How A Passenger Jet Crashed Just Short Of The Runway In Boston | The Crash Of Delta 723

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image: Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland - Delta Air Lines DC-9-32; N3337L, December 1980/ BCX
This is the story of delta airlines flight 723. On the 31st of july 1973, a delta airlines DC9 was flying from burlington vermont to boston, but the plane had to make an unscheduled stop at manchester new hampshire because flight 723 had to pick up people from an earlier flight that had been canceled. So the flight departed manchester airports gate at 9:57 am with 83 passengers and 5 crew members onboard. But the plane couldnt just get off the ground yet as the weather at Boston was not the best and so they had to wait as the weather at boston got better. Finally at 10:50 am the plane took off with the first officer in charge with the captain in charge of the communications.
After taking off the plane was on the way down to boston and the pilots were in contact with the approach control at boston, the approach controller said “'No delays, plan vectors ILS 31
four r i g h t , the Boston altimeter is three zero one one. Weather is partial obscuration, estimated four hundred overcast, mile and a half and fog." not the worst but also not the best i cant help but wonder if the pilots had been hoping for some better weather on their way down into boston. As flight 723 acknowledged the plane climbed to its assigned altitude of 4000 feet ad the pilots in the cockpit went through the after takeoff checklists. As soon as they were done with the after takeoff checklists it was time for them to start their descent talk about a short flight eh, the controller now let the flight descend to 3000 feet and gavve them a new heading to fly. Then at 11:04 the controller asked flight 723 to do the following “ Delta 723 fly a heading of 0 8 0 now intercept the localizer course and fly it inbound over”. The controller was asking the pilots to intercept this radio beam that is sent out from the foot of the runway. The localizer beam allows the onboard computers on the plane to calculate where it is in relation to the runway laterally, in reduced visual conditions like these a localizer is a gamechanger and can quite literally save lives.
In the cockpit signs pointed to the fact that they had successfully intercepted the localizer, the captain said “localizer is alive” and the first officer responded with “go down to 2000 now cant we?” the captain answered with “he didnt say go down”, the captain decided to check with the controller to see if everything was ready for them to perform the ILS landing, the captain asks “is 723 cleared for the ILS?” the controller let the captain know that they indeed were ready to go down. And they took the DC 9 into the mushy weather below them. As the jet passed the outer marker the first officer called for the before landing checklist. As they ticked off items on that list the plane dropped through the thick clouds surrounding boston. But in the cockpit it seemed like the things were starting to unravel, the pilots seemed to have a problem with one of the instruments in their cockpit. Someone in the cockpit said “okay just fly the airplane” and the other person replied with “ you better go to raw data, i don't trust that thing”, in the midst of all of this the captain radioed to the controller in boston that flight 723 was on final and the controller issued the final clearance by saying “cleared to land 4R traffics clearing at the end, the rvr shows more than 6000 a fog bank in moving in its pretty heavy across the approach end” the pilots acknowledged their landing clearance, unknown to the controller this was the last time that he would hear from flight 723. In the cockpit the crew had their hands full with whatever was going wrong in their cockpit. The captain was like “lets just get back on course” and the first officer said “i just gotta get this back”,
In the cockpit the captain said something which was then immediately followed up by a shout, presumably because a sea wall might have appeared in the windows right in front of them, but it was too late for the pilots to do anything the dc 9 crashed into a sea wall that was 165 feet to the right of the extended center line of runway 4R about 3000 feet short of the runways displaced threshold. Initially two people survived the crash but their injuries were too severe, meaning that in the end.

[@MiniAirCrashInvestigation]

Thank You To My VIP Patreon Supporters! Adam Quentin Colley Alex Haug Simon Outhwaite Simon Outhwaite

[@mrkiplingreallywasanexceed8311]

Mr Outhwaite and his twin😏

[@ScottDLR]

Any appreciation for us lowly subscribers?

