City, New York to Miami International Airport (IATA: MIA, ICAO: KMIA), Miami, Florida, shortly before midnight on the 29th of December 1972, the Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar plane crashed into the Florida Everglades, the crash caused 101 fatalities with 75 people surviving the crash, this was the first fatal crash of a wide body aircraft and it was also the first hull loss and first fatal crash of a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar aircraft.

After the crew lowered the landing gear for their landing at Miami, the First Officer noticed that the landing gear indicator light for the nose landing gear was not illuminated, the Captain told ATC they would discontinue the approach to the airport and requested to enter a holding pattern, the ATC cleared the flight to climb to 2,000 feet and to hold west over the Everglades, fifty seconds after reaching 2,000 feet, the Captain instructed the First Officer to put on the autopilot, for the next 80 seconds, the plane maintained level flight, then it dropped 100 feet (30 meters), it then flew level for two more minutes, after which the plane began a descent so gradual that the crew didn't notice it, in the next 70 seconds, the plane only lost 250 feet but it was enough to trigger the altitude warning C-chord chime located under the engineer's work station, no indication was given to the pilots, in another 50 seconds the plane was at half it's assigned altitude, the Tristar's port (left) outer wing struck the ground first, followed by the Number one engine (the engine on the left side) and the port (left) main undercarriage, the disintegration scattered wreckage over an area of 1,600 feet (500 meters) long and 330 feet (150 meters) wide in a south westerly direction, about 490 feet (150 meters) from the wingtip's initial contact with the ground, the fuselage began to breakup, scattering components from the under floor galley, the cargo compartment and the cabin interior, at 820 feet (250 meters) along the trail of wreckage, the outer section of the starboard (right) wing tore off, the location of the crash was 30.1 kilometres from Runway 9L at the airport, the plane was travelling at 365 kilometres per hour when it hit the ground.

The summary of the crash was Controlled Flight into Terrain due to Pilot error and loss of situational awareness.

Below is a video which explains what happened that night, video credit goes to The Flight Channel on Youtube.

Below is another video which also explains what happened that night, video credit goes to Disaster Breakdown on Youtube, video is done by Chloe Howie.

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Number 2- Valujet Flight 592

Pictured above is the accident plane, photographed in May 1995.

ValuJet Airlines Flight 592, registered as November 904 Victor Juliet (N904VJ), was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight from Miami International Airport (IATA: MIA, ICAO: KMIA), Miami, Florida to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (IATA: ATL, ICAO: KATL), Atlanta, Georgia, on the 11th of May 1996, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 that was operating this route and flight crashed into the Everglades about 10 minutes after taking off from Miami as a result of a fire in the cargo compartment caused by a mislabeled and improperly stored hazardous cargo, all 110 people on board the aircraft were killed, at the time ValuJet was known to have a poor safety record.

At 2:04pm EDT (Easter Daylight Time), the DC-9 took off from Runway 9L (now Runway 8R) and began a normal climb, at 2:10pm EDT the passengers started to smell smoke, at the same time, the pilots heard a loud bang and noticed the plane was losing electrical power, the sag in electrical power and the band were determined to be a tyre exploding in the cargo hold, the crew asked ATC for a return to Miami due to increasing smoke in the cockpit and cabin, they were given instructions for a return to the airport, the flight disappeared from radar screens at 2:13:42pm EDT, the exact time the plane crashed, the plane banked sharply, it rolled onto it's side and nosedived into the Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area in the Everglades, a few miles west of Miami, the plane crashed at a speed in excess of 507 miles per hour (441 knots; 816 kilometres per hour), the crew lost control of the plane less than 10 seconds before impact, examination of debris suggested the fire burned through the floor into the cabin, resulting in structural failure and damaged cables that were underneath the instrument panels, the plane hit the water at 2:13:42pm EDT, about 10 minutes after takeoff, the impact site was on the eastern edge of Florida water conservation area 3B, between two levees, in an area known as the L-67 pocket, all on board the plane were killed, recovery was made extremely difficult by the location of the crash, the nearest road was more than a quarter of a mile (400 meters) away from the crash scene, the location of the crash was in a deep water swamp with a floor of solid limestone, the plane was destroyed on impact, no large pieces of fuselage remained.

The summary of the crash was an In flight fire caused by improperly packaged cargo leading to loss of control.

Below is a video which explains what happened that day, video credit goes to Disaster Breakdown on Youtube, video is done by Chloe Howie.

Below is another video which also explains what happened that day, video credit goes to The Flight Channel on Youtube.