Landing Blind | 1986 Tampa Int'l Airport Collision | With Subtitles Only 

Associated Press (Nov. 7, 1986): Shortly before a private plane mistakenly landed on a taxiway and slammed into a commercial jetliner at the Tampa airport, two other pilots, concerned about poor visibility, decided against landing at the fog-shrouded airport, officials said Friday. The pilot of the small Piper Apache, a veteran Eastern Airlines captain, was killed in the collision early Thursday and several of the 23 people aboard the Pan American World Airways Boeing 727, which was awaiting takeoff instructions, were slightly injured. Investigators have yet to determine what led the pilot, William Bain, 56, a 21-year veteran at Eastern, to mistakenly land on the taxiway, which runs parallel and about 400 feet from the main runway. But government sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that he had been told a mile from the airport that runway visibility was well below minimum safe levels and he likely mistook the taxiway lights for the runway lights. ″I think the question is one of prudence ... and not necessarily a violation of any regulations,″ said one source close to the investigation, when asked whether the pilot should have tried a landing. Noting Bain’s reputation as a prudent, veteran airline captain and ″excellent pilot″ who had been flying since he was 16 years old, the source added, ″There are things here that are hard to fathom.″ Investigators provided little detail about the two pilots who chose not to land at the Tampa airport. Joseph Nall, who is heading the investigation into the accident, confirmed at a news conference in Tampa late Friday that two planes, described as a Cessna 172 and a DC-9, had abandoned an approach to the Tampa airport shortly before the accident and diverted to other airports. Sources close to the investigation said the dense fog and poor visibility is believed to have been the reason the two pilots chose not to land. It was not known whether the DC-9 was a regularly scheduled airliner. The investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to work another few days in Tampa and to examine air traffic control radar tapes to determine why the plane, which was on an instrument-guided approach, landed on the taxiway. The small plane plowed into the nose of the Boeing 727 and slid under the jetliner, bursting into flames about 30 yards away. An engine of the small plane was imbeded in the fuselage of the jet. The Pan Am crew told investigators the Piper Apache appeared to still be airborne at the point of impact, although other witnesses have said they heared Bain apply his brakes and skidmarks were found on the taxiway. Officials said the Pan Am pilot veered the Boeing 727 sideways in the seconds before impact, averting a headon collision that could have meant greater loss of life. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the Tampa air traffic controller told Bain about a mile from the airport that runway visibility - called rvr, or runway visual range - was only about 600 feet. Regulations for the runway being used called for visibility of half a mile for a small plane without special equipment to make a landing, although there is nothing that prohibits a pilot from making a so-called ″look and see″ approach until his altitude reaches 200 feet. If the runway or its lights are not ″clearly visible″ at the 200-foot altitude, a pilot must abandon his approach, according to FAA regulations. NTSB investigators, speaking on conditions that they not be identified by name, conceded that they may never know whether Bain saw the runway lights at the 200-foot altitude ″decision point.″ The accident occurred at 7:06 a.m. EST Thursday, and aviation sources, who also spoke privately, suggested that Bain might have been concerned about being late for work and pressed ahead with the approach even though his ground reference points may not have been clearly visible. Bain was scheduled to command an Eastern Airlines DC-9 on a flight to Newark, N.J., which was scheduled to depart at 8:05 a.m. Eastern spokesman Jerry Cosley said airline rules require pilots to be on duty 45 minutes prior to departure, but he said those requirements ″are flexible″ and not a ″hard and fast rule designed to put pressure on people.″ . Bain was known to routinely use his Piper Apache to commute from his home at North Fort Meyer, Fla., to the Tampa airport. On Thursday he already had tried one approach and abandoned it, presumably because of poor visibility, although that is not certain. While it is not specifically known why the plane landed on the taxiway, several aviation sources privately suggested one scenario: The pilot would have fixed his attention on his instruments during most of the approach, careful to keep the plane lined up with the instrument-gui ded glide path. But when he reached the so-called ″decision″ altitude of 200 feet, he is required to turn his focus outside the cockpit and search for the runway lights. If those lights were not immediately visible, the plane might have wandered off its instrument-guided path without the pilot noticing. When he, finally, saw what he perceived to have been runway lights, they might have actually been the taxiway lights. One veteran commercial pilot said the task of keeping an eye on the instruments and searching for the airport could be tricky, even for an experienced pilot, flying in extremely poor visibility. Commercial airliners, this source said, normally have the pilot at the controls continue to watch the instruments while the other pilot searches out the runway. At the news conference in Tampa, Nall said tapes of the tower communications disclosed that the last transmission from Bain was an acknowledgement of weather conditions. Bain gave no sign of distress before the collision, he said.

