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In late summer 1989, Mickey Leland a US Congressman from Texas, was in Ethiopia with eight staffers on an inspection tour of refugee camps using a medium size STOL rotary engine aircraft. At the time, Ethiopia did not have any radar that could manage routine airplane traffic outside of the cities and pilots navigated using maps and on-board instruments.
In short heavy rain storms typical of that area, tactics for navigating around the steep hills were to fly along the hillside with the co-pilot watching out the side to be certain the plane was adequately far from the slope.
The plane with nine US personnel and nine Ethiopians, including three crew, unfortunately followed the slope of a hill which was part of a pair of hills and the plane flew directly into the side of the adjacent hill at 4300 feet, only 300 feet from the peak.
The plane was missing for days until a tribesman in a village on the flat saw flashes of light off the metal of the wreckage.
Three US cargo planes and three US helicopters flew into Addis Ababa from Europe and a C-5 Galaxy from the US flew in 18 jours later with the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's team(AFME), tents and medical supplies to recover the bodies.
The team set up at Addis Ababa airport and did all the examination work there while a contingent flew out to the crash site and was lowered in to recover the remains.
The crash site was essentially unreachable by foot and everyone onsite there had to be roped in keep from falling down the hill. Air Force para-rescue personnel managed the onsite roping etc and stayed at the site to keep leopards and wild pigs from further disturbing the remains.
I was there as part of the the identification effort, as were forensic pathologists, forensic staff and the FBI fingerprint team. I went to the site only once as that required being lowered in and recovered by helicopter and they were busy enough without sightseeing.
This is one of the few photos that are safe for general viewing. One does get a good idea of the conditions at the site. This was early on in the effort as the ropes are being set in place. The plane disintegrated and all 16 people died on impact.
Those men in civilian clothes are forensic pathologists and staff from AFME.
This was probably one of the most interesting recovery efforts I was on.
View attachment 191076
In short heavy rain storms typical of that area, tactics for navigating around the steep hills were to fly along the hillside with the co-pilot watching out the side to be certain the plane was adequately far from the slope.
The plane with nine US personnel and nine Ethiopians, including three crew, unfortunately followed the slope of a hill which was part of a pair of hills and the plane flew directly into the side of the adjacent hill at 4300 feet, only 300 feet from the peak.
The plane was missing for days until a tribesman in a village on the flat saw flashes of light off the metal of the wreckage.
Three US cargo planes and three US helicopters flew into Addis Ababa from Europe and a C-5 Galaxy from the US flew in 18 jours later with the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's team(AFME), tents and medical supplies to recover the bodies.
The team set up at Addis Ababa airport and did all the examination work there while a contingent flew out to the crash site and was lowered in to recover the remains.
The crash site was essentially unreachable by foot and everyone onsite there had to be roped in keep from falling down the hill. Air Force para-rescue personnel managed the onsite roping etc and stayed at the site to keep leopards and wild pigs from further disturbing the remains.
I was there as part of the the identification effort, as were forensic pathologists, forensic staff and the FBI fingerprint team. I went to the site only once as that required being lowered in and recovered by helicopter and they were busy enough without sightseeing.
This is one of the few photos that are safe for general viewing. One does get a good idea of the conditions at the site. This was early on in the effort as the ropes are being set in place. The plane disintegrated and all 16 people died on impact.
Those men in civilian clothes are forensic pathologists and staff from AFME.
This was probably one of the most interesting recovery efforts I was on.
View attachment 191076
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