Arrow Air Flight 1285R

 Arrow Air Flight 1285R (air disaster)

Date	12 December 1985
Location	Gander International Airport,  Newfoundland,  Canada
Deaths	256
Survivors	0
Description	A plane carrying 248 U.S. Army personnel was brought down by am onboard explosion, but for political reasons that was inconvenient to admit at the time, so the official narrative settled for a thin layer of ice on the wings as the cause for the crash

Arrow Air Flight 1285R was an international charter flight carrying U.S. Army personnel from Cairo, Egypt, to their home base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, via Cologne, West Germany, and Gander, Newfoundland. On the morning of Thursday, 12 December 1985, shortly after takeoff from Gander en route to Fort Campbell, the McDonnell Douglas DC-8 serving the flight stalled, crashed, and burned about half a mile from the runway, killing all 248 passengers and 8 crew members on board. The crash

The plane was brought down by am onboard explosion, but for political reasons that was inconvenient to admit at the time, so the official narrative settled for a thin layer of ice on the wings as the cause for the crash.

Official narrative

The accident was investigated by the Canadian Aviation Safety Board (CASB), which determined that the probable cause of the crash was the aircraft's unexpectedly high drag and reduced lift condition, most likely due to ice contamination on the wings' leading edges and upper surfaces, as well as underestimated onboard weight.

Problems with official narrative

The official investigation had a a minority report, that stated that the accident could have been caused by an onboard explosion of unknown origin before impact, with one of these dissenting investigators later telling a United States congressional committee that a thin layer of ice could not bring down the aircraft. Decades later the circumstances are still questioned.

Course of events

The crash occurred just three miles from the Gander control tower. The wreckage was spread across an area 1300 feet long and 130 feet wide. Almost immediately, a man claiming to represent the terrorist organization Islamic Jihad telephoned a U.S. consulate in Algeria. He said that the group was responsible for the crash at Gander. However, U.S. army officials discounted any possible terrorist involvement in the crash.

Later, a Canadian board of inquiry stated that ice on the wings of the plane had caused the crash. However, four of the board members dissented, claiming that there was evidence that the crash was not the result of ice on the wings. Dr Filotas, one of the dissenting board members, believed that there was evidence of an explosion on the plane. The members also noted that the crash was different than most crashes that occur on takeoff. Normally during these takeoff crashes, large sections of the plane stay intact and most of the passengers survive. Neither occurred in the Arrow Air crash. The U.S. Government claimed that there was no evidence that an on-board explosion had caused the crash. They also denied that any explosives or ammunition were being carried as cargo on the plane.

Eyewitness reports at Cairo seem to contradict the government's statement. The 101st Airborne Division members waited for eight hours before they were transported to a larger plane. The duffel bags of forty-one soldiers were left behind on the tarmac so room could be made for several large wooden boxes. Some believe that the boxes contained highly classified weapons. At the crash site, rescue worker Harvey Day claimed to have seen five wooden boxes. Military officials prevented him from looking closer at the boxes. He claimed that he saw weapons, missiles, and ammunition boxes.

Cargo

Harvey also remembered that there was one unusual hot spot at the crash site that could not be easily put out by water; the fire burned for 23 hours according to a ABC 20/20 investigation. Within days, several rescue workers began to complain of health problems. The symptoms were apparently similar to that of radiation poisoning. According to one unnamed source, the U.S. Government sealed their records on the crash for seventy years. However, several government agencies, including the Department of Defense and the National Transportation Safety Board, deny that such records exist. Family members of the passengers believe that there is something in the records that the government is purposefully hiding.

ABC 20/20 investigation: Arrow Air DC-8 Crash in Gander Newfoundland

Iran Contra

Full article: Iran Contra

In the early 1980s, the U.S. government began illegally selling arms to Iran in a covert operation, known as Iran-Contra. The operation was done in an attempt to free hostages in the Middle East. Allegedly, at around the time of the crash, the operation was in jeopardy. Just a few days before the crash, Col. Oliver North warned that the U.S. risked a new wave of terrorism.

Cover up

The U.S. government officials did appear to be acting strangely after the crash. For unknown reasons, the crash site was bulldozed within three months, a highly unusual practice. The U.S. Army claimed that it was done simply to discourage souvenir hunters. Shortly after the crash, the remains of the plane were quickly disposed of, buried in a dump. This was also a highly unusual procedure. Normally, downed airplanes are re-assembled in order to study the crash. The parents of soldier James Douglas Phillips formed a group called "Families for Truth about Gander" in hopes of finding out what really caused the crash. They requested several scrap sections from the DC-8. An expert looked at the scrap pieces and felt that the outward, puckered edges indicated that a blast had occurred inside the plane. The father of James Phillips believes that an explosion occurred in the air, which caused the plane to break apart and crash.

Autopsies determined that many of the soldiers had significant amounts of carbon monoxide in their bodies. This would suggest that a fire or explosion was on the plane before it crashed. In 1990, a congressional hearing on the crash was convened in Washington, D.C. While the committee did criticize the government's lackluster post-crash investigation, it did not recommend a full-scale re-investigation. The families of the victims are still searching for answers in the crash.

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:The Canadian Connection To Lockerbie & Pan Am 103	webpage	14 February 1998	Joe Vialls

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