The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 160 - Fed Ex Fight 705

Episode Date: March 16, 2016

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine Fed Ex Flight 705. SOURCESTOUR DATES REDBUBBLE MERCH

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. My name's Dave Anthony. No let's start it differently. The way we usually do. Yeah.

The fuck is happening. Guten Dave. Guten the regular thing. You're listening to the dollop. This is an American History podcast. Each week I read a story from American history to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. Do you want to look who to do? I'll do one buck. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gareth. Dave okay. Someone or something is tickling me. Is it for fun? And this is not gonna become the tickly podcast. Okay. You are queen fakie of the town. All hail queen shit of Liesville. A bunch of religious virgins go to mingle and do what? Pray. Hi Gary. No. Is he done my friend? No. April 7th. Oh boy.

1994. Oh shit. Okay. Is this the right date? Oh well this is a tough start. I thought it was 1974. I'm pretty drunk. Jesus. Should I look it up? Sure. Let's take a little pause. Why don't you tell some people something? Oh what? I don't have anything. Come on. Live in live in live in live in up. Can we can we tell people about the hey can we tell people about the yeah sure. Well we're doing okay. This is what we'll talk about during the vamp session. We're doing a book. The dollop is doing a book. Our book will be out probably this summer. No it's it'll be out in 2017. It'll be out in 2017. Yeah. But we'll be done with it this summer. Yeah. And it's going to be pretty great and we're pretty excited. Yep. And the art so far is fantastic. Oh and the art. Oh the

art. I was showing some of the art to someone the other night like baby pictures. Yeah. I was like isn't it amazing. God bless him. All right. No it's April 7th 1994. All righty. FedEx Flight 705 a DC 10 was scheduled to depart Memphis Tennessee for a normal package delivery flight to San Jose California. This is a delicious start. The plane would leave a bit after 3 p.m. in the afternoon. The crew consisted of Captain David Sanders first officer Jim Tucker and flight engineer Andy Peterson. I mean those are the whitest names. Yep. These are these are the whitest of the whites. I mean my god. When they got on board they were surprised to see Auburn Callaway sitting in the flight engineer station in full flight gear doing pre-flight procedures. Okay.

Okay. Okay. So it was normal for FedEx employees to jump seat. Now jump seat is the term that is given to employees who will hop on a plane and then they're going to take a trip somewhere. So if you're a FedEx employee you just hop on a plane and then you can go take a free flight. Basically. Okay. That's pretty cool. So that's a common like thing. Sure. That would happen. You get on a plane and be guy but they're usually not in a flight suit and it's also weird finding them at the flight engineer station. I was gonna say free flight stuff. Right. Okay. I was gonna say this is actually a serious breach of protocol. Okay. But the crew said nothing. Hmm. And Callaway got up without saying a word giving the seat to the actual flight attendant and flight engineer

Andy Peterson. As Peterson went through his normal routine he found that the circuit breaker for the cockpit voice recorder had been tripped. The circuit. Okay. The circuit breaker. So he turned off the circuit breaker. Okay. So Peterson reset the breaker so the voice recording was functioning again. Okay. Albert Callaway was employed as a flight engineer for FedEx. He had gone to Stanford University and he had learned to fly in the Navy but currently he had a problem. The company had learned his resume had been embellished. Oh boy. Overstating his flying experience in the Navy specifically the reporting of his flight hours. Okay. And FedEx had scheduled a disciplinary hearing which was to take place the next day. I'm starting to get a little concerned about what

he was doing up there. Really? Yeah. No. It'll be fine. Well. Maybe he just wants a like a flight to just like take his mind off of things like you like if you're maybe in a bad mood you got him to go for a nice drive up in the hills. Right. It's like that. Right. Well it isn't like that. So Callaway was looking at a possible termination and in his mind he was definitely going to be fired. That's what he thought. Okay. And he thought he was being singled out for being a black man. Okay. Well he was among the three widest pilots on earth. Thank you. That's probably why they didn't say shit. They were like whatever you want man. Okay. Yep. Godspeed my brother. I shouldn't have said that. Sorry. He had he had originally been scheduled to be on this flight as a flight

