Strange and unusual accidents

Everskyward

Everskyward

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Everskyward
I saw this posted elsewhere and I thought it was interesting.

Strange and unusual accidents

I think this one was my favorite.

10/08/1947 American Airlines DC-4 El Paso, Texas
As a prank, a captain riding in the jump seat engaged the gust lock in flight. The command pilot, not knowing the gust lock had been engaged, rolled the elevator trim tab with no response. When the jump seat captain disengaged the gust lock, the aircraft went into into a steep dive, executed part of an outside roll and become inverted. Neither the command nor jump seat captain had seat belts on and they accidentally feathered No. 1, 2 and 4 engines when they hit the controls with their heads. No one realized it at the time but the feathering reduced power and allowed the co-pilot, who was strapped in, to pull out of the dive 350 feet from the ground.
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:eek:
 
Everskyward said:
aircraft went into into a steep dive, executed part of an outside roll and become inverted. Neither the command nor jump seat captain had seat belts on and they accidentally feathered No. 1, 2 and 4 engines
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"ah, back in the old days, when you could still have a laugh now and again!" :rofl:
 
jeez most of those are pretty sobering and tragic.
This sort of incident always intrigues me because it speaks volumes of human nature:
"Out of boredom, the captain and flight engineer decided to experiment and see what would happen to the autothrottle system if the circuit breakers"

I mean, all was fine with the world, and these guys suddenly bring it raining all down around them!
 
Out of boredom, the captain and flight engineer decided to experiment and see what would happen to the autothrottle system if the circuit breakers which supplied power to the instruments which measured the rotational speed of each engine's low pressure compressor were tripped. This led to engine overspeeding and destruction of the engine. Pieces struck the fuselage, breaking a window, causing rapid explosive decompression and a passenger was sucked out of the plane. The plane landed safely.
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This one has a similar theme. Don't play around in the cockpit!

Edit: Oh, I see others picked up on the same thing while I was multitasking! :)
 
The aircraft crashed after a captain allowed his child to manipulate the controls of the plane. The pilot's 11 year old daughter and 16 year old son were taking turns in the pilot's seat. While the boy was flying, he inadvertently disengaged the autopilot linkage to the ailerons and put the airliner in a bank of 90 degrees which caused the nose to drop sharply. The co-pilot pulled back on the yoke to obtain level flight but the plane stalled. With his seat pulled all the way back, the co-pilot in the right hand seat could not properly control the aircraft. After several stalls and rapid pull-ups the plane went into a spiral descent. In the end, the co-pilot initiated a 4.8g pull-up and nearly regained a stable flight path but the aircraft struck the ground in an almost level attitude killing all 75 aboard.
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That sure puts a damper on the whole "Kids and aviation" thread....:frown2:
 
While cruising at FL 350 a loud noise was heard followed by a severe jolt. The No. 3 engine separated from the aircraft. A damaged O ring allowed leakage from the forward lavatory waste drain valve. Four gallons of fluid leaked and froze on the exterior of the plane and then broke away in chunks and smashed into the engine. The plane landed safely
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I guess it really does hit the fan sometimes.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
This sort of incident always intrigues me because it speaks volumes of human nature:
"Out of boredom, the captain and flight engineer decided to experiment and see what would happen to the autothrottle system if the circuit breakers"

I mean, all was fine with the world, and these guys suddenly bring it raining all down around them!
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Maybe it would have been better for them to alleviate their boredom by looking at laptops. Oh wait...

I do agree with what you said about human nature. The "Let's see what THIS does!" impulse is sometimes pretty strong.
 
gprellwitz said:
This one has a similar theme. Don't play around in the cockpit!

Edit: Oh, I see others picked up on the same thing while I was multitasking! :)
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What happened to the two jackasses who caused a passenger to get sucked out of the plane? I wonder if the lawsuit personally applied to them? Wonder if it hit the std of gross negligence.
 
