As a former airline employee, I really miss seeing the old carriers like Pan Am, Eastern and TWA among others. There was just something different about flying thirty or forty years ago that has disappeared never to return. I guess i was fortunate to have enjoyed it for a short while.

How about some kudos for the TWA crew? They took almost certain disaster and made it survivable for everyone on their aircraft.

If anyone doesn’t know, Iron Mountain is in Michigan.

Yikes. What a SNAFU ranging from the incomplete ATIS, Cessna pilot’s apparent fatigue and preconceived notions, ATC attitudes toward active/inactive runways, and generally all-around sh*t show. I’m so sorry the Cessna occupants died. TWA died not long after that too, and I’m very sorry for that. I flew TWA lots of times. There, you know my age😁. I am impressed, however, with 2Officer Speed’s flight hours. Over 10K and he was just 33 at the time. Well done, Allec. RIP Cessna.

I was at a corporate convention in St Louis in June, 1999. After leaving Lambert, I was shocked at the rows of abandoned homes and businesses all across North St Louis. I took one look at the base of the Gateway Arch, I attended one day of meetings and left early, three days later. It reminded me of Detroit too much.

30R had a big dip starting from about 3,000 feet from the threshold and the Cessna was sitting in that dip. That is why the TWA plane couldn't see him until it was too late. I was TWA and flew out of STL for about 7 years.

It was the second of two flights numbered 427 that would be involved in an incident that year, the other being USAir Flight 427, which crashed in September near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania killing all 132 on board.

Interestingly, Runway 31 at KSTL at the time was converted from Taxiway Foxtrot due to increased operations at the airport, which was located right next to the GA ramp the Cessna pilot was leaving from, and the Cessna pilot had to taxi along the displaced threshold of Runway 31 in order to reach Runway 30R. It's also likely that the pilot had used Taxiway Foxtrot (as I think the ground controller would've referred to it as) while taxiing to the GA area. Other pilots had also confused 31 for 30R prior to this accident, so the lighting on runway 31 was dimmed so that aircraft landing 30R would have an easier time identifying the correct runway to land on, and might have been dimmed while the Cessna pilot was taxiing. Aside from the Runway 31 sign leaving the GA ramp and the displaced threshold arrow markings, I wonder if the pilot mentally registered Runway 31 as a taxiway and not an actual runway. Also, KSTL had just installed newly-functioning ground radar to help prevent a collision like this but it wasn't working on this day due to a "computer hard drive failure," so yay computers I guess.

Sounds like some confirmation bias killed the cessna pilot. Gotta pay close attention to what ATC tells you and ATC has to make sure their instructions are clear. R.I.P. to the cessna pilot and the passenger. I can only imagine what the pilots and passengers of the TWA flight felt

I can't believe I've never seen an episode on the Lynyrd Skynyrd crash on this channel. It's an interesting case.

In my days of flying 40 years ago, all clearances required a read-back - in this case, people may not have died.

Randy Speed! Sounds like a character in a pulp novel.

As a former flight attendant for TWA, the runway configuration at STL is highly confusing. I remember hearing pilots complain about them all the time. 30L+R were the primary active runways, but 31 was a smaller runway, and generally used for departures that utilized regional props/jets. TWExpress used this runway, frequently.

TWA was beautiful airline

I know that airport since I’m from Missouri. I’ve been there plenty of times. So far, this is the most recent accident at this airport.

RIP to the victims. Everyone can have a "moment", it's just human nature, but yes, procedures could be tightened up in a high traffic area. Great research and presentation as always. This would be great episode on Mayday if it isn't already!

Runway 31 was Dx'd as a runway in 2008, its now called taxiway F

As always, a thorough review of the incident and very good video. Thanks.

Lets go Allec :) You deserve so many more subs. Keep up the great work :)

Great video Allec! Keep the vids coming.

Now that's some effort there! all the work is appreciated!

Awesome photo @7:22 always loved classic airliners and both the MD80 and 727 were my favorites.. sad crash though..

Randy Speed=Max Power

It's Thursday. I'm ready for the next video! Hurry up!!!!! Checking my notifications all morning!!!!

That Cessna pilot had something wrong with his perception of current events, very simply. He very simply made a terrible mistake. Fatigue, confusion, who knows? So sad that two people had to die because of it. Nice video, Allec...

