|
4-16-09 - DREAM - I was in an airport waiting room,
waiting to go somewhere on a plane. Across from me, sitting on the
window sill were 6 or 7 pilots, all dressed in black leather, snoozing
before their flight took off. I assumed they were sleeping now so
they would be awake when they were actually flying.
Then a good looking man came along, and I was
attracted to him, however, his wife came along soon after and took him
away again.
Then a tall Chinese guy came by, and he looked
really familiar. I asked him if he was from Milwaukee, and he
said, "No!" But then, I asked, "Are you from Wisconsin?"
Again he said , "No!"
Then his wife came and led him away too, but before
he left, he pasted a sticker on the wall behind where he had been
standing. The sticker said, "You snooze - you lose!"
NOTE: The following day, on the
news were two plane crashes with several
deaths. I don't know how may others
didn't make it into the national newspaper. |
|
|
7-15-09
Scores killed in Iran plane crash
|
|
|
All 168 passengers and crew have died in
a Caspian Airlines plane crash in northern Iran, officials
say.
Wreckage was spread over a large area in a field in
Jannatabad village, Qazvin province, about 75 miles (120km)
north-west of Tehran, state TV said.
The Tupolev plane was flying from the Iranian capital
to Yerevan in Armenia, with mostly Iranian passengers.
The cause of the crash, which happened soon after
take-off, was unknown. One witness said it plummeted from
the sky.
"The 7908 Caspian flight crashed 16 minutes after its
take-off from the International Imam Khomeini Airport,"
Iranian Aviation Organisation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh
said, reported Iran's Press TV.
He said no problems were reported before take-off and
there would be a full investigation into the cause of the
crash.
At Yerevan's airport, one woman wept as she said her
sister and two nephews, aged six and 11, had been on the
flight.
"What will I do without them?" said Tina Karapetian,
45, before collapsing.
It was earlier reported that most of the passengers
were Armenian, but officials later said the majority on
board were Iranian.
A Caspian Airlines spokesman told Reuters news agency
up to 25 of the passengers were Armenians.
There were also two Georgians on the plane, which had 153
passengers and 15 crew.
'Big explosion'
One witness said the Tu-154 circled briefly looking
for an emergency landing site, while another said the
plane's tail was on fire.
A man who saw the crash said the aircraft exploded on
impact.
 |
ANALYSIS
Jon Leyne, BBC News
Iran has a notoriously bad air safety record.
Because of sanctions imposed by the United States,
Iran relies on an increasingly ageing fleet of
airliners, and has trouble buying spares.
There are tales of aircrew buying spare parts on
flights to Europe, then sneaking them back to Iran in
the cockpit. While those sanctions don't apply to
aircraft from Russia and Ukraine, many planes from
those countries in the Iranian fleet also appear well
past their best.
For some people, flying in Iran can be a
nerve-wracking experience. Stepping on board, it often
becomes quickly apparent you are in a plane that has
done many years service.
There are also frequent delays because of the
shortage of aircraft. Iranian engineers and aircrew do
their best to keep their fleets in service.
|
"I saw the plane crashing nose-down. It hit the ground
causing a big explosion. The impact shook the ground like an
earthquake. Then, plane pieces were scattered all over the
fields," 23-year-old Ali Akbar Hashemi told AP news agency.
Eight members of Iran's national junior judo team and
two coaches were on the flight, heading for training with
the Armenian team.
Mohammad Reza Montazer Khorasan, the head of the
disaster management centre at Iran's health ministry, said:
"All people aboard... the crashed plane are dead," according
to AFP news agency.
Television footage showed a massive crater in a field,
with smouldering debris over a wide area.
The Qazvin Fire Department Chief said: "The area of
the disaster is very wide and wreckage of the crashed plane
has been thrown around as far as 150 to 200m."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered his
condolences to the families of the victims.
|
|
IRANIAN PLANE CRASHES
Feb 2006: Tupolev crashes in Tehran, kills 29
people
Dec 2005: C-130 military transport plane crashes
near Tehran, kills 110
Feb 2003: Iranian military transport plane
crashes in south of country, kills all 276 on board
Dec 2002: Antonov 140 commuter plane crashes in
central Iran, kills all 46 people on board
Feb 2002: Tupolev crashes in west Iran, kills all
199 on board
|
The plane was built in Russia in 1987.
It was the third deadly crash of a Tupolev Tu-154 in
Iran since 2002.
The BBC's Jon Leyne says Iran's civil and military air
fleets are made up of elderly aircraft, in poor condition
due to their age and lack of maintenance.
Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, trade embargoes
by Western nations have forced Iran to buy mainly
Russian-built planes to supplement an existing fleet of
Boeings and other American and European models.
|
|
|
Iran Plane Crash Kills All 168 Aboard |
By Edward
Yeranian
Cairo
15 July 2009
|
|
 |
| Iranian workers search
site where Russian-made passenger plane crashed near
Qazvin, about 75 miles west of Tehran, 15 Jul 2009 |
An Iranian passenger jet flying from Tehran to the
Armenian capital Yerevan crashed in a field near the city
of Qazvin, killing all 168 people on board. The plane was
a Russian-made Tupolev model that is not allowed to fly
over Western Europe.
The plane, which belonged to Iran's Caspian Airlines, was
headed from Tehran to the Armenian capital Yerevan.
Iran's civil aviation authority spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh
told English-language Press TV the plane crashed 16
minutes after takeoff from Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport.
The Iranian News Network indicated the plane was carrying
Iran's national judo team, and a spokesman for the team
said he feared that its athletes, who were due to compete
in Armenia, were all lost.
The international spokesman for Iran's Red Crescent
Society, Abdal Raouf Adeeb, told al-Alam TV rescue workers
from his organization are sifting through the debris from
the plane.
He said the weather at the time of the crash was bad and
the plane crashed in a rural, farming area with few
residents. he said the plane broke up into very small
pieces, making identification difficult. He also noted the
black box from the plane was found and it should
eventually reveal the cause of the crash.
The plane, a Russian-built Tupolev 154M jet from the
1980s, is an aging aircraft that is no longer allowed to
fly over most western European airspace because of noise
regulations.
Unconfirmed reports said the Russian pilot of the plane
may have been attempting an emergency landing after facing
engine problems, shortly after takeoff.
Iranian TV showed a large crater and indicated the plane
was probably traveling at high speed when it crashed.
Iran has suffered from a rash of plane crashes in recent
years, due to an aging fleet of passenger jets, many of
which are leased from Russia. Economic sanctions have also
prevented Iran from purchasing spare parts for many of its
older Boeing and Airbus jets.
|
|
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7-13-09
Dies in Plane Crash
Ohio Wesleyan University
Online - Delaware,OH,USA
Larry Eberst, former assistant men's basketball coach at Ohio
Wesleyan, died in a plane crash yesterday. Eberst joined
the Ohio Wesleyan coaching staff ...
|
Alaska Plane Crash Kills Mustang Man
KOCO - Oklahoma City,OK,USA
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Troopers confirm a man from Mustang was killed in an
Alaska plane crash. Robert Whitesell, 63, of Mustang was one of
two people killed in ...
See all stories on this topic |
|
7-12-09
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|
7-9-09
|
|
7-8-09
|
|
7-7-09
Papa John's franchisee Daniel Dorsch, wife die in plane crash
Bizjournals.com - Charlotte,NC,USA
National Transportation Safety Board investigators are trying to
determine the cause of an airplane crash that killed Tampa
businessman Daniel Dorsch and ...
See all stories on this topic
Yemen: 8 bodies in Tanzania may be from air crash
The Associated Press
... from a plane that plunged into the Indian Ocean with
153 people onboard, Yemeni authorities said Tuesday. Only one
12-year-old girl survived the crash. ...
See all stories on this topic
Plane crash kills former Checkers CEO
The Star-Ledger - NJ.com -
Newark,NJ,USA
The former head of Checkers fast food restaurants and his wife are
believed to have been killed Sunday -- possibly with two others -- in a
plane crash in ...
See all stories on this topic |
|
7-5-09
BREAKING NEWS: Plane Crash Reported in Wayne County
WSAZ-TV - Huntington,WV,USA
(WSAZ) -- 911 dispatchers in Wayne County are confirming that a small
plane has reportedly crashed. Dispatchers say it was a plane
from Tri-State Airport ...
See all stories on this topic
|
|
7-4-09
Feds investigate fatal plane crash in N. Iowa
KTIV - Sioux City,IA,USA
More>> Associated Press - July 4, 2009 11:24 AM ET LATIMER, Iowa (AP) -
Federal agencies are investigating a small plane crash in
northern Iowa that left ...
See all stories on this topic
Plane Crash Leaves Minister Dead
KGBT-TV Presents VALLEYCENTRAL.COM
- Harlingen,TX,USA
AP Video By Ryan Wolf WESLACO -- The Federal Aviation Administration is
in the Valley to investigate Friday's deadly plane crash at the
Mid Valley Airport ...
See all stories on this topic |
|
7-2-09
|
|
7-1-09
One dead in plane crash near Beaver Dam Wash
St. George Daily Spectrum - St.
George,UT,USA
A plane piloted by the Civil Air patrol initially located the
crash site and guided the recovery team using GPS coordinates.
