The Incredible Story of FedEx Flight 705
Christopher J. Hawkins
Utah Valley University
The Incredible Story of FedEx Flight 705
When you think of flying inverted, you probably picture the famous scene from Top Gun, where Tom Cruise’s character, “Maverick,” describes his encounter with a MiG-28 to Charlie Blackwood, a civilian instructor at the Top Gun school he is attending. Maverick claims that, while flying an F14A Tomcat, he was “in a 4G inverted dive” and “keeping up foreign relations” with the MiG-28 (Simpson & Bruckheimer, 1986). Although the movie explains that this maneuver contradicts US intelligence surrounding the performance of a MiG-28, it’s not uncommon for similar types of maneuvers to be performed by highly trained fighter pilots in high-performance fighter aircraft.
However, you probably wouldn’t expect a three-engine, quarter to half million pound (empty/maximum payload) McDonnell Douglas DC-10 to fly “inverted” (Airliners.net). But on Thursday, April 7, 1994, that’s exactly what happened to FedEx Flight 705. It’s an incredible story and one that’s not well-known.
The FedEx DC-10 was scheduled to fly from Memphis, Tennessee to San Jose, California. Three crew members were scheduled for the flight: Captain David Sanders, First Officer Jim Tucker, and Engineer Andy Peterson (Hirschman 1). They had been called in at the last minute to replace the crew operating an earlier flight. That crew recorded one minute over their maximum allowed flight hours of eight and were mandated to rest for the next sixteen hours (Hirschman 5).
Joining the crew on the flight (at the last minute) in the jump-seat was Auburn Ralph Calloway, a FedEx engineer and former US Navy aviator. Calloway was part of the grounded crew from the previous flight. He was scheduled for a disciplinary hearing the next day “to review the ‘historical flight time data’ that Calloway had provided to FedEx when he applied for a job six years ago. The company was taking the highly unusual step of questioning him about ten-year-old flight records from the Navy” (Hirschman 6). Hirschman goes on to explain that Calloway believed that he was certain to lose his job and likely wouldn’t be able to seek out employment as a pilot ever again (7). He “had hurriedly put his financial affairs in order,” and sent his money “to his ex-wife and two children in California” (8).
Since Calloway had been bumped from this flight, he had to make a slight change to his suicidal plan. It was simple: board FedEx Flight 705 as a now jump-seater with a guitar case containing “two claw hammers, two sledge hammers, a knife and a spear gun” (Hamilton). He would then hijack the plane, using the blunt-force weapons to help conceal any injuries that the crew would sustain. He wanted the incident to appear to be an accident, not a hijacking. His intended target was the FedEx headquarters building in Memphis, his employer whom he believed had wronged him (Hamilton).
After takeoff, the flight was uneventful until they approached FL180. Calloway arose from his seat and attacked the crew with one of the hammers. Captain Sanders said that he saw Calloway with the hammer before he struck him in the head three times (Hamilton). The three crew members were seriously injured. First Officer Jim Tucker was at the controls and unable to use his right arm or leg, while Sanders and Peterson engaged Calloway in the cargo area. Sanders explained that Tucker performed a variety of acrobatic maneuvers in an attempt to prevent Calloway’s further attacks: “Jim pulled up the nose and rolled the airplane in a 135 degree bank, disconnected the autopilot and rolled out of 13,000 feet with no severe damage to the airplane” (Hamilton).
After a prolonged struggle and getting tossed around the cargo area, Captain Sanders was able to gain control of Calloway’s grasp on the hammer and “struck him until the attacker stopped moving” (AEN Logistics Ltd.). The battle was only half over, as the severely injured crew still needed to land the plane. Sanders took over the controls from Tucker, and over the next twenty-five minutes “flew the airplane as fast as I could safely” back to Memphis (Hamilton). He was able to land safely, where airport personnel boarded, restrained Calloway, and began treating the crew members.
A summary of the crew’s injuries is detailed in a US Court of Appeals brief, US v. Calloway (1997):
The crew of Flight 705 sustained serious injuries. Co-pilot Tucker suffered severe skull fractures, and he developed motor control problems in his right arm and right leg. He was also partially blinded in one eye as a result of Mr. Calloway's attempt to gouge the eye out. Pilot Sanders suffered several deep gashes in his head, and doctors had to sew his right ear back in place. He was stabbed in his right arm and had a dislocated jaw. Flight engineer Peterson's skull was fractured and his temporal artery severed. (US v. Calloway)
Because of the severity of their injuries, Tucker, Sanders, and Peterson were unable to recover sufficiently to be medically cleared to fly again professionally (Hirschman 268). Fortunately, “FedEx had agreed to keep [the three pilots] on the pilot seniority list with full benefits until they reached the mandatory retirement age, and the company fulfilled its promise,” even holding a retirement ceremony when they reached that milestone (Hirschman 269). Later, Tucker was able to recover enough to fly light sport aircraft and teach his son how to fly (Hamilton).
On May 17, 1994, Calloway was indicted on two charges by a federal grand jury: “attempted aircraft piracy” and “interference with flight crew members” (US v. Calloway). He was later found guilty on both charges. Calloway appealed, and the US Court of Appeals (Sixth Circuit) reviewed the case. The charge first charge of “attempted aircraft piracy” was affirmed, and the charge of “interference with flight crew members” was vacated (US v. Calloway). Calloway was later sentenced to “two consecutive life sentences in a Federal Prison” (Hamilton).
Calloway remains incarcerated today. On January 6, 2017, he authored a letter to President Barack Obama, which was published on PardonPower.com, a “nationally recognized blog” that publishes presidential pardon news. Calloway wrote, in part, “Although I incurred the most serious injuries in the fracas, I took full responsibility and apologized to my fellow crew members in a letter that was published in the local newspaper. I derived no possible benefit from my conduct, which makes what I did a self-victimizing ‘crime’ with no criminal intent” (Calloway). President Obama did not grant his pardon request.
Despite incurring $800,000 in damages (US v. Calloway), the DC-10 used in the incident (N306FE) was repaired and remains in service today. The crew of FedEx Flight 705 demonstrated exceptional heroism that day, and in May 1994, were awarded a gold medal for heroism by the Airline Pilots Association, “the highest recognition a civilian aviator can receive” (AEN Logistics Ltd.). A comprehensive account of the incident is documented in Dave Hirschman’s book, Hijacked: The True Story of the Heroes of Flight 705, which I highly recommend.
References
AEN Logistics Ltd. (2015, August 19). Remembering FedEx flight 705 that flew upside down. Retrieved from http://aenlogistics.com/general-interest/remembering-fedex-flight-705/
Airliners.net. McDonnell Douglas DC-10 & Boeing MD-10. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2018, from https://www.airliners.net/aircraft-data/mcdonnell-douglas-dc-10-boeing-md-10/279
Calloway, A. (2017, January 9). Open letter to president [Letter written January 6, 2017 to President Barack Obama]. In Pardonpower.com. Retrieved from http://www.pardonpower.com/2017/01/open-letter-to-president.html
Hamilton, P. R. (2011, October 30). Life changer – the horrific story of FedEx flight 705. State Aviation Journal. Retrieved from http://stateaviationjournal.com/index.php/news/life-changer-horrific-story-fedex-flight-705
Hirschman, D. (1997). Hijacked: The true story of the heroes of flight 705. New York: William Morrow.
Simpson, D., & Bruckheimer, J. (Producers) & Scott, T. (Director). (1986). Top gun [Motion picture]. USA: Paramount.
US v. Calloway, 116 Federal Reporter 3d Series 1129 (United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit June 20, 1997) (Leagle, Dist. file).