This Is The Most Incredible Google Map Image You Will Ever Come Across!

Amazing Google Map Image of Plane Crash Tribute

On the 19th of September, 1989, UTA Flight 772 broke up over the Sahara Desert due to a bomb explosion at an altitude 35,100 ft. The wreckage was found near the towns of Bilma and Ténéré in Niger, with a death toll of 170 (155 passengers and 15 crew members). The terrorist attack was caused by six Libyans. Eighteen years later, the families of the victims came together to create a tribute to their lost loved ones at the crash site.

Since the location was remote, people were not easily available to collect the pieces of the wreckage. The association of families worked together with the locals to create a hand-made memorial using black stones to create a 200-ft diameter circle. The stones had to be brought in trucks from as far away as seventy kilometers due to the remoteness of the region. 170 broken mirrors, representing those who perished in the crash, were used to decorate the circumference of the circle. The starboard wing of the plane was collected 10 miles away from the site, dug up, cleared of sand, and brought to the memorial by truck where it was used to anchor the memorial. The memorial took two months to complete (May – June 2007). Typing coordinates 16°51’53″N, 11°57’13″E into Google Maps reveals the memorial.

Pictures of the work done to complete the sight are shown below.

Families of the victims gathering at the site

Eighteen years later, families of the victims gathered at the crash site to build a memorial.

Collecting the wreckage

Due to the remoteness of the location, pieces of the wreckage could still be found at the site.

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Black stones were laid out with the help of locals

The memorial was created by Les Familles de l’Attentat du DC-10 d’UTA, an association of the victims’ families along with the help of local inhabitants.

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The 200-ft diameter outline of the memorial

The memorial was built mostly by hand and uses dark stones to create a 200-foot diameter circle

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Broken mirrors were used to decorate the border of the memorial

170 broken mirrors, representing each victim, were placed around the circumference of the memorial.

170 mirrors were used, representing the number of victims

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Anchorage of the memorial

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The main body of the memorial

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Completed memorial

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The completed memorial.

The memorial was partly funded by the $170 million compensation package provided by the Libyan government.

The memorial as seen from above

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The memorial as seen on Google Maps

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18 comments

  1. Carson Young Reply

    Just wondering if there is a guy that is in charge of taking care of this? Is it a paid job or more of a volunteer thing? I doubt it stays in this condition in this area with the winds and sand as others were saying…. To be honest I think it’s awesome and more things like this would be cool to see done. Especially with better resources and more time/money

  2. mhed2002 Reply

    AMAZING wow how much took them to build it ? it look sooo big

    • Admin Reply

      Palal – Typing coordinates 16°51’53″N, 11°57’13″E into Google Maps reveals the memorial

    • Karen Reply

      The sands are taking over the memorial as of 7/17/15. Not visible using google maps but visible on google earth.

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