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The Fate of Eastern Air Lines Flight 980

Yithian

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What Happened to Eastern Airlines Flight 980?
By: Peter Frick-Wright
Oct 18, 2016

Conspiracy theories have flourished in the aftermath of the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 980. Two friends from Boston decided to figure out what really happened. Illustration: Robert Harkness

On New Year's Day in 1985, Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 was carrying 29 passengers and a hell of a lot of contraband when it crashed into the side of a 21,112-foot mountain in Bolivia. For decades conspiracy theories abounded as the wreckage remained inaccessible, the bodies unrecovered, the black box missing. Then two friends from Boston organized an expedition that would blow the case wide open.

By the time it crashed, Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 would have been just about ready to land. Beverage carts stowed, seat backs upright, tray tables locked. The 29 people on board would have just heard the engines change pitch and felt the nose dip slightly, seat belts tugging at their stomachs.

One imagines a focused cockpit. Pilot Larry Campbell was responsible for the safety of everyone on the flight, and this was just his second landing in the Bolivian city of La Paz. Copilot Ken Rhodes was a straightforward military man. No foolishness, especially when descending through a mountain valley in bad weather. Sitting behind both, flight engineer Mark Bird was a retired fighter jock. In the Air Force, he was known for buzzing the tower and other hijinks, but he’d joined Miami-based Eastern only a few months before, and during a tricky approach in the middle of a thunderstorm would not have been the moment to chime in.

On January 1, 1985, the mostly empty Boeing 727 was headed from Asunción, Paraguay, to Miami, with stopovers in Bolivia and Ecuador. Landing in La Paz was always difficult. Ground controllers there had no radar—and what navigational equipment they did have was spotty—so they relied on the cockpit crew to track their own position.

Why Couldn't Investigators Reach the Crash Site?

At 13,325 feet, El Alto International, which serves La Paz, is the highest international airport in the world. The air is so thin that planes land at 200 miles per hour because they would fall out of the sky at the usual 140. Air brakes find less purchase here, so the runway is more than twice the normal length. The airport is so high that, as the plane dropped toward La Paz, the pilots would have worn oxygen masks until they reached the gate, per FAA regulations. Passengers would have felt the altitude’s effects as the cabin depressurized: increased heart rate, deeper breaths, fuzzy thoughts.

The last anyone heard from the jet was at 8:38 P.M. Eastern time. According to ground controllers, the flight was about 30 miles from the airport and cruising on track at roughly 20,000 feet. It was cleared to descend to 18,000 feet when it plowed straight into a mountain.


Continued:
https://www.outsideonline.com/2126426/what-happened-eastern-airlines-flight-980
 
A fascinating tale, albeit a long read. But much as I like solving mysteries, high altitude investigations are not for me - I'm strictly a sea level person.
 
What Happened to Eastern Airlines Flight 980?
By: Peter Frick-Wright
Oct 18, 2016

Conspiracy theories have flourished in the aftermath of the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 980. Two friends from Boston decided to figure out what really happened. Illustration: Robert Harkness

On New Year's Day in 1985, Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 was carrying 29 passengers and a hell of a lot of contraband when it crashed into the side of a 21,112-foot mountain in Bolivia. For decades conspiracy theories abounded as the wreckage remained inaccessible, the bodies unrecovered, the black box missing. Then two friends from Boston organized an expedition that would blow the case wide open.

By the time it crashed, Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 would have been just about ready to land. Beverage carts stowed, seat backs upright, tray tables locked. The 29 people on board would have just heard the engines change pitch and felt the nose dip slightly, seat belts tugging at their stomachs.

One imagines a focused cockpit. Pilot Larry Campbell was responsible for the safety of everyone on the flight, and this was just his second landing in the Bolivian city of La Paz. Copilot Ken Rhodes was a straightforward military man. No foolishness, especially when descending through a mountain valley in bad weather. Sitting behind both, flight engineer Mark Bird was a retired fighter jock. In the Air Force, he was known for buzzing the tower and other hijinks, but he’d joined Miami-based Eastern only a few months before, and during a tricky approach in the middle of a thunderstorm would not have been the moment to chime in.

On January 1, 1985, the mostly empty Boeing 727 was headed from Asunción, Paraguay, to Miami, with stopovers in Bolivia and Ecuador. Landing in La Paz was always difficult. Ground controllers there had no radar—and what navigational equipment they did have was spotty—so they relied on the cockpit crew to track their own position.

Why Couldn't Investigators Reach the Crash Site?

At 13,325 feet, El Alto International, which serves La Paz, is the highest international airport in the world. The air is so thin that planes land at 200 miles per hour because they would fall out of the sky at the usual 140. Air brakes find less purchase here, so the runway is more than twice the normal length. The airport is so high that, as the plane dropped toward La Paz, the pilots would have worn oxygen masks until they reached the gate, per FAA regulations. Passengers would have felt the altitude’s effects as the cabin depressurized: increased heart rate, deeper breaths, fuzzy thoughts.

The last anyone heard from the jet was at 8:38 P.M. Eastern time. According to ground controllers, the flight was about 30 miles from the airport and cruising on track at roughly 20,000 feet. It was cleared to descend to 18,000 feet when it plowed straight into a mountain.

Continued:
https://www.outsideonline.com/2126426/what-happened-eastern-airlines-flight-980

A thoroughly interesting read. I will admit to being quite partial to airline mysteries.

I did a quick internet search to see if there was any updates.

Results of my findings enclosed in spoiler tags in case people haven't read the original link.

I wondered if the tape and black box they found ever got past all the bureaucracy but sadly, it would seem not:

https://disciplesofflight.com/ntsb-eastern-air-lines-flight-980-findings/

  • Both the segments from the magnetic tape, and the spooled magnetic tape, were not the 1/4 inch wide type of tape that would be found in the CVR or FDR, but rather 3/4 inch U-Matic video tape. After review, the spooled tape “was found to contain an 18-minute recording of the “Trial by Treehouse” episode of the television series “I Spy,” dubbed in Spanish.
Sadly, the NTSB concluded that the recovered materials didn’t contain any data from either Eastern Airlines Flight 980’s FDR or CVR, and did not provide any additional information that they considered relevant to the investigation.

So it seems this one is destined to remain, a mystery.



This seems eerily reminiscent of Stardust.

Another interesting read. Wonder what STENDEC was all about, then?
 
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