Accidents Archives - Page 6 of 19

Behind the scenes of ‘The Plane Crash’

If you saw the recent Channel 4 documentary “The Plane Crash,” The Independent has a lengthy article about the four year quest to crash a Boeing 727 in order to make the documentary. That’s because US aviation officials would not allow a crash on its soil for fear that control over the aircraft would be loss and National Geographic, the programme’s co-producer, pulled out. Moreover, the jet that was intended to be used contained depleted uranium in its wings – something that would not fly with authorities nor with environmentalists.

Mexico’s civil aviation authority eventually granted permission for the British production and the Discovery Channel to stage the crash in a remote and uninhabited corner of the Sonoran Desert with the aircraft being piloted by James “Jim Bob” Slocum, a captain with FedEx who has survived three plane crashes. He and the crew parachuted a few minutes before impact with the aircraft being flown remotely from an aircraft behind it before it was sent plunging into the ground (You can view the crash sequence on The Independent’s website)

After the crash, scientists descended on the crash site and made the following, perhaps not so shocking conclusions that: 1) The pilots and front-row passengers would almost certainly have been killed, 2) Passengers in the centre would have survived with minor injuries and 3) Passengers in the rear would have been mostly unharmed.

I am not so sure if those are ground breaking conclusions given that the plane was intentionally sent nose first into the ground but it does suggest that cockpits and the front section of commercial airliners could use some strengthening.

Of course and as usually, there were some interesting and rather amusing comments posted with the article, including:

They need to make a film about our current government, which is a real “plane-crash in slow motion”

And:

Could have saved all that bother by wiring up a regular Aeroflot flight using a Russian rustbucket.

Plus:

Plane nose dives into ground. Scientists surprised that front is destroyed, rear less damaged.

But one of the best comments was:

Idea for new BBC show, ‘Celebrity Plane Crash’. Graham Norton and Jessie J try to land a passenger jet after a mid-air engine failure over the Andes. Viewers can adjust the plane’s flaps using the red button.

As for the documentary’s producer Geoff Deehan, he is looking for other “big bang” projects so long as it has “a scientific purpose” and no doubt, can generate some ratings! So perhaps we can look forward to watching a staged train crash or nuclear meltdown…

Accident report faults pilot for severely damaging a Tiger Moth in Wales

Back in August, we noted the story of a Tiger Moth pilot who managed to walk away after clipping a tree and crash landing in Denbighshire in north-east Wales but now the official report by the Department for Transport’s Air Accident Investigation Branch is out about the incident and naturally the pilot does not come out looking very good in it.

To recap, the pilot had phoned a local named Pam, also a member of the Mold Camera Club, to ask who owned a field next to hers and whether he could use it to land. He later did a fly by of the field, flew a little lower for a second look and on the third attempt, clipped some trees because he could not pull up due to powerlines.

According to the official accident report as noted by the Wales Air Forum, the unnamed pilot had identified the field as a possible landing site three years earlier and he walked it twice on the morning of the accident which made him aware that it would be a difficult landing site approximately 200 yards long that steeply sloped upwards for its first half and less steeply for the second half. Moreover and at the northern end of the field, there was a “small earth bank, a low fence, two trees and power and telephone lines.” Hence:

It was evident to him any go-around decision would need to be made in good time and would require careful flying to avoid the wires and trees.
However as the pilot had recently completed a lengthy series of flights and had a good deal of recent flying practice he was confident a safe landing could be made.

When the incident happened, the pilot made a flypast and an initial approach that had to be abandoned because the aircraft was too fast. On the second attempt, the pilot crossed a hedge but he also became aware that he was not only too fast to safely land, he was also too low to climb above the obstacles at the other end of the field. Hence, he opened the throttle to maintain flying speed and fly between the trees but while concentrating on flying through the space between the fence and the wires, he instead hit tree branches with the aircraft’s right wing tip.

According to the accident report:

The pilot observed the choice of landing site was not a good one and he had not adhered to his own pre-flight plan to go-around if the approach was not entirely satisfactory.

Of course his observation was made after he severely damaged a 73-year old aircraft and nearly killed himself along with the mother of Pam who was standing in the spot he crashed a few moments before. No word on when or whether the aircraft will be flying again – along with the pilot…

Pilot (knowingly) flies a defective aircraft (with predictable results)

General Aviation News will often reprint excerpts from National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident reports, including one from an August 2010 report about an incident involving a Ryan Navion B in Fort Myers (Florida) that led to substantial damage to the aircraft but no injuries. According to the accident report, the pilot of the aircraft had discovered that the elevator trim adjustment wheel was binding when it was set to the full airplane nose-up position. He made the discovery on his previous flight and he planned to have the aircraft inspected after the flight was concluded.

