What Happened to Eastern Airlines Flight 980?
October 19, 2016 5:34 PM   Subscribe

What Happened to Eastern Airlines Flight 980? On New Year's Day in 1985, Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 was carrying 29 passengers and a hell of a lot of contraband when it crashed into the side of a 21,112-foot mountain in Bolivia. For decades conspiracy theories abounded as the wreckage remained inaccessible, the bodies unrecovered, the black box missing. Then two friends from Boston organized an expedition that would blow the case wide open.
posted by mlis (13 comments total) 30 users marked this as a favorite
 
Is there a corollary to Betteridge's law where the answer is "we still have no fucking idea?"
posted by Behemoth at 6:08 PM on October 19, 2016 [10 favorites]


Interesting story! Perhaps getting the story printed will help spur some action on getting the recovered data analyzed. (or not, but a newly-intrigued nerd can hope.)
posted by rmd1023 at 6:14 PM on October 19, 2016


Wow. Very interesting. Thank you for sharing.
posted by veggieboy at 7:18 PM on October 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


They didn't discuss the contraband, finding any contraband. And really, doesn't everyone with any connects know someone who could play the cockpit tapes? Really, don't tell me they are still sitting around with these unheard?
posted by Oyéah at 8:48 PM on October 19, 2016


They didn't discuss the contraband, finding any contraband.
Sure they did: crocodile and snake skins. Why Paraguayan crocodile skin is contraband is less clear

But, I agree that going to that much effort to recover the tape and then not finding one of the millions of people who could rig up a way to read it in a weekend seems entirely implausible. I assume they're lying to avoid Bolivian jail. (If not, I hope they have enough sense to store it well.)
posted by eotvos at 10:06 PM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]




From the story:

(Eastern declared bankruptcy in 1989 and dissolved in 1991.)

I was surprised in September to be flying into Havana on an Eastern flight, same livery and everything. No Frank Borman, as far as I know.
posted by mwhybark at 12:39 AM on October 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


Oh my god that's so frustratingly interesting. And yep, I didn't even notice until I suddenly wondered at the end: Outside Magazine. Great piece of writing.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:15 AM on October 20, 2016


That was a nice read. Thanks!
posted by mosk at 1:51 AM on October 20, 2016


What blew the case open? Climate change :(
posted by arha at 4:40 AM on October 20, 2016 [6 favorites]


I love mountaineering and I am fascinated by aviation disasters so this was two great tastes that tasted great together.

But as a mystery it was mighty existentialist. It's hard to figure out what closure would even look like here.
posted by spitbull at 5:16 AM on October 20, 2016


This was a fascinating story to me personally as mysteries, crashes, and mountains go together in my mind so well as to have made a fake documentary film about this:
http://www.dailyyonder.com/how-it-ended-medicine-bow-peak/2009/03/25/2020/
Growing up in laramie everyone always pointed at the mountain and said that there was a wreck still up there but nobody had been and nobody could describe it for me. After wandering for a few days, I found it, and I must say one of the strangest places I've ever experienced. To the point where I had to somehow document it. Much like the aircraft in the article it simply hit the side of a mountain. Imagine the most utterly jaw dis-hingingly beautiful alpine location with literally tons of shredded aircraft debris. Unlike the accident in the article, for the most part there was body recovery, but nothing else. The thing that utterly blew me away were the shoes. The shoes messed with my head. My story, strangely mirrored the article in that we find a box, and we think we know whats in it, and we cannot open it. An "existential" mystery indeed as spitball noted.
posted by hatchetjack at 6:33 AM on October 20, 2016 [4 favorites]


What a great article. It sounds like the initial attempts to investigate were kind of rudimentary and ill-planned, leading to all sorts of rumors and speculation. I hope the tape gets read, too. I was surprised (but only a little) to learn that Wikipedia has a list of unrecovered black boxes, albeit an incomplete one; there is even one mentioned in the intro that isn't on the list. As to why reptile skins are contraband, I would assume CITES.
posted by TedW at 7:02 AM on October 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


« Older ♪♫ Oh my God. Tear this dude apart.   |   Warning: Dad Science Joke Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments