Crash
The night of February 8 was dark, with no visible moon or stars, and no visible horizon. As the two airliners approached similar positions, their pilots had no points of reference with which to determine actual separation distance or position. Flight 663's departure turn, and Pan Am's subsequent turn left to its assigned heading, had placed the two aircraft on the illusion of a direct collision course. The Boeing rolled right and initiated a descent in an attempt to avoid collision. In response, Eastern 663 initiated an extreme right turn in order to pass safely. The captain of Pan Am 212 later estimated that the two aircraft had passed between 200 and 500 feet (60 and 150 m) of each other, while the first officer estimated that the distance was only 200 to 300 feet (60 to 90 m).
Flight 663 was unable to recover from its unusually steep bank and plunged into the icy water of the Atlantic Ocean, where it exploded with bright orange flames. The Pan American 707 was the first to relay news of the crash as it was receiving permission to land. Air Canada Flight 627, which had departed a few minutes prior to Flight 663, also radioed news of an explosion in the water.
| Sender (bold) Recipient |
Message | Ref |
|---|---|---|
| Pan Am 212 to JFK Control Tower |
Uh . . . OK. We had a near miss here. Uh . . . we’re turning now to . . . Uh . . . three six zero and . . . Uh . . . did you have another target in this area at the same spot where we were just a minute ago? | |
| JFK Control Tower to Pan Am 212 |
Uh . . . affirmative, however, not on my scope at present time. | |
| Pan Am 212 to JFK Control Tower |
Is he still on the scope? | |
| JFK Control Tower to Pan Am 212 |
No sir. | |
| Pan Am 212 to JFK Control Tower |
It looked like he's in the Bay then, because we saw him. He looked like he winged over to miss us and we tried to avoid him, and we saw a bright flash about one minute later. He was well over the top of us, and it looked like he went into an absolute vertical turn and kept rolling. | |
| Air Canada 627 to JFK Control Tower |
There's a big fire going out on the water here about our 2 o'clock position right now. I don't know what it is. It looked like a big explosion. |
After the initial explosion, the wrecked aircraft sank to the bottom of 75 feet (23 m) of water. Numerous air crews, including Pan Am 212, Air Canada 627, and Braniff Airlines Flight 5, radioed ATC controllers in the area with news of an explosion. The aircraft broke up upon impact, and was destroyed. All 5 crewmembers and 79 passengers died on impact.
Read more about this topic: Eastern Air Lines Flight 663
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