[@r.bennettmoreland4924]

My mother was doing temporary duty in BTV (she was a BOS based ticket agent for Executive Airlines). Two of the passengers on this flight were Executive Airlines passengers that had missed an earlier BTV-MPV-BOS that she worked with the ex-Northeast/Delta station agents to rebook on this flight. To this day she remembers their faces. She had also listed herself as a non-rev on this flight to go home but was bumped, she called the station manager in Boston and told him she would be coming home on this flight, but never called when she got bumped. Queue the station manager calling her father when the plane crashed and saying that unfortunately your daughter was on the flight and it doesn't look good. Mom has been haunted by this accident for years, she apparently knew the ex-Northeast Captain well, and still feels survivors guilt about getting bumped and the couple that she booked onto the flight. At the time she was taking flying lessons, having been in aviation for a few years, but this coming back to back with her pilot mother being killed in a private plane crash has made her terrified of flight since... although she is still in the industry, being Vice President / Chief Marketing Officer for multiple airlines and airports since (this year marks her 54th year in aviation, with no intention of retiring).

[@terriestapley5475]

Thank you for sharing her story~

[@sarahalbers5555]

I am seriously impressed.

[@BobbyGeneric145]

She was have some awesome momentos of those old airlines.

[@JasonFlorida]

I hope she has gotten any negative feelings behind her. It seems like she is a great woman that should be very proud of her career

[@flyguyry1]

@@JasonFlorida shes hasnt. Thats why he said she struggles with it

[@mbryson2899]

Muscle memory (such as "one clockwise rotation needed") is a powerful thing. My daily driver is a little five-speed pickup. My better half has a six-speed family car. Whenever I drive hers I have to practice to remember that I have one more (highway) gear. Worse, when she takes mine she has to remember to NOT grab for sixth, because that's Reverse and would break the gears. Training, decision trees, and confirmation. I think the industry sometimes glosses over that aspect.

[@jameswyatt1304]

6sp Jetta and 5sp Mazda, so I know that painful "chirp" when you find 6th gear on a 5sp!

[@dianesheldon2591]

Mine is moving from my aveo5 to my husbands grand caravan! The shifter is in the wrong spot, the wipers come on when I try to turn the lights on. I take a moment when I drive it to reorient myself to the van from my car

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

@@dianesheldon2591 If you want a good laugh, think about me when I was first working with forklifts... They have a shifter that only handles "forward/reverse" where normal cars have the blinker and brights control... I don't know how many times I've either signaled for a right turn or turned on the brights, and promptly ran over the curb or a parking lot stopper looking out the rear window in those couple weeks... ;o)

[@jamessimms415]

I normally drive a Santa Fe but because the insurance company is dragging their feet, I’ve been in a Grand Cherokee for the past two months. Can’t wait to get back into my normal ride

[@waterbird91]

I truly believe that planes are still too complicated to fly, leading to so many crashes, so many losing their lives over it. No more flying for me.

[@sct913]

One important detail. The plane in question was originally owned by Northeast Airlines, which merged with Delta in 1972. The crew was an ex-Northeast crew. After acquiring Northeast's fleet of DC-9s, Delta replaced the flight directors on these planes with the model used on other Delta DC-9s to standardize the fleet. Given this background, and in the high workload environment of the landing, this could explain why the crew inadvertently set the newer flight director to the wrong mode.

[@irenetorkel2186]

Even though these videos are short they always include everything. I learn something and appreciate the visuals included. Great job.

[@robrindt980]

As someone who lost loved ones on this flight, and the very reason I am alive today, could you at the very least, show it as it really happened? It was N975NE, a DC-9-32, operated by Delta Air Lines, originally owned by Northeast Airlines. Not an MD-80 as you clearly depict here. in 1973, if depicted correctly, the DC-9-32, would be in full Delta colours. In loving memory of Robert and Liza Metz. Rip.

