Vol/Flight 981 Turkish Airlines - Foret d'Ermenonville, France - Disaster Memorials on Waymarking.com

[FR] L'avion s'est écrasé peu de temps après avoir décollé de l'aéroport de Paris-Orly en direction de Londres. Les 346 passagers et membres d'équipage périrent dans l'accident.
Le vol 981 était arrivé d'Istanbul dans la matinée, atterrissant à aéroport de Paris-Orly à 11h02, heure locale. L'avion, un DC-10, transportait 167 passagers et 13 membres d'équipage. 50 passagers débarquèrent à Paris. La seconde partie du vol entre Paris et l'aéroport londonien d'Heathrow ne devait pas être plein mais à cause d'une grève des employés de British Airways, beaucoup de passagers pour Londres qui s'étaient retrouvés bloqués à Orly furent inscrits sur le vol 981. Il y avait ainsi de nombreux amateurs de rugby qui avaient assisté au match de rugby France-Angleterre la veille, 4 mannequins britanniques, 48 banquiers japonais en stage à Londres ainsi que des passagers d'une douzaine d'autres pays. Contrairement à plusieurs rumeurs, l'avion n'était pas plein à craquer.

L'avion décolla d'Orly à 12h32 pour Heathrow. Il prit la direction de l'est puis tourna vers le nord pour éviter de survoler Paris. A 12h40, juste après avoir survolé la ville de Meaux, et à une altitude de 12 000 pieds, les contrôleurs aériens captèrent une transmission distordue du vol 981. Les alarmes de pressurisation et de vitesse furent entendues par dessus des mots des pilotes, en turc, dont ceux du co-pilote disant "le fuselage a explosé." Le vol disparait des écrans de contrôle radar à 12h41'13" et l'épave est retrouvée dans le sillon de Dammartin dans la forêt d'Ermenonville, proche de la ville de Senlis.

Les recherches engagées dès l'annonce de la catastrophe laissent perplexe : les corps de 6 passagers, éjectés de l'avion, ont été retrouvés à Saint-Pathus, à plus de 15 km des lieux du drame.

Les enquêteurs s'orienteront d'abord vers la piste d'un possible attentat fomenté par des extrémistes turcs, sans jamais réussir à la démontrer.

Pour finir, les résultats définitifs de l'enquête feront état d'une soudaine dépressurisation due à une mauvaise fermeture des portes de la soute par l'équipe d'entretien, ce qui semble le plus probable pour trouver l'origine du drame.

Cette catastrophe est la plus meurtrière qu'ait jamais connu l'aviation civile jusqu'alors.

[EN] All 346 on board died in the accident.

Flight 981 had flown from Istanbul that morning, landing at Paris's Orly International Airport just after 11:00 AM local time. The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, was carrying just 167 passengers and 13 crew members in its first leg. 50 passengers disembarked at Paris. The flight's second leg, from Paris to London's Heathrow Airport, was normally underbooked, but owing to a strike by British European Airways employees, many London-bound travelers who had been stranded at Orly were booked onto Flight 981. There were 17 English rugby players who had attended a France-England match the previous day; the flight also carried four British fashion models, 48 Japanese bank management trainees on their way to England, as well as passengers from a dozen other countries.

The aircraft departed Orly at around 12:30 PM for its flight to Heathrow. It took off in an easterly direction, then turned to the north to avoid flying directly over Paris. Just after Flight 981 passed over the town of Meaux, controllers picked up a distorted transmission from Flight 981; the aircraft's pressurization and overspeed warnings were heard over the pilots' words in Turkish, including the co-pilot saying "the fuselage has burst." The flight disappeared from radar shortly thereafter, and its wreckage was later found at the Grove of Dammartin in the Ermenonville forest, close to the town of Senlis.

Examination of the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder showed that the first hint the flight crew had of any problem was a muffled explosion that took place just after the aircraft passed over Meaux. The explosion was followed by a loud rush of air, and the throttle for the tail-mounted No. 2 engine snapped shut at the same moment. The aircraft banked and began a descending turn to the left as captain Mejat Berköz and first officer Oral Ulusman tried to control the aircraft. At some point one of the crew pressed his microphone button, broadcasting the pandemonium in the cockpit on the departure frequency. The captain attempted in vain to control the aircraft, but 72 seconds after decompression it slammed into the forest at a speed of 430 knots. Of the 346 onboard, only 40 bodies were visually identifiable. 9 passengers were never identified. The wreckage too was fragmented to the point that it was difficult to tell whether any parts of the aircraft were missing. It was soon discovered, however, that the rear underfloor cargo hold door and six passenger seats (still holding passengers) had landed in a turnip field near the town of St Pathus, approximately 15 kilometres south of the main crash site.

Flight 981's cargo door was faulty. Moreover, the baggage handler who closed it on the date in question had not been advised of the meaning or importance of the indicator window. Due to both design and manufacturing flaws, the locking handle could be correctly stowed, and the vent flap closed — and the cockpit warning light turned off — without the locking pins being correctly positioned. The latches were not driven over top dead center by the drive system and failed when the pressure differential between the inside and outside of the aircraft increased as the aircraft climbed. The failure of the door and resulting decompression blew a section of the passenger cabin immediately above the door out of the open hatch and severed the control cables for the elevators, the rudder and the No. 2 engine (which were routed under the floor). This left the crew unable to control those components and led directly to the accident.

The crash of Flight 981 was the deadliest air disaster of all time before the Tenerife Disaster event of 1977, and remained the deadliest single-airliner disaster until the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123 in 1985.

(from wikipedia)

Disaster Date: 03/03/1974 Memorial Sponsors: Unknown Parking Coordinates: N 49° 09.099 E 002° 38.358 Disaster Type: Technological Relevant Website: [Web Link] Date of dedication: Not listed

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