Flight 46 911 Call – On a foggy night on May 30, 1979, a Downeast Airlines de Havilland twin struck a rock half a mile off the runway at Otter Owls Head Airport. 17 passengers and crew died in the crash, with the only survivor being John McCafferty (then 16 years old).
Rockland Coast Guard Base reported no sightings that night. The crash of Flight 46 911 Call sent shock waves across the Central Coast. Such serious accidents have not occurred in quiet coastal areas.
I still remember the call I got that night that a commuter plane had crashed from the Downeast. Of course, I watched the Red Sox game on TV. In the newspaper business, you get a lot of calls and false alarms.
Back then, everyone had a police scanner and called the BDN if something happened. I assumed it was a baby piper that had slipped off the runway in the woods surrounding the airport. This has happened many times.
While I was on the phone, I looked up at Mount Betty in Camden, shrouded in thick fog. Of course, no commuter airlines were flying that night. But I dutifully went to the Rockland office to find out what happened.
Source: Examviews.com
About Flight 46 911 Call
A 75-year-old man from Renton, Washington recently called 911 claiming he was involved in a small plane crash. However, he later found out that it was all just a dream, which he thought must have happened. That may have been due to the sleeping pills he had taken earlier. the bed
Eventually, after dozens of phone calls to the FAA, Maine State Police, and the airline, it was confirmed. There were 17 bodies in the damaged plane.
There was always fog in the owl’s head. Some said the owl’s head produced fog for the rest of coastal Maine. According to legend, the armed forces built an airport there during World War II to accommodate pilots in dense fog.
It’s no secret that Downeast Airlines took risks and risky chances. A month before the crash, a county commissioner complained about the airline’s dangerous practices.
It seemed like everyone had a story about a close call at the airport. Many people call Downeast Airlines “treetop airlines” and swap stories about landing with trees on the wings. It was always nice to laugh at a cafe.
The balloons cost 95 cents.
In the final report, NTSB Chairman James King characterized Stanger as a classic example of a “bad apple” who prioritized profits and flight schedules over the safety of passengers and crew. But another member, Janet Goldman, said: “We can talk about the profile of early aviation pioneers.”
The final report stated that Southeast Airlines “does not come close to meeting the standards required for public safety.”
In his book “Blind Trust” about the country’s aviation industry, author John J. Nance blamed the fatal crash on mismanagement in the Downeast by a weak Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA is “nothing more than an old toothless tiger on the public service leash, cowering in the corner, too afraid to roar at the offending airline lest the captain in Washington pull the poor animal’s leash.”
The FAA office in Portland received complaints about the operations of Downeast Airlines. “They didn’t know how to deal with it, so they didn’t even try. “Right now, the FAA is turning a deaf ear to operators who specialize in fraud,” the author said.