What I find interesting, is that the MD-82 was repaired, and kept the same registration. In other USA-based accidents, registrations have been changed. Is this practiced in the USA only when there are fatalities on the airframe, or is the registration change random?

The pilot put himself under pressure and unfortunate died as a result, the MD 82 attentive pilots to the lost rip.

This accident would end up being the second accident that year where the flight number was 427.

That was awesome I look forward to each new vid man (just an aviation enthusiast myself my dad was a pilot) This incident could have been so much worse 😞

I remember this one well. Somewhere I have a picture of the 441 still sitting on the centerline with top of the fuselage cleanly sheared off.

If I am remembering correctly, that was one of several ground incidents occuring at the time.

Thirty right and thirty one said fast could sound the same on radio easily if tired and expecting to hear 30R. The phenomena is known as expectation bias. He even said "ready to go from the right" (he thought he was cleared to back taxi and takeoff from 30R...not lost). RIP.

RIP to the 2 victims. Miraculous that was all ! Alec, great vintage photography here of the classic TWA livery on what is, to me, the very sleek & aero McDonnell Douglas MD-82. I was snapping screenshots in between your descriptions (to get plane pic only). Am I the only one doing this ?

I wish there was a period airport diagram to look at, because they must have reworked the naming of the airport since then. Either way, I feel like recommending the ATIS specificity what each and every runway is doing is a bit short sighted. Giving a pilot a vague taxi instruction such as back taxi without an actual route and not checking for a correct runway read back is just sheer complacency on the part of the controllers.

Those TWA pilots did a great job. Could have been worse for them.

Hold 31 I assume means the Cessa was cleared to be ON runway 31 (as opposed to holding short), but he was on 30R. I was a little confused about whether the Cessa was supposed to be on a runway, or holding to be on one. The issue was he was on the wrong one. Tragic outcome. Luckily the jet was able to avoid a more serious incident and a lot more casualties. Well done video!

Me whenever I see that Allec has posted a new video: 😀 Me when I see that the video takes place at night: 😭

Such a shame two people lost their lives, such a miracle the TWA didn't go up in flames, the pilots did a great job avoiding hitting the cessna after/while taking off, and getting the plane stopped on the ground. All the factors mentioned could happen to most of us humans, especially at that time of night. "By the grace of God go I...."

Obviously the Cessna was in the wrong place - but he REPORTED his position ("Ready on the right side") and the tower controller missed the error & TWA wasn't up on tower freq or missed his report as well. First night departure from STL for the pilot...it can be tough unless you're EXTRA vigilant.

This is a great channel, but could you change the color of the text. It’s sometimes hard to read the text which is white on a very light background. I’m not complaining, far from it. It’s just a question I had to ask. Keep the great vids coming.

Wow! I'm actually early! Great video!!!

Rip for who died

I remember seeing the accident aircraft (N954U) in OMA back in 2017.

Controller should have known something was wrong when the Cessa radioed, "Ready to go on the RIGHT."

This is my local airport. Back during this time, St. Louis was TWA's main hub. It's a shame that the Cessna pilot got mixed up somewhere and found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Pilots couldn’t avoid the the collision, but they were able to abort the takeoff after colliding. The damage was minor

Unfortunately it sounds like the Cessna pilot misunderstood ATC or just made assumptions and it cost 2 lives. Very sad.

A story of "Assumptions", on ALL parts, save the TWA crew, but to include the NTSB- it took to the end to get to the REAL heart of the matter- but included all kinds of guesses and suppositions. My old math teacher taught me about the word "Assume". He said, "When you Assume, you make an ASS, out of U, AND ME.". He was right.

Love you videos

Cool video, Rest In Peace

Noticed the flight number...427. Same as the US Air 737 that crashed near Pittsburgh the same year.

0:54 - too many randy's in the cockpit!!!

These are tragic events, they could have been prevented, but we are only human. The only recourse to our fallibility is to take an arbitrary point of view in an objective manner: give me a reason why I shouldn't do this despite all the reasons one has to do it. Question not only one's own authority, but the authorities empowering our decisions making that leads to complacency. Read back to ATC everything that forms the reasons for the actions taken. Remember, we are looking for reasons not to do it, not a reason to do it.

Understandable mistake. Bad day. Very sad

The subtitles are extremely hard to read, it would be nice if you could make the letters bigger or a different color so they would stand out against the video

I can understand how you could hear 31 as 30L if you have had no indication that 31 even existed.

