Mexiana flight 704 revisited

[walterleo]

Hi friends:

The facts are quite clear:

aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19690604-0

But understanding why a crew which have flown there various times and knew the terrain well:






and knew that this is not a place for sloppy navigation:





with a weather like this:



and they started the approach with unreliable radio navigation signals due to power shortages at MMAN.



Not having the guidance of the VOR to the runway



So, on this day of 6th of June 1969 flight 704 did not end in this way:


but in that so, taking the life of all 79 onboard.



As the CVR and the flight data recorder were partially inoperative the background of this pilot error was not investigated, besides the crew error incapacities and neglects from other parts were present, famous persons died on that accident and the communication of the authorities was less than ideal, so up today conspiracy theories abound more than half a century later.

Kind regards

Walter

[Herman]

Interesting account of this accident and it's crash into high terrain. A moment of distraction can turn into a tragedy.

Herman

[walterleo]

Hi friends:

A big applause for HJG keeping also the memory of unhappy airliners like XA-SEL. Which after 3 years of service with MEXICANA "perished" in that accident. Some parts of that airplane lay still on the rugged terrain of the "Cerro del Fraile" mountain.

Remember all on board and the B-727 64 XA-SEL:










Kind regards

Walter

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

A big applause for HJG keeping also the memory of unhappy airliners like XA-SEL.

Not something we do with absolute intent.

Our usual desire's to try'n avoid representing accident aircraft subjects .... where possible .... in order to avoid what some perceive as "morbid fascination".

The fact some accident aircraft are featured among what we offer's occasionally unavoidable though because .... (1) when producing textures our artists were (possibly) unaware of tragic circumstances relating to some airframes at the time of their preparing these subjects .... and (2) due to the fact we're primarily a "HISTORY ORIENTED" (the positive side of history I mean) FS website there's sometimes no way of avoiding representing an accident aircraft subject "in cases where we want/need to feature a specific livery variation and/or aircraft type configuration for historical reasons".

Mark C
AKL/NZ

[walterleo]

Hi Mark:

The pity with Mexicanas B 727-100 is, that 3 of the HJG repaints were in real involved in serious accidents. Only XA-SEW did not crash. Two crashes were of the infamous landing accidents of the B-727 in the early years of its operation. Both HJG repaints in "Golden Aztek" colours crashed 1969.


Kind regards

Walter

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

I don't think any of us were aware of these accidents when those textures were done .... at least I wasn't.

We generally research imagery in support of texture production, but, we don't necessarily research full historical background of any aircraft .... unless a query relating to the history of a particular airframe is posed and which has occasionally been requested (usually post-release) in the past.

For this reason .... and as I implied above .... it's often "purely co-incidental" that some texture subjects we release have later turn out to be accident aircraft since preference is to try'n to avoid representing such .... unless "historical or other technical" reasons (usually livery or aircraft type configuration related) dictate such representation and as "is" the case among a couple of texture subjects we offer.

The other thing too is "full airframe research" generally takes time .... and time (given how busy a lot of are privately) often isn't in our favour. We'd simply never get as much work done or released

Mark C
AKL/NZ