NOTICE TO OUR READERS: THIS GALLERY WILL BE CLOSING 1 AUGUST 2009 - PLEASE VISIT OUR JOURNALS AT: http://journals.fotki.com/Rollie08/ . 2 July 2005: We arrived for our trek to the crash site at 1:00 PM. We were confident about a quick hike up a cowpath to the old debris field of flight 383, but we were prepared for about anything. Matt carried a book bag packed for the expedition. We each had coveralls, a machete, and a foldable military shovel, ...
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NOTICE TO OUR READERS: THIS GALLERY WILL BE CLOSING 1 AUGUST 2009 - PLEASE VISIT OUR JOURNALS AT: http://journals.fotki.com/Rollie08/ . 2 July 2005: We arrived for our trek to the crash site at 1:00 PM. We were confident about a quick hike up a cowpath to the old debris field of flight 383, but we were prepared for about anything. Matt carried a book bag packed for the expedition. We each had coveralls, a machete, and a foldable military shovel, and water. It was much hotter than we had anticipated and as a consequence the coveralls were never used. I also carried 2 cameras and a notebook full of accident info including the NTSB official accident investigation report and witness testimony.
We headed up the cowpath and immediately confronted 25 cows. We decided not to disturb the cattle. I pointed in the direction of the crash site and Matt suggested a short cut around the animals through a grassy field. This was a very good call as my camera strap broke as we crossed the field.I had turned to photograph the property owner's barn when my new digital camera fell and landed softly in the tall field grass. I quickly cleaned and inspected the camera before we moved on up the gently sloping field.
We quickly arrived at what I had thought was going to be our location of study. Instead, it was a cleared area for high voltage power lines.... We had moved around the cattle nicely but now we would have to start down the cowpath back towards the farm house to see if we had gone around the crash site. The cattle were startled by our back tracking and "panicked" in stampede fashion, fun to watch. We looked around the cow's grazing area and decided that we were not where we needed to be so we returned to the power lines to regroup.
We were now confronted with the realization that we had 40 years of nature covering our goal. Matt went up the power line tower to get a better view of the area. I quickly reviewed the accident description in the official report to try and determine if the plane was above or below the power lines. I made a quick call to the farm house to see if the owners knew what side of the power lines the site was on. They thought it was up the hill from our position. Matt did not see much from the tower but enjoyed the side trip. We now knew we were headed up a 9.1 degree slope into the thicket with no path and no clue as to location of our project.
We started up the steeper portion of the hill. The area resembled a normal hilly wooded area and it became evident that we were going to be frustrated sooner than later. We plodded on in a somewhat southeasterly directon with no indication of an aircraft impact. Determined, but not yet rewarded, we came across a flat area about 5 yards wide running east and west and 90 degrees to the hillside. It was interesting but of no immediate significance to us. As we moved onward a few yards below this flat area, Matt discovered something on the ground. He picked it up. I looked at it with disbelief, but it was indeed aluminum, connected with rivets, and painted with light green primer. Perhaps it ws a stray piece from somewhere else on the property but this couldn't be the crash site... We back tracked and amazingly we found ourselves in the middle of a "field" of shredded metal and pieces of aircraft interior. We combed the area, photographing the pieces as they lay under the branches, leaves, weeds, and soil.
For the next 30 minutes, we continued looking for additional wreakage. We were not disapointed! But was this the ground zero of flight 383? We decided to return to the high voltage lines and evaluate the overall scene.
Back at the clearing we walked along the power line right of way. Matt noticed old damaged trees with mature limbs growing out from the damaged area. OK, lightning, wind, or perhaps power line construction crews had caused the damage. Matt also observed that there was a large amount of limbs and tree trunks tossed about the area. I turned north back towards the Ohio River and saw a huge gap in the trees opposite our position. Was this the the area where AA flight 383, in landing configuration, mowed the trees down to 4 foot stumps before smashing into the steeper slope where we stood? I decided that we needed to go straight up from where we were, with no deviation right or left, to the mildly flattned 5 yard wide area we had been at earlier.
The straight climb up to the break in the hillside was difficult and I needed water when we got there. We broke out our bottles of "hot" water and rested. We were indeed at ground zero!
I am not totally convinced that we have the exact final flight path from the power lines into where the plane came to rest and burn. Further research and onsite study will require another visit to the area later in the year.
