When a Volcano Silenced a Boeing 747 High Over the Indian Ocean

08/23/23 • 57 min

“When a Volcano Silenced a Boeing 747 Over the Indian Ocean," is the heart-stopping tale of a commercial jetliner – a Boeing 747 – that, contrary to every other episode in this podcast series, did not crash. However, the world’s largest passenger jet at the time came about as close to a spectacular and deadly crash as it could, before the crew saved the plane and the lives of everyone on board from near-certain destruction. Even after the plane landed safely, the mystery of what happened in the dark skies, so far above the ocean remained a mystery for days. How the superior airmanship of this crew saved the lives of 248 passengers, 15 crew and the B-747 has been called one of the most heroic of all time.
Join the "Radar Contact Lost" team as we discuss the meteorology, the weather, the piloting, the plane and even the geology of this amazing story.

Send us a text

Previous Episode

When a Helicopter Crash Silenced ‘Number One' - The Story Behind the Stevie Ray Vaughan Helicopter Crash

Send us a text

This episode is about the 1990 crash of a Bell JetRanger helicopter that was carrying a pilot and four passengers. The helicopter crashed into a ski slope at night and in the fog, killing all on board. Among the passengers was Stevie Ray Vaughan, the legendary Blues guitarist from Texas. The crash stunned the world with not only the crash that was attributed to pilot error, but the end of an amazing career of a guitarist that had burst onto the scene only seven years before with his debut album, Texas Flood, which went double-platinum and was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional Blues Performance category. The crash occurred late at night and in fog. A lot of helicopters, unfortunately, have crashed in fog. Except that’s not the end of the story. In fact, it’s really only a cursory understanding of the crash, as there were other factors both before the crash and factors after the helicopter lifted above the ground – neither of which were mentioned in the official Aviation Accident Report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board. Though fog was a significant factor to the crash, there was another factor that was as surprising as it was dangerous, and it was perhaps even more lethal than the fog.

Next Episode

When a Boeing 707 Broke Apart in Mid-air Near Mt. Fuji

Send us a text

At just before 2 o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday, March 5, 1966, British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 911, took off from Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport. Bound for Hong Kong, the Boeing 707 broke apart in mid-air, just 15 minutes after departure. The crash left no survivors. The weather conditions were not an issue – at least, nothing obvious: there were no thunderstorms, no typhoons, there was no rain or snow. In fact, it was a sunny, clear, cloud-free day. It was so nice that the crew had requested a clearance so that they could stray from their intended route to Hong Kong, so that the captain could give the passengers a glorious view of the snow-capped and iconic Mt. Fuji. It was while viewing Mt. Fuji in this “sightseeing mode,” that Flight 911 met its demise.

What happened to Flight 911? What caused the mid-air break-up? Was it a bomb? Did the plane strike the mountainside? Was it a mechanical failure of some kind? Was the plane unsafe? Had the crew made a mistake? Or, despite the sunny skies, was the weather to blame.
In this episode, the Radar Contact Lost team will examine what happened. We’ll look at the airplane, the pilot, the airline and Mt. Fuji itself; we’ll also take a dive into the phenomenon known as Clear Air Turbulence - not only what it is, but how, why and where it occurs and why, on this day over Japan, BOAC Flight 911 was ripped apart in midair.