TOWER TO CAPTAIN: Express 705 heavy, you’re about six and a half miles from the threshold, if able, when you get it on the ground, advise when you’re on the ground, uh, I won’t, uh, make any more transmissions to you at this time. [Sounds of struggle from rear of cockpit]
FLIGHT ENGINEER FROM REAR: Stop fighting!
[The captain knows that the fight behind him in the cockpit is not over, and considers putting the aeroplane on autopilot at 7000 feet while he puts an end to the struggle. Instead he chooses to land the aeroplane and switches to runway 36L.]
CAPTAIN TO TOWER: I’m coming around to 36 left.
TOWER TO CAPTAIN: Okay, Express 705 heavy, runway 36 left, cleared to land, cleared visual [to runway] 36 left. You are cleared to land, the wind is 050 at 8. [Sounds of struggle from rear of cockpit]
FLIGHT ENGINEER FROM REAR: Ow! Jim, he’s biting me!
FIRST OFFICER FROM REAR: Stay down!
[Groans from first officer in rear] [Sounds of struggle in rear of cockpit]
AUTO WARNING HORN: Bank angle, bank angle.
[Groans from first officer in rear]
TOWER TO CAPTAIN: Express 705 heavy all of the emergency equipment will be on frequency 121.9.
CAPTAIN TO TOWER: [Two clicks on microphone]
[Sound of struggle in rear]
AUTO WARNING HORN: Bank angle, bank angle.
[Sounds of struggle in rear]
FLIGHT ENGINEER FROM REAR: He’s after the hammer, Jim!
AUTO WARNING HORN: Altitude alert: one thousand.
UNIDENTIFIED FROM REAR: Where’s he going? AUTO WARNING HORN: Bank angle, bank angle. Too low! Terrain, sink rate, pull up, too low, terrain, sink rate 500, too low, terrain, sink rate [sounds of struggle in rear]. Pull up! Sink rate, pull up, sink rate, pull up, sink rate, sink rate…
CAPTAIN TO TOWER: Get the crews over here now, get ‘em over here in a hurry!
FLIGHT ENGINEER FROM REAR: Stop the jet, help us, stop the jet on the ground and help us!
TOWER TO CAPTAIN: Express 705, uh, help is on the way and frequency change approved, uh, the emergency equipment’s on, uh, 121.9.
FLIGHT ENGINEER: Have they got the equipment out here?
CAPTAIN: They’re on the way…
FLIGHT ENGINEER: Blow the door!
CAPTAIN: Yeah! [Sound of door being opened]
FLIGHT ENGINEER: Don’t get close enough that he can grab anything!
CAPTAIN: Help me out…Don’t move! Don’t even think about it!
FLIGHT ENGINEER: Shut the engine down! Did you shut the engine down?
CAPTAIN: Yeah. Don’t let him move!
FIRST OFFICER: Don’t move!
[Sound of engine shutting down]
Calloway was convicted on a two-count indictment of air piracy and interference with flight operations and sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. He is currently residing at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.
The flight crew survived the attack. The captain suffered multiple lacerations to his head; he had been stabbed in his right arm and had a dislocated jaw. His right ear had been almost completely severed. The first officer’s skull was fractured; he recovered from the paralysis to his right side but would experience ongoing motor-function impairment to his right arm and leg. He was blinded in one eye. The flight engineer suffered a skull fracture, as well as a severed temporal artery. The crew would never fly again.
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, USA 2 July 1994
With fifty-two passengers, two cockpit crew and three flight attendants aboard, US Air Flight 1016 was executing a ‘missed approach’ while attempting to land on runway 18R at 6.42 p.m. in ‘meteorological conditions’.Itwas raining hard. ‘Convective activity that was conducive to a microburst [wind shear]’, according to the NTSB, punched the Douglas DC-9-31 to the ground, where it collided with trees, breaking up, skidding like a toboggan down a residential lane and smashed into a private residence, catching fire. The captain and one flight attendant suffered minor injuries. The first officer, two flight attendants and fifteen passengers sustained serious injuries. The remaining thirty-seven passengers died. Impact forces and a post-crash fire destroyed the aeroplane. No one on the ground was injured or killed.
Despite a thunderstorm ‘cell’ advancing on the area, the cockpit crew had every reason to believe that a smooth approach and landing were possible.
COCKPIT VOICE RECORDER
APPROACH: Tell you what, USAir 1016, [you] may get some rain just south of the field. Might be a little bit just coming off the north. Just expect the ILS [instrument landing system] now. Amend your altitude…maintain three thousand.
CAPTAIN: If we have to bail out [go around for a missed approach], it looks like we bail out to the right.
FIRST OFFICER: Amen.
CAPTAIN: Ten miles to the VOR [navigational aid] which is off the end of the runway. ‘Bout a mile off the end of the runway.
FIRST OFFICER: Yeah.
CAPTAIN: So I think we’ll be all right.
CAPTAIN: Chance of [wind] shear.
FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED TWENTY-EIGHT, WHO WAS TRAVELLING WITH HER NINE-MONTH-OLD DAUGHTER, SITTING IN SEAT 19-F
During the flight my daughter moved back and forth between her seat and my lap. She wanted to play with the people in the row behind her. She got tired and laid down next to me. Her head was in my lap. After the flight attendant collected the lemonade cups, I felt a little bump and then a big bump, and the aeroplane just dropped. I could not understand what happened. The weather had been sunny, and I had seen thick white clouds. I heard an announcement, ‘I’ll have us on the ground in about ten minutes’, and, ‘Flight attendants, please prepare for landing’. I recall entering rainy weather, and I leaned forward in my seat to look out the window. The rain was coming on the wing slanted.
Other traffic in the sky near the airport and on the field’s taxiways was aware of the storm, talking about it with the ground controllers and the tower.
COCKPIT VOICE RECORDER
TOWER: And [USAir] 806, looks like we’ve gotten a storm right on top of the field here.
US806: [On the ground waiting to depart] USAir 806, affirmative. We’ll just delay for a while.
TOWER: [TO USAir 1016]: Charlotte Tower, runway 18 right, cleared to land. Following FK [Fokker] 100 on short final. Previous arrival reported a smooth ride all the way down final.
US 1016: USAir 1016, I’d appreciate a pirep [pilot flight report] from the guy in front of us.
FIRST OFFICER: Yep, [the storm is] laying right there this side of the airport, isn’t it?
CAPTAIN: Well.
FIRST OFFICER: The edge of the rain is, I’d say…
CAPTAIN: Yeah.
TOWER: USAir 1016, company FK100 just exited the runway, sir; he said smooth ride.
TOWER: USAir 1016, wind is showing 100 at 19.