Wayfarer 515 was a 737 commercial airliner that collided with a chartered plane in the sky right above Walt's house in Albuquerque, NM. ("ABQ") All 167 people aboard both planes were killed, however the debris from the wreckage managed to avoid claiming any other victims on the ground and neither plane was full (515 was about two-thirds or three-quarters full). ("No Mas")

The incident was due to air-traffic controller error, the man responsible being Donald Margolis. Donald, still grief-stricken over the recent death of his daughter, Jane, gave incorrect instructions that sent Wayfarer 515 off its path ("ABQ").

For a period after the incident, many people wore light blue and orange ribbons in memory of tragedy. Saul Goodman wore his ribbon for a much longer time than others because he was attempting to drum up business in the form of lawsuits against the airline. "The tragedy is profound. The pain is profound. And believe me, the settlement will be profound."^[1]

J. P. Wynne High School held an assembly led by Principal Carmen to discuss the incident. After one of the students related how his neighbor found human legs in his front yard, Walt became defensive and urged everyone to look on the bright side of the disaster, saying that at least it was no Tenerife. ("No Mas")

Walt was second handedly responsible for this incident because of his second hand involvement in the death of Jane. This ultimately culminated the results of Donald Margolis feeling grief-stricken and accidentally giving wrong instructions for the incident to occur.

Themes

Main article: Seven Thirty-Seven Down Over ABQ

In the episodes "Seven Thirty-Seven", "Down", "Over" and "ABQ", it depicted of a pink teddy bear in Walt's swimming pool. The teasers of the episode would show evidence being collected from the debris of Wayfarer 515. Though it was unknown to the audience at the time of teasers, it was revealed in ABQ that the teasers were the aftermath of the incident.

Trivia

• Walt says that with 167 people killed, this was tied for 50th among the worst aviation disasters in history. This matches the list of worst disasters at PlaneCrashInfo.com.
• The incident is hinted at in the episode titles throughout the second season: "Seven Thirty-Seven", "Down", "Over", "ABQ".
  • Each of these episodes also has a teaser which involves a pink teddy bear floating in Walt's pool that is later collected as evidence. The bear is the first piece of debris to land after the crash.
• The crash is similar to the Uberlingen mid-air collision in 2002. Two aircraft, one passenger and one cargo, collided in the midnight skies over Germany. 71 people were killed in the crash. The incident was also caused by air-traffic controller fatigue. The controller was later murdered by a family member of some of the victims.

Notes

1. ↑ "Better Call Saul: Wayfarer 515"