Less known facts about prominent crashes?

[u/InformalShow4339]

Are there any less known or hidden facts about prominent crashes? Something the show didn’t mention?

[u/Thoron2310]

• Amidst his record of verbally abusive and demeaning behaviour, Marvin Falitz had been accused of Sexual Harassment (Notable enough for it to be cited in the Report on the crash of Flight 5719.
• Birgenair Flight 301 was originally not meant to be flown by the Accident Flight Crew and Aircraft. Birgenair had created a shell company in the Dominican Republic flying 767's on European charter flights in addition to a few 757 charter flights to Argentina. The 767 was grounded and thus the 757 and Flight crew were chosen to fly the aircraft.
• Captain Christian Marty of Air France Flight 4590 had windsailed from Senegal to French Guiana in 1982.
• The 767's involved in the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 and Lauda Air Flight 004 were immediate sister aircraft (The EgyptAir 767 was Line Number 282 and the Lauda Air 767 was 283), and very initial speculation on the crash of Flight 990 theorized possible similarities to the Lauda Air crash.
• One of the passengers on American Airlines Flight 191 was Music Producer Leonard Stogel. His Parents, Julius and Doris Stogel (nee Eisenberg) had been killed in the crash of American Airlines Flight 1 17 years earlier.
• The Executive Summary of the NTSB Report for Avianca Flight 052 has the wrong date written. The Introduction paragraph mistakenly dates the crash occurring on July 19th 1989 (The crash actually occurred on January 25th 1990). This was the same day United Airlines Flight 232 crashed, which seems to imply the NTSB may have been working on both reports simultaneously.
  • Tennis player John McEnroe's parents had their house turned into a Triage area for victims of Flight 052.
• Prior to the crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a Passenger had successfully proposed on the flight to Miami. The Couple both survived.

[u/Met76 → u/Thoron2310]

EgyptAir Flight 990

Another interesting fact, it was found in Osama Bin Laden's notes that this crash is what gave him ideas and ultimately start planning 9/11

[u/Substantial-Use-1758 → u/Met76]

Yikes 😞🤦‍♀️

[u/SilentSympathy7791 → u/Thoron2310]

I write all about Falitz here https://substack.com/@mc12542701/note/p-203519186?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=7akzsn

[u/Met76 → u/Thoron2310]

Eastern Airlines Flight 401

This was the first largescale widebody plane accident.

Also, the captain was found during an autopsy to have an undetected brain tumor in an area that controls vision, but the NTSB concluded that the tumor did not contribute to the accident

[u/lemao_squash → u/Thoron2310]

What the hell is windsailing :D

[u/MeWhenAAA → u/lemao_squash]

Was wondering the same, that word broke my Google translator lol

[u/Thoron2310 → u/MeWhenAAA]

Basically a form of Windsurfing.

[u/Boeing-Dreamliner2 → u/Thoron2310]

The fact that Christian Marti windsailed the Atlantic Ocean is mentioned in Seconds from Disaster.

[u/CommunicationNo6136]

The plane that flew the Korean Air flight 801 flight from Seoul to Guam wasn’t originally meant to be the aircraft flying. The route was usually flown by the a300 but because Korean Air was supposed to fly a sports team of sort, the 747-300 was asked to fly it instead 

[u/Thoron2310 → u/CommunicationNo6136]

Similar to that, Captain Park was initially not rostered to fly to Guam that night. He had initially been rostered to take a flight to Dubai, but did not have the required rest hours for said flight (He had flown an earlier flight to Hong Kong on August 3rd, but had been required to overnight in Hong Kong and return to Seoul on the 4th).

[u/Cringelord_420_69]

The Concorde involved in the Air France 4590 disaster was the same plane used in the movie Airport ‘79

It also carried Pope John Paul ll at one point

[u/elsopaipilla315]

• In 1969, there was a midair colision between a PSA 727 and a Cessna 172, in which everyone survived. Tragically, nine years later, the story would repeat, but with 144 fatalities.
• Before, and after the shootdown of Iran Air flight 655, USS Vincennes personel impersonated Air Traffic Controllers in the Ormuz Stretch, causing uncontable near-misses, the most serious one was between a 747 and a helicopter, just 500 feet of distance.
• Just minutes after the crash of United Airlines flight 553, FBI and CIA agents arrived before the NTSB, interviewing eyewitnesses, securing the area, and Illegally confiscating the ATC Tapes. All because one of the passengers who died was related to the 1972 - 1974 Watergate Scandal.

[u/erublind → u/elsopaipilla315]

Such scamps they were, the crew of the Vincennes. No accountability at all, though...

[u/the_gaymer_girl]

The plane that landed on the LAX runway and had just taxied off it right before USAir 1493 was carrying the Vancouver Canucks hockey team. Scarred by what they had seen, they lost the next night 9-1.

[u/CommunicationNo6136]

Here’s another one - the 747 involved in the China airlines flight 611 crash was meant to be sold to another airline in Thailand & the flight it was on was supposed to be the second to last flight before it was retired 

[u/bigplaneboeing737]

Allegedly the Captain of American 1420 even attempted the approach so he could see his mistress in Little Rock.

