A World Airways DC-10, similar to the one involved
World Airways Flight 30 was a regularly scheduled flight from Oakland to Boston via Newark. The first leg of the flight was uneventful. Flight 30 departed Newark under the command of Captain Peter Langley (58), First Officer Donald Hertzfeld (38), and Flight Engineer William Rogers (56).[1]
The DC-10 touched down 2,800 feet (850 m) beyond the displaced threshold.[2] Under normal circumstances, such an incident would have been of minor importance and the plane would have had sufficient space to come to a full stop on the 10,000 feet (3,000 m) long runway. However, the runway was covered in ice, and the braking action was poor to nil (though reported to the pilots as "fair to poor").
When it became apparent that the aircraft was not going to be able to stop on the runway, and since there was insufficient space remaining on the runway to take off again ("touch and go"), the pilots steered the plane off the runway in order to avoid hitting approach lights beyond the runway. The plane then skidded across a field and a taxiway before coming to rest in the 30 °F (−1 °C) waters of Boston Harbor.[1]
The part of the DC-10 that housed the aircraft cockpit and forward galley separated from the main body of the aircraft, submerging the first row of passenger seats. The three pilots, two flight attendants, and three passengers ended up in the water. 210 passengers and crew, among them documentarian and television show host Justine Shapiro, survived and at first it was thought all on board had survived.[3] Three days later it was discovered that two passengers were missing -- father and son Walter Metcalf, aged 70, and Leo Metcalf, aged 40, who had changed their flight at the last minute and were not on the passenger list. They were two of the three people to fall out of the plane during the crash, and reportedly neither of the two could swim. Divers were sent into the water, but the search proved unsuccessful. A theory for why the bodies haven't been recovered is that ocean currents have pushed them far away from the airport. As of 2024, neither body has been recovered.
