On the morning of October 31, 1979 the jumbo jet was on final approach at Benito Juarez International Airport at Mexico City and things were about to go very wrong. The cabin crew consisted of Flight Attendants Kathleen Miller, Rob Pond, Don Richards, Larry Roundtree, Sharon Smith, Teresa Sugano-Haley, Regina Tovar, and Eduardo Valencia. Western Airlines flight 2605 - Cockpit Voice Recorder (with Subtitles) [7] Nine of 11 crewmembers, 63 of 77 passengers died; thus 72 fatalities of the 88 aboard the plane. Plane Toll Hits 75. Evening Review, East Liverpool, OH, 11-20-1979, 1. When I opened them I saw a lot of fire and I heard a lot of voices. With runway 23L closed for maintenance, what air traffic controllers expected Flight 2605 to do was to perform what is known as asidestep maneuverto the (open) runway 23R. Airliners.net is the leading community for discovering and sharing high-quality aviation photography. I know that neither of those>approaches are in Jeppesen Manuals - at least not the ones I have ->nor are they in the NOS plates.>>KRC>, >Well KRC, this person (who calls himself Eduardo Valenciana, BTW) is making>other oddball and presumably untrue statments like>>"the other crew member is F/A Donald Richards whom I pulled out of the>wreckage. Western Airlines officials said 72 of the 88 people on board flight 2605 from Los Angeles and two people on the ground died in the Wednesday crash the fourth fatal DC-10 accident in the last six years. This final impact caused the structural breakup of the aircraft, heavily damaged the two story reinforced concrete building, and caused a fire that consumed most of the aircraft structure. Survivors reported that large pieces of the building continued to fall onto the wreckage of the aircraft several minutes after the crash as rescuers arrived on the scene. Our large helicopter section. western airlines flight 2605 passenger list - arametra.org The cockpit voice recording of the last seconds of the flight indicates that the first officer and captain agreed that they were cleared for 23R, though they were still on approach to 23L. [9] On page 103 notes the fatalities as 11 of the 13 crew, 61 of 76 passengers and 1 other (truck driver). Nowhere on standard United States approach charts is the complete maneuver portrayed, nor is the word sidestep shown. On October 31, 1979, at 5:42a.m. CST (UTC06:00), the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 operating the flight crashed at Mexico City International Airport in fog after landing on a runway that was closed for maintenance. Thirty days, After thecrash, the FAA went to Mexico and along side La Officina De NavagacionEspacio Mexicana, developed a side step manuver for U.S. pilots into BenitoJuarez Airport. Accident details Mexico City International Airport has two runways: Runway 23 Left (23L), and Runway 23 Right (23R). [18] The investigation revealed that both pilots knew that runway 23L was closed and that each had landed aircraft at the airport while the runway was closed. Accessed 10-6-2016 at: http://docplayer.net/docview/24/2551935/#file=/storage/24/2551935/2551935.pdf, National Transportation Safety Board. Audio recording of Western Airlines Flight 2605 CVR. He then looked down and saw that one of his feet had a shoe and no sock, and the other had a sock and no shoe. The aircraft was banked to the right and this inclination increased so much that when the aircraft was approximately 1,500 m from the threshold of Runway 23 Left, the outer section of the right wing flap struck the cab of an excavator which was parked parallel to the right-hand edge of Runway 23 Left. The impact with the dump truck destroyed the right engine and took off a major portion of the right stabilizer. Accordingly, the Safety Board recommends that the Federal Aviation Administration: Revise FAA Handbook 8260.19 to require that separate standardized instrument approach charts be published for all airport approaches that require a sidestep maneuver. 1979 Oct 31, Western Airlines Flight 2605 crash, Mexico City Int The horizontal shaft which carries the two front wheels and the associated brake units also broke off and were projected forward over a distance of over 400 m. After breaking off, the right landing gear leg struck the right tailplane and elevator, severing the two almost completely. In addition, we believe there is a need to publish more information on sidestep maneuver procedures. Accessed 10-5-2016 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Airlines_Flight_2605. The approach lights are on runway 23-left. _____________________________________Steve KroplaKingwood, Texas USATo e-mail, replace "firstname" and "lastname" with real namesHelp for World Travelers: http://kropla.com, >Dan,>IIRC, parallel runways One was closed for maint..>Low ceiling Low Vsby>Forget which runway the approach was aligned..(23L)>Aircraft broke out and landed (23R)..>Don't recall much more Old man, short memory. As Flight 2605 approached Mexico City International Airport, air traffic controllers cleared it for aninstrument approachusing the ILS of Runway 23L, with an expected landing runway of 23R. We thank you for your support and hope you'll join the largest aviation community on the web. [15] Cites EXC-AEE (1979-11-06). As a result of the investigation, the Safety Board recommended that the FAA require separate standardized instrument approach charts for sidestep maneuver approaches. NTSB writes that there was one. The site is '10 years old by now and contains info on the background of the cockpit crew and cabin staff: A very interesting thread which has sparked memories as I was working for Mexicana at, WA 2605, A 35 AOS DEL PEOR ACCIDENTE AREO EN LA CIUDAD DE MXICO, http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histoern-airlines-2605-information.html, http://books.google.com/books?id=8BVg=PP1&pg=PA100#v=onepage&q&f=false, http://www.reocities.com/tresbros/blackbox.html. I decided long ago that since he did not>remember anything, I would not torture him by bringing him into the madness>that was my world. A McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 passenger plane, registered N903WA, was damaged beyond repair in a landing accident at Mexico City-Juarez International Airport (MEX), Mexico.