Lifeboat Airlines Flight 74D (LT74D/LFA74D) was a scheduled passenger flight from Amazeman City to Ro-Jeddah that was shot down by Libya-backed forces on October 9, 1996, while flying over Tirat, Blosnistria. All 115 passengers and 3 crew were killed. a Roing 747SP, was lost. The shoot-down occurred due to the flight enters a terrorism state in Tirat, Blosnistria
Aircraft
The aircraft is a Roing 747SP-63, registered as I-N1052. It had its maiden flight on May 2, 1978. It was delivered to Lifeboat Airlines on July 1, 1985. Powered by Pratt & Whitney JT9D-A engines and carrying 276 seats (25 first class, 57 business class and 194 economy class), the aircraft had recorded more than 162,400 hours before the crash. The aircraft was in an airworthy condition at departure.
Passenger and crew
Passenger and crew on board by countries
| Countries | Passengers | Crew |
|---|---|---|
| Robloxia | 36 | 3 |
| Sandatopia | 17 | 0 |
| Blosnistria | 10 | 0 |
| Romarkia | 3 | 0 |
| Bloxstralia | 7 | 0 |
| Ro-Belgium | 4 | 0 |
| United Roblox of Indonesia | 6 | 0 |
| Rogaulia | 11 | 0 |
| Bloxico | 9 | 0 |
| Ro-Spain | 12 | 0 |
| Bloxulgaria | 4 | 0 |
By Monday, October 14. the airline had determined the countries of all 118 passengers and crew.
The crew were all Robloxian, while 17 of the passengers were from Sandatopia. Most of the other passengers were Robloxian and Sandatopian; the remainder were citizens of nine other countries. At least eight of the family groups were on the aircraft, and 16 passengers were under the age of 18.
The flight crew were captain Daniel Carter (42), the first officers Emily Harper (35), and the flight engineer John Kemilee (41). Captain Daniel had a total of 160,663 flight hours, including 5,879 in Roing 747s. The first officer Emily had a total of 4,185 flight hours, including 638 in Roing 747s. Flight engineer John had a total of 7,518 flight hours, including 736 in Roing 747s.
Flight timeline
On Wednesday, October 9, 1996, Lifeboat Airlines Flight 74D departed from Amazeman City Int'l Airport Gate E4 at 07:25 MDT (13:25 UTC), 10 minutes later than the scheduled departure time, and took off at 07:35 local time (13:35 UTC). It was due to arrive at Jeddah Abulaziz International Airport at 9:12 AM.
At Cruising Altitude
Lifeboat Airlines Flight 74D was flying over Bloxnisia at FL 400 (12,100m, 40,000 ft). At 2:29 AM, the crew asked for a deviation to turn right southeast off course, due to weather conditions. This request was also approved by Bloxnis-Carthage ATC. At 2:40 AM, Amaxonian Control contacted Blosnistrian ATC in Tiras ATC by telephone and requested clearance to transfer the flight to Blosnistrian airspace. After obtaining permission, Bloxnis-Carthage ATC attempted to contact Lifeboat Airlines for handing them off to Tiras Control at 3:00 AM, but the aircraft did not respond. When LT74D did not respond to several calls, Bloxnis-Carthage Control contacted Tiras Control again to check if they could see the aircraft on their radar. At 3:26 AM, Tiras ATC confirmed that the airliner had disappeared from radar.
Shootdown
The Robloxia Transportation Safety Board (RTSB) reported that both the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) recording at 3:30 AM and the flight data recorder (FDR) stopped at 3:32 AM. The last FDR data indicates that the plane was at the position of 32.1940 N 11.1637 E, 3.29 km northwest from the border of heading east-southeast (ESE, 130°) at an altitude of 40,076 feet above sea level with a ground speed of 488 knots (905 km/h, 562 mph). The flight recorders showed a depressurization, stall, and terrain, pull up warning prior to the end of their recordings. A missile strike could be heard, followed by a stall warning until the plane's back broke off and then impacted the desert.
At 16:43:05 CET (14:43:05 UTC), a missile, which has been launched from an area eastern of the aircraft from Rintan, Lybilox, detonated outside the airplane, on the rear door and the APU. The blast and fragments of the missile severely damaged the rear door. Evidence on the APU, the rear door intake ring and horizontal stabilizer suggested that the APU, Rear Door, and the horizontal stabilizer had also been hit by shrapnel from the missile.
The captain of the plane noticed that communication was turned off and tried to turn it back on, but he could not turn it on at 16:43:06 CET (14:43 UTC) according to recovered CVR. At 16:43:05 on the CVR, a explosion and decompression could be heard followed by screaming and the plummet of the plane. The captain, co-pilot, and pilot engineer are questioning what happened. Sooon, STALL! STALL! could be heard and the TERRAIN TERRAIN PULL UP PULL UP! alarm sounded before the recording ended with the sound of an explosion. None of the 118 people on board survived.
Transcript
Result of the CVR of the Crash of Flight 74D
LFA 74D: Lifeboat Airlines requesting to go into Ribyan airspace due to heavy wheather over.
Blosnistrian ATC: Lifeboat Airlines 74D you have the freedom to enter the airspace over.
LFA 74D: Affirmitive over.
Blosnistrian ATC: LA 74D do you copy we just handeld of to RND Control?
Blosnistrian ATC: LA 74D do you copy?!?
Blosnisrtian ATC: AirGojia 2678 can you see LA 74D over?
AirGojia 2678: No over.
END OF RECORDING