Tersigni said the Sheriff's ...
See all stories on this topic |
6-30-09
Yemeni plane with 153 crashes off Comoros Islands
By TOM MALITI and AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 6 mins ago
MORONI, Comoros – A Yemeni jetliner carrying 153 people crashed into
the Indian
Ocean as it came in
for a landing during howling winds on the island nation of Comoros.
There were conflicting reports about whether a child survived.
The crash came two years after aviation officials reported faults with
the plane, an Airbus
310 flying the last
leg of a journey from Paris and Marseille to Comoros, with a stop in Yemen to
change planes. Most of the passengers were from Comoros, a former French
colony. Sixty-six on board were French nationals.
Comoran and Yemeni officials said Tuesday that either a 14-year-old
girl or a 5-year-old boy had survived. However, neither report could
be immediately verified, nor could earlier reports that three bodies
and some plane wreckage had been recovered.
Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammed Abdul Qader said theflight
data recorder had
not been found and it was too early to speculate on the cause of the
crash. But, he said, the wind was 40 miles per hour (61 kph) as the
plane was landing in the middle of the night.
"The weather was very bad," he said, adding the windy conditions were
hampering rescue efforts.
The Yemenia plane was the second Airbus to
crash into the sea this month. An Air
France Airbus A330-200 crashed
into the Atlantic
Ocean on June 1,
killing all 228 people on board, as it flew from Rio
de Janeiro to Paris.
The Comoros is an archipelago of three main islands situated 1,800
miles (2,900 kilometers) south of Yemen, between Africa's southeastern
coast and the island of Madagascar.
It is a former French colony of 700,000 people.
In France, school vacations began this week and many on the plane were
heading home to visit.
Gen. Bruno de Bourdoncle de Saint-Salvy, the senior commander for
French forces in the southern
Indian Ocean, said the Airbus
310 crashed in deep
waters about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) north of the Comoran coast and
21 miles (34 kilometers) from the Moroni airport.
French aviation inspectors found a "number of faults" during a 2007
inspection of the plane that went down, French Transport Minister Dominique
Bussereau said on i-Tele
television Tuesday.
In Brussels, EU Transport Commissioner Antonio
Tajani said the
airline had previously met EU safety checks and was not on the bloc's
blacklist. But he said a full investigation was now being started amid
questions why passengers were put on another jet in the Yemeni capital
of San'a.
An Airbus statement said the plane that crashed went into service 19
years ago, in 1990, and had accumulated 51,900 flight hours. It has
been operated by Yemenia since 1999. Airbus said it was sending a team
of specialists to the Comoros.
The A310-300 is a twin-engine widebody jet that can seat up to 220
passengers. There are 214 A310s in service worldwide with 41
operators.
A crisis center was set up at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Many
passengers were from the French city of Marseille, home to around
80,000 immigrant Comorans, more even than Comoros' capital of Moroni.
Some French Comorans insisted that their earlier warnings about the
airline's safety weren't heeded by authorities.
Stephane Salord, the Comoros' honorary consul in Marseille, called
Yemenia's aircraft "flying cattle trucks."
"This A310 is a plane that has posed problems for a long time, it is
absolutely inadmissible that this airline Yemenia played with the
lives of its passengers this way," he said.
"Some people stand the whole way to Moroni," said Mohamed Ali, a
Comoran who went to Yemenia's headquarters in Paris to try to get more
information.
Thoue Djoumbe, a 28-year-old woman who lives in the French town of Fontainebleau,
said she and others had complained about the airline for years.
"It's a lottery when you travel to Comoros," said Djoumbe. "We've
organized boycotts, we've told the Comoran community not to fly on
Yemenia airways because they make a lot of money off of us and
meanwhile the conditions on the planes are disastrous."
Christophe Prazuck, French military spokesman, said a patrol boat and
reconnaissance ship were being sent to the crash site as well a
military transport plane. The French were sending divers as well as
medical personnel, he said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy "expressed
his deep emotion" about the crash and asked the French military to
help in the rescue operation, particularly from the French islands of
Mayotte and Reunion.
Yemenia airline officials say the 11-member crew was made up of six
Yemenis, including the pilot, two Moroccans, one Indonesian, one
Ethiopian and 1 Filipino. They spoke on condition of anonymity because
they were not authorized to speak to the media.
___
Al-Haj contributed to this report from San'a, Yemen. Associated Press
writers Deborah Seward, Angela Charlton and Greg Keller in Paris,
Sarah El Deeb in Cairo and
Yoann Guilloux in Saint-Denis
de la Reunion, Reunion Island, contributed to this report.
|
|
6-28-09
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|
6-27-09
|
|
6-26-09
BREAKING NEWS: Two dead in plane crash; coroner, NTSB headed to scene
Baxter Bulletin - Mountain
Home,AR,USA
A law enforcement officials on scene at a plane crash near Gaston's
Resort in Lakeview has confirmed there are two fatalities in the
wreckage. ...