Everskyward said:
I do agree with what you said about human nature. The "Let's see what THIS does!" impulse is sometimes pretty strong.
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I have flown many airplanes that have switches that no one knew what their purpose was. Some unlabelled, some with cryptic labels...but nothing in the manuals and other pilots/instructors just did not know what they were for. At times we would be bored and start looking around, find them: "hey, do you know what this does?".
It has taken some thought to truly appreciate the value of an airplane quietly doing what it is supposed to (making progress to the destination under power, under control)....and that restraint is sometimes the best characteristic of the people occupying the front seats!
 
Everskyward said:
Maybe it would have been better for them to alleviate their boredom by looking at laptops. Oh wait...

I do agree with what you said about human nature. The "Let's see what THIS does!" impulse is sometimes pretty strong.
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I've heard that exact phrase a few times from the back of the sim - on CHECKRIDES no less. Generally the phrases are aimed at the magical FMS, but I actually witnessed a guy turn off all autopilots and SAS systems. That one bruised me up good as I bounced around the back of the sim like a ping pong ball until we finally exceeded parameters and red screened.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I have flown many airplanes that have switches that no one knew what their purpose was. Some unlabelled, some with cryptic labels...but nothing in the manuals and other pilots/instructors just did not know what they were for. At times we would be bored and start looking around, find them: "hey, do you know what this does?".
It has taken some thought to truly appreciate the value of an airplane quietly doing what it is supposed to (making progress to the destination under power, under control)....and that restraint is sometimes the best characteristic of the people occupying the front seats!
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Yeah, don't ever touch the dirty switches, only the shiny ones.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
It has taken some thought to truly appreciate the value of an airplane quietly doing what it is supposed to (making progress to the destination under power, under control)....and that restraint is sometimes the best characteristic of the people occupying the front seats!
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That is true but it has taken a lot of time for the human factors people to emphasize this kind of training. The impulse to experiment out of either boredom or curiosity is pretty strong and it takes some mental discipline to counteract that.
 
woodstock said:
What happened to the two jackasses who caused a passenger to get sucked out of the plane? I wonder if the lawsuit personally applied to them? Wonder if it hit the std of gross negligence.
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I couldn't find anything about a lawsuit but I found the NTSB report.

I thought it was interesting that they spent much more time on the mechanical aspects of the failure and not the crew. The crew gets a mention at the very end of the conclusions. I think it would be different today.

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12-01-1959, Alleghney Airlines Martin 202 - Crashed onto a mountain after a malfunctioning compass indicated an erroneous heading. Only one of the 25 passengers survived, found up in a tree, still buckled in his seat. This was his second plane crash.
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:target::target::target:

Gotta wonder if he ever flew again...
 
Here is a strange and unusual accident with which I am quite familiar (http://www.airdisaster.com/reports/ntsb/AAR76-17.pdf), as its denouement took place in 1976 just down the street from where I was living at the time.

It happened to be the very first DC-6 (XC-112A) built, flying for Mercer Airlines. Mercer had a contract to ferry Navy personnel back and forth from the mainland to Navy bases on San Nicholas and San Clemente Islands. This particular trip was to be a short hop from KBUR (Burbank, CA) to KONT (Ontario, CA) with only three flight crew, two cabin crew and a deadheader aboard. As it lifted off KBUR Rwy 15 a blade separated from the #3 engine, tearing the engine from its mounts. The engine landed on the intersection of the two runways. The airplane’s hydraulic system was trashed as well. The pilot continued the takeoff (there is a cemetery and mausoleum immediately south of Rwy 15) and nursed the airplane through a low-altitude 270-degree right turn and landed successfully on Rwy 7 (now Rwy 8). But he realized that without brakes there was no chance of stopping before running through the fence, across Hollywood Way and into the gas station across the street. So he made it a touch-and-go.

He flew at about 250 AGL six miles west to KVNY, which had a longer runway. What he didn’t realize at the time was that #2 engine oil was also lost and failure of that engine was imminent. When #2 quit the airplane could no longer maintain altitude, coming down just south of the approach end of KVNY Rwy 34L in an under-construction golf course. They might have been all right had they not hit the concrete foundation for what was to be the golf course starter’s shack. The three cockpit crew died; the three in the cabin walked away.

My wife and I came home from church that rainy Sunday morning to find Woodley Avenue blocked off by emergency vehicles just south of our apartment.
 
Pilawt said:
Here is a strange and unusual accident with which I am quite familiar (http://www.airdisaster.com/reports/ntsb/AAR76-17.pdf), as its denouement took place in 1976 just down the street from where I was living at the time.

It happened to be the very first DC-6 (XC-112A) built, flying for Mercer Airlines.
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Holy mackerel!

During a post-accident fire, ten firemen were burned; three, seriously
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EDIT: read the report, now I understand why the above occurred:

A fire erupted about 20 minutes after the crash while firemen were engaged in rescue activities.
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I ran across this site today while researching one of the incidents Ernest Gann mentioned in "Fate is the Hunter." Not quite as much detail as those above, but lots of interesting history.

http://www3.gendisasters.com/
 
RickH said:
I ran across this site today while researching one of the incidents Ernest Gann mentioned in "Fate is the Hunter." Not quite as much detail as those above, but lots of interesting history.

http://www3.gendisasters.com/
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Speaking of Gann....the DC-6 at Bryce crash was referenced in Fate is the Hunter, although the cause wasn't mentioned:

"While transferring fuel from one tank to another, the crew allowed fuel to overfill and overflow out the vent. A design flaw allowed the gasoline to be carried back in the slipstream to the cabin heater combustion air intake scoop. When the cabin heater came on, an explosion and fire destroyed the plane killing all 53 aboard."

Only problem with the description that is listed on the unusual accidents page is that it doesn't quite jive with other accounts of the accident. The fire had broken out and the pilots were attempting an emergency landing at Bryce when the crash occured.
 
Jack Spectre said:
May I ask which incident you were researching, and if you found anything?
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It was just the passing remark at the end of a chapter..."Steen and Fox were killed trying a single-engine approach at Moline"... I'm only 100 miles or so from Moline and was just wondering when it happened and if I could find any additional information. The website I linked does have a news item about it.
 
RickH said:
It was just the passing remark at the end of a chapter..."Steen and Fox were killed trying a single-engine approach at Moline"... I'm only 100 miles or so from Moline and was just wondering when it happened and if I could find any additional information. The website I linked does have a news item about it.
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That makes it sound like it was in a single-engine plane. It was, however, in a multi-engine plane that had one engine on fire. Maybe they shut it down, so it was then a "single-engine approach". Only the pilots died. The passengers were ok.

http://www.planecrashinfo.com/1946/1946-40.htm
 
TangoWhiskey said:
+1. I was referring to how it was expressed in the book, not to how you expressed it.
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RickH said:
It was just the passing remark at the end of a chapter..."Steen and Fox were killed trying a single-engine approach at Moline"...
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I don't see that. When someone writes about a "single-engine approach" it's usually because they started out with more than one.
 
Wow. I think I'd just go home and try again another day:

Just after the aircraft took off from San Francisco International Airport the No. 4 engine disintegrated tearing off 25 feet of the right wing. An emergency landing was safely made at Travis Air Force Base. A plane was dispatched to pick up the passengers at Travis Air Force Base. While attempting to land, and in plain view of the passengers, the nose gear collapsed.
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In 1970 I was taking my CFI training at an FBO at Santa Barbara, CA. During that time a newly-minted private pilot rented a new American AA-1 Yankee from that FBO for a local flight north toward Solvang.

Y'know how Grumman/American airplanes are placarded that the canopy may only be opened a few inches in flight? Well, here's why. When this fellow opened the canopy all the way in flight it came off the track and lodged against the horizontal stabilizer.

The airplane came down in a stand of old oak trees. Maybe it's apocryphal, but I was told that he was initially uninjured, and broke his leg when he fell out of the tree.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=1319&key=0
 
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