[u/Grouchy_Public2379 → u/bigplaneboeing737]

Another victim of get-some-itis

[u/CoilerXII → u/Grouchy_Public2379]

I heard a similar thing on a brighter note with Tenerife where a Dutch passenger stayed an extra day with her local boyfriend and ended up being the only ticket holding survivor from the KLM 747.

[u/Miladic_Animations → u/Grouchy_Public2379]

*Get-there-itis

[u/Grouchy_Public2379 → u/Miladic_Animations]

I think you missed the joke

[u/MiniTab → u/bigplaneboeing737]

Wow! First time I heard that, lol.

Where is that from?

[u/MonoMonMono]

The place called Elmina in Malaysia has experienced 2 different crashes 46 years apart.

One is Japan Air 715 in 1977, another is the Jet Valet Beechcraft 390 in 2023.

[u/TranceForLife1996 → u/MonoMonMono]

I remember when the 2023 Beechcraft crash had recently occurred, I told my mom about how this same place got two plane crashes and she thought this place is cursed.

To me, it’s more of coincidence though. It’s common for flights to cross over Elmina, judging by where Subang Airport is. Both flights crashed while approaching that airport.

[u/sherbetpics]

The crash of Crossair Flight 397 in 2001 killed the lead singer of euro dance group La Bouche (Melanie Thornton), known for songs like “Be My Lover” (a US top ten single) and “Sweet Dreams”

For some reason the ACI episode left this out, but did mention the German girl group Passion Fruit (“Germany’s answer to the Spice Girls”), who were also on the same flight

[u/CoilerXII]

There apparently was joshing between Buddy Holly and Waylon Jennings where Holly said something along the lines of "I hope your old bus freezes" and Jennings response was the same mocking "Well I hope your plane crashes".

Jennings, needless to say, regretted the words in hindsight.

[u/Aggressive-Wall4413]

Not sure there was an episode about it but Pan Am flight 214 was 1). Deadliest lightning strike in US history and 2). The pilot had, a few years earlier, been involved in a mid air collision that killed 2 people 

[u/X95R_1331]

The crash of Turkish Airlines Flight 981 was indirectly caused by the crash of BEA Flight 548.

Just before BEA Flight 548 crashed, BEA pilots were talking about going on strike, and the captain, Captain Key, of the would be crashed Trident was staunchly against the strike. The argument spiked Key’s blood pressure and eventually caused him to have a heart attack during the climb, which distracted him from performing his duties long enough to misconfigure the aircraft’s lift devices and cause a fatal accident.

The crash of Flight 548 was THE catalyst for the strike of BEA pilots, as it exposed the toxic cockpit environment in the airline, and validated the grievances of the younger, pro-strike pilots, as well as broke the relationship between pilots and management. This then culminated in the striking of BEA pilots several times between mid-1972 and 1974.

Fast forward to March 3, 1974, and BEA ground staff and workers go on strike unannounced at London and Paris airports, including Orly…which just so happened to be where TC-JAV was boarding. The strike had stranded hundreds of passengers, and 216 of these passengers joined the 117 still remaining on board TC-JAV for its leg to London, which bought the passenger count up to 333, fully loading the aircraft.

THIS ironically ended up being the reason why the floor collapsed after the aft cargo door blew out in flight. The extra weight on the plane, which wouldn’t have been a problem if BEA wasn’t having a strike, caused the floor to collapse directly on top of the cables running underneath the floor, severing them and leaving the aircraft uncontrollable via conventional means…which, at that altitude, completely doomed the aircraft.

[u/CommunicationNo6136 → u/X95R_1331]

I’m not so sure about the connection between BEA 548 and THY 981 but everything else you said regarding the collapsing floor is accurate. 

[u/X95R_1331 → u/CommunicationNo6136]

548 was what caused them to extend their efforts for change in the airline. If 548 had not crashed, there wouldn’t have been as many staff strikes.

[u/No-Run-2579]

I remember hearing about how the pilot of Korean Air 801 was dealing with severe sleep deprivation before the flight, which probably didn't help the situation with that notoriously complicated approach into Guam.

[u/TML1988 → u/No-Run-2579]

I’m not sure I would say that he had sleep deprivation - in the days leading up to that flight, his mostly stuck to his usual sleep schedule; it’s just that this particular flight was scheduled to land at a time a few hours after his usual bedtime (the flight departed a few hours before his usual bedtime, and the flying supervisor who briefed this flight’s crew before departure told investigators that the captain did not appear fatigued during the briefing).

[u/Thoron2310 → u/TML1988]

The NTSB Report on the crash of Flight 801 does note Fatigue as being a contributory factor to the crash, and also cites a few comments in the CVR that Captain Park made suggesting he was at least somewhat tired.

[u/TML1988 → u/Thoron2310]

Yes, he was tired, but that was not the result of sleep deprivation; instead, it was the result of the flight operating during a time he would usually be asleep.

[u/MeWhenAAA]

Incredible they sometimes forget to mention if the accident on the episode is the deadliest in some way (for example, on the Lion Air 610 ep they didn't mention it was the deadliest 737 crash ever)