[@nevillec5252]

As students, we are taught to always intercept the glideslope from below. That makes a stabilized approach much easier to attain, and avoids latching onto any false glideslopes (which are always above the true GS). Tragic accident.

[@alexanderyoung7313]

I think he accidentally said they intercepted the localizer above. The localizer is the horizontal guidance. He probably meant glide slope. Definitely easier when you are below

[@tallymedic]

Thank you! Love it when you upload a new accident I’ve not heard of before!

[@cschis]

Sir, I've been subscribed to you for a very long time I think I was one of your first subscribers. The quality of your videos has improved soooo much. Not that the earlier today ones were bad it is how you have grown with personal confidence. I am happy with you and your approach. I wish the best of luck and continued personal growth. Have fun my friend.

[@mattwilliams3456]

Excellent as always. It’s amazing seeing this channel grow from a point of sending in donations to get you a decent mic to now you closing in on 200k subscribers. You’ve earned every one of them!

[@DMA3918]

Sounds like go-around should be the motto for approach into an airport. Landing is optional subject to clearance, stabilized approach, fuel remaining, among others!

[@pibbles-a-plenty1105]

Yes, a successful landing is a "go around cancelled."

[@briant7265]

I was thinking go around when weird stuff started happening late in the landing process. Maybe the fog bank coming added pressure to get on the ground.

[@bobtaylor170]

Thank you for this. In March, 1973, I sat across the aisle from flight attendant Anna Moore on an airport bus. She was the most striking looking young woman. I forgot about her until I saw her photo in the August 1, 1973 Houston Chronicle. It was unmistakably her. I've been haunted by this tragedy ever since.

[@dianeellis3925]

Thank you for great reporting on this crash. It doesn’t get much coverage but your report was right on. I knew people who died in this crash. I remember the day very well. Again thank you.

[@Glen.Danielsen]

Adam, Alex, Simon, and Simon: my gosh your graphics are marvelous! Cheers, brothers! 💛🙏🏽

[@KaitlynnUK]

It's Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 with a very dodgy modded aircraft.... it all looks great though, doesn't it :)

[@Glen.Danielsen]

@@KaitlynnUK It sure does. Cheers and Merry Christmas Kaitlynn. 🇺🇸💛🇬🇧

[@rilmar2137]

Or they should have gone around - the flight director was already ready

[@Parthsean]

The more and more crash videos I watch, I love going around more and more. Pretty much did multiple go around yesterday when I was behind the plane and didn’t feel safe or prepared to land. Landing is an option but a go around is a must.

[@waterbird91]

Better to be safe than SORRY. Too many crash landings and too many crashes on take offs as well. I used to love flying to different destinations, I don't fly anymore, it's just gotten out of hand scary. Passengers depend on the pilots, they have to trust them w/ their very lives. I did so in the past, won't do so in the future.

[@flyguyry1]

Landing is a must. A go around is an option

[@someonee3186]

Suggestion: Korean Air 858

[@Pro4TLZZ]

Thanks as always

[@charlesschneiter5159]

As the pilot flying the captain is the one to blame here... As you correctly state, he did not do any callouts - but the pilot flying (teh FO) omitted vital cross checks as well, namely the altitude check when passing the outer marker - plus the minimum. Bad CRM all around...

[@schlollepop]

CRM was not even invented, let alone established at that time.

[@charlesschneiter5159]

@@schlollepop Well... lollepop... the acronym wasn't perhaps coined then but, believe me, acting as a crew (and therefore apply it's resources) was! Been there done that, btw...

[@asteverino8569]

Terrible for everyone on the flight. If someone had said "unstable approach, go around." Distraction is a slippery slope. Thanks.

[@ryanfrisby7389]

Amazing video!

