Remote Niger Desert DIY Memorial for DC-10 Plane Crash Victims

November 5, 2013 12:07 PM

In 1989, Libyan terrorists blew up UTA 772, killing 170. 18 years later, Les Familles de l’Attentat du DC-10 d’UTA created the memorial, visible via Google Earth, with the help of local inhabitants. As these photos and their captions reveal, it's a touching story and a fitting memorial. Google Maps image is here. Information about the crash of UTA Flight 772 from Wikipedia is here.
posted by carmicha (21 comments total)

That's absolutely stunning.

Wouldn't the shifting sands just completely obscure this over time, though?
posted by BrianJ at 12:26 PM on November 5, 2013

Wouldn't the shifting sands just completely obscure this over time, though?

I was thinking the same thing, but a not unfitting end to the monument if so. I don't have Google Earth to say for sure, but the monument itself is six years old. Like memory and emotion, if it fades over time it wouldn't be inappropriate for an event of its magnitude.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:52 PM on November 5, 2013 [5 favorites]

Wow, that is so very cool.

I had the same thought about the sand. Is this only gonna last a few years? If the wreckage of an entire plane can be obscured in 25ish years.....
posted by nevercalm at 12:56 PM on November 5, 2013

Ogre Lawless, that's a really beautiful way of thinking about it.

I shared the link with my partner and he pointed out that sands in the desert are constantly shifting so the likelihood that part of it is always visible is very high. I certainly hope that's the case.
posted by BrianJ at 12:59 PM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

After the poxyclips this will be the stuff of legends.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 12:59 PM on November 5, 2013

That's a really lovely and appropriate memorial, even down to the impermanence of it.
posted by tavella at 1:04 PM on November 5, 2013

I really like it. I also wonder what their intentions were about the memorial's longevity -- if the impermanence was a design feature, or if there was a plan for maintenance.
posted by Dip Flash at 1:09 PM on November 5, 2013

That's a really lovely and appropriate memorial, even down to the impermanence of it.

Well put.
posted by destro at 1:19 PM on November 5, 2013

Should shifting sands cover the memorial, what will future archaeologists will make of it?
posted by carmicha at 1:44 PM on November 5, 2013

Should shifting sands cover the memorial, what will future archaeologists will make of it?


I'm pretty sure there are some plaques there too.
posted by ReeMonster at 1:52 PM on November 5, 2013

They'll assume it was used to predict the perihelion, of course.
posted by IAmBroom at 2:37 PM on November 5, 2013

That is a wonderful memorial for them. Extremely moving.

.
posted by arcticseal at 2:39 PM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

A stunning example of what a unified team can do with the simplest of materials. The logistics were nearly insurmountable, and yet they did it. Well done, humans.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 2:40 PM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

.
posted by Mister Bijou at 2:42 PM on November 5, 2013

I suspect it might be visible longer than expected. Wreckage tends to get covered because it sticks up and forms a barrier that sand collects against. Being flat, the wind will sweep over it, scouring as well as depositing, and it looks like they picked a fairly level plain. Still, someday the sands will shift enough, a dune will move across it, and it will be buried like many other memories in the Sahara.
posted by tavella at 5:02 PM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't assume that this much construction work would be abandoned to the vagaries of the desert. I would assume that the builders would travel back to maintain it as necessary for some indeterminate time.
posted by dhartung at 5:04 PM on November 5, 2013

I thought this was very neat, but the way the article is written annoys me enough that I will probably never read anything at that site again.
posted by rhizome at 5:08 PM on November 5, 2013

It's a beautiful tribute, AND a beautiful design. I love how clean the lines are, and how perfectly aligned with the xy of the map it is. Plus the way the compass rose fits with the airplane design, and the understated motion lines, which becomes all the more impressive when you remember the physical toil involved in them.

Maybe that's the wrong primary reaction to have, but yeah. Beautiful.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 6:52 PM on November 5, 2013 [2 favorites]

A more recent image on yahoo maps shows it partially obscured by sand.
posted by Long Way To Go at 7:03 PM on November 5, 2013

Also on Google Earth, a couple of photos show it partly sanded over (search for "UTA 772").

But the monument is still perfectly visible, one assumes from a great height.

Also, some 25 km roughly west of the site is a well, in the middle of nowhere, apparently donated by the UTA 772 Foundation (as far as I can make out from the plaque).
posted by aqsakal at 12:51 AM on November 6, 2013

Abdullah Senussi, brother-in-law of Muammar Gaddafi, you are a gutless creep.
posted by Mario Speedwagon at 2:05 AM on November 6, 2013