fuckyeahwrecks

This Day In Wrecks

1914: The RMS Empress of Ireland collides with the Storstad, a Norwegian coal ship, in the St. Lawrence River.  She sinks in under 15 minutes, the damage exacerbated by water flooding through her open portholes, killing 1,012 people.  (Pictured is the Storstad after the collision.)

1941:  The British cargo ship SS Empire Storm is torpedoed and sunk by U-557 while traveling in a convoy south of Greenland.

1947: United Airlines Flight 521 crashes while attempting to takeoff from LaGuardia Airport, killing 42 people as it runs off the runway, crosses Grand Central Parkway, and hits an embankment.  6 people on the DC-4 survive.

This Day in Wrecks (April 26)

1946: Two trains of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad crash in Naperville Illinois when the Exposition Flyer, going too fast to react in time, hits the stopped Advance Flyer; 47 people die.  The crash has repercussions on high speed rail developments in the US. (pictured)

1993: Indian Airlines Flight 491 begins rotation late during takeoff from Aurangabad and hits a truck at the end of the runway.  The 737 crashes, killing 55 people on board; 63 survive. 

1994: While on approach to Nagoya, the FO of China Airlines Flight 140 accidentally engages the TO/GA mode, prompting the autopilot to react and the A300 to stall.  Only 7 passengers out of the 271 on board survive the crash.

This Day in Wrecks

1911:  The SS Lusitania is wrecked in fog on Bellows Rock off Cape Point, South Africa.  A lifeboat capsizes, drowning 8 passengers, but the other 766 people on board survive.

1974:  Court Line Flight 95, a BAC One-Eleven, collides on takeoff with a Piper PA-23 Aztec that had intruded on the runway.  The pilot of the Piper is killed; the  crew of the BAC is able to abort the takeoff successfully.

1993:  Japan Air Systems Flight 451 encounters windshear while landing at Hanamaki Airport and goes off the runway, crashing and breaking into 3 parts.  All 77 people on the DC-9 survive. (pictured)

This Day In Wrecks

1864:  The USS Housatonic becomes the first ship in history to be sunk by a submarine when the Confederate vessel H.L. Hunley rams her with a spar torpedo.  The Hunley is lost herself while retreating.

1944:  The US Navy sinks over 30 ships in Operation Hailstone, a concerted attack on Japanese forces  at Truk Island.  Included among the lost ships is the Fujikawa Maru, now a dive site.  (pictured) 

1959: A Turkish Airlines charter flight carrying a delegation that includes Prime Minister Adnan Menderes crashes in the woods during final approach to London Gatwick Airport.  14 on board the Vickers Viscount 793 are killed; 10 survive, including Menderes.

This Day In Wrecks

1909: The SS Penguin strikes a rock in rough seas off Cape Terawhiti, New Zealand, and then explodes when cold water hits her boilers.  75 people on the ferry die, 30 survive.

1935:  The US Navy’s last rigid airship, the USS Macon, ditches in Monterey Bay with the loss of 2 crewmen out of 76; a storm had caused the failure of unrepaired parts of the tailfin structure.  The wreck site was located in 1991.  (pictured, gas tank)

2009:  The pilots of Colgan Air Flight 3407 fail to respond to a stall on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, and lose control.  The plane crashes into a house in Clarence Center, NY, killing all 49 people on board and 1 on the ground.

This Day In Wrecks

1862:  The Confederate Navy loses 4 ships from its Mosquito Fleet in the Battle of Elizabeth City, including the CSS Black Warrior, Fanny, Sea Bird and Forrest; the Appomattox escapes but is too wide to pass through a lock in the Dismal Swamp Canal and is burned to prevent capture.  (Pictured is a spoon belonging to sailor James Skerritt, found on the wreck site of the CSS Appomattox.)

1944:  American Airlines Flight 2 crashes into the Mississippi River, killing all 24 people on the DC-3.  No cause has ever been determined.

2011:  On the third landing attempt in thick fog, Manx2 Flight 7100 crashes when the right wing of the Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner 3 hits the runway and the aircraft flips.  Half out of the 12 people on board survive.

This Day In Wrecks

1945: The HMS Venturer torpedoes U-864 off the coast of Fedje, Norway in the first and only instance of a fully submerged submarine sinkng another.  Captain Launders fired where he thought the U-boat would turn next to make a successful hit.

