ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Western Airlines Flight 2605

Western Airlines Flight 2605 was a plane that crashed in Mexico City in 1979. Airplanes are like big buses in the sky that take people from one place to another. But sometimes, accidents happen and the airplane crashes.

So imagine, Flight 2605 was one such airplane. It was supposed to land at the Mexico City airport after flying for a while. But something went wrong. The pilots of Flight 2605 had trouble seeing the runway where they were supposed to land because it was dark and foggy outside.

When pilots want to land, they need to see the runway clearly to know where to go. Just like how you need to see the road when you ride your bike or drive a car. But because of the fog and the darkness, the pilots couldn't see the runway properly.

They tried their best to land the plane and follow all the instructions they learned during their training. They had many instruments in the cockpit that told them how high the plane was and if they were going in the right direction. But unfortunately, they made a mistake.

They thought they were closer to the runway than they actually were. So when they tried to land the plane, it hit a hill called Cerro de la Virgen. It's like when you're playing with your toy cars and you crash them into a wall by mistake.

The crash was very bad and many people on the airplane got hurt. Some even lost their lives, which is really sad. Rescuers came quickly to help the people who were still alive and took them to the hospital.

After the crash, people investigated what happened. They found out that it was a combination of bad weather, the darkness, and the pilots' mistake that caused this accident.

Whenever a plane crash happens, people learn from it to make flying safer in the future. So now, pilots are trained even better to handle foggy and dark conditions. They also have more advanced technology to help them see the runway clearly even in bad weather.

Flight 2605 was a tragedy, but it taught us important lessons about flying safely. People are always working hard to make sure that airplanes are as safe as possible, so that accidents like this don't happen again.