lev29 Loc: Born and living in MA.

At Boston's Logan airport on a cold night in January of 1982, I was a college senior, studying for a final exam, sitting in a car in a frigid parking lot near the terminal waiting for my mother to arrive on a World Airways flight (I think that was the airline's name.)

I periodically got out of the car and walked into the baggage claim area some 60 yards away, checking an airport TV monitor for the status of her flight. Finally, its status changed - now it read LANDED.

So I went back to the frigid car and studied, since it would be at least 15-20 minutes before my mother would emerge. Then I returned to the baggage claim area 15 minutes later and checked the TV monitor. Now it read that the flight's status had changed to DELAYED. I was puzzled, but returned to the car. Time for a music break! I then turned on the car radio. Within 5 seconds, a male voice announced, "Our top story tonight ... a plane has skid completely off a runway at Logan Airport into the harbor."

So much for MISINFORMATION.

"WHAT?!" This time, I figured that the plane must've been the one my mother was on. So I re-entered the Terminal and went upstairs to the "greeting" area where those deplaning are met by those waiting to pick them up. It was a throng of people with intermittent loud shouting.

Some of the passengers arrived at this greeting area, evidently having taken a bus there. "Where's my mother?" I'm thinking. "Nowhere to be seen,” I concluded. Then I heard some of the passengers were being to taken to various hospitals. I inquired regarding my mother; not on any list the authorities had.

So I waited there. My mother finally emerged, intact but complaining of wrenching her shoulder (she had “rescued” a woman in a fur coat who fell off the slide into water deeper than she expected and my mother grabbed her arm.) I asked my mother why she didn’t take an ambulance when it was offered. She told me she declined because she didn’t believe her condition was that severe AND she knew I was waiting for her.

My mother was right! It turned out that Massport (the authority overseeing Logan Airport,) totally bungled communication to those friends and relatives of the passengers as to which hospital/ambulance service each of those injured were being taken to. This part of the story was not a case of Disinformation. Rather, it was a case of a TOTAL LACK OF INFORMATION.

I took my mother over to the MGH (Massachusetts General Hospital) ED and she was released inside of two hours.

tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio

Information that's not accurate is useless.

lev29 Loc: Born and living in MA.

For a consumer, you're absolutely right.

Now in wartime, such can be useful, e.g. particularly the British spy network in WW II, where Disinformation can be quite useful and better than random Misinformation.

I just hope that Logan and other U.S. Airports have changed their euphemisms in Status Reports over the past 33 years!

londonfire Loc: NY to NC

I remember that accident well. I took that same DC-10 to Ireland a year earlier.

lev29 Loc: Born and living in MA.

Well, well!

The photos & footage I saw showed almost the entire plane in the water; only a small part of its aft section was on the slope leading down to the water from the runway. The pilot of the plane that had just landed on that same runway prior to my mother's plane reported to the Control Tower that the runway was so icy he had to "take it all the way to the end of the runway."

The two passengers in the front of the plane were found dead about a week later, floating somewhere off Cape Cod. As I understand it, the cockpit "flipped off" the fuselage, taking the pilot and copilot with it. They survived. Some passengers did not report any injuries. Others had them of variable degrees; I think the lawsuits divided the injured into about 3 classes. My mother was a plaintiff in the suit and was given a modest $10k or so, which she promptly used the following December to taker her and her 3 children to the Virgin Islands.

bcheary Loc: Jacksonville, FL

Sounds like your mother had a lucky escape. :shock:

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Well.... the plane had landed. And it WAS definitely delayed. So, technically they were not giving you wrong information....

lev29 Loc: Born and living in MA.

Technically, you are correct! In retrospect, "DELAYED" must have meant "delayed in arring at the gate." But that's not what I thought at the time with the juxtaposition of those two words in that particular order. It sounded like the poster either had a screw loose or ... something bad had happened. Obviously, I was in denial till I turned the radio on. 😃

bdo Loc: Colorado

To the contrary...

Misinformation is the individual's best defense against Big Data. Google only know as much as you tell them.

lev29 Loc: Born and living in MA.

I hadn't thought of that one, bdo! By "Big Data," are you referring to those net-savvy organizations that gather up and use data about individuals akin to Big Brother in 1984?

bdo Loc: Colorado

Yes.

And especially those websites that require "registration" before you can use them. I usually use random data wherever possible.

I also turn off "cookies" and keep no history in my browser. It is surprising how many sites say "We require cookies. Please turn on cookies", but then allow me to proceed even though I ignore the request to allow cookies.

It's not much, but it doesn't require much effort, and I get great satisfaction out of degrading their data.

Delderby Loc: Derby UK

I never ever would fly on a DC anything.

lev29 Loc: Born and living in MA.

If you review my third post in this Topic, you'll see that ICE was unequivocally the culprit for this accident, leaving aside whether the pilot could've or should've attempted the landing at Logan that night (of which I have no further knowledge.)

I suppose it's possible you might have been a party to the details of this particular accident and therefore can edify me as to how this particular aircraft model contributed to the cause of the accident.

On the other hand, perhaps you know of a slew of DC passenger airplane accidents that were out of proportion to their frequency of use relative to other passenger aircraft. Still, you got me curious, so I googled about what major U.S. airlines are still flying the DC-10. Look what I found!

http://www.airlinereporter.com/2014/02/historical-look-dc-10-final-passenger-flight/

Thank you. 8-)

Delderby Loc: Derby UK

An interesting article - however DCs always seemed to be in the news years ago - and not just the 10s. Conversations used to go like "Oh dear there's been a plane crash" response? "I bet it's a DC" :-)

londonfire Loc: NY to NC

No denying the 10 had it's share of problems. However they did the lions share of long haul flights in it's time because 3 engines took less fuel than 4. They then fell victim to the new gen twin engine 767, again for fuel reasons. A lot of them are still flying cargo today along with the MD-11's. Most of the AA aircraft I flew on to London are now in FedEx colors.