1971 Ditching of LV-FTW

LV-FTW (M: 1969, delivered 1970 to Aerolíneas Costanera) was a Boeing 747-200 that, while operating a regularly scheduled flight from Buenos Aires to New York (JFK), ran out of fuel after dozens of holding patterns outside the busy John F. Kennedy International Airport at approximately 23:43 (11:43) local time. Although the ditching was successful and distress messages were able to be partially sent via contact with other aircraft, several dents across the front part of the fuselage formed, which allowed the fuselage of the 747 to begin taking on water. The APU was, for the most part, the only reason the aircraft kept it's lights and systems running for such a long time.

Emergency slides were inflated and cut off as makeshift lifeboats; passengers and crew threw anything they could find on the 747 into the ocean, so as to give passengers that were left behind a chance to survive by holding onto those objects. At 02:22 AM, the 747 took a sudden and unexpected plunge; 13 minutes later, the angle and weight of the nose were so extreme that the tail of the 747 buckled in a bottom-top breakup, with the plane's lights and systems finally giving away. The nose quickly descended below the waves; the tail kept it's buoyancy for approximately 10 minutes before suffering the same fate as the nose section. Rescue only came approximately 1 hour after the tail slipped beneath the waves in the form of the Queen Elizabeth 2, an ocean liner that, at the time of the accident, was performing her usual scheduled service from Southampton to New York. Of the approximately 402 passengers onboard, 221 lost their lives.

The wreck was only found in 1998, given that most of the coordinates regarding the area of the ditching were significantly imprecise. LV-FTW's wreck has been regulated by the LV-FTW Aerial Memorial Act since January 31st, 2004.



I am very sorry for any bad english here! I am very proud of this thingamajig, though.
Some things may be changed in the future.