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McDonnel Douglas DC-9-10 accident report
Selection of the most serious accidents :
Employee debut for ill-fated N9101 at the company’s hangar at BFI, Sept. 1966. Staff photo via the Ken Luthe collection.
Saturday 1 October 1966 West Coast Airlines DC-9-14 N9101 c/n 45794/52
Interstate passenger Flight WC956 from Eugene apt. (EUG),OR to Portland, OR with 5 crew and 13 passengers. On approach in darkness to Portland the aircraft descended for unknown reason below the clearance altitude and crashed against the eastern slope of Salmon Mt. at 1165m altitude. YOM : 1966
Airframe hrs : 164, the brand new airplane was delivered two weeks earlier. engines : P&W JT8D-1. All people onboard died in the crash.
location : 9km S of Wemme, OR +- 45°51’ 21”N 121°59’36”W taken from the accident report, but looks like a typo co-ordinates 45°15’21’ N 121°59’36”W more likely.
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Friday 27 June 1980 Itavia Douglas DC-9-15 I-TIGI c/n 45724/22
DSP flight IH870 from Bologne (BLQ) to Palermo (PMO) with 4 crew and 77 passengers.
While cruising at an altitude of 24,000 feet, the airplane disappeared from radar screens and the crew was unable to send any distress call. SAR operations were initiated and few debris and dead bodies were found floating on water about 25 km northeast of Ustica Island, north of Sicily. The main wreckage sank by a depth of 3,500 meters. The cause of the accident could not be determined.
On 28 April 1987, Italian authorities decided to refloat the wreckage and traces of T4 explosive was found and several debris. There are several theories about the cause: 1. Unknown aircraft in the vicinity of the DC-9 at the time of the crash, possibly Libyan fighter planes, which would then be responsible for shooting down the DC-9. 2. Explosion of a bomb on board the DC-9 3. Shot down by French missile, fired to kill Khadafi who might be on board. YOM : 1966Airframe hrs : 29544 cycles : 45032 engines : P&W JT8D-7. All people onboard died in the crash. location : 25km NE of Ustica +- 1km 38°53’43”N 13°20’08”E
27 June 1980 DC-9 from Itavia (Italy) crashes in the Tyrrhenian Sea, north of the island of Ustica, near Sicily. The wreck is located at 3000m below sea level. Probably accidentally shot down by a NATO fighter plane. All 81 occupants were killed. A large exercise was held at that time. An unmanned target aircraft was launched that had to be tracked down and shot down. However, this went off course and ended up in the flight corridor of the DC-9. However, this story is contradicted by the army command, defense minister Valerio Zanone , they claim that at the time of the disaster there was no exercise going on at all. The aircraft was on its way from Bologna to Palermo. In 1988, French salvors succeeded in bringing debris to the surface for the first time. The experts came to the cautious conclusion that the aircraft had been hit by a missile. And not by a (bomb) explosion inside the airplane. In Italy, many rumours circulated about the cause of the disaster. There were several conspiracy theories. For example, a French or American fighter plane would have mistaken the aircraft for a Libyan plane. Libya stated that it was an American attack on Kolonel Gaddafi . Others claim that a Libyan plane shot down the DC-9 because it was thought that the plane was carrying weapons for opponents of Gadaffi. In Calabria, southern Italy, a Libyan Mig-fighter plane was found on a mountainside a while after the disaster. According to witnesses, the aircraft crashed on July 18, 1980, but according to others, it crashed after a collision with the DC-9.
Evidence also disappeared. Four minutes of tape showing radar images from the last minutes of the DC-9 were not found until years later.
On this radar images other flying objects could be seen nearby the DC-9.
It was not until 1991 that the black box was fished off the seabed. In 1991 it became known that at the time of the disaster there was indeed an American fighter plane, from the Sigonella base in Sicily, flying around in the vicinity of the DC-9. Gadaffi must also have been flying around somewhere nearby at that time, he was on his way to Eastern Europe. Did the Americans shoot down the wrong plane?
It is agreed on that the aircraft was shot down by a missile, but it remains unclear which air force shot the missile.
So fascinated are the Italians by the riddle of Ustica that a feature film in November 1991 draws packed theatres all over Italy. The title is very appropriately "Il Muro di Gomma" , because at that moment those who search for the truth still encounter a rubber wall of silence.
In 1991 werd rechter van instructie Rosario Priore benoemd als voorzitter van de commissie van onderzoek.
Conclusion June 1997, Lybian MIG-fighter planes are hiding close by the DC-9, invisible for radar. But this time they are discovered. Three Italian F-104 Starfighter planes scramble from Grosseto airforce base to intercept the Lybian fighter planes but are withdrawn. Two Italian pilots were killed later in the 1988 Ramstein airshow disaster . Other radar images show military aircraft operating from Solenzara Armee de l’air afb , Corsica are in the air.
The Americans have also always denied that they had anything to do with the disaster of the DC-9. The radar images show an object falling into the sea near Ustica. That will be fished out later. A fragment of the DC-9 ? No, a fuel drop-tank that is only ejected in an emergency. This American tank, which was also sold to the French Air Force, is under the wings of a Corsair II fighter plane. This American fighter operates from aircraft carriers, such as the ship USS Saratoga , based in Naples.
After the DC-9 has been hit by a missile and has disintegrated into thousands pieces of debris, the track continues on the radar, that of a MIG, which now has no shadow to hide in. This MIG is shot down and crashes in the wild Sila Mountains in Calabria. There may have been a second MIG, but this manages to escape to Libya.
The cause of the accident has never been officially established. In the years following the accident many theories were suggested. Some theories cantered around the fact that the DC-9 may have accidentally been shot down by NATO fighters. Either during an exercise involving Italian, U.S., and French jet fighters, or during a dog fight involving Libyan, U.S., French and Italian Air Force fighters in the area.
Tuesday 10 January 1995 Intercontinental de Aviacion DC-9-14 HK-3839X c/n 45742/26
DSP flight RS256 from Bogota (BOG) to Cartagena (CTG) with 5 crew and 47 passengers. YOM : 1966
Airframe hrs : 65084 cycles : 69716 engines : P&W JT8D-7A. 51 people died in the crash and only 1 nine year old girl was found alive.
location : near Maria la Baja, Colombia in a marshy lagoon +-500m 09°59’50”N 75°22’83”W
In above table all known fatal accidents are listed, but not all incidents with no fatalities, only those with total flying hours known, with the purpose to deduct the amount of years flown yearly and the average flight time.
abbreviations :
DSP = domestic scheduled passenger
ISP = international scheduled passenger
RW = runway
YOM = Year of Manufacture
Literature :