35 miles from shore : the ditching and rescue of ALM flight 980

Format:

Book

Title:

35 miles from shore : the ditching and rescue of ALM flight 980

Other title(s):

Thirty-five miles from shore

Author:

Corsetti, Emilio author

ISBN:

9780977897100

Publication:

Lake St. Louis, MO : Odyssey Publishing, LLC, [2008]

Physical Description:

321 pages, 16 pages of photographs (numbered P-1 to P-16) : black and white illustration, map, portraits ; 23 cm

Summary:

On May 2, 1970, a DC-9 jet with fifty-seven passengers and a crew of six departed New York's JFK international airport en route to the island of St. Maarten. The flight ended four hours and thirty-four minutes later in the shark-infested waters of the Caribbean. It was at the time, and remains, the only open-water ditching of a commercial jet. The subsequent rescue of survivors took nearly three hours and involved the Coast Guard, Navy, and Marines. This account puts readers inside the cabin, the cockpit, and the rescue helicopters as crews struggle against weather and dwindling daylight to rescue the survivors, who have only their life vests and a lone escape chute to keep them afloat.

Subject(s):

Aircraft accidents -- Investigation -- United States Virgin Islands.

Airplane crash survival.

Aircraft accidents -- Caribbean Sea.

Geographic Term:

Caribbean Sea.

United States Virgin Islands.

Genre:

Informational works.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	363.124 Corsetti, E. 2008	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

On May 2, 1970, a DC-9 jet with 57 passengers and a crew of six departed from New York's JFK International Airport en route to the tropical island of St. Maarten, but four hours and 34 minutes later the flight ended in the shark-infested waters of the Caribbean. It was, and remains, the only open-water ditching of a commercial jet. The subsequent rescue of survivors took nearly three hours and involved the coast guard, navy, and marines. This gripping account of that fateful day recounts what was happening inside the cabin, the cockpit, and the helicopters as the crews struggled against the weather and dwindling daylight to rescue the survivors, who had only their life vests and a lone escape chute to keep them afloat.

Author Notes

Emilio Corsetti III is a professional pilot and author whose work has appeared in publications such as the Chicago Tribune, Multimedia Producer , and Professional Pilot magazine. He lives in Lake St. Louis, Missouri.

Reviews (2)

Booklist Review

Pilot and journalist Corsetti provides an enthralling account of the only successful open-water ditching of a jet airliner. In 1970, a DC-9 on its way to the Caribbean had to ditch well offshore, throwing the surviving passengers and crew into shark-infested waters. While some failures in maintenance and piloting may be suspected of causing the ditching, there were few failures or even mistakes in the rescue effort. That involved all the American armed services and succeeded in bringing all the survivors to safety before darkness left them bobbing in their life jackets. Corsetti has done a fine job of researching the background and of interviewing participants and has created not only a must-read for aviation buffs but a useful addition to aviation-safety literature.--Green, Roland Copyright 2008 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Experienced pilot/writer Corsetti begins with two airline CEOs eager to capitalize on a burgeoning leisure travel market. A small Caribbean company, ALM, hoped to establish a route between St. Maarten and New York but, lacking long-distance planes, reached an agreement with Overseas National Airways (ONA) to provide the planes (DC-9s) and crews. Regular service, on a route acknowledged to be perilously close to the maximum range of the planes, commenced in January 1970 without the planned installation of auxiliary fuel tanks. On May 2, 1970, ALM 980 departed New York for St. Maarten with 57 passengers and a crew of six. Shrouded in rain squalls, the flight was diverted to San Juan, Puerto Rico, but an erroneous report of a break in the weather over St. Maarten caused the captain, his plane low on fuel, to make the tragic decision to return and land at St. Maarten. After three blown landing attempts, the plane had to ditch 35 miles from shore, and 23 of the passengers and crew perished. This well-researched, fast-paced study vividly re-creates the chain of errors that resulted in the catastrophe, the harrowing rescue missions, and the mixed effects of the tragedy on the subsequent lives of the crew, survivors, and rescuers. Recommended for all aeronautical collections and major libraries.-John Carver Edwards, Univ. of Georgia Libs., Cleveland (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.