See all stories on this topic
BREAKING NEWS: Plane crash fatalities now number 3
Baxter Bulletin - Mountain
Home,AR,USA
LAKEVIEW -- Lt. Terry Johnson of Baxter County Sheriff's Office
confirmed to The Bulletin that the number of fatalities in today's plane
crash now totals ...
See all stories on this topic |
|
6-25-09
Woman, 70, killed in Lamu plane crash
Daily Nation -
Nairobi,Kenya
By NATION Correspondent Posted Thursday, June 25 2009 at 21:43 A
70-year-old woman died and her husband sustained serious injuries when a
private plane they ...
See all stories on this topic |
|
6-24-09
Three area men killed in Iowa
plane crash
Janesville Gazette - Janesville,WI,USA
By GAZETTE STAFF Wednesday, June 24, 2009 - 10:09 am The Milton owner of
a small plane that crashed in Iowa on Tuesday said Milton businessman
Malcolm ...
See all stories on this topic
|
|
6-23-09
FAA says 3 die in small plane crash in NW Iowa
Chicago Tribune - United
States
AP DES MOINES, Iowa - The Federal Aviation Administration says three
people have died in a single engine plane crash near the northwest Iowa
town of Sheldon ...
See all stories on this topic
2 Dead After Small Kit-Built Plane Crashes in Arizona
FOXNews - USA
Both people on board died in the crash. The FAA and the National
Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.
See all stories on this topic
|
|
6-21-09
W. Texas plane crash kills Houston businessman, wife
Houston Chronicle - United
States
AP DOUGHERTY — A Houston businessman and his wife died when their small
plane crashed in a cotton field in Floyd County, about 50 miles
northeast of Lubbock ...
See all stories on this topic
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|
6-19-09
Pilot dies in small plane crash
WRAL.com - Raleigh,NC,USA
Shannon Lee Harrelson, 38, was the only person aboard the plane when it
down off NC Highway 410 at 7:07 pm, troopers said. More details about
the crash were ...
See all stories on this topic
|
6-18-09
Canadian war hero killed in Alta. plane crash.
Canada.com - Don
Mills,Ontario,Canada
By Cigdem Iltan, Canwest News ServiceJune 17, 2009 EDMONTON - The
pilot killed in the crash of a small aircraft in central Alberta
Monday was an 87-year-old ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Survivors Recall 1979 Cape Plane Crash
Boston Channel.com -
MA, USA
It was like being inside a grinder as the plane is being chewed up
by the trees," said passenger Bob Sabbag. The wings broke off and
the plane skidded to an ...
See all stories on this topic
|
2 dead in small plane crash near Lake Elsinore
San Jose Mercury News
- CA, USA
Authorities say a small plane that took off from Corona Municipal
Airport crashed into hills northwest of Lake Elsinore, killing
both people aboard. ...
See all stories on this topic
|
BRAZIL: Important clues on plane crash discovered
Chicago Tribune -
United States
... hips and arms of victims, injuries that -- coupled with the
large pieces of wreckage pulled from the Atlantic -- strongly
suggest the plane broke up in ...
See all stories on this topic
|
No French access to Brazil plane crash autopsies
Momento 24 - Buenos
Aires,Argentina
... he was unhappy that a French pathologist had not been allowed
to take part in autopsies in Brazil of bodies recovered after an
Air France plane crash. ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Plane Crash Victim's Family Files Lawsuit
WENY-TV -
Elmira,NY,USA
The family of a man killed in the Buffalo plane crash is suing
Continental Airlines and the flight's operator. Jeanie Bryson
filed a lawsuit in federal ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Local Native Testifies About Daughter's Death In Plane Crash
WFMZ-TV Online -
Allentown,PA,USA
... child within and raising a loving family, as we did. >> Since
the crash, Congress has been scrutinizing the pay and training of
regional airline pilots.
See all stories on this topic
|
|
6-17-09
Google News Alert for: plane crash
Texas airstrip owner dies in small plane crash
Dallas Morning News -
Dallas,TX,USA
AP The owner of an airstrip in East Texas died when his plane
crashed while on his way to pick up a student. The Department of
Public Safety on Wednesday ...
See all stories on this topic
|
NTSB cites power loss in plane crash
Brookhaven Daily
Leader - MS, United states
The 34-year-old city firefighter died in a plane crash near
Gallman that also claimed the life of Copiah County Airport
manager Gerry Mosely. ...
