User:WorldTraveller101/Drafts/Accidents and incidents at John F. Kennedy International Airport

John F. Kennedy International Airport has been the site of many accidents and incidents before, as well as accidents that had planes departing or arriving from JFK.

JFK has been the site of several notable fatal aviation accidents and incidents.

• On October 19, 1953, an Eastern Airlines flight from Idlewild International Airport (the former name of JFK) to San Juan, Puerto Rico, operated by Lockheed L-749A Constellation N119A crashed on take-off. Two passengers were killed.

• December 18, 1954 – a Linee Aeree Italiane Douglas DC-6 crashed on its fourth approach attempt to land at Idlewild, after circling for 2.5 hours. 26 of the 32 passengers on board were killed.

• November 10, 1958 – Vickers Viscount, CF-TGL of Trans-Canada Air Lines was destroyed by fire after it was struck by Lockheed L-749 Super Constellation N6503C of Seaboard & Western Airlines which had crashed on take-off.

• December 16, 1960 – a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 bound for Idlewild collided in mid-air with a TWA Super Constellation bound for La Guardia; the United jet crashed in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the TWA plane on Staten Island, killing all 128 people on board both airliners and six on the ground.

• March 1, 1962 – American Airlines Flight 1, a Boeing 707 crashed on takeoff from Idlewild after its rudder separated from the tail. All 95 passengers and 12 crew members were killed.

• November 30, 1962 – an Eastern Air Lines Douglas DC-7 crashed into the ground during a missed approach.

• October 4, 1963 - New York Airways flight 600, a Boeing Vertol 107 helicopter, crashed shortly after takeoff from Idlewild Airport (now JFK) en route to Newark via Wall Street. All three passengers and all three crew members died. The accident was blamed on a mechanical failure due to contaminated lubricants.

• February 8, 1965 – an Eastern Air Lines Douglas DC-7 crashed off Jones Beach after takeoff when the pilots found themselves on an apparent collision course with an inbound Pan Am Boeing 707 and made evasive maneuvers.

• 1967 – The Air France Robbery targeted $420,000 in cash brought in as Air France cargo, Lucchese crime family associates Henry Hill, Robert McMahon, Tommy DeSimone and Montague Montemurro carried out the robbery.

• September 8, 1970 – a Trans International Airlines DC-8-63CF ferry flight to Dulles International Airport crashed on takeoff from runway 13R, killing all 11 crewmembers on board. The DC-8 freighter started rotating in a nose-high attitude 1,500 feet (460 m) into the take-off. After becoming airborne at 2,800 feet (850 m) down the runway, the aircraft climbed to about 300–500 feet, rolled 20 degrees to the left, crashed and caught fire. The loss of pitch control was caused by the entrapment of a pointed, asphalt-covered object between the leading edge of the right elevator and the right horizontal spar web access door in the aft part of the stabilizer.

• December 1, 1974 – Northwest Orient Flight 6231 a Boeing 727 chartered to pick up the Baltimore Colts in Buffalo crashed near Thiells, New York. The flight departed John F. Kennedy International Airport with only the cockpit crew on board. The pitot heat was not turned on and the tube iced over during climb out making the airspeed readings unreliable. The plane stalled passing 23,000' and the crew was unable to regain control. All 3 crewmembers on board were killed.

• June 24, 1975 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 66, a Boeing 727 on final approach from New Orleans, crashed into the runway lights short of runway 22L, killing 112 passengers and crew. The cause of the crash was wind shear during a heavy thunderstorm.

• December 11, 1978 – The Lufthansa heist targeted over $5 million in cash and jewels on a Lufthansa flight arriving from Germany. The crime was planned by Jimmy Burke, an associate of the Lucchese crime family, and carried out by several of his associates; at the time, it was the largest cash robbery ever committed on American soil.

• December 21, 1988 - Pan Am Flight 103 from London Heathrow Airport to JFK was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 onboard and 11 other people on the ground.

• January 25, 1990 – Avianca Flight 52, a Boeing 707-321B arriving from Bogotá and Medellin, crashed at Cove Neck, Long Island, after a missed approach to runway 22L at JFK and subsequently running out of fuel. 73 passengers and crew perished while 85 survived.

• July 30, 1992 – TWA Flight 843, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar departing for San Francisco, aborted takeoff shortly after liftoff. There were no fatalities among the 280 passengers, although the aircraft was destroyed.

• July 17, 1996 – TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747 departing JFK for Paris Charles de Gaulle in Paris, France, exploded after 12 and a half minutes in the air and crashed in the Atlantic Ocean near Long Island, New York. All 230 people on the flight were killed after a faulty wire transmitted a spark into the central fuel tank and, combined with heat and air, caused it to explode.

• September 2, 1998 - Swissair Flight 111, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 bound for Geneva International Airport from JFK, crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia due to an in-flight fire originating from the wiring in the plane. All 229 passengers and crew died.

• October 31, 1999 - EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767 flying from JFK to Cairo, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nantucket, killing all 217 passengers and crew. The relief first officer of the flight, Gameel Al-Batouti, was suspected by U.S. authorities of committing suicide and intentionally crashing the plane. Egyptian officials have strongly disputed that claim.

• November 12, 2001 – American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 crashed while en route to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. During climb, the aircraft lost most of its vertical fin due to over-control of the rudder while encountering wake turbulence with a Japan Airlines 747, and crashed into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens. The crash killed all 260 people on the plane and five people on the ground.

Non-Fatal Accidents Involving JFK

• April 11, 2011 - Air France Flight 007, an Airbus A380 bound for Paris, collided with Delta Connection Flight 6293, a much smaller CRJ-700 that had just landed from Boston, while taxiing out to the runway. The A380's left wing clipped the CRJ-700's tail and spun it 90 degrees. No one was injured and the two aircraft sustained only light damage. The cause of the incident is undetermined.