engineer. Right. But then they found out he was a lying pilot. He put the lie and fly. But Callaway and his crew had gone over the maximum number of flying hours by one minute the day before so he couldn't fly on this day. Okay. So he did sign himself to get in the jump seat you know and do that. Okay. He is supposed to be on the plane but he was formally supposed to be in the in the cabin. Right. Okay. So he's not just a passenger and he went and he strapped himself into the jump seat just outside the cockpit for the takeoff. The plane took off was being flown by co-pilot Jim Tucker. There was no. Okay. They didn't. Yeah. They weren't freaked. They were just like oh whatever. He was just playing pilot for a minute. Yeah. Yeah.

They didn't and the the circuit breaker didn't. He actually left. He actually the guy the actual flight engineer left and then when he came back the circuit breaker had been flipped again and he turned it once. Yeah. This is okay. Well I assume it's just a ghost plane. Now he looks back and regrets retrospect. Okay. Well it's good to hear that he can look back because I was starting to worry about what was going to happen. Now Callaway had prepared for this flight. First he started rearranging his financial affairs. He had 40,000 worth of securities sent to his ex-wife and he sent her cashiers checks totaling nearly $14,000. They divorced four years before. They had kids. He went to FedEx employee benefits the FedEx employee benefits office

and changed the beneficiaries on his 2.5 million dollar life insurance policy. Then he put two claw hammers, two sledge mallets, a knife and a spear gun into a guitar case and brought it on board the plane. Is he Jason Bourne? What? Oh man. Two claw hammers, two sledge mallets, a knife and a spear gun. We're going to get some whales and build a wall. All on the guitar case. Was it movie Desperado? Yeah. Totally. This is Desperado. He put the guitar case with the cruise luggage. When the plane reached... I didn't know you played guitar. Yeah, it's in here. Yeah, there's just like 30 little ones in there. Metal ones. No more fucking questions.

Okay, so the plane reaches cruising altitude about 30 minutes into the flight and Callaway gets up. Which he's allowed to do now. Walks over to his luggage and opens up the guitar case. You're going to play us a little song, Callaway? Play us a little jam, are you? Takes out a claw hammer. You know what in your Vonda? Now, one may wonder why he had a claw hammer and mallets and things of that nature instead of maybe a gun or a machete. It's an odd assortment of weapons. I'm very puzzled by his plan. Well, when a plane crashes, victims are often covered in blunt trauma wounds from getting hit by things. Whoa. So any wounds from a hammer or a mallet or even a spear gun would be consistent.

What is he doing? The plane crash. But he... Okay. Callaway headed into the cockpit. The crew were looking out the window and Captain David Sanders pointed to the New Madrid fault line. This is from the voice recorder. Sanders, you see all those trees there? That's it. Tucker, I know it, but I wonder about that. You go wind and all the stuff over there where it's flat and you cross over that. And I wondered about that. That's not part of the no-viculite uplift and all that. That's further west, isn't it? Sanders, yeah. Tucker, nines and twos here. Peterson, after takeoff is complete. Do you live over in Arkansas, Dave? Or no, I live in

Fisherville. Ah, Fisherville. Then in parentheses, sounds of hammer blows striking pilots. What the fuck? Peterson, ow. Tucker, god. Oh, shit. Sanders, god almighty. Peterson, ah. Tucker, what the fuck are you doing? Sanders, god. Grown, grown, god almighty, god, god, god. Tucker, get him, get him, get him. Sanders, he's gonna kill us. Tucker, get him. Sanders, get him, get him. Peterson, I can't, god. Callaway had entered quietly and then just started swinging. First he hit Peterson with a few blows and then moved to Tucker and hit him repeatedly. When Sanders turned, he saw they were both soaked in blood and slumped in their chairs and Callaway was now moving towards him. Oh my god. It's a bad flight, right? Whoa, that's crazy.

