Last Words

Airplane Crashes. (warning: reader discretion advised)

(no copyright intended.  I don't own any of these pictures except for the last two.)

I am morbidly fascinated by them.  Don't get me wrong, I am sad that they happen.  But let's face it - without them, air travel wouldn't be as safe or successful as it is today.  Every single person who dies in an airplane crash or other such aviation disaster is helping pave the way for safer air travel for us all.  

Thank you. 

I feel that these people, the pilots, crew, passengers and wrong-place-wrong-time-ers are all desperately underappreciated.   Unsung heroes, if you will.  There are a few exceptions (hijackers, namely.)  But these situations exist in reality.  Hiding from them or pretending they don't exist won't save people in the future nor will it bring back the dead.

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but I love airplanes.  I like to watch them, read about them, hear about them and identify them.  I also like to read or watch documentaries or shows about airplane crashes or disasters.  It's so fascinating.  Sad, but fascinating.  I like to learn about the sometimes random connections of events that lead to crashes.  I like to learn about the heroic actions people take to try to avert disaster, and sometimes they succeed.  I like to learn about the legacies left by these events.

There are tons of "last words" videos flying around the internet these days.  I've seen many of them.  And many of them are inaccurate, and that bugs me severely.

I also find it fascinating that oftentimes you can sort of get a feel for what kind of crash it was.  If the last words have absolutely nothing to do with a crash or imminent disaster, you can imagine that the flight crew had no idea what was coming.  One interesting thing I noticed is that a lot of times in those "last words" videos, people pick and choose words from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) transcripts to make it sound more dramatic.  In a lot of cases the actual  last words heard on a CVR are swear words in the native tongue of the speaker.  Or something like that.

I'm sure that I'll post more entries about airplanes.  I may even go into detail and analyze one or two of these crashes I'm about to mention.  But for now, here are some accurate (or as accurate as possible) last words from CVR transcripts.  I've included notable lines or phrases (by way of a title for each, in blue) the date, location, aircraft type, time, last words, souls aboard, survivors and any other applicable fatalities.


"I think that was him." "I think so."  "...God bless him."

 July 17, 1996 - New York City, NY
TransWorld Airlines (TWA) 800 (Boeing 747)
2030:19 RDO2 - TWA's eight hundred heavy climb and maintain one five thousand leaving one three thousand.
Souls aboard: 230
Survivors: 0
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

December 29, 1972 – Miami, FL, USA

Eastern Airlines 401 (Lockheed L1011)

2342:09 CAM1 – Hey, what’s happening here?

Souls aboard: 176

Survivors: 75

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"We gaan" (We're going.)

March 27, 1977

The Tenerife Disaster – Los Rodeos, Tenerife, Canary Islands

KLM 4805 (Boeing 747)

1706: 35  CAM1– Jawel (“oh yes!” – emphatic, followed by a scream)

…

PanAm 1736 (Boeing 747)

1706:40 CAM2 – There he is… look at him!  Goddamn that son-of-a-bitch is coming!  Get off!  Get off!  Get off!

Souls aboard:

KLM-248 (Survivors-0)

Pan Am-396 (Survivors-61)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

May 25, 1979 – Chicago, IL, USA

American Airlines 191 (Douglas DC-10)

1503:31 CAM1 – Rotate

Souls aboard: 271

Survivors: 0 (plus 2 ground fatalities)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

November 12, 2001 – New York City (Belle Harbor), NY, USA

American Airlines 587 (Airbus A300)

0916:12 HOT1 – Get out of it, get out of it.

Souls aboard: 260

Survivors: 0 (plus 5 ground fatalities)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

August 2, 1985 – Dallas, TX, USa

Delta Airlines 191 (Lockheed L1011)

1805:55 CAM? – Oh sh*t!

Souls aboard: 163

Survivors: 27 (one ground fatality)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Oh, you want to get specific and make it a runway, huh?"

July 19, 1989 – Sioux City, IA, USA

United Airlines 232 (Douglas DC-10)

????:?? Unk – Left throttle, left, left, left, left…. God!

Souls aboard: 296

Survivors: 185

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

July 17, 2007 - São Paulo, Brazil

TAM Airlines 3054 (Airbus A320)

1848:49 CAM? – (male voice) oh no..

Souls aboard: 187

Survivors: 0 (plus 12 ground fatalities)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

May 26, 1991 – Thailand

Lauda Air 004 (Boeing 767)

2030:58 CAM? – Damn it!

Souls aboard: 223

Survivors: 0

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

October 4, 1992 – Amsterdam, Netherlands

El Al 1862 – Boeing 747 Cargo

1935:25 CREW – Going down 1862, going down, going down, copied going down. (In background: raise all the flaps, all the flaps raise.  Lower the gear.)

Souls aboard: 4

Survivors: 0 (plus 39 ground fatalities)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

And last but not least... the one we all remember..

"We're gonna be in the Hudson."

January 15, 2009 – New York City, NY, USA

USAirways 1549 (Airbus A320)

1530:38 HOT1 – we’re gonna brace.

Souls aboard: 155

Survivors: 155

To everyone who lost their lives in any of these accidents or ones I didn't mention:

You can rest knowing that all the fear, angst, pain and confusion you felt wasn't for naught.  The FAA and NTSB make changes because of the lessons your experience taught.

Rest In Peace. 

Author's Extra:

These are pictures I took in the summer of 2012.  My mom, grandma and I made a trip to the Mid-America Air Museum which is located next to the Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City, Iowa.  I got to talk to the man who owns the museum.  He was there the day of the United Airlines 232 crash landing in Sioux City.  He met the pilot, Captain Al Haynes, and the DC-10 Flight Instructor, Dennis Fitch, who both played integral roles in getting that crippled jet on the ground successfully.  There was tons of memorabilia in the museum.  

This is a picture of the spot where 232's landing gear punched through the old runway 22 (now out of service.)

This is a picture of me wearing a sweatshirt I got at the Mid-America Air Musem. :)

United 232 will be one of the crashes I will revisit in a later post. 

XO!