the weather around new york is dreadful but the bosses still want them to handle 33 flights an hour at jfk airport even though it clearly isn’t safe with many runways shut. meanwhile at mendlin coloumbia a boeing 707 is boarding for jfk airport for avianca with 150 something onboard with enough fuel for the journey and two more hours flying a full load for a 707 they depart just after 3pm. jfk only has one runway for landing and all the aircraft are queing up only to go around and try again. the crew don’t request weather for boston their alternate or jfk. the captain doesn’t speak english well but is the only one with a lot of experience on the 707 the others only have 4 mounths experience in the cockpit of a 707. they are given their first hold from washington center at norfolk which is the start of their holding. the airspace around it is very busy even with the weather. and the stress at new york atc is not good the crew are told to decend by washington dc control. the plane has been operating without an autopilot the whole flight. the crew ask about boston but the contrroller won’t tell him. now down to 89 minutes fuel. they are told its open and accepting traffic but the holds have drained their fuel to a point that 30 minutes holding they are given another one of a hold meaning boston is out of the question. they are handed to new york atc with a lot of delays. the crew get misleading info when they think they are cleared but other planes abandon their approach and are told infinite holding for now the crew now say they can only hold for a few minutes due to fuel. they request priority and say they can’t make boston and can only hold for 5 minutes at this point they are finally cleared to jfk. they are handed to approach but he isn’t told about the fuel problem they are cleared to 7000 feet they are soon handed to a tower controller at this end of a shift the crew know if they need tro go around it will be difficult. they are third in the queque with 18 minutes of fuel left. and are told to goa bit faster and they lower the gear as the weather is getting worse and only have one chance for the 149 passengers. only 4 kms from the runway and 10 minutes left of fuel they encounter windshear which almost crashes the plane right away they are forced to abort the landing and go around. they are handed back to approach control and have to go through the whole procedure again without enough fuel to and they are told to climb 3000 feet but the controller doesn’t understand the fuel issue. they are down to only a few miuntes of fuel at this point and have to hold for the equilivant of 15-20 minutes the crew are desperate but the controller won’t clear them right away even though they are 2 in the queque 3 minutes of fuel is not enough as the engines all fail of running out of fuel they crash on long island almost immediately at 930pm they crash. a bit over half the passengers live but only the senior flight attendant survive of the crew. the cause is blamed on the pilots even though atc is more responsible or equally but the pilots are critiercised for only asking for priority the weather is also a major factor in the crash and no autopilot didn’t help.
next time a roof comes off a aloha flight will they land safely.
Harrison’s world 