1982:  Japan Airlines Flight 350 crashes on approach to Tokyo Haneda Airport when the captain, suffering from mental illness, engages the thrust reversers.  24 people die when the DC-8 goes into Tokyo Bay; 150 survive.

2001:  The USS Greeneville surfaces during a demonstration exercise underneath the Ehime Maru and sinks the fishery high school training ship.  9  people are killed; the ship is later raised to recover the victims and the U.S. settles with their familes.  (pictured)

1804:  The HMS Hussar, a fifth-rate vessel, is grounded on a reef near Île de Sein, and burned by her crew to prevent French capture.

1965:  Eastern Airlines Flight 663 plunges into the Atlantic after taking off from JFK, killing all 84 people on board.  The pilot of the DC-7 was attemTping an evasive maneuver to avoid the oncoming Pan Am Flight 212.

1989:  Independent Air Flight 1851 crashes into Pico Alto on approach to Santa Maria Island in the Azores.  All 144 people on the 707 die; pilot error and incorrect instructions are cited as the cause. (pictured)

This Day In Wrecks

1951:  ‘The Broker,’ Pennsylvania Railroad train no. 733, derails in Woodbridge, NJ, killing 85.  The conductor failed to slow down while crossing a temporary trestle.  (pictured)

1958:  The Munich Air Disaster kills 23 people, including members of the Manchester United football team, when BEA Flight 609 crashes on takeoff.  The Airspeed Ambassador Lord Burghley failed to achieve lift from the runway in slushy conditions.  (newsreel footage)

1996: Birgenair Flight 301 crashes into the Atlantic after taking off from Puerto Plata when the pilots fail to recognize a stall, brought on by faulty airspeed readings.  It is possible that mud dauber wasp nests blocked one of the 757’s pitot probes.  All 189 people on board are killed.

This Day In Wrecks

1961:  A USAF B-52 develops a fuel leak and breaks up in mid-air over Goldsboro, NC after 5 of the 8 men on board parachute to safety.  One of the nuclear bombs on board is recovered after its parachute activated; the other crashes into a muddy field, where the uranium core still remains.

1966: Air India Flight 101 crashes into Mont Blanc in France, at nearly the same location as Air India Flight 245 crashed in 1950.  All on board the 707 are killed.

1978: The Kosmos 954 sattelite, launched by the Soviet Union for tracking nuclear submarines, fails to reach orbit after it’s launch in September 1977; it circles the Earth until finally reentering the atmosphere on January 24 and scatters debris over Northwestern Canada.  Radioactive fragments are recovered. (pictured)

This Day In Wrecks

1909: The RMS Republic collides with the SS Florida in heavy fog off Nantucket, MA.  The Republic becomes the first ship to issue a distress call via wireless telegraph, and eventually sinks the next day after her passengers are removed.  Four people from Republic and three from Florida are killed.  (damage to the SS Florida is pictured)

1943:  The Japanese destroyer Hakaze attacks the USS Guardfish near Kavieng, New Ireland.  The submarine retaliates and sinks the Hakaze with a torpedo.

1982:  World Airways Flight 30 overshoots the runway at Logan International Airport and plunges into Boston Harbor.  The cockpit breaks off the DC-10; two passengers are thrown into the icy water and never found.

This Day In Wrecks

1960:  The first fatal accident of a Sud Aviation Caravelle happens near Ankara, Turkey as SAS Flight 871 crashes on approach to Esenboğa International Airport.  42 people die.

1996:  The tanker North Cape and her tug Scandia run aground on Moonstone Beach in South Kingston, RI, spilling 828,000 gallons of home heating oil.

2006:  A Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 carrying peacekeepers from Kosovo crashes in Hejce, Hungary after deviating from the flight plan and descending early.  One man out of the 43 aboard survives.  (pictured)

This Day In Wrecks

1884: The City of Columbus runs aground on Devil’s Bridge Reef near Gay Head, MA, drowning 103 of her 132 passengers and crew.

1960:  The engines on a Vickers Viscount fail in icing conditions, and Capital Airlines Flight 20 crashes in Holdcroft, VA.  All 50 on board perish.

1977:  A commuter train derails in Granville, New South Wales, and knocks out the supports of a road bridge.  The bridge and the cars traveling on it collapse onto the train, killing 83 people in Australia’s worst rail disaster. (pictured)