Callaway swung at Sanders who deflected some of the blows while others hit him and then the plane started lurching. This is insane. What? The auto warning system started repeating bank angle, bank angle. So clearly the plane is fucking losing it. And then Tucker and Peterson both somehow were covered enough to get up and started to attack Callaway. Now Callaway suddenly is in the cockpit and he's surrounded by the three guys. So he starts swinging the hammer, right? One at a time, fucking keeping him back. You're just here. This is insane. I think I know why he wanted to disable the recording device. Oh yeah. I think it's because of this. Yeah. Don't you think? Yeah.

Yeah. So the crew was fighting back while they would try to reach out and write the airplane like in a movie. Right. Finally Callaway was forced to retreat from the cockpit. Jesus. So these guys are just all bloody. They've beaten with hammers. They were talking about, they were talking about where you live again. Yeah, hammer, hammer. Someone's hammering me. There's nothing worse than a surprise hammering. You live in Arkansas? I don't live in. Get treated like a nail. Treated like a nail. That would have been great if one of the guys just kept yelling I'm not a nail. I'm not. I think he thinks we're nails. We're not nails. Okay. Sanders, Tucker and Peterson were now just trying to figure out what the fuck had just

happened. Yeah, we all are. Trying to sort of, I mean they've been hitting the head with a hammer. So generally. Okay. It doesn't help you with the thinking. Okay. So let's just take a minute and let's just take a minute. My head. I'm having trouble thinking. I think I see brain. Okay, listen to me. Okay. So they hadn't really got. I don't think he plays the God gambit guitar. Do you guys see Desperado? Yeah, I think he desperadoed the cockpit. So do you live in Arkansas? By the way, I never got an answer on that. Where do you live? We're past that. Oh, you do live there. You know, I have an aunt and I used to spend every other summer that I'll get to it later. You're right. So, uh, so they're trying to gather their thoughts

and they didn't have, they didn't think the radio yet when Calay came back. Oh, fuck. This time with the spear gun. Oh, shit. You've been imagining. Oh God, now he's got a spear gun. What's he got next to cannon? And he yelled, sit down, sit down. This is a real gun. I'll kill you. Jesus. Both Sanders and Tucker then yelled repeatedly at Peterson to get Calaway. But Peterson was a mess. He was bleeding from a dozen wounds on his face and head. He was barely conscious and was unable to actually see Calaway because of all the blood. Oh my God. But he was able to see the steel of the spear gun, which was very close to his face. That's not good. But Calaway just kept yelling that he was going to kill them.

Peterson, then what? I still don't fully understand his plan. We'll get there. Okay. Peterson then grabbed the weapon and jumped on top of Calaway or he leaned on him. Either way, he just like put all his weight on him. He just like, I'm assuming he didn't jump on him. He probably just, he probably just Tyler dirt into him like in fight club. He probably just blinded him with blood back. You like that? Then Sanders jumped into the fight. Meanwhile, Tucker went to control the plane. Oh good. I'm glad somebody's like, yeah, you know what we need. Even though the right side of his body was no longer moving. Alrighty. He was paralyzed from blows to the head with a hammer that had sent parts of his skull into his brain. Oh God. Tucker also knew

his two wounded crewmates would not be able to fight off Calaway for very long. Most because Calaway was trained in martial arts. Oh God. And they both had new holes in their heads. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're bringing fists to a guitar fight. That's right. So he did what any bad ass pilot would do. He pulled the control yoke all the way up to his chest and rolled it to the left. He had just instigated a barrel roll. That's amazing for a DC 10 that was going 400 miles an hour. So he's Harrison Ford. That's so bad ass. Oh yeah. He can't move his left side. Yeah, but he's doing a barrel in a fucking DC 10, which aren't made to barrel roll. By the way, though, if you have a package on this plane, forget about it. The plane is not designed for a barrel roll.

