The Pilot Who Didn't Know Where He Was | The Crash Of Alitalia Flight 771
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ธ.ค. 2020
- DC 8 Image: Ken Fielding/www.flickr.com/photos/kenfiel...
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This is the story of Alitalia flight 771. On the 7th of july 1962 Flight 771 was flying from Kingsford smith airport in sydney to Rome's fiumicino airport. Since this was the 1960s it had a bunch of stops in between. It had stops in Darwin Australia, Don mueang bangkok, Bombay India, Karachi Pakistan and Tehran iran. It was Late in the day on the 7th of july the plane was approaching Bombay india,the plane was in touch with bombay center, they were currently at 36,000 feet and they expected to be on the ground at bombay by 6:45 PM GMT or 12:15 am.As they passed the city of aurangabad at 6:26 PM GMT or 11:56 pm local time they were in contact with bombay approach and were also descending down to 20,000 feet. The crew said “ Leaving flight level 350 down to 200, bombay at 45”. ATC gave them the details for the airport including the QNH values. The crew expressed their interest to land on runway 27.
As the plane approached the airport they got down to 5000 feet on its way to their assigned altitude of 4000 feet.
ATC wanted to know if flight 771 would be making a straight in approach or if they wanted to do a 360 degree orbit.
ATC asked "771 request your intentions Are you coming straight in from the outer marker for landing runway two seven or making a three sixty over the outer marker then reporting leaving outer marker inbound over?" Alitalia 771 was cleared to do a 360 over the outer marker, they now had to let ATC know when they were done with the 360 and when they were heading back towards the airport.
ATC confirmed what they had just discussed “"Roger understand you will be making a three sixty over the outer marker, Report leaving outer marker while proceeding making a three sixty” Alitalia flight 771 replied with roger will do alitalia flight 771. This was the last time that they heard from the airplane. After ATC didn't hear back from the plane a search and rescue mission was started they found the wreck of the plane on a hill called davandyachi near the airport. None of the 94 occupants made it.
The crash site told the investigators quite a bit, the plane was on a heading of 240 when it struck the mountain and it was in level flight, the first officer's altimeter was recovered and it showed the correct altitude that the plane was at. In addition to that all of the plane was at the crash site, all major parts were accounted for.
The investigators talked to the flight dispatcher at bangkok, the flight dispatcher prepared an operational flight plan or a company flight plan. Now he says that he handed the flight plan over to the pilot in command but the pilot in command had not signed for the document to show his acceptance. As per the Alitalia operations manual this was compulsory. So with no signature we have no way of knowing if the pilots actually had the flight plan prepared but the flight dispatcher, this flight plan was not recovered from the wreck. The chief pilot of alitalia admitted that a lot of pilots did not consider the company flight plan to be absolutely essential, sure they were supposed to have it onboard but a lot of pilots didn't.
I have been a dispacher in the 70's / 80's (served at my homebase LSZH and many offline stations),
It's incredible, how much safer flying has become since the 1960's.
There's a saying in aviation, "Modern procedures are written in blood."
ATC does way more now than in the 1960s
My first flights were in 1966, a Delta DC-8 followed by an American DC-9. Very civilized, people dressed up and flight staff called me sir even though I was 8. Over the next 5 years I flew on the DC-3 mail run (Central and Frontier) which literally stopped every 30 miles between Dallas and southeastern Oklahoma. 5 or 6 stops on a 240 mile trip. That would flying was fun! On my first leg a guy told me not to worry, that the DC-3 was named the best plane of the year. As he got off in Durant, OK he hold that it was named the best plane in 1936! Creep. Still, those flights that had none of the conveniences of the DC-8 or 9, were the most reassuring flight experiences I had at that time and I would say it holds true through today. I’m so grateful I experienced that.
I would fly often in the early 1960's as a child on TWA and Air France from Chicago to Paris, and my dad would put family members on seperate planes in case there was a crash so as not to lose the whole family. In fact the reason I was put on TWA in 1962 was because Air France had had a series of crashes in 1962 with the Boeing 707. So yes, as is often the case with a new type of aircraft, in this case, Jets, crashes were a frequent occurance and something to consider in contingency planning
Great video, thanks. I didn’t know about that one.
Your comment on terrain clearance is surprising for me. I did not fly back in the 60s, I got my pilots license way past the 2000s, but even then we were instructed that ATC clearances do NOT take terrain into consideration, with the one exception being radar vectoring. I actually had a flight once where a controller would have ordered me straight into a mountain, because the small aircraft I flew was unable to climb fast enough to get over it... The advantage today though is that you have things like TAWS that keep you clear...
I'm from Bombay too. Love your vids. Keep up with the good work.
The odd adage, "Measure twice; cut once," has probably been around before humans took to the sky in planes but the same always holds true. At least in construction, you usually only waste a perfectly good board when you make this mistake.
As a heavy flyer, I flew everything from 707‘s from coast to coast, to DC threes in and out of Aspen Colorado. This issue was sadly now just one more evolution of flying commercially. I’ve studied commercial aviation that occurred during the 1920s on in Alaska, and it just proves to me that no matter how good we think we are at some task, We always have room for improvement. As long as we have sincerely been trying to do our best, this story exemplifies why we have had to incessantly updating and learning aviation in massive ways. Great posting
This guy deserves more subs than he has. 👍
I’ve been checking these videos out for a good 6 months so I’ve liked and subscribed finally, not as flashy as some of the others (who are also very good) I do learn a lot about what happened !! Keep up the great work, also your voice really adds to the story telling !!
Reminds me of the flight in the miracle of the Andes. They literally used dead reckoning. Fly a given heading for xx minutes then descend. But what if there is a headwind or you are slightly off in your positioning. Then you smack into a mountain
With so many landings and takeoffs along this route it must have been mentally exhausting for the flight crew. A terrible tragedy but another great video.
I dont think many people understand the amount of preparation the pilot,first officer,dispatch actually do before a flight.
Thanks so much for all these videos!! You are doing an excellent job!
This goes to show just how far aviation safety has come. We now have a pictorial display of the terrain in our cockpits that would have saved that airplane for sure if they had that at that time.
I made my first flight in 1963, when I was 16 years of age. Nervous at first of course, but loved the experience of my first aeroplane excursion. I've learned Australia is a very safe place to fly in, as we don't have many really high mountains,
Damn those pilots had quite a confidence! If I had such confidence like flying blind without a flight plan and under the safely limit I would never ever be single!