See all stories on this topic
|
CyberOptics Founder Steven Case Killed in Plane Crash
Semiconductor
International - USA
CyberOptics said its chairman and founder Steven Case died Tuesday
night when the small plane he was flying crashed. Case founded the
company, ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Small Plane Crash-Lands in Pouring Rain, Killing Pilot
FOXNews - USA
Laserman owner Bruce Miller confirmed to The Associated Press that
he owns the plane but says he did not know about the crash and
declined comment. ...
See all stories on this topic
|
No French access to Brazil plane crash autopsies
Reuters - USA
In order to establish the causes of the crash, the worst in Air
France's history, search teams must recover the plane's flight
data recorders or "black ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Plane crash leaves many questions, few answers
Albany Times Union -
Albany,NY,USA
SCOTIA -- Federal aviation officials are expected to release
preliminary findings next week in the plane crash along the Mohawk
River that killed a ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Plane crash near hotel results in one fatality
Winnisquam Echo -
Meredith,NH,USA
Evidence indicates the pilot, Stephen Cardelli, 50, of southern
Portland was in route from Laconia to Portland when shortly after
take-off the plane crashed ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Pilot hurt in light plane crash
Inquirer.net -
Philippines
By Frinston Lim TAGUM CITY, Philippines -- A light plane used to
spray chemicals over a banana plantation in Davao del Norte
province crashed in New Corella ...
See all stories on this topic
|
|
6-16-09
Six more bodies from Air France plane crash taken to dry land
Earthtimes (press
release) - London,UK
Rio de Janeiro - Six bodies recovered from the sea by a French
ship in the wake of the Air France plane crash off Brazil's
northeastern coast arrived ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Pilot dies in plane crash
Concord Monitor -
Concord,NH,USA
The plane was destroyed. An investigator from the National
Transportation Safety Board will be on the scene today. The last
fatal airplane crash in New ...
See all stories on this topic
|
plane crash victim named
BBC News - UK
A 15-year-old who died in a mid-air crash when his trainer plane
collided with a glider in Oxfordshire on Sunday has been named by
police. ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Investigators spend another day at plane crash scene
Laconia Citizen -
Laconia,NH,USA
By GAIL OBER Federal officials continue to probe into the crash of
a single-engine plane which took the life of the aircraft's pilot
and sole occupant. ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Victims of plane crash are named
Mirror.co.uk -
London,UK
Air accident investigators are looking into the crash on Sunday at
Abingdon, Oxon. Witnesses told how the two-seater RAF Tutor plane
"spiralled nose down". ...
See all stories on this topic
|
"Cornfield On The Hudson"; Small Plane Crash in Wales
WGRZ-TV -
Buffalo,NY,USA
Some may believe divine intervention aided efforts of an
experience flyer who crash landed the plane, and along with a
passenger, escaped without injury ...
See all stories on this topic
|
'No warning' in Air France plane crash tragedy
Aberdeen Evening
Express - Aberdeen,Scotland,UK
A Dutch ship towing a high-tech US Navy listening device was
trawling the Atlantic today for data key to determining what
caused the Air France plane crash. ...
See all stories on this topic
|
| |
|
6-15-09
Google News Alert for: plane crash
Cadet killed in RAF plane crash with glider named
Telegraph.co.uk -
United Kingdom
Stuart Wilson, 48, a heating engineer who saw the crash from a
field near his home said: "I saw the plane coming down vertically,
nose down. ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Islesboro Plane Crash
WABI - Bangor,ME,USA
The plane was flown by fifty-six year old Victor Hall of rockland
who was not injured in the crash. Hall had just taken off from the
Islesboro airport in a ...
See all stories on this topic
|
FAA Holds Regional Airline Safety Summit
ABC News - USA
Airlines are allowed to do that today but it became clear in wake
of the February plane crash in Buffalo, NY, that not all of them
do. ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Two dead in small plane crash
United Press
International - USA
SUNDSWVALL, Sweden, June 15 (UPI) -- A small plane crash in
northern Sweden Monday killed two people. The crash occurred
shortly after the plane took off ...
See all stories on this topic
|
No injuries reported after plane crash-lands
The Wenatchee World
Online - Wenatchee,WA,USA
EAST WENATCHEE — A single-engine airplane stalled on its approach
at Pangborn Memorial Airport and crash-landed about 2:30 pm
Sunday. ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Officials respond to small plane crash on Islesboro
VillageSoup Belfast -
ME, USA
By Holly S. Anderson ISLESBORO (June 15): Emergency officials
responded Monday to a small plane crash reported on Islesboro just
before noon. ...