[@iMAXsProductions]

I found this quite handy because I’m currently looking up Delta airline crashes for upcoming video on my channel so this really helped :)

[@tonysimma2288]

I'm born and raised in East Boston, I was about 7 years old but I remember that Chelsea, city next to Logan Airport, was at a stand still with traffic. My father asked a police officer who was doing traffic detail why all this traffic. He then told us about plane crashing. I still for some reason remember the song on the radio...

[@christopherpericolosi-king4979]

I love how thorough your investigations are! You cover ever minute detail, which is pretty exhaustive research! Well done!

[@connollynick2003]

I actually live near Manchester airport in NH so fasincating to hear about an accident that departed from the airport to far from me. Anyways keep up the good work. Your videos are very informative and give good details.

[@emilypaullacheson7821]

I lost my grandparents on this flight. I never knew them. Hard to believe this will be 50 years this summer.

[@laurat1129]

Since I was just a baby when this happened, I only learned of it in today’s Boston Globe. So sorry for the loss of your grandparents, and my sincere condolences to you.

[@emilypaullacheson7821]

@@laurat1129 Thank you, I appreciate that!

[@jtveg]

Thanks for sharing. 😉👌🏻

[@em1osmurf]

strongly recommend you research "begs the question"...i don't think it means what you think it does. good vid.

[@ronlicc5390]

i am 59 years old , lived in Winthrop ma all my life was with three child hood friends that morning 150 yards from the runway on the beach at the bottom of court road and circuit road , FOG SO THICK YOU COULD CUT IT WITH A KNIFE , you could not see the control tower , barely see the airport , all i remember was an earth shattering low boom and saw an orange ball of light rolling thru the fog , and it just kept rolling down the runway for what seemed a minute , we knew a plane had crashed and knew it had hit where the sea wall was , latter we found out a family on court road their husband was a officer on the plane , i remember my friends mother saying as we ran into his house up the street from the beach she thought it was a car crash , took twenty minutes to an hour for the news to alert the tv media , a friend of my father owned a house on the water a cross from the winthrop hospital , we wher the hours after watching amphibious duck boats from the state and MDC police bring bodies up his ramp and deliver them to the hospital ,its funny i never think about it if a fly , only when is see a plane on approach , RON

[@youthinkyouknowme5551]

fascinating story thanks

[@LordSStorm]

My questions, why didnt ATC notice they were in trouble on radar, and why didnt the pilots call for a holding point to troubleshoot the FD.

[@Bartaaron04]

This is 1973, radar technology wasn’t as perfect and transponders weren’t sending as much date for ATC as nowadays, hence why the pilot had to report turning onto the final approach

[@NHMasons]

My Uncle was on this aircraft. I remember it well.

[@6th_Army]

Sounds like most of these crashes can be attributed to instruments being changed across models of the planes.

[@mrkiplingreallywasanexceed8311]

What an horrendous confabulation of events...OK, it was the 70s but there's ALWAYS a new set of unknowns that aren't even thought of and have certainly never happened. Someone will be writing the same thing in the 2070s. And what's worse is that in this case there were NO unknowns - just a very unfortunate sequence of knowns.

[@Veer3hassan]

Excellent 👍🌹🙏

[@George_M_]

Oh hey it's SFO a few years ago. Only much worse. Go around, dangit!

[@timelwell7002]

This tragic event is far from the only crash - and numerous 'near misses' - where there have been issues with getting onto the glide slope at the correct altitude and at the correct speed and rate of descent. I can't help but think that if some kind of sensors were installed on the ground, well outside the area of the airport itself, which would show ATC not only the position of each approaching aircraft, but also its' altitude, then horrific events such as this could be avoided. I know there would be extra initial expense involved, but wouldn't it be worthwhile?

[@surferdude4487]

Your videos stopped coming up in my feed. I have selected "all" for notifications. I hope this corrects the problem.

[@AdrianColley]

This is a sad one, because all the causes are that someone was busy with too much work.

