History of Flight
The flight was a three-leg flight. It had originated from London's Heathrow Airport, from which the Boeing flew uneventfully to Athens (Hellinikon Airport). From Athens it then proceeded to Nairobi (Wilson Airport). Departure from Nairobi on the final leg occurred as planned at 07:17, 14 May, destined for Lusaka.
The 707 cruised at flight level 310 for about two hours, after which it was cleared for descent to flight level 110. Flight level 110 was reached at approximately 09:23, and clearance was granted to begin descent towards a target of flight level 70. Just before 09:30, clearance to descend to 6,000 ft (1,800 m) was granted, and moments later the plane was cleared to make a visual approach to runway 10. A few minutes later, witnesses saw the entire right horizontal stabilizer and elevator assembly detach from the aircraft. The aircraft subsequently lost pitch control and entered a nose-dive from about 800 ft (240 m) to ground level, destroying the aircraft on impact.
There were no survivors among the five crew members and one jumpseat passenger on board the aircraft. There were no other fatalities on the ground. The wreckage was located approximately 12,010 ft (3,660 m) from the runway.
Read more about this topic: 1977 Dan-Air Boeing 707 Crash
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history and/or flight:
“The history of medicine is the history of the unusual.”
—Robert M. Fresco, and Jack Arnold. Prof. Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll)
“Books of natural history aim commonly to be hasty schedules, or inventories of God’s property, by some clerk. They do not in the least teach the divine view of nature, but the popular view, or rather the popular method of studying nature, and make haste to conduct the persevering pupil only into that dilemma where the professors always dwell.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Sure smokers have made personal choices. And they pay for those choices every day, whether sitting through an airline flight dying for a smoke, or dying for a smoke in the oncology wing of a hospital. The tobacco companies have not paid nearly enough for the killing.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)