Aviation Insight

Just making a humble living

FedEx Flight 705 departed from Memphis on April 7, 1994, but it quickly turned out that this would have been the worst day of the flight. FedEx Flight 705 – a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 – was hijacked shortly after takeoff, and the perpetrator was Auburn Calloway, a FedEx flight engineer who risked losing his job with the airline.

In addition to the cargo that it carried, this plane included weapons, which Calloway stowed away in secrecy – hammers and a speargun. According to Calloway's plan, the attack, the crash of the airplane, and its presentation as an accident would allow his family to collect a large sum of insurance.

In the meantime, the hijacking of FedEx Flight 705 became a real ordeal for the three people in the cockpit. Although they were badly wounded during the struggle, they managed to fight against the hijacker, maintaining control of the heavy freight airplane in mid-air.

On 14 June 1972, Japan Air Lines Flight 471 was on the Bangkok–New Delhi leg of its Tokyo–London route when disaster struck on approach to Palam Airport (now IGI) in Delhi. The Douglas DC‑8, registered JA8012, crashed on the banks of the Yamuna River just short of the runway, breaking apart and bursting into flames.

Of the 89 people on board, 86 lost their lives, along with 4 people on the ground. Among the victims were passengers from Japan, the United States, Britain, Australia, Brazil, and India, turning it into an international tragedy that deeply shook both Japan and India. Only a handful survived the impact and ensuing fire in the fields near Jaitpur village in South Delhi.

The exact cause of the crash remains disputed even today. Japanese investigators pointed to the possibility of a false ILS glide slope, while Indian authorities cited pilot error and failure to follow the instruments during the night approach. What is clear is that the aircraft descended far below the proper approach path and there was almost no time to recover