That Eastern Captain Bain was dedicated to his job, but sometimes you need to just say when enough is enough.

Hope your career path is going well Allec.

it's a good thing he did it to himself and not with a plane full of people. I'm amazed how an experienced AIRLINE CAPT would attempt such a flight knowing well the weather conditions with that airplane. Incredible

I remember the day this happened but didn't know anything specific about it. Thanks for bringing light to this infamous accident.

As a local (st pete), I was keen to watch this. Thanks for your work! As an aside, Ft Myers to Tampa is less than a 2 hr drive --

UPI (Nov. 21, 1986 ): TAMPA, Fla. -- Air traffic controllers warned the pilot of a twin-engine plane that runway visibility was well below minimum safety levels before he collided with a Pan Am jet on a fog-shrouded airport taxiway, tower tapes and transcripts revealed Friday. William Bain, 53, of North Fort Myers, was killed Nov. 6 while trying to land his Piper Apache but missed the runway at Tampa International Airport, wound up on a taxiway and collided almost head-on with a Pan Am Boeing 727 jet. Jack Barker, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, released a transcript and played a tape recording of radio transmissions between air traffic controllers, tower personnel and the pilots of the two planes that morning. The last transmission from Bain was to acknowledge a weather report from the tower almost three minutes prior to impact, telling him runway visibility was only 600 feet at the middle landing area. Barker said the minimum visibility requirement at the airport for private aircraft is 1,800 feet. 'The weather was below minimum requirements,' Barker said. Bain's small plane loomed out of the dense fog seconds before striking the Pan Am jet as it taxied toward takeoff for Miami. None of the 23 people aboard the jet was seriously injured. The FAA tapes confirmed Bain was on his second landing approach when he apparently mistook the taxiway for the main runway. He gave no indication he was aware of any problem. First word of the collision came from Pan Am pilot Capt. Ed Lunsford, seconds past 7:05 a.m. EST. 'Hello, hello. Mayday. Mayday. Clipper's been hit by a light airplane on the ... on the ta ... on the taxiway. I don't think there's any injuries but there may be some damage. Send out the equipment,' Lunsford radioed. Barker said air traffic controllers do not make the final decision on a landing. He said a pilot is given clearance for final approach, but the final decision is up to the pilot when he reaches the 'decision height.' 'The FAA never shuts down an airport, never shuts down a runway,' Barker said. 'That decision is up to the pilot. 'From all the evidence we have, the air traffic controllers at Tampa International did everything perfectly, (and) properly,' Barker said. Bain, a former air traffic controller, was a veteran commerical airline pilot who regularly commuted from a grassy airstrip near his home to Tampa to make his regular commercial fights. He had been a pilot with Eastern Airlines since 1965 and was scheduled to pilot an Eastern flight leaving Tampa for Newark, N.J., one hour after the collision, prompting speculation he may have been running late. The Hillsborough County medical examiner's office said earlier this week a toxicological analysis of Bain's blood and urine revealed nothing unsual, and showed he had not used alcohol or drugs prior to the accident.

Nice having both versions! I prefer this one. Thanks and good luck, Allec!

Imagine the horror when you realise theres a plane in front on you......

Can't believe there were not more fatalities!

Get- There -itis

Love it dude! Just a quickie. “With subtitles” works better then “in subtitles”. You are the best. Keep those stories coming!

Nice video Allec of how N2186P collides with Pam Am 301 and that’s how it happened and it’s a cool video Allec! 😉👍👏😎🤩✌️

I love this new format of one video with narration and one without, keep up the good work. May I suggest doing the 1972 Kadena Air Base SR-71 crash in the future?

Thank God that everyone on board the Pan-Am flight survived. Officials said Captain Lunsford veered the Boeing 727 sideways in the seconds before impact, averting a head-on collision that would have created an even bigger catastrophe. That's quick thinking that saved everyone's life on board the 727. The blame for the accident is pretty well squarely on Captain Bain, for not checking the conditions before he took to the skies.

I like this format without narration! Keep it’coming

Excellent, as usual.

I remember this one. The pressure in commuting.