See all stories on this topic
|
No cause yet in plane crash's preliminary report
WBIR-TV -
Knoxville,TN,USA
The preliminary report for a plane crash into Melton Hill Lake
describes the events but does not yet contain any cause for the
fatal crash. ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Plane crash kills two
Jackson County
Chronicle - Black River Falls,WI,USA
A preliminary accident report by the FAA listed the reason for the
crash as unknown. This is the second plane to crash in Jackson
County in less than two ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Police ID Gilford plane crash victim
Foster's Daily
Democrat - Dover,NH,USA
... remained at the crash site round-the-clock to insure nothing
is disturbed, and Detective Eric Bredbury said they will remain
until the plane is gone. ...
See all stories on this topic
|
Lake Spenard plane crash now on YouTube
KTUU -
Anchorage,AK,USA
by April Young ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Federal investigators are
looking into a plane crash that happened last Sunday near Lake
Spenard. ...
See all stories on this topic
|
|
6-13-09
Three killed in Northern Ireland plane crash
At least three people have been killed in a
plane crash in Northern Ireland, police have said.
By Lucy Cockcroft
Published: 7:00AM BST 13 Jun 2009
The four seater light aircraft came down in a field near
the Co Down harbour town of Kilkeel just after 9pm on Friday
night.
Police said they had recovered three bodies from the
wreckage, but gave no further details.
Officers and other emergency service crews are currently
at the scene near the Belmont Road.
There were reports of misty conditions at the time of
the crash.
Earlier this month two men escaped serious injury when a
light aircraft crash landed in a field in Co Tyrone.
The pilot and passenger required hospital treatment when
the plane came down close to Annaghquinn Road outside Pomeroy.
Despite the plane being badly damaged during the
dramatic landing the two men were able to make their own way
out of the wreckage.
In another incident an investigation has also been
launched after a plane had to make an emergency landing at
City of Derry airport in May.
At approximately 4.45pm a light aircraft landed at the
airport having reported technical difficulties.
Emergency services were waiting on the ground for the
arrival of the Robin DR300.
The pilot – who was alone in the plane – was uninjured
and did not require hospital treatment.
Police and fire crews were searching the wreckage to see
if anyone else was on board.
|
|
Investigation
into AN-32 plane crash begins
6-12-09
Shillong (PTI) The Indian Air Force
started investigations into the AN-32 transport aircraft crash
in Arunachal Pradesh that killed 13 defence personnel onboard,
including seven IAF and six army personnel.
Defence sources said a team of
experts from IAF has reached Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh on the
way to the crash site.
Depending on the weather, the team
would visit the crash site, collect the wreckage and trace the
cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder, a defence
spokesman at the Eastern Air Command told PTI.
The team may put up at Mechuka or
Along for a few days as it would not be easy for them to
complete investigation early due to hilly terrain and bad
weather.
The team would meet local villagers
who had reported to the police that they saw a ball of fire in
the air followed by defeaning sound on the day of the crash.
Officials at Eastern Air Command
here have not ruled out the possibility of a technical fault or
engine failure.
|
6-12-09
Arizona man dies in Neb. plane crash
Jun.
12, 2009 11:59 AM
Associated Press
ARTHUR, Neb. - An Arizona man has died in a small-plane crash
in western Nebraska.The Nebraska State Patrol says it
learned of the crash Thursday afternoon. The crash in Arthur
County, just east of the Nebraska Panhandle, killed the pilot
and lone occupant, 51-year-old Allen Peterson of Tucson, Ariz.
The patrol says the crash was not reported until a man
discovered the wreckage on his property about 17 miles northeast
of Arthur on Thursday.
The patrol says Peterson was an Arizona Highway Patrol
trooper and had been visiting family in Minnesota. The patrol
say he was returning to Arizona when his plane crashed.
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal
Aviation Administration are investigating.
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6-3-09
Two men killed in plane crash
By: ADAM
NORTHAM, DAILY LEADER Staff Writer
June 03, 2009
Photo By ADAM NORTHAM
Wrecker service crewman gather the remains of a
single-engine airplane that crashed near the Copiah County
Airport in Gallman Tuesday, killing both pilot and
passenger. Wesson flight instructor Gerry Mosley and
Brookhaven firefighter Stephen Davis were pronounced dead at
the scene.
GALLMAN - A plane crash near the Copiah County Airport
Tuesday afternoon claimed the lives of two men, both members of
the local pilot community in Brookhaven.
Copiah County Chief Deputy Tony Hemphill confirmed that flight
instructor Gerry Mosley, 54, of Wesson, and 34-year-old Stephen
Davis, a city firefighter from Brookhaven, were killed shortly
after 3:30 p.m. Tuesday when the small, single-engine aircraft
they were flying crashed and burned in an open field off Lilly
Road. The crash happened approximately a half-mile from the
airport.
