MD-88

If the pilots make any mistakes, their aircraft could slide off the runway and into the freezing waters of Flushing Bay.

What neither pilot knows is that on this morning, a combination of bad weather and psychological factors would conspire with the unique feature of the MD-88's design to make a safe landing all but impossible.

This is the story of Delta Airlines Flight 1086.

Now, a few of you have told me that you like to fall asleep listening to my videos.

On board were 127 passengers, three flight attendants, and two pilots.

They were not to know as they boarded the aircraft this morning that this would be the last flight ever flown by this aircraft.

The aircraft was a 27-year-old McDonnell Douglas MD-88.

The MD-88 is a safe and reliable short to medium-haul aircraft which Delta used extensively for its domestic routes.

I mean, you know, I try to kind of stick more toward real-world operations.

However, with all that being said, you know, I'm still that guy who's sending the snot out of the flight of Mad Dog X, MD-88, and MD-83.

So...

We,

And the, uh, airplane th- that had already been scheduled for retirement at a, at a relatively slow pace, uh, that was all accelerated.

And I was the second group of captains that was, uh, displaced, or were displaced off of the 727, and that's when I ended up, uh, flying the airplane that I was never, ever gonna fly, uh, the, uh, MD-88, MD-90, and did that for 18 years-

[laughs]

... and 12,500 hours.