fuckyeahwrecks
transportation gone awry
**planes, trains, automobiles, airships, streetcars etc that have come to an unfortunate end. **
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This Day In Wrecks
1940: The French submarine Doris, damaged and unable to dive, is sunk by U-9 while on patrol near the Frisian Islands. All of her crew are lost. In 2003, the wreck is rediscovered.
Article by Ton van der Sluijs, one of the wreck divers -
This Day In Wrecks
1972: Alitalia Flight 112, bound for Palermo out of Rome, crashes into Mt. Longa while in contact with Palermo approach. The DC-8 breaks up on the slope, killing all 115 people on board. Pilot error is cited as the cause.
A video with color footage of the wreckage can be found here, but it also contains graphic imagery that is not the focus of FYW, so click with caution.
Some conspiracy theories about bombs are also discussed here (there were accusations of Mafia involvement), if you can read Italian.
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This Day In Wrecks
1960: A U-2 spy plane flown by Francis Gary Powers is brought down in Soviet airspace and captured; while the Russians claim to have shot the plane down, it will later be reported the plane crashed after being flipped by a close flyby of a Sukhoi Su-9, or a missile exploding near the plane. The US tries to cover-up their involvement by claiming the plane belonged to NASA and strayed off course while doing research, but they are unsuccessful. Above, Nikita Khrushchev surveys the collected wreckage.
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This Day In Wrecks
1848: The HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, on an Arctic expedition commanded by Sir John Franklin, are abandoned by their crews after becoming trapped in the ice for over a year and a half. None of the men survive the attempted walk back to the mainland. Later search parties piece together what happened to the expedition as notes, relics and bodies are recovered over the years. The two ships are never seen again.
pictured: The Erebus and Terror in better times, off the coast of New Zealand in 1841. (John William Carmichael)
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This Day In Wrecks
1918: Manfred von Richthofen, also known as The Red Baron, is shot down behind Australian lines near Amiens, France during a battle. The fighter ace pilot, a member of the Luftstreitkräfte with 80 air combat victories, is fatally wounded by anti-aircraft fire from the ground; he manages to land his Fokker Dr.I but dies almost immediately after. The plane, pictured above with members of the Australian Flying Corps, was picked apart by souvenir hunters in spite of its minimal damage.
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This Day In Wrecks
2002: After a missed approach, Air China Flight 129 descends below the minimum altitude while attempting to land again at Gimhae Airport in Busan, South Korea. The pilots lose sight of the runway in the rain and the plane crashes into a hill. Only 37 of the 166 on board the Boeing 767 survive.
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This Day In Wrecks
1988: While escorting tankers through the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq War, the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes an Iranian mine, causing a large amount of damage, including flooding in the engine room, a broken keel and a 15-foot hole in the hull. Ten sailors were injured, but no one was killed.
Above, the hole in the hull; the Roberts being lifted by the Mighty Servant 2 on her way to the repair yard.
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This Day In Wrecks
1933: An Imperial Airways flight bound for Croyden crashes near Diiksmuide, Belgium after catching fire. All 15 people aboard the Argosy II Aircraft, named City of Liverpool, are killed, including a man who fell or leapt from the plane before it went down. Speculation would later arise that this man, Dr. Albert Voss, was a drug smuggler and had sabotaged the plane while trying to escape arrest.
There are some fantastic scans of newspaper articles pertaining to the crash on this site.
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This Day In Wrecks
1955: Pan Am Flight 845/26 is forced to ditch in the Pacific after taking off from Portland when the no. 3 engine detaches from the wing. Four are killed and the Stratocruiser Clipper United States sinks, but the USS Bayfield picks up 19 survivors.
The above link is a summary of an appeals court hearing concerning a legal battle between the family of deceased first officer Angus Gustavus Hendrick, Jr., and the Franklin Life Insurance Company. I was unable to find pictures of the crash (another well-known Pan Am ditching and the later Pan Am Flight 845 incident with a 747 crowd the image results) so here is a FYW first - legalese.
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This Day In Wrecks
1966: Less than a day after the crash of Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 402 at Tokyo Airport, BOAC Flight 911 takes off with the wreckage still visible. The 707 is bound for Hong Kong; soon after takeoff the plane breaks up and crashes in pieces near Mt. Fuji. It is believed that severe clear air turbulence caused the structural failure of the plane, leading to the death of all 124 on board.
(Source: airdisaster.com)
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This Day In Wrecks
1966: On approach to Tokyo International Airport in poor visibility, Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 402 descends below the glide slope. The DC-8 (Empress of Edmonton) first strikes the approach lights with the landing gear, and continues toward the runway, hitting the seawall. Only 8 people of the 72 on board survive.
British Pathe has silent newsreel footage.
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This Day In Wrecks
1958: A Bristol 170 Freighter operated by Silver City Airways, flying with an incorrect radio compass setting, crashes into Winter Hill while on approach to Manchester, England. The copilot had keyed in the setting for the Oldham Beacon, MYL, but meant to use Wigan, MYK. 35 people are killed, but the 3 crew and 4 passengers survive.
Pictured is a piece uncovered by Peak District Air Accident Research.
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This Day In Wrecks
1960: An Alitalia DC-7 takes off from Shannon Airport in Ireland, on a stopover between Naples, Rome and New York. The plane loses height while turning after takeoff and crashes into the cemetery of Clonloghan Church. 34 of the 52 people on board are killed.
Pictures of the crash are here but are heavily watermarked; a British Pathe silent newsreel is more interesting and can be found here.
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This Day In Wrecks
1860: Late in the night on February 19th, the SS Hungarian, an Allen Line steamship sailing from Liverpool for the Canadian Royal Mail, is struck by a storm off of Cape Sable, Nova Scotia. By the morning her mast is still visible, with clinging survivors, but the seas are too high and a rescue is impossible. All 205 passengers and crew are lost; six bags of mail are saved. The Hungarian herself had accomplished a daring rescue in high seas some months earlier, recovering people from the sinking schooner.John Martin.
Illustration Harper’s Weekly; more information on location and contemporary sources here and here (for some reason the post won’t add html).
www.theshipslist.com/ships/Wrecks/hungarian1860.shtml
nswrecks.net/ns-datapages/hungarian-dat.htm
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This Day In Wrecks
1985: The pilots of Iberia Airlines Flight 610, on approach to Bilbao Airport, set their Altitude Alert System to tell them when they reach 900 feet above their minimum sector altitude; a second alarm will sound when they are 300 below that preset. However, they switch the system on too late, at 700 feet above minimums, missing the 900 foot mark and the first alarm. When the second warning sounds, the crew assume it is the first, and continue their approach. The 727 hits an antenna tower at the top of Mt. Oiz, loses its left wing, and crashes into the forest, killing all 148 on board.
(Also on this day in 1985, China Airlines Flight 006)
