American Airlines Flight 965 departed Miami International Airport on the evening of December 20, 1995, bound for Cali, Colombia, with 155 passengers and 8 crew members aboard. The Boeing 757-200 was a Christmas holiday flight: families heading home, travelers reuniting. The routing was straightforward, the aircraft was in good working order, and the experienced crew
Continental Connection Flight 3407 departed Newark Liberty International Airport late on the evening of February 12, 2009, already two hours behind schedule. The Bombardier Q400 turboprop, operated by Colgan Air on behalf of Continental Airlines, carried 45 passengers and 4 crew members on a routine 53-minute flight to Buffalo Niagara International Airport. At the controls
When a reporter from Inside Edition cornered Kenneth Copeland at a private airport in 2019 and asked why he couldn’t fly commercial like everyone else, the televangelist’s face shifted from composed to something closer to rage. He leaned in, voice rising: “You didn’t ask that question — don’t even bring that up again.” It was
TWA Flight 800 had already been on the ground at John F. Kennedy International Airport for more than an hour when it finally pushed back from the gate on the evening of July 17, 1996. The aircraft was a Boeing 747-131, registration N93119, manufactured in 1971 and now in its 25th year of service. It
LeBron James is worth over $1 billion. He is the first active NBA player to reach that milestone. He earns tens of millions a year from his Nike lifetime deal alone, holds stakes in Liverpool FC, the Boston Red Sox, and the Pittsburgh Penguins, and runs one of sport’s most successful business empires. He does
Most billionaires buy a private jet and move on. Larry Ellison bought a Gulfstream, sued a city for the right to land it after dark, staged mock dogfights over the Pacific in a retired Italian Air Force trainer, and tried to import a decommissioned MiG-29 fighter jet from Russia. The US government stopped him on
The tail numbers are the first clue. N887WM commemorates August 1987, the month Bill Gates met Melinda French at a Microsoft dinner in New York. N194WM marks January 1994, the month they married in Hawaii. Both registrations are held by MENTE LLC, a Gates-controlled entity in Washington State, and both aircraft are Gulfstream G650ERs worth
Airplanes cruise at 460 to 575 mph, take off near 170 mph and land near 160 mph. Real speeds by aircraft type, and why every site quotes a different one.
ValuJet Flight 592 departed Miami International Airport on the afternoon of May 11, 1996, bound for Atlanta on what should have been a routine two-hour flight. The aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, registration N904VJ. There were 105 passengers and 5 crew members on board. The weather was clear, visibility unrestricted. Six minutes after takeoff,
