Pilots' harrowing last words as plane plummeted in deadliest ever American Airlines disaster
Pilots' harrowing last words as plane plummeted in deadliest ever American Airlines disaster
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The horrific midair collision of a military aircraft and a passenger plane as it came down to land at Washington marks the first commercial air crash in the United States since 2009. And it’s the most deadly since 2001, when another American Airlines plane plunged from the sky shortly after it took off New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Flight 587 crashed in a fireball in a residential neighbourhood in the Queens area of the city and claimed the lives of 265 people, as well as five on the ground.
The tragedy on November 12 came just two months after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in nearby Manhattan, sparking fears terrorists had struck again. But investigators would later blame the accident on the plane's co-pilot, 34-year-old Sten Molin. As the Airbus A-300 encountered wake turbulence from a Boeing 747 which had taken off before it, Molin moved the planes rudder controls from side to side, they claimed, stressing the plane’s vertical stabiliser until it broke off, ripping the wide body jet apart in midair.
More light was shed on the tragedy when an audio recording from the cockpit during its final moments was released. In it, the co-pilot, or first officer, 34-year-old Sten Molin, can be heard asking the captain, Edward States, 42, if he’s “alright”. The captain responds: "Yeah, I'm fine." Molin then says: “Hang on to it, hang on to it.". But the vertical stabiliser breaks, after which Captain States is heard shouting: "What the hell were you do- [...] I'm stuck in it.".
First, Officer Molin shouts at him to “get out of it”, but the plane plunges downwards, causing alarms to sound in the cockpit before it crashes, and there’s silence. As rumours circulated that the plane had been brought down in another terrorist plot, several major buildings in New York, including the Empire State Building and the United Nations headquarters, were evacuated following the crash.
However, following a three-month investigation, the disaster was put down to pilot error. Tragically, one of the victims, Hilda Yolanda Mayol, had previously survived the September 11 attacks, having escaped from the North Tower of the World Trade Center. A memorial to those who died was later constructed in nearby Rockaway Park, where a ceremony commemorating the disaster is held every year. Get email updates with the day's biggest stories.