The voice recordings reveal that Peterson and Sanders were shouting get him get him to each other while everyone fought. Then the plane rolled. First the plane went up and then it rolled and the three so when it went up, they they all went back into the galley. And then as it's rolling, they're flying around weightless and then slamming together in a heap and then flying because they're going from like four G's to no G's. Yeah. Wow. And then the plane was upside down at 19,000 feet. What? Oh, Jesus. Turns out Tucker was an experienced combat flight instructor. What the fuck is doing with his left hand? This dude. I'll do it left handed. He's huge glass and a cockpit. So upside down upside down. Now the air traffic. Did Jerry Brachheimer

produce this flight? Oh my god. I know, right? Yeah. Now the air traffic controllers are watching all this. Hey, how we doing up there, FedEx 101? Hey, boys. You boys been drinking a little bit? What's going on up there guys? I've seen an upside down thing here on my screen. Alrighty. So they desperately start trying to call the crew. Meanwhile, in the galley, the plane's upside down, and the three men are fighting on the ceiling. Jesus Christ, Dave. What? Callaway hit Sanders in the head with a hammer again. Now, Tucker's plan was to use the g force to toss them around the plane until he could land.

So he knows these guys can't hold them off. Right. So he's just going to keep fucking barrel rolling. They're rolling and taking the left and right and going up and down to make them just keep falling all over the place. That's his plan. So he kept the plane's flight unpredictable so Callaway couldn't finish off his attack. He put the plane into a vertical dive, but then realized he couldn't get the throttle. So he goes to a dive and he can't slow it down because he suddenly goes, oh, I can't move the right side of my body and the throttle's over on the right. Sweet God. So he's just nose dive. Now he's nose dive. Oh, God. Well, it's good though,

as those guys are all like pressed against the back. That's true. I mean, well, you know, it's like that that ride where you're just like pinned up against the wall. They're probably just still talking shit like, motherfucker, when do we get out of here? I'm going to take that hammer and shove it up your ass. So the plane kept accelerating. Honestly, though, do you play guitar? Do you? Are you a guitar guy? Can you play or what? The plane was now going faster than any DC 10 had ever gone. And it was actually not built for this kind of speed. It was going so fast. It was it was going past all the planes instruments. Like in a movie, you know, the the it goes like the plane goes to 500 miles an hour, but it's way it's like at the top of the dial.

Right. Okay. More right. Okay, right. Just the ferrying the needle. The frame of the plane would not be able to continue at this speed. So it's creaking and it's doing the whole thing. Somehow Tucker was able to get the plane out of a dive, then uses left hand to reach across and slow the plane down. Then he called air traffic control in Memphis. Hey, how are you guys? Sorry to take a minute. What's up on the ground? How you guys doing? What's up? Hey, Memphis, you still with me? parentheses struggling in the background. Unintelligible from Tucker, then shouting, then listen, hey, center struggling in the background.

Center. Give me a heading to Memphis. Struggling in the background. 090 Roger. This is an emergency. Then unintelligible. Struggling in the background from the rear of the plane. Let go of it. Let go of the spear. Jesus. I mean, if you if you're picking up like little stuff and that's one of the I think he just said, let go of the spear. No, that doesn't say it couldn't be. What are you guys? We heard spear. Are we are there? Do we have like divers on the scuba divers on the channel spear? What do you mean, beer? Must have been. They're drunk. You're right, Todd. They're drunk. Tucker 1000. Okay, keep me advised. Where's Memphis? Okay, say my direction to Memphis. Just keep me talking. Okay. Sanders yells, Jim. Tucker to center. Yeah, we needed ambulance and armed

intervention. Unintelligible, loud voice from the rear of the plane. Peterson yells, put it on autopilot. Tucker, I've got it. Peterson, help the son of a bitch is biting me. Oh my God, he's out of hammers. He's out of hammers. Tucker turned the plane around and headed back while they cleared the runway in Memphis. He took the plane down to 5000 feet to avoid explosive decompression. And back, Sanders and Peterson kept yelling for Tucker to put it on autopilot and help them. They could barely keep going from all their wounds. So they're like fucking bleeding out. And they've been hitting the head. Well, we've been focusing on the cockpit. I mean,

in the back of the plane, there is just constant beatings being tossed out. I thought coach sucked. Tucker continued to roll the plane from side to side to keep Callaway off his feet. He finally got the plane on autopilot and then limped back to see what was happening. There, he saw Peterson was on top of Callaway while Sanders held a spear gun to his throat. Oh my God. Yeah, everybody's a hero. You're just like, well, you guys have, you've coming to America this back. Tucker took the gun and held it on Callaway and Sanders went to the cabin, buckled himself in and got ready to land the plane. They were just like, all right, let's fly these packages.

