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McDonnel Douglas DC-9-33CF accident report
Saturday 2 May 1970 ALM Antillian Airlines, leased from Overseas National Airways (ONA) DC-9-33CF N935F c/n 47407/457
ALM Flight LM980 from New York (JFK) to St Maarten (SXM) was being operated under terms of a lease agreement, utilizing an ONA aircraft and flight crew, and an ALM cabin crew, with 6 crew and 57 passengers on board. The aircraft ditched into the sea with a speed of 90 kts after running out of fuel. The weather at St. Maarten was poor, and the crew attempted several times to land, but without success . The aircraft had taken off from New York with 13109 kg fuel, enough for 4 hour 34 minutes endurance (2875 kg/hr) YOM : 1969 The aircraft had five 25-man rafts on board.
Airframe hrs : 2505 engines : JT8D-9. 23 people died in the crash.
location : 48 km ENE off St. Croix, Virgin Islands +- 1km 17°53’N 64°14’W
On the 2nd of May 1970, a DC-9 jet, critically low on fuel and with nowhere to land, ditched into stormy waters off the US Virgin Islands, plunging 63 people into a harrowing fight to survive. Clinging to an emergency escape slide, surrounded by debris and tossed by heaving seas, the survivors held on for 90 indescribable minutes before rescuers arrived by helicopter, dragging the exhausted passengers and crew one by one from the angry Caribbean. But even before the survivors were brought back to shore, it was clear that not all had made it. Of the 63 aboard, only 40 escaped with their lives, leaving the remainder lost forever at sea, dragged to the depths along with the airplane, which — like all but one of the victims — was never locate
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