Hemphill said both men were pronounced dead at the scene. He
said witnesses from the airport rushed to the crash site and
were able to pull Mosley from the wreckage, but were unable to
extract Davis due to the intensity of the flames.
"Witnesses from the airport said the aircraft made a circle in
the air (shortly after takeoff)," Hemphill said. "They heard the
engine shut off, heard the impact, saw the smoke and rushed
over."
Mosley - who officials said was piloting the plane - was a
certified flight instructor at Copiah County Airport, and Davis
was a member of the Brookhaven Fire Department and a reserve
deputy with the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department. Davis was
also an aircraft technician and licensed pilot, Hemphill said.
Copiah County Coroner Ellis Stuart said Mosley and Davis were
restoring the plane and had taken it up for a test flight.
The Federal Aviation Administration inspected the crash site and
is conducting an investigation. Hemphill said the official cause
of the crash would come from the FAA, and an autopsy has been
scheduled for both victims.
Witnesses and fellow pilots pointed to a small, broken branch
high above Lilly Road and said the plane struck the treetop with
its left wing.
Paul Barnett, chairman of the Brookhaven Municipal Airport
advisory committee, believes reports that the plane struck a
tree while in a powerless glide. He alleged the plane, which he
identified as a Zenair 801, struck two trees before flipping
over onto its back and crashing into the field.
Barnett said the men were likely attempting to land the plane in
the open field after losing engine power and determining they
could not make it back to the Copiah County Airport.
"They were on the downwind leg, turning to the base... that's
when the engine apparently lost power," he said. "With the wind
coming out of the south, it was enough such that they were
unable to glide to the runway, so therefore their intended point
of landing was the open field."
Barnett said he retraced the flight in his own plane late
Tuesday while moving one of Mosley's aircraft back to
Brookhaven.
"I put myself in the same position as they were," he said. "They
were definitely aiming for the field."
Barnett said he flew with Mosley Friday, calling him a close
friend.
"We spoke every day," Barnett said of Mosley. "He was a friend
to all. He was very giving, a very unselfish individual who
would do anything for anyone. He was a competent pilot,
competent mechanic and wonderful father."
Brookhaven Mayor-elect Les Bumgarner said the entire city is
saddened by the loss of Davis.
"Steve was a brave and courageous firefighter - a real man's
man, and one of our better firemen," he said. "This really puts
all these election concerns in perspective."
©The Daily Leader 2009
|
|
June 03, 2009
Telford Man Dies In Plane Crash
Published:
6:38 AM, 06/03/2009
Source: The Greeneville Sun
A Telford man died Friday, May 29, when his single-engine
airplane crashed in Dickenson County, Va., near the Kentucky
border.
The Associated Press reported that Victor Owens, Jr., 57,
of Conklin Road, Telford, left the Elizabethton Airport about
3 p.m. Friday aboard his 1963 Mooney M20D airplane on a flight
to Ashland, Ky.
But air-traffic controllers lost contact with Owens later
Friday over the Tivis Ridge area of Pine Mountain in Dickenson
County, Va.
The wreckage of his aircraft was sighted by Virginia Civil
Air Patrol searchers about 3 p.m. Sunday.
Ground searchers confirmed Owens' death about 4:30 p.m.
Sunday, according to the Virginia State Police.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is
continuing to investigate the crash.
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This plane crash may be look upon at a very spiritual event
because of the numbers involved.
The plane had
216 passengers and
12 crew. members. That is important to note.
I looked up the number 447 (the flight number) on our website, and on
one of our 11:11 pages,
a woman wrote to us and said that her special number was 447 and she
noted a particular crop circle from 1998, which I looked up and to her
it reminded her of an angel, and Joe connected it to Ascension, which,
if those people died in a crash (which is apparent at this moment)
ascension is exactly what they would do.
Big synchronicity there.
http://web.archive.org/web/19981205151329/http://www.greatdreams.com/ascend.htm
Air France AF 447 plane crash worst aviation disaster since
2001
This Airbus plane came down four hours into the flight
02 June 2009 @ 10:00 am IST
Paris - If no survivors are found from the Air France AF 447
plane, which was carrying 228 people on board went missing early
on Monday morning, it will be the worst loss of life involving
an Air France plane in the firm's 75-year history.
In this Sept. 17, 2003 file photo, an Air France
Boeing 747 jet lands at Charles de Gaulle airport in
Roissy, north of Paris. If no survivors are found from
the Air France AF 447 plane, which was carrying 228
people on board went missing early on Monday morning,
it it would be the deadliest disaster to strike in the
history of commercial airline since November. 12,
2001, when an American Airlines jetliner crashed in
the New York City borough of Q...