And I was like, come on, try to land the plane. Callaway made one last attempt. He swung wildly at them and then tried to make a break for the cabin while Tucker and Peterson held onto him. So he's just like dragging him across this. Callaway then gouged out one of Tucker's eyes. Oh, I thought we were almost done. Come on. Peterson then handed Tucker a hammer and he hit Callaway with it, ending the fight. He ripped his eye out. Sanders landed the plane while he gouged it. So he poked it in. God, all right. It's a thumb. Sanders landed the plane as emergency vehicles and security waited. A paramedic quickly boarded and founded the plane completely covered in blood and gore.

There was blood from there was blood everywhere, like the whole cabin, the whole galley everywhere was just fucking covered in blood. Oh my God. Sanders and Peterson were laying on top of Callaway. Tucker was sitting in the copilot's chair shaking security handcuffed Callaway and took him away. Well, his FedEx hearing now is going to be way worse. Yeah, he's made it. He's a lot worse. I mean, this is another black ball against it. Yeah, this is like they're gonna, they're at the hearing they're like, look, we were actually ready to give you a pass. We were gonna say, just take some more hours of flying and then we'll let you be a pilot. But the whole thing about when you try to kill everybody. Yeah, now we have to suspend you two weeks. Okay. We don't want to,

but you need to learn a lesson. You can't take spears into a plane and look in every every have you seen Clockwork Orange because we're going to make you watch cast away. All right. This is the prequel to cast away. The next day, the FBI went to Callaway's apartment to investigate and learned of his plan. He wanted to take control of the plane using blunt force weapons, then crashed the plane into FedEx headquarters. Oh my God. If successful, the company would have been ruined. And it would look like they'd all died in an accident. His kids and wife would be taken care of with his life insurance policy. So all would be good. It's a terrible plan. Everyone would have been very suspicious when the plane hit FedEx. On paper. Right. It sounds

a little more okay. Because the truth is in execution. If you can't get the recording thing off, you're fucked. Yeah, it doesn't, you know, they'll they'll be able to find the recording and they will know that you were yeah, that the recording thing. So he tripped. He tripped the he tripped the breaker. But because it was turned back on, all he would have had to do was fly I think 30 minutes, he turned it off and then fly 30 minutes and then it would stop. Oh, really? So he could he could have just waited after he killed them or whatever he was going to do. Oh, okay. Jesus. Okay, good plan. So the information found in the apartment was very detailed, including a list of the crew. So they have their names and a list of his weapons. And he left a

will on the bed. Wait, if you leave a will on your bed, yeah, it's all isn't that a flag for foul play? I feel like it is, as well as leaving a list of the crew, all of that all of that is crazy. It all seems like he didn't cover that base very well. He's on the plane. He's like, I'm sure I put it away. Did I? I'm so sure that I put it. Oh, God, I feel like if I didn't, I did. I did. I'm just getting myself in one of those headspaces. I think I left the list of the crew and the weapons and what I was going to do and all of my life insurance stuff. And I think I left my will on the bed. Oh, well, we're here now. That picture of the plane with the big cross through it on the wall. And then an arrow pointing down to the FedEx headquarters. And I wrote I love

UPS and blood and feces on the wall. I will fly a plane into FedEx headquarters. I feel like I blew it. I should have cleaned. Oh, DHS is never going to hire. Well, they will. But yeah, they will. So Callaway was the postal service should have turned this into a campaign, right? We'll just get the shit there. Just get it there without all we don't hire crazy lunatics who have spear access post office. No hammers. Post office. Our employees don't bludgeon other employees with hammers. Well, okay, never mind. All right, actually, we're just as bad. Callaway pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. And the judge was like, Yeah, no, buddy. No, the jury convicted him on a two count indictment of attempted aircraft piracy

