35 Miles from Shore (5 page)

Octavio Irausquin didn't know much about Steedman or ONA prior to their meeting, but he soon learned that the two men and the airlines they operated had much in common. Like Steedman, Octavio was a former pilot, having worked as a first officer for KLM. Both men were indefatigable promoters of their respective airlines. ONA was the larger of the two in terms of aircraft and employees, but most of ONA's size difference had occurred within the past year.

Following a brief tour of ALM's facilities, Steedman and Octavio sat down to work out the details of the agreement. From the start, Octavio expressed concern over whether the DC-9 was the right aircraft for the route. He was concerned about flying the route with a two-engine aircraft. In 1970, a two-engine aircraft was not permitted to make an extended overwater flight unless the aircraft was within one hour of a suitable landing field, on one engine. Octavio preferred the Boeing 727, a three-engine jet. He also expressed concern about the range of the DC-9. Steedman assured Octavio that the flight was within the range of the DC-9, assuming normal winds and weather. The only other aircraft ONA operated that had the range for the route was the DC-8, but the short runway in St.
Maarten precluded the use of that aircraft. Steedman told Octavio about the planned installation of the extra fuel tank. He also told him of his intention to use Bermuda as a backup fuel stop. Octavio seemed satisfied with the answers. He told Steedman that he was confident they could work something out but that he needed more time to look things over.
¹

The next day, after having dinner with Octavio and his wife the previous night, Steedman left Curaçao. Instead of returning directly to New York, he took a DC-9 flight to St. Maarten to get a firsthand look at the airport and surrounding terrain. He rode in the cockpit so he could question the flight crew, who flew in and out of the airport on a regular basis.
²

What Steedman saw was a short east-west runway on a narrow strip of land with the Caribbean Sea at one end of the runway and a large bay at the other. Off to the east was a modest-sized mountain range that rose to twelve hundred feet above sea level to the south and fourteen hundred feet above sea level to the north. The only instrument approach to the airport was a Non Directional Beacon (NDB) approach to runway nine.
³
While the airport wasn't ideal, the pilots assured him that the DC-9 could handle the short runway, pointing out that there were a number of suitable alternates to choose from should the weather turn sour. Steedman left St. Maarten with renewed confidence that the flights could be operated safely.

A few weeks after returning to New York, Steedman received word that Octavio was willing to proceed with an agreement under the condition that the extra fuel tank be installed. Steedman set to work drafting the agreement. His next two hurdles were with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). Both agencies needed to be notified of ONA's plans for the intended route. Steedman also put in a request for a special waiver. Upon closer inspection of the route, it was determined that the flight could
not meet the single-engine drift-down requirement. This was the FAA requirement for a two-engine aircraft to be within one hour of a suitable landing field in the event of the loss of one engine. There was a small segment of the flight where the closest suitable landing field was more than one hour away.

As fall passed into winter and the January start date inched closer, additional problems surrounding the flight surfaced. Adam Paul Salkind, the head of the navigators union, had learned of the plans for the St. Maarten route and pointed out to Steedman that according to their contract a navigator was required to be on board. Steedman took the contract to Bob Wagenfeld, ONA's corporate attorney and a former ONA navigator himself, and asked him to take a look. Wagenfeld told Steedman that Salkind was correct. The contract specifically stated that a navigator was required on any flight that was flown over water for more than two hours. Steedman asked Wagenfeld if he thought there was any chance the union would be willing to amend the contract. Wagenfeld told him he didn't think so. There were only twenty-eight navigators employed by ONA, and these twenty-eight had already been notified that their jobs were going to be phased out starting May 1, 1971 due to automation.
⁴

Despite Wagenfeld's comments, Steedman asked Salkind if he would consider amending the contract. He began by reminding Salkind that the DC-9 was a two-man cockpit. The only seat available for a navigator was an uncomfortable observer's seat intended for only short-duration flights. He pointed out that there was only a small segment of the route where normal navigation would be unavailable and that he intended to install a Long Range Navigation (LORAN) system in the DC-9 for that portion of the flight. The pilots could be trained to use the LORAN in two or three days. He
also mentioned that several airlines were operating a similar route from New York to San Juan and that they were flying the route without navigators. Salkind refused to budge on the contract, stating that he had an obligation to the remaining navigators to keep them flying for as long as possible.

Steedman wasn't one to wage war with the unions. He had maintained a good working relationship with the company's employee groups and wanted to keep it that way. He put the issue aside and shifted his attention to a new problem that developed in early December. Steedman learned that the FAA had turned down ONA's request for a special waiver for the single-engine drift-down procedure, stating that an alternate route was available. The FAA claimed that the route could be flown legally via the Bahamas. But flying over the Bahamas required a large deviation, necessitating a fuel stop or an extra fuel tank. The distance from New York to St. Maarten via Nassau was nineteen hundred nautical miles; the direct distance was fourteen hundred nautical miles. Without a more direct route the flight was economically unfeasible.

A few weeks before the flights were scheduled to begin, Steedman was faced with yet another problem. He was informed by Douglas Aircraft that the earliest date that it could schedule the DC-9 for the installation of the auxiliary fuel tank was March 1970 — two months after the planned start date. Steedman phoned Octavio to discuss the latest setback. He told Octavio that despite the problems he would agree to fly the route even if it meant flying via the Bahamas and making a fuel stop. But there was nothing he could do to get the extra fuel tank installed earlier than March. The two men discussed the pros and cons of delaying the start date. Both agreed that waiting until March or April to begin the flights didn't make good business sense. They would miss the peak travel season. Octavio agreed to
amend the wording of the contract, pushing back the requirement for the auxiliary fuel tank. The final lease agreement was signed with the following statement: “Overseas shall arrange and install a center tank to increase the fuel capacity of this aircraft by 780 gallons on or before April 1, 1970.”
⁵

For reasons that will be explained shortly, as ALM 980 made its way to St. Maarten on May 2, 1970, the auxiliary fuel tank had yet to be installed.