Captain Bain must have a been a pilot dedicated to his job never wanting a flight to have to be delayed or canceled because of his not getting there in a timely manner and that is commendable. However, with all his experience, he surely must have realized that morning that reaching his job was not going to be possible. I feel it would have been better to have diverted to another airport where he could safely land and call his job and explain the situation. I realize airlines don't like having to cancel or delay flights but sometimes in life it cannot be avoided. This tragedy did not have to happen. Makes me wonder where his good judgment was that morning. I'm angered at his lack of good judgment with all his flying experience but I also feel sad at his dying at the same time.

So Capt tried to land in weather he was not supposed to land in, and he had somehow lined up with a taxiway too? This feels very weird. What was on Capt's mind that day? Was Eastern bugging him about flying? This seems so sketchy!

New York Times (Nov. 7, 1986): An Eastern Airlines captain trying to land his own small twin-engine plane in thick fog flew into a Boeing 727 airliner on a taxiway at Tampa International Airport in Florida yesterday morning and was killed as his craft burst into flames. The Boeing 727, a Pan American World Airways plane carrying 17 passengers and 6 crew members to Miami, suffered damage to the left forward fuselage and burns atop the wing as the small craft careened over the wing. The only injuries to the airliner's occupants were sprains suffered by four people while running over rough ground after evacuating the craft by an escape chute. The Pan Am pilot, Capt. Edwin Lunsford, averted what might have been a head-on collision by veering to his right when he saw the small plane, a Piper Aztec, descending out of the fog toward him. One airline official said the impact was more like ''a glancing blow.'' He added that it was ''pure chance'' that the Boeing 727 did not also go up in flames. Visibility was Very Poor The dead Eastern pilot was identified as William S. Bain, 56 years old, of North Fort Myers, Fla. He had taken off from a grass strip near his home to report for duty at Tampa, where he was assigned to command a DC-9 flight for Newark scheduled to depart just one hour after the accident occurred. The weather radioed by traffic controllers in Tampa showed that fog had cut visibility on the ground to about 1,000 feet when Captain Bain tried, and missed, his first approach to the 11,000-foot northbound runway. By the time he tried his second and final approach, visibility on the ground was reported down to 600 feet. The Pan Am plane had been taxiing southbound on a taxiway just east of the active runway. It was 2,000 feet or less from the approach end of the runway when the small plane, its pilot apparently mistaking the taxiway for the runway, suddenly appeared out of the fog and smashed into the left front of the airliner. It burst into flame and came to rest about 200 feet beyond the airliner, which had veered virtually off the runway. A Pan Am passenger, Frank Kuliski of Key West, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying that the pilot of the Boeing 727 braked just before the collision, which was marked by a loud boom. A 'Big Ball of Fire' ''I saw a big ball of fire on the right and then the left,'' Mr. Kuliski said. ''Flight attendants then opened the rear door and pushed a chute out.'' Mr. Kulaski, who said he was a private pilot, added that when he reached the ground, ''we could see this twin-engine plane just completely engulfed in flames.'' The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to conduct an inquiry into the accident. The immediate focus of interest was why the Captain Bain, a veteran pilot, would have persisted in attempting to land in such poor weather. The runway that Captain Bain had been trying to land on was the left one of two parallel runways headed 360 degrees directly to the north. It is equipped with an instrument landing system. This enables a pilot, on a bad-weather instrument flight through clouds, to follow a cockpit instrument that guides him down an invisible electronic slide toward the runway until he finally sees it with his own eyes. The weather radioed to Captain Bain by the Federal Aviation Administration traffic controllers when he first approached Tampa was reported by an F.A.A. spokesman, Roger Myers, to have been: ''Indefinite ceiling. Sky obscured. Visibility zero in fog. RVR 1,000 variable to 1,200.'' RVR stands for runway visual range. The reading from an instrumrent on the ground meant that at ground level, a pilot could expect to see 1,000 to 1,200 feet down the runway. Regulations require a cloud ceiling of 200 feet and visibility of half a mile for a small plane, without special equipment, to make a landing. But there is no rule that prevents a pilot from trying an approach. The requirement merely is that the pilot must be able to see the ''runway environment'' when he descends to ''decision height'' of 200 feet. It was conceivable that Captain Bain's Aztec had special equipment that would have allowed landing with minimums of 100 feet altitude and runway visibility of 1,200 feet. But officials thought it unlikely. Just before the plane's second approach, according to Mr. Myers, the pilot was told by radio that the runway visibility reading had dropped to 600 feet. Glenn Parsons, an Eastern spokesman, said of Captain Bain: ''He has had an excellent record with Eastern. He was an outstanding pilot.'' Eastern also said that the airline's rules were that a pilot should report for duty 45 minutes before the scheduled departure of his flight. The crash was an hour before Captain Bain's scheduled 8:05 A.M. flight to Newark. It left an hour and a half late after Eastern found a substitute crew.

