Accident | |
---|---|
Date | October 31, 1979 |
Summary | Crashed into construction vehicle while landing on a closed runway |
Site | Mexico City Int'l Airport, Mexico City, Mexico 19°26′11″N 99°04′20″W / 19.43639°N 99.07222°W |
Total fatalities | 73 |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 |
Operator | Western Airlines |
IATA flight No. | WA2605 |
ICAO flight No. | WAL2605 |
Call sign | WESTERN 2605 |
Registration | N903WA |
Flight origin | Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles, California, United States |
Destination | Mexico City International Airport Mexico City, Mexico |
Occupants | 88[1]: 108 |
Passengers | 75[1]: 108 |
Crew | 13 |
Fatalities | 72 |
Injuries | 15 |
Survivors | 16[1]: 108 |
Ground casualties | |
Ground fatalities | 1 |
Western Airlines Flight 2605, nicknamed the "Night Owl",[2] was an international scheduled passenger flight from Los Angeles, California, to Mexico City, Mexico. On October 31, 1979, at 5:42 a.m. CST (UTC−06:00), the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 used on the flight crashed at Mexico City International Airport in fog after landing on a runway that was closed for maintenance. Of the 88 occupants on board, 72 were killed, in addition to a maintenance worker who died when the plane struck his vehicle.[1]
Flight 2605 remains the deadliest air accident to have occurred in Mexico City. The event is the third-deadliest aviation accident on Mexican soil after the crashes of two Boeing 727s: the 1969 crash of Mexicana de Aviación Flight 704 and that of Mexicana de Aviación Flight 940 in 1986.[3] The crash was one of three fatal DC-10 accidents in 1979 and occurred just over five months after the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and less than a month before the crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 on Mount Erebus in Antarctica.
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