We would later learn that this flat area across the hill was a result of the road that had to be cleared to the crash site the following day to bring bodies out on farm carts. As for the 4 survivors, 2 walked away from the crash with burns and were brought down to the farm house by local residents. Another passenger crawled out of an opening in the fuslage and encountered Toni Ketchell, stewardess, who was the most critically injured survivor with multiple broken bones and internal injuries. He picked her up and got her away from the immediate area before the plane blew up. Rescue teams came up the the hill and found them on the ground after hearing calls for help.
With this in mind, we continued the climb to the top of the hill to see where we were in relation to the airport and other buildings in the year 2005. Calling it a day, we returned to the farm house. less
We headed up the cowpath and immediately confronted 25 cows. We decided not to disturb the cattle. I pointed in the direction of the crash site and Matt suggested a short cut around the animals through a grassy field. This was a very good call as my camera strap broke as we crossed the field.I had turned to photograph the property owner's barn when my new digital camera fell and landed softly in the tall field grass. I quickly cleaned and inspected the camera before we moved on up the gently sloping field.
We quickly arrived at what I had thought was going to be our location of study. Instead, it was a cleared area for high voltage power lines.... We had moved around the cattle nicely but now we would have to start down the cowpath back towards the farm house to see if we had gone around the crash site. The cattle were startled by our back tracking and "panicked" in stampede fashion, fun to watch. We looked around the cow's grazing area and decided that we were not where we needed to be so we returned to the power lines to regroup.
We were now confronted with the realization that we had 40 years of nature covering our goal. Matt went up the power line tower to get a better view of the area. I quickly reviewed the accident description in the official report to try and determine if the plane was above or below the power lines. I made a quick call to the farm house to see if the owners knew what side of the power lines the site was on. They thought it was up the hill from our position. Matt did not see much from the tower but enjoyed the side trip. We now knew we were headed up a 9.1 degree slope into the thicket with no path and no clue as to location of our project.
We started up the steeper portion of the hill. The area resembled a normal hilly wooded area and it became evident that we were going to be frustrated sooner than later. We plodded on in a somewhat southeasterly directon with no indication of an aircraft impact. Determined, but not yet rewarded, we came across a flat area about 5 yards wide running east and west and 90 degrees to the hillside. It was interesting but of no immediate significance to us. As we moved onward a few yards below this flat area, Matt discovered something on the ground. He picked it up. I looked at it with disbelief, but it was indeed aluminum, connected with rivets, and painted with light green primer. Perhaps it ws a stray piece from somewhere else on the property but this couldn't be the crash site... We back tracked and amazingly we found ourselves in the middle of a "field" of shredded metal and pieces of aircraft interior. We combed the area, photographing the pieces as they lay under the branches, leaves, weeds, and soil.
For the next 30 minutes, we continued looking for additional wreakage. We were not disapointed! But was this the ground zero of flight 383? We decided to return to the high voltage lines and evaluate the overall scene.
Back at the clearing we walked along the power line right of way. Matt noticed old damaged trees with mature limbs growing out from the damaged area. OK, lightning, wind, or perhaps power line construction crews had caused the damage. Matt also observed that there was a large amount of limbs and tree trunks tossed about the area. I turned north back towards the Ohio River and saw a huge gap in the trees opposite our position. Was this the the area where AA flight 383, in landing configuration, mowed the trees down to 4 foot stumps before smashing into the steeper slope where we stood? I decided that we needed to go straight up from where we were, with no deviation right or left, to the mildly flattned 5 yard wide area we had been at earlier.
The straight climb up to the break in the hillside was difficult and I needed water when we got there. We broke out our bottles of "hot" water and rested. We were indeed at ground zero!
I am not totally convinced that we have the exact final flight path from the power lines into where the plane came to rest and burn. Further research and onsite study will require another visit to the area later in the year.
We would later learn that this flat area across the hill was a result of the road that had to be cleared to the crash site the following day to bring bodies out on farm carts. As for the 4 survivors, 2 walked away from the crash with burns and were brought down to the farm house by local residents. Another passenger crawled out of an opening in the fuslage and encountered Toni Ketchell, stewardess, who was the most critically injured survivor with multiple broken bones and internal injuries. He picked her up and got her away from the immediate area before the plane blew up. Rescue teams came up the the hill and found them on the ground after hearing calls for help.
With this in mind, we continued the climb to the top of the hill to see where we were in relation to the airport and other buildings in the year 2005. Calling it a day, we returned to the farm house. less