and interference of flight operations. And he was sentenced to life in prison with no parole. He is currently in a federal penitentiary in Victorville, California. You know, who else is in prison in Victorville? The guys from the Pendragon episode. Dude, imagine if they're playing dominoes. Oh my God. What are you in for? We were gonna put a laser up on top of a mountain and have our own kingdom. Oh, man, I was gonna fly a plane into the FedEx building. I tried to kill three pilot co workers and then fly a FedEx plane into FedEx. That's a better idea. Yeah, we both have same takes different different vision. Yeah. Now Captain Sanders had multiple lacerations to his head was stabbed in the right arm and had a dislocated jaw. His right ear was almost completely

severed. Sounds like a radium girl. So now remember, he wasn't just hitting him with the hammer part of the hammer, it was a claw hammer. So he was also yeah, no, it's clawing it up. Yeah. Jim Tucker's honestly, I'm surprised he didn't get it done. Right? I mean, these are very aggressive weapons. Just goes to show you that maybe the hammer is not as great as we think it is. The claw hammer is he's fucking he walks in. Dude, look, if you told me, I walk into a room, and I hit a guy three times in the head with a hammer. Yeah, hit another guy. Those in my in my brand, those guys are out. Yes, you put across the room. Yeah, check them off. Yeah. So clearly a hammer is not all it's meant to be. You know what I mean? Yeah, I think we're sniffing around our moral.

Jim Tucker's skull was severely fractured, including a very large hole. He would slowly recover from his right side paralysis, but would have impaired use of his right arm and leg the rest of his life. Jesus. And he lost sight in the eye, Callaway gouged. Annie Peterson also suffered several skull fractures, as well as a severed temporal artery. Oh, wow. So he's bleeding out. I mean, that's crazy. He's bleeding from head bleeding out. Yeah. Now, that's the worst kind of bleeding out. Your head just keeps pumping because it wants to get blood to your brain. It doesn't, it's not like we got to shut her down. No, yeah, you're flying a plane. Well, it's like just wipe the blood off the wood. The total damage to the plane was $8,800,000. In 1994, the three

men were awarded the gold medal for heroism by the Airlines Pilots Association. That's the highest award a civil pilot, a civilian pilot can get. None of them have been cleared to fly commercial aircraft and they won't be. But James Tucker has gone back to recreational flying. The plane involved in the struggle is still flying today, but we will be phased out in 2018. Jesus, that is crazy. It's good, right? That's crazy. I'll show you a picture. Oh my God, a picture. I do like a good picture. I've always loved a picture. I'm trying to find a nice bloody picture. Oh, well, spoiler. Oh, well, this is, they made a movie out of it, I guess, because that's... Yeah, it was called Snakes on a plane. They changed a bunch of stuff though. I don't think Snakes on a plane was real

or based on anything real. You know what I mean? Well, I don't know. There's a claw hammer on this motherfucking plane. All I can find is... Give me something. Yeah, I can't find the pictures I found before, but wow, I did find a picture of the redhead from Mad Men in Laundry. I'll look at that, sure. Oh, wow. I don't know why that came up. Blood Flight 705. Well, that's good for her. Do you know you're the first picture under the search? Maybe she was in the movie. I don't know. What was the movie? Well, there's just pictures of... There's pictures of what looks like a movie, but I don't know, they must have... I mean, how good could the movie have been? Not good. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Unless... Oh, there's the shirt, the bloody shirt. Oh my god. Oh, it just looks like he spilled barbecue all over himself. Maybe he was eating from his ear. Maybe he just had ribs. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my dude. You know, I gotta say, pilots are fucking awesome. Pilots are pretty good people. Can we just say how fucking amazing pilots are? Yeah. Because you put these guys in Scully... Yeah, Scully Sullenberger. I mean, that shit. I mean, it's just fucking amazing. I mean, doing a barrel roll of the DC-10... That is pitude. This is what we gotta do right now. Upside down. It might be the only thing where reality matches movies. Well, this is... I mean, everything you just said sounds like... If a lot of that was in a movie, I'd be like, no, come on.

Right. No, you would be... It's a little much, isn't it? Come on. Oh yeah, flip it upside down, throw it on autopilot. All right. You can follow us on Twitter at the dollop. You can follow us on Instagram dollop podcast. We are also on Facebook. Anything else? Nope. Patreon. Patreon. Yeah, if you want to donate to Patreon, please head over there to the dollop Patreon page. We're signing cars. Thank you.