In this simulation the final actual photo is of a damaged 727. In the simulation the a/c is an MD 80. Flight 427 equipment was not an md 80. (15 1/2 years with Transworld. )

It’s the same thing happened in Milan Linate, on 8.10.2001: a Cessna pilot entered rhe active runaway because of his preconceped idea to taxiway on the same way he took 1 hour before, after has landed. Fog and bad indications made the rest….

This plane decide to quickly abort takeoff back to airport maintenance luckily no one was injured accept to Cessna.

What happened to Runway 31? Does it still exist now in 2021? Or has it been eliminated from that Airport?

Never have two pilots with the same first name in the cockpit, I thought everyone knew this was bad luck.

Shout out to the TWA pilots, that could have been an accident with many multiples more deaths

RIP to the victims

What are those TWA pilots up to these days??

Big airports and lots of crossing intersections, easy to get confused. Even with your taxi diagram in front of you can be confusing add night time to that and a simple taxi instructions can be confusing . Only time it hasn’t been confusing was in the G550 I use to fly with charts up on the screen and your position on the taxi chart via the GPS

Well, I don't know about you, but I find this whole video extremely confusing. Perhaps if you were to include a taxi chart, a diagram of the airport it might help in visualizing the field and the accident area. I can't even begin to imagine anyone calling the ground controller to inform him/her that he is ready to taxi for departure and receiving a taxi clearance like the one in the video; it just doesn't make any sense... Any instruction to back-taxi and hold in position on an active runway would come from the 'Tower Controller', not the 'Ground Controller'. And, to top it off, I can't seem to find a Runway 31 anywhere on the St. Louis airport. Did there used to be one? No wonder this guy got lost; apparently, the Ground Controller sent him to the Twilight Zone.

Even though it was 1994, there is only 1 photo of the accident in existence ?

ATC should have made sure sure Cessna pilot acknowledged runway 31 since it was rarely used. Would have likely saved 2 lives and a airplane.

"Randy Speed" is the best name for a pilot of all time

Fascinating how the industry evolved, and what it took for changes to happen. Though sometimes you can't regulate common sense or human behavior. Being in that Cessna had to have been awful. ______________________________________________________________________ As ridiculous as it sounds, I thought a documentation of the events on Twilight Zone's "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" would be an idea for a Halloween episode.

you release videos on fridays right?

I fully expected this to be as gutting, horrifying, and disgusting as the LAX disaster in 1991. While I am grateful that the outcome was less barbaric than the LAX tragedy, it's still really frustrating that this happened whatsoever.

Does this guy ever read the comments? How many more times must people say the text is very difficult to read, when a light background comes up? And sometimes the text is so big it takes up almost half the screen. Watch The Flight Channel to see how it should be done🙄🙄 It's a pity because this channel covers a lot of incidents that are not mainstream.

We've all made mistakes.

I thought the title was “Gone Ashtray” Still, tragic

I personally find the taxiways at major airports quite confusing and irritating. even as a car driver i would be overwhelmed

Dude, you still havent answered my question, is it Ii-bAy or is Ee-Bay acceptable to pronounce your name?

1994 seems to have been a bad year for flying.

Total 140 passengers on board

Sir Try making a video on polish air force flight 101

I like the Trump 727 in the background of that last pic

Wow, maybe if the Cessna pilot had repeated back the instructions to the controller this may have been avoided. That should be standard procedure. But, there were factors working against this pilot - RIP two souls.

When I heard a sound and I saw the wing is still good not destroyd

Why give the different runways such similar numbers? Why not 30 and 75? Or something? Surely that makes a more obvious distinction

The thumbnail has the plane over NYC?

The re-enactment animation did not show the planes crashing. Did they crash on the ground or while trying to take off?

That's why it's called No Fault insurance.

Ground radar would be helpful. This could easily happen again.

Trump plane!

Runway Intrusion! Night Ops are dangerous enough as it is.

TWA = Try Walking Across!

Kinda similar to the Linate case in 2001, but less catastrophic.

sooo these plane crash vids are like passive horror...

Sad.

But there was then... my error

What the hell this on the very day as I was born

Japan Airlines Flight 715 next, please!

hello. I was wondering. how can I download flight simulator 2004 a century of flight?

I don't know why airports use such similar numbering for runways. Use odd words that never rhyme or start with the same letter. Apple, Zebra, Popcorn, Litterbox, Origami...

Would someone plaese point me in the direction of the source for the background music track? Thanks so much