So these are plane crashes from around the world, but it's only for the countries that had a true crime case, if you don't see a plane crash in here, check my True crime from around the world book.
Warning, this book contains plane crashes and the a...
This plane crash takes us to the European country of Portugal which is located next to Spain and the Atlantic Ocean.
WARNINGS OF A PLANE CRASH
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Pictured above is the accident aircraft, photographed in 1985.
On the 8th of February 1989, Independent Air Flight 1851, a Boeing 707 on an American charter flight from Bergamo, Italy, to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, struck Pico Alto while on approach to Santa Maria Airport (IATA: SMA, ICAO: LPAZ) in the Azores for a scheduled stopover. The aircraft was destroyed, with the loss of all 144 people on board, resulting in the deadliest plane crash in Portugal's history. All of the passengers on board were Italian and all of the crew were Americans. The crash is also known as "The disaster of the Azores" (Italian: Il disastro delle Azzorre).
The aircraft involved was a 21-year-old Boeing 707-331B registered as N7231T (November 7231 Tango) with serial number 19572 and line number 687. It was manufactured in 1968, and first flew on the 22nd of March. It was previously operated by Trans World Airlines (TWA) and was one of two 707s in the airline's fleet.
The flight crew consisted of Captain Leon Daugherty (41), First Officer Samuel "Sammy" Adcock (36), and Flight Engineer Jorge Gonzalez (34).
Captain Daugherty had 7,766 flight hours, including 766 hours on the Boeing 707 (278 as a first officer and 488 hours as a captain). He also had 2,259 hours on the Boeing 727 (347 hours as a first officer and 1,912 hours as a captain).
First Officer Adcock had a total of 3,764 flight hours, though only 64 of them were on the Boeing 707. Flight Engineer Gonzalez had a total of 6,756 flying hours, including 1,056 hours on the Boeing 707. He also had 2,888 hours on the Boeing 727 and 2,823 hours on the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy.
One of the flight attendants on board, Yvette Murray (26), was engaged to Captain Daugherty, planning to get married in May.
The flight crew previously flew on the 3rd of February to Montego Bay, Jamaica. On the 4th of February they flew to Fort Worth, Texas, then to Denver, Colorado. On the 5th of February, the crew returned to Montego Bay, where they received their assignment for flight 1851 from Milan, Italy, to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with a scheduled stopover in Santa Maria, Azores, Portugal. On the 7th of February, after a flight of 10 hours and 40 minutes, the crew arrived in Genoa, Italy, having to divert from Milan Malpensa Airport (IATA: MXP, ICAO: LIMC) due to poor weather. The crew arrived in Bergamo three hours later, which was located near the planned departure airport. The crew spent the next 46 hours in a hotel, their activities being unknown. However, in the early morning of the 9th of February, a witness stated that everyone left the hotel in a good mood.
Departure was scheduled for 08:00am GMT, but because of fog, the aircraft was delayed in Genoa and was able to land at Orio al Serio Airport in Bergamo only at 07:20. According to the flight plan, the duration of the first part of the flight was to be 4 hours and 10 minutes, landing on runway 33. It is also worth noting that in terms of flight, the airport coordinates were given as 36756 North (latitude) and 025096 West (longitude), with the runway elevation being 0 feet (0 m). But the coordinates indicated did not correspond to either the charts nor any of the aircraft's navigation equipment, and the actual level of the airfield is 305 feet (93 m). Also during the investigation it was noted that the air navigation charts for this airport were outdated by 27 years, with the last update having been on the 1st of February 1962.