However and upon landing at his destination, the pilot discovered that all of the airport facilities had closed for the evening. Hence, he decided to continue with his plans to pick up passengers and then he departed for his home airport.

The flight home was normal until the pilot began to trim the aircraft for the landing flare. At that point, the aircraft pitched up uncontrollably and the left wing hit the ground – causing substantial damage. The investigation revealed that the trim wheel was binding on the instrument panel when the trim was set to a nose-up position but when the trim wheel was removed from the trim system, the rest of the mechanism could move in both the up and down directions.

Hence, the binding of the trim wheel on the instrument panel was ruled to be the probable cause of the accident but also the pilot’s improper decision to depart from the airport with a known mechanical problem was also ruled to be a cause. In other words, he should have made the difficult decision to spend the night at his destination rather than risk his life and the lives of his passengers along with those on the ground by taking off and trying to get home.

Introducing the Aviator Tactical Vest (or Rescu-Me Survival Vest)

Most UK based pilots probably aren’t flying to the types of remote “back country” areas that North American pilots may fly to or over but General Aviation News has recently profiled the so-called Aviator Tactical Vest (or Rescu-Me Survival Vest) that still might be worth considering as its designed for the worst case aviation scenario – a 72-hour stay in the roughest terrain after an off-airport landing in a remote area. Its designer, Jim Herbert, who has more than 40 years experience as both a pilot and a back country guide and firefighter, noted that most of the crash sites he has seen involves a tail that might be separated from the cockpit by as much as 400 feet. And if all of your survival gear is in that tail (like in the movie Alive about the 1972 Andes plane crash of the Uruguayan rugby team) , you will have a big problem.

Hence, Jim has designed a vest made of 1000 Denier Cordura, a very heavy weight nylon with a urethane coating that will protect against hypothermia in winter as well as reflect summer heat away from the body. The vest, which comes in black or a woodland camouflage design that reverses into a high visibility orange, has the following features:

“Prioritized pockets” in which equipment necessary for survival are arranged in the order of usefulness with the upper left pocket intended for a navigation compass, flash gear and a small first aid kit while the larger right hand pocket which can hold a Personal Locator Beacon, a radio and a fixed bladed knife. A 3,600-calorie food bar also sits in a pocket opposite a water purification filter, water purification tablets and heavy duty ziplock bags.
Included with the vest is a shelter blanket, a micro-fiber blanket that is intended to wick moisture away from the body, a hood stowed in the collar and 50 feet of military spec chord.
Each vest has a high visibility RESCU ME panel to signal search and rescue aircraft.
For the pilots who don’t want to wear the vest in the aircraft, there is an egress pack designed to drape over the seat consisting of a nylon pouch that can be removed with one tug of a release rip-chord.

And while buying such a vest might seem like a precautionary overkill if you are a pilot who flies around the UK, the vest was also designed with outdoorsmen like hunters, boaters or hikers in mind – meaning pilots or non-pilots alike who engage in outdoor activities might want to consider getting one.

A basic Aviator Tactical Vest sells for $260 while a fully loaded one weighing 11 pounds sells for $440. For more information, visit Jim’s website at Rescu-me.com.

Leading British wine merchant dies after a skydiving collision

Over the weekend, Patrick Sandeman, the 53 year-old co-owner of Lea & Sandeman wine merchants which has been called the best wine shop in London, died after crashing into a French skydiver (causing the pair’s parachutes to collapse) 50 feet from the ground. The incident happened above the Sibson airfield, near Peterborough, Cambs. The 28 year-old French skydiver was air lifted to Cambridge where he remains in a serious condition with severe spinal and lower leg injuries.

Witnesses are saying that conditions were still and sunny but there appeared to be too many skydivers in the air – a charge the skydiving company (UK Parachuting) is denying. The British Parachuting Association (BPA) along with Cambridgeshire Police are conducting a “board of inquiry” but a spokesman for the former has already stated that there is nothing to suggest that there were too many people in the air at the same time.

A parachuting coach who was waiting to board the aircraft was also quoted in the Telegraph as saying that there was a "normal number of people jumping" due to restrictions on the aircraft but parts of Sandeman’s and the French skydiver’s parachutes got tangled as they were moving and collapsed – causing both to fall too the ground (The French skydiver managed to land on his feet).

Sandeman was a fixture in the UK wine scene for some thim as his multi-million pound wine business was established in 1988 with partner Charles Lea and now has four locations in Chelsea, Kensington, Barnes and Chiswick, west London. He had also been named the London Merchant of the Year several years in in a row.

Who’s fault is a crash?

Insurer: It was pilot error.
Pilot: It was design error.
Insurer: I disagree. The pilot is at fault for trusting the designer…