[@BoBandits]

ah yes, the notorious "outer marker"... ;)

[@nacerdjaafri9919]

The road to hell is paved with "good intentions"

[@kickedinthecalfbyacow7549]

And chick-fil-a, apparently

[@TheNewAccount2008]

It is really weird hearing such reports... I did a lot of ILS approaches in my time as a sports pilot, and they are about the simplest approaches you can possibly get. (Not saying that they are simple, just saying that there is nothing better than it...) When you fly ILS, you basically have one point of information that gives you all the critical data combined. Hearing that pilots did not monitor this one vital data point is awkward to me...

[@SS-ce1py]

IFR as a sports pilot? are you sure? anyways this accident was back in the 80s, the instrumentation was different then.

[@TheNewAccount2008]

@@SS-ce1py Yes, I am. Fairly costly training to get there, but necessary if you want to do multi-day trips. And I do agree that instruments were way different back then, but the VOR and ILS systems have already been the same. And especially the ILS "crosshairs" have not changed at all since then. (Except for getting into a "glass" format and maybe you can consider an HSI an improvement, but thats minor...)

[@sjarlestrand]

You mention "going below" the localizer. I guess you meant "below the glideslope".

[@marksmith8079]

Gotta get there-itis strikes- the cause of the disaster was pilots couldn't accept that the approach was going wrong and to go around- high and fast on approach is alone a reason to go around- pilots have gone around for much more minor reasons . Short of the Runway is pretty rediculous tag line- really pilot crash way now near the runway.

[@stevewilson5546]

Don't they use the radio altimeter as a cross check?

[@Primus54]

1973… I don’t believe automated radio altimeter callouts were yet available.

[@3az3oz]

Can you do a video on Northwest Airlines Flight 255 ? Thank you.

[@paradoox02459]

I thought it was common practice for airlines not to reuse the flight numbers of fatal crashes. Yet, Delta currently seems to have a flight 723.

[@kickedinthecalfbyacow7549]

It’s not common practice

[@emilypaullacheson7821]

I lost my grandparents on this flight. Delta announced to the surviving families today that they will no longer use this flight number after 11 May 2023. Should not have been used for nearly 50 years.

[@quasarsavage]

confusing displays on older planes vs modern ones. an a320 display could be read better than a dc9 lol

[@Hellsong89]

Kinda, but new planes have way more extra systems in place, where malfunction of one can lead to disaster just as well, when pilots relay on automation too much. After all its the pilots job fly the plane, not the computers.

[@GeofreySanders]

1:21 plane is staring at us. Engine eyes, manic grin on the nose. [COGNITOHAZARD WARNING] You cannot unsee this, rewatch at your own risk.

[@MeMe-gm9di]

What a case of "get-there-itis" that caught the pilots. If you lose awareness of your plane in dense fog, it's probably better to go around.

[@edwardrichardson5567]

Sounds like a false glide scope situaton as well.

[@vickrantgurung7]

Did anyone notice landing gear not down

[@FameyFamous]

Manchester NH to Boston is a 1-hour drive. Nobody should have been scheduled for such a short flight! Didn’t they have busses in 1973??

[@RedwingBB]

Right? I would be so annoyed at myself if, for some reason, I decided to fly to Boston from here, and this happened again. X_x

[@opusmax1]

It was a different world 50 years ago. The airlines busted their butts to please the customers. Flying was so expensive for the general public that the very thought of being put on a bus would have been taken by many as an insult and complaints to the government in that then highly regulated industry were feared by the airlines.

[@hksp]

so the radio altimeter didnt do its automated voice callout

[@jamesflores6889]

4:22 looks like asiana 214

[@8bitorgy]

Tip: You should visually display the details like time and location names.

[@lukethomas.125]

That’s tragic. The pilots were good and competent. It’s one of those incidents where the pilots were blameless

[@3chords490]

Not quite. They didn't do a call out for altitude 9:30

[@lukethomas.125]

@@3chords490 Indeed. They slipped up briefly, with fatal consequences

[@loganamnosiss]

46 knots at the OM didn’t help either

[@MothaLuva]

Above the glide slope, 46 knots too fast over the OM, wrong modes on the FMA, no callouts, losing situational awareness…this doesn’t really meet the “blameless” criteria.