Sad tragedy.😢

that little plane is so cute! :)

Hello Allec

I used to live in Tampa, from 2001 to 2022, so this was interesting one! But I'd like to see the 2002 Tampa plane crash recreated.

Such a tragedy. The pilot had a spotless record. Get-there-itis kills.

i enjoyed hearing and seeing this video well done Mr. Ibay

Washington Post (Nov. 7, 1986): A small twin-engine plane, flown by a senior airline pilot, crashed into a taxiing Pan American World Airways jet in dense fog at Tampa International Airport yesterday morning, killing the small-plane pilot as his aircraft broke apart in a fireball. Officials said the death toll in the Florida accident would have been higher if the pilot of the Pan Am 727 had not spotted the approaching plane seconds before impact and swerved to avoid a head-on collision. "That maneuver . . . prevented what could have been a much more serious accident," Pan Am spokesman Alan Loflin said. Two of the jet's 17 passengers and one of its six crew members suffered minor sprains sliding down the aircraft's emergency chutes. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" one of the pilots shouted seconds before the collision, said Tim Maslonek, an airport baggage handler who said he overheard a radio conversation between the airport tower and the planes. "I heard him screaming . . . . It was scary. He was terrified." The accident was the latest example of what the National Transportation Safety Board has warned is an increasingly serious problem at commercial airports, collisions involving aircraft on the ground. The most serious such accident, a collision between two Boeing 747s on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killed 583 persons on March 27, 1977, and still ranks as the world's worst aviation disaster. Although aircraft in the skies can be kept apart by sophisticated radar systems, officials say there is no available system as effective on the ground, where buildings and other obstructions render most radar useless. Yesterday's accident, like many of the other runway accidents, occurred in dense fog. The Tampa airport is often blanketed this time of year by a low-lying morning ground fog that restricts landings to instrument approaches, typically on the field's major runway. Visibility yesterday was limited to one-sixteenth of a mile, about 110 yards, so it was impossible for Tampa tower officials to see the collision site, airport officials said. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roger Myers said the small plane had been cleared for its second approach to runway 36L when the accident occurred. He could not explain why the first approach had been aborted or why the small-plane pilot, an Eastern Airlines pilot with 21 years experience, was trying to land on the taxiway parallel to the runway, 400 feet to the west. The dead pilot was identified as William S. Bain, 56, who regularly commuted to Tampa from a grassy landing strip near his home in North Fort Myers. "He had an absolutely unblemished record," Eastern spokesman Glenn Parsons said. "He was an outstanding pilot and never had any problems of any kind." Before joining Eastern 21 years ago, Bain was an air traffic controller. He had reached senior pilot status in 1979 and was flying into Tampa to pilot a morning DC9 flight to Newark, N.J. Bain's Piper Apache apparently was airborne when it glanced into the Miami-bound 727, just under the window of Pan Am pilot Edwin Lunsford of Miami. He had thrown the plane's control stick hard to the right when he suddenly spotted the Apache 300 to 500 feet away heading directly for his 727, Loflin said. The impact split the Apache apart, embedding its left engine in the jet's fuselage below the jet's nose. What remained of the small plane scraped the side of the jet and then slid under the jet's left wing and exploded on the taxiway about 40 feet behind the 727. If the Apache had hit the wing, the impact might have ignited the wing's fuel tank and caused many more injuries aboard the 727. "I saw a big ball of fire on the right and then the left," Pan Am passenger Frank Kuliski, who said he is a private pilot from Key West, told The Associated Press. He said he dashed to the rear of the plane, where flight attendants opened a door and emergency chutes. As the passengers slid out of the jet, they saw the small plane engulfed in flames. An NTSB team began investigating the accident yesterday, and its primary question was expected to be why Bain mistook the taxiway for the runway. At a news conference last night, NTSB member Frank Nall said the final report may not be complete for 10 to 12 months. Although Bain was apparently on an instrument approach, industry officials said the accuracy of his approach could have been affected by the type of instruments his plane carried and the condition of the approach equipment at the airport. Another factor could have been whether the jet's takeoff lights were off as it lumbered down the taxiway at about 15 miles an hour. Pilots often do not use their takeoff lights in fog because they are frequently ineffective. While the lights could have been a warning to Bain, it is not against regulations to turn them off under such conditions, officials said. When the NTSB studied 26 "runway incursions," as it called such accidents, it found earlier this year that most were caused by human error. Seventeen of the accidents were categorized as air "controller-induced" and nine were "pilot-induced," it said in a May report.

