Posted on 07/07/2008 9:24:23 AM PDT by Zakeet
Local authorities say a flower-laden U.S. cargo plane headed for Miami has crashed near the Colombian capital, killing two people on the ground.
None of the plane's crew have been reported killed Monday, although some are injured.
It is the second crash in two months of a Boeing 747 flown by Kalitta Air of Ypsilanti, Michigan. advertisement
Madrid village Mayor Diego Humberto Sicard says the plane hit a ranch roughly 15 miles (25 kilometers) northwest of Bogota at 3:50 a.m. (4:50 a.m. ET). He says the two people who died, Pedro and Edwin Suarez, lived in a small house on a ranch.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I think the Kalitta -74s are the -200s..
Whoa...that looks like some serous damage for a crash the crew survived.
Between two 747 crashes and his son dying in a race a couple of weeks back, Connie Kalitta is really having a bad year.
Oops,just saw that Connie resigned when they merged with Kitty Hawk. Still, I’m sure it’s not something a business owner would shrug over, even after they’ve left the business.
I’d wondered where Kalitta Air was based (having seen their planes at SeaTac)... but Ypsilanti???
So who needs flowers, anyway?
In April 2000, Kitty Hawk International (the former AIA) ceased operations. Kalitta decided to rescue it and the new airline, Kalitta Air, began operations in November 2000, using the operating certificate and assets of the former airline.
This is a post fire shot. I’m sure the plane looked a lot better before the fire. If the crew was able to deplane in a few minutes, it’s reasonable to think they could have survived. I hope that reality holds up.
Here two people were living out in the countryside, thinking they had chosen the right place to be. And then this.
I sure am sorry to hear of their deaths.
Goes to show that you never know when your time is up.
Here are two people, living in Colombia in a small house on a ranch...And they get hit by a 747 in the middle of the night.
That’s a somewhat unusual accident. Normally on a takeoff accident, if there’s a serious problem, they’ll crash very close to the airport. But that plane made it 15 miles as the crow flies, maybe more in the air depending on flightpath. And, it was a “gentle” enough impact that the crew apparently survived, so that may rule out controlled flight into terrain.
Yeah, I think most Kalitta 747s are -200Fs. I can’t remember if they’ve got any -400Fs or not.
}:-)4
Truly tragic...but at least we can say they probably died very quickly, probably instantly. In some ways, that’s the way to go. Prayers up for their families and for this crew’s recovery.
They are importing all kinds of strange bug species on those flowers.
Dang reading comprehension messes me up just when I need it!
Thanks for the correction.
Bogota is a hairy airport to land and take off.
By David Kaminski-Morrow
US cargo carrier Kalitta Air appears to be the operator of a Boeing 747 freighter which crashed near the Colombian capital Bogota today, the second Kalitta 747 to have been written off in less than two months.
Television images from Colombia clearly show that the aircraft carrying the livery of Michigan-based Kalitta Air. The aircraft has been completely destroyed in the accident, which is said to have occurred after the jet departed Bogota for Miami.
All eight occupants of the aircraft reportedly survived the crash but at least two people on the ground are said to have been killed after the 747 came down near the town of Mosquera, about 3nm west Bogota’s Eldorado International Airport.
The jet is thought to have been transporting a shipment of flowers to Miami on behalf of US freight carrier Centurion Air Cargo, although this has not been confirmed.
Meteorological data shows that weather conditions were good at the time of the accident, around 03:55. At least one report from Colombia suggests that the aircraft was returning to Bogota after an engine problem.
Kalitta Air lost a 747-200F in Brussels on 25 May when the aircraft overran the runway during take-off and broke up. All those on board survived.
Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport (forrmerly Wurtsmith AFB, where I cut my teeth as an aircaft mechanic) has a significant Kalitta operation. I seem to recall that they chose it because they would be able to take over some of the former USAF facilities easily, it’s a short flight from their HQ and it is one of the least congested airports in the country that has a runway usable by the 747.
If you make your left hand into a mitten shape, Oscoda is on the shore of Huron at the middle knuckle of the index finger, and Ypsilanti is close to the base of your thumb.
In lieu of flowers the family requests.... anything , anything except flowers!
How does anyone survive an off airport landing in a 747!?
That’s some rotten luck, eh? What are the chances?
Yeah, no kidding. Thanks for the comment.
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