T
HE DECISION ON WHETHER IT WOULD BE NECESSARY
to stop for fuel was usually made well in advance of Bermuda. The crew needed time to plan their descent and to call ahead for fuel and to make other arrangements. The early indications on this flight were that a fuel stop was not going to be needed. The winds were favorable, the load was light, and the flight was on schedule. This was good news for the flight crew. Landing at Bermuda increased the workload considerably. It also tacked on an additional thirty minutes of flying time
.

The passengers, of course, knew nothing of the possibility of having to stop for fuel. They had purchased tickets for a non-stop flight. A landing anywhere other than St. Maarten would have been cause for concern. On those occasions when the plane did have to stop for fuel, the job of placating the passengers was usually left to the flight attendants. Few people argued with the decision, though. One look at the vast expanse of open water beneath them was enough to convince even the most irascible of passengers of the merits of having adequate fuel
.

With lunch having been served, the three flight attendants made a pass through the cabin to collect the trash. Once that task was completed,
they had some free time to themselves. They usually found an empty passenger seat to sit in and spent time reading or working on company-related paperwork
.

The passengers took the opportunity to stretch. A few walked to the rear of the cabin to visit one of the two lavatories on board. Others slept, lulled to sleep by the quiet hum of the slipstream
.

Entertainment choices on the flight were limited. There was no in-flight movie. While that amenity was available on some of the larger commercial jets, such as the Boeing 747 first introduced a few months earlier, the DC-9 was not so equipped. There were also none of the electronic accoutrements that today's airline passengers enjoy. There were no laptop computers, PDAs, CD players, MP3 players, personal DVD players, in-seat video displays, etc. The walkman would not be introduced for another nine years
.

A few passengers lit up cigarettes to help pass the time. Not only was smoking permitted, there wasn't even a separated smoking section. Smoking sections would not appear on commercial airline flights until 1973. The total banning of smoking on domestic flights and most international flights would not occur until 1991
.

The primary source of entertainment on board was reading. Some of the bestselling titles out during this time period include
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou,
Love Story
by Erich Segal, and
The French Lieutenant's Woman
by John Fowles. Other notable titles that might have been in the hands of passengers include three 1969 best sellers:
The Godfather
by Mario Puzo,
Deliverance
by James Dickey, and
The Andromeda Strain
by first time novelist Michael Crichton.
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A few passengers no doubt would have been reading the newspaper. The
New York Times
for May 2, 1970 offered a perfect snapshot of what was going on in the world at the beginning of the new decade. The lead story concerned troops arriving in Cambodia. The story was accompanied by a photograph showing troops jumping out of a helicopter
that had just touched down on Cambodian soil. Two weeks earlier, President Nixon had addressed the nation with news of a planned withdrawal of over 150,000 troops from Vietnam. The Cambodian involvement, which Nixon claimed was necessary to eliminate a major Communist staging and communications area, fueled the fires of war protesters and demonstrators who felt that Nixon had gone back on his word. A few states were forced to call out the National Guard to help control disorderly protestors. A day earlier, the
New York Times
had run a story on the front page concerning students protesting on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio. A photograph showing student demonstrators going head to bayonet with National Guardsmen dressed in full battle gear and wearing gas masks took up most of the front page.

Inside the paper there was a story concerning two of the three Apollo 13 astronauts. Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert, along with several of the Apollo 13 flight controllers, were honored with a parade in downtown Chicago. Fred Haise, the lunar module pilot on Apollo 13, was still recovering from the urinary tract infection he developed on the historic flight the month before.

In the sports section, the big story was the ninety-sixth running of the Kentucky Derby, scheduled for later that afternoon. The favorite to win the race was the horse Terlago. In golf, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus battled for the top spot at the Byron Nelson Golf Classic in Dallas, Texas. Arnold Palmer had the lead going into Saturday's third round.
*

Lastly, in the business section there were several stories related to the struggling economy. The country was at the halfway point of a recession that had begun in the third quarter of 1969. The DOW closed at 733.63.
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In early January, a few days before the New York–St. Maarten flights were scheduled to begin, Steedman received word that Douglas Aircraft had come up with a new drift-down procedure for the DC-9. This was the requirement for a two-engine aircraft to be within one hour of a suitable landing field in the case of the loss of one engine. Douglas Aircraft engineers had come up with a procedure that met the FAA requirement. It meant that ONA would not have to fly the longer route via the Bahamas. That same day, Steedman learned that the FAA and the CAB had granted approval for the flights. Steedman, who had given ALM the go ahead to market the flights even though the route had yet to be approved, breathed a sigh of relief.

The New York–St. Maarten flights finally began on January 14, 1970. The plane was N935F, nicknamed the
Carib Queen
. All of ONA's aircraft were given nicknames. The nicknames were painted on the aircraft below the Captain's window. Steedman most likely came up with the name while dabbling with the riverboats the
Delta Queen
and the
Mississippi Queen
. The sleek jet was less than a year old.

Several weeks after the twice-weekly flights to St. Marten began, an FAA examiner threatened to suspend the flights indefinitely. The reason: the FAA examiner wanted to do a line check on one of the flights and was told that he couldn't because the jump seat was occupied. An agreement was worked out very quickly, in writing, that stated the navigator was to occupy the jump seat unless an FAA examiner requested the seat. In this case, the co-pilot was to perform the navigator's duties. The agreement satisfied the FAA examiner, and the flight resumed after a lengthy delay. The examiner occupied the jump seat, and the navigator sat in the cabin.