I guess it’s easier than you think to inadvertently give away your life because of job pressure.

the Eastern pilot must have felt pressure to get to Tampa for his job that day, but Pine Shadows is only ~3 hour drive from Tampa and with the weather that bad he should have known to drive there instead. The Pan Am pilots must have got the fright of their lives seeing a small plane coming right at them with very little time to react, thankfully all on that plane were ok.

Is Captain the correct title? That infers a sense of good knowledge and decision making.

So the piper would have ended up landing on a taxiway have the 727 not been there?

Jeepers, the moment I saw the Pan Am plane I was waiting for the crash.

How about one of N66BK, the Cessna Citation that crashed into Piercy Priest Lake near Nashville, TN on 05/29/21, killing Remnant Church founder Gwen Shamblin and her husband actor Joe Lara? The NTSB final report just came out. I was going to fly that day but the weather was solid overcast at1300 feet.

I will stick with this version. The melancholic music at the end of the tragedy with the photos of the aircraft(s) involved, fit better without narration

I have to first express my thanks to you for producing these great videos. However, I do prefer the old format of the subtitles only. Just my 2 cents.

Can you do a video on when that kid crashed a plane into the Bank of America building here in Tampa? I was like 5 or 6 but I still remember seeing it vividly

I knew Bill Bain and he was a careful and cautious pilot. At the time of the accident, the feeling was the Pan Am, taxiing with all his landing lights on was mistaken by Bain for the runway approach and end lights. There as a question as to why a pilot would taxi with all those lights on with another airplane making an approach to very low minimums. By the way, there’s no 1800 RVR requirement under part 95.

Oh, another thing is that the pilot of small airplane was a Eastern Airline captain commuting to work

What I don’t understand in this accident: why was the PA 727 on same runway as the landing Piper? The tower staff shouldn’t have allowed that to happen…

Very sad that the pilot lost his life, but this was a shocking piece of flying. If you can't see anything you don't land end of story. Even a non pilot knows that

I would have enjoyed this video more if you had stated what “RVR” was.

poor guy :( On a side note, the Piper Apache is the cutest plane !

Keep on going!👍💯

Hey Joshua how are you? Your voice is very handsome and you barely have an accent. But I must say, that I don't like the narration. I much rather listen to the background noise and read the subtitles only. I wish you the best and please keep making videos either way. We all love you and congratulations on all of your success!!!🎉🧡

Seems like a lot of missing info... Why were they on the same runway?

SADLY, not a complete story but, sad though!! xx

Landing Blind | 1986 Tampa Int'l Airport Collision | With Subtitles Only

,,,.hanving a cocktail in the Constellation bar at the TWA hotel

There's a lot of talk about the weather conditions, but why were both planes allowed to be on the same runway at the same time? That could have caused an accident regardless of the fog!

Did I miss something ? Why did he collide with the 727 ? Was he on the wrong runway heading or what ?

Were the aircraft repaired and returned to service?

Why didn't atc inform Bain of a plane on the runway awaiting take off...ODD

So,im Sure the Plane Turboprop Piper PA-23 Apache Gear Landing No Have Light That why Ended Landing to Taxiway

Last music name?

so was the PanAm aircraft on the runway?? or was Bain trying to land on a taxiway??

Are you using a different flight sim?

This is the first time I end up wondering why the accident actually took place. I mean, besides the fog, why there were two planes in the same runaway?

Hope Your Going To Be A Pilot💪

Was the pilot cleared to land?

He had get-dead-itis. He knew he shouldn't be attempting this landing, but pressed on anyway. At least there were no other victims.

Manual CAT III.... die if u fail, lose your license if u land....

Why were their two aircraft on the same Runway ?

No info. about anybody on the 727?

Stick with this format. If you go with the robot voice on all your new videos it will not work out well, believe me.

What a pilot, such a shame he was so arrogant

Well there are the same videos with you talking and this one just no narrator.

The Pan Am captain’s underpants were damaged beyond repair and written off.

I can't imagine what warped a experienced pilots judgement to this degree! This was a suicide essentially. Considering why he chose not to simply drive his car makes no sense what-so-ever!! I would like to know a detailed history of his experience. Without it he just looks like another idiot. ERAU 80 CFIA&I ret.

Why did Air Traffic Control clear the Pan Am to get onto the same runway as the approaching Piper?

So sad , Rest In Peace

why have your views dropped off so suddenly?