When it failed to land at John F Kennedy Airport, the plane crashed into a hillside in nearby Long Island.
The crash was blamed on the pilots failing to articulate to ground control operators that they were desperately low on fuel.
At no point did the pilots ever say the words “emergency” or “mayday”.
Because the plane landed nose-first on a hillside nose-first, the pilots and most of first class were killed.
Of 158 people on board, 73 were killed.
Most of those who survived were severely injured.
No warning of a looming crash came from the cockpit, so passengers did not know to assume a brace position.
One survivor, Jose Orlando Figueroa, was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.
When cutting him open, surgeons found something unexpected – four cocaine-filled condoms.
If any of the cocaine condoms had burst while inside the digestive tract, it would have meant instant death.
Doctors were afraid to operate further, for fear of cutting a hole in any more condoms.
In the days following, he “expelled” 98 more drug-filled condoms.
Another passenger, Antonio Zuluaga, had suffered a fractured spine, broken ribs, a broken knee and a dislocated hip.
Despite his injuries, he attempted to flush packets of cocaine down a hospital toilet before being caught by a nurse.
Zuluaga was also smuggling the drugs internally.
Figueroa was sentenced to seven years in prison. Zuluaga was given a six-year term.