[@lukethomas.125]

@@MothaLuva Indeed. But in a recent reply to a comment, I correct myeslf by saying that the pilots slipped up briefly during the approach.

[@battyjoe]

Your term at the beginning “ with the First Officer in charge and the Captain in charge of radios” is a bit misleading. The correct terms would be the FO was Pilot Flying (PF) and the Pilot Monitoring or Pilot Non Flying (PNF) The Captain is always in charge. Just a technical term for other videos. Good video though :)

[@richardservance8709]

I don't believe the PF and PM/PNF terminology existed at the time of this crash. The video was likely using terminology from the investigation.

[@battyjoe]

@@richardservance8709 Possibly not but this is an explanation to KZbin, mostly non aircrew, who might not understand the differences. It wouldn’t be accurate to say the FO was in charge and confusing. I have never heard the term FO in charge, and been in aviation many many years, it comes over as the video authors terminology as opposed to the accident reports.

[@PatrickRyan147]

I don't love any of your videos 😯 I find them informative.. but the loss of life saddens and sometimes angers me 😐

[@mrkiplingreallywasanexceed8311]

Quite.... in fact I kind of dread the ones with death, even though it's already happened. The ones where, thanks to superb airmanship, they have the closest of close shaves where everyone survives are the best ones....

[@PatrickRyan147]

@@mrkiplingreallywasanexceed8311 I couldn't agree more 👍👍

[@patshes1951]

Oops, not good.

[@slagarcrue85]

Get me usually inspectors get me Fiff and the others who this fox names I don’t currently remember.

[@agrofindastation]

Your voice sounds slightly off. Do you have a cold, or just recorded differently?

[@FameyFamous]

The controller who was not paying enough attention to this flight deserves a small fraction of the blame, right?

[@pibbles-a-plenty1105]

The controller had his hands full. The captain is in charge of the margins, not the controller.

[@mauricedavis2160]

🙏😢🛬⚖️🤔❣️

[@jean-bastienjoly5962]

Happy to meet you, Praytear "Landjust" Questlove Ill be htting my head on a wall for the next half-hour

[@williamsalvaggio4621]

Great job on this video. 🙏🙏🙏🙏 Stabilized Approach Criteria is very important. If not stable by 1000' AGL, go-around.

[@PavlosPapageorgiou]

Modes are bad!

[@estbiker]

1st

[@nadvga6650]

Errors after Errors after Errors. and all having quick fixes. as the show must go on !! right !?

[@mrkiplingreallywasanexceed8311]

Not sure if confirmation bias or gethomeitis were to blame either, which makes it even more upsetting....

[@waterbird91]

ATC is at fault, non working instruments at fault, pilots incorrect flying. Yeah. I'll take a ship to Europe this year. I don't trust flying anymore.😱😱😱😱😠😠

[@patriciaramsey5294]

Sub par video. Only first one I did not like.

[@Speakerman583]

Which boston

[@rajnaik5787]

Silly question, maybe - why don't they make the runways a bit longer so out-of-control planes are still on concrete and can use brakes.

[@hj8272]

Horrible animation, zero original recordings, horrible accent, no closed caption..

[@SKF358]

All your viewers aren't "guys." I'm sure there is a "gal" also.

[@hustlernaturalrocks292]

Poor Simulation

[@stephencaparelli7733]

look up the words succinct and verbose. your videos are very hard to watch.

[@anthonywilliams9852]

And a very confusing narrative.

[@youthinkyouknowme5551]

I'm too stupid to know what this guy is even talking about

[@lewiskelly14]

This Was KZbins Worst Thumbnail

[@txblly1055]

now Mark Wahlberg should have been on THIS flight