The plane was an Airbus 330-200 (EAD.PA) powered with General
Electric (GE.N) engines. If the plane is confirmed to have
crashed, it would be the first time an A330 has been lost
during an operational airline flight.Air France said the
plane had clocked 18,870 flight hours and went into service in
April 2005. It last underwent maintenance in a hangar in April
this year.
Related Stories:
Air France plane crash: What could have caused the crash
aviation experts debate
Air France plane crash: Airbus, GE Aviation rule out body,
engine faults
Chances of finding survivors in Air France plane crash remote
The last major incident involving an Air France plane was
in July 2000 when one of its Concorde supersonic airliners
crashed just after taking off from Paris, bound for New York.
All 109 people on board were killed along with at least
four on the ground.
Moreover, if all 228 people are declared dead, it would be
the deadliest disaster to strike in the history of commercial
airline since November. 12, 2001, when an American Airlines
jetliner crashed in the New York City borough of Queens during
a flight to the Dominican Republic, killing 265 people. On
February 19, 2003, 275 people were killed in the crash of an
Iranian military plane carrying members of the Revolutionary
Guards as it prepared to land at Kerman airport in Iran.
The worst single-plane disaster was in 1985 when a Japan
Air Lines Boeing 747 crashed into a mountainside after losing
part of its tail fin, killing 520 people.
This article is copyrighted by Ibtimes.co.in.
READ THE FOLLOWING POSTING BY JAMES MCCANNEY BEFORE READING THE NEWS
BELOW:
|
June 10,
2009 posting ... 00:30 AM CDT ... NEW POSTING ... today the news
agencies posted the following regarding at least a dozen other
planes that traversed the exact same route as Air France Flight
447 with NO SIGN OF SEVERE WEATHER ...
Airlines confirmed that at least a dozen aircraft
departed roughly at the same time and traversed approximately
the same route, but did not report problematic weather
conditions. This has led some aviation experts to suggest that
technical problems on the airplane might be the main cause of
the crash, though they may have combined with weather
conditions to create serious problems. ... (quote from CNN
... Candy Nugget News)
... holy smoooze nooooze
batman and robin ?)!*)_(&*#*&^ *# ... how stupid do they think the
public is ??? so .... "experts" implying someone that knows what
they are doing ... but no names given ... just the broad term
"experts" ... "suggest" ... hardly what you would call a
definitive word when talking about a major airline disaster !!!
"that technical problems" ... like a ultra modern aircraft coming
apart in pieces in the air all by itself in a clear blue sky !?!?!
"might" ... another maybe if gosh geee whiz possible word ...
"though they may have combined with weather" ?!??! they just got
done stating there was NO WEATHER AT ALL according to more than a
dozen other planes !!! "to create serious problems" ?!?!?! ... WOW
... these clowns really gotta stretch this a mile ... so more than
ever my analysis below becomes more relevant ... and i already
called the NO WEATHER issue exactly correct ... THERE WAS NO
WEATHER ISSUE THAT DAY !!!! SO GET OVER IT ALREADY !!! CLEARLY
THERE IS A MAJOR COVER-UP UNDERWAY and usual the international
news media is part and parcel to it ... make sure you read the
postings below ... the purpose of this posting is not to suggest
any cause of the air disaster ... but simply to point out that the
news media and those responsible for reporting are clearly not
involved in accurate reporting and are relying on skewed news and
repeating stories that could not possibly be true ... this page is
not where you should be reading this but in light of the fact the
no one else is covering this issue i am covering it here ... jim
mccanney
June 09,
2009 posting ... 09:30 AM CDT ... NEW POSTING ... regarding the
large turn radius indicated below of Air France Flight 447 ... the
implication is that the plane had lost control of either its tail
section or one of the engines (it is a two engine aircraft) and
thus the pilot was maneuvering with less than the normal control
surfaces or less one engine (or both) but was able to fly the
plane none the less making a large sweeping right turn as noted
below ... under normal flight conditions the turn would not have
take the 50 plus miles that is indicated by the path of the debris
field ... the fact that a badly damaged wing section was found
independent of the rest of the debris field and also the tail
vertical stabilizer was found separately indicates the same
scenario ... the pilot clearly was flying the plane during this
maneuver and for some time after but unable to communicate to the
outside world ... this also relates to the locating of time and
place of the debris field finds and indicates further that there
should be a single debris pattern west of where the plane was when
the initial "event" occurred (to the west of the last known
location of the plane when flying normally) and this appears to be
the case from the debris locations (one debris pattern to the west
of the original last known location) ... with the rest of the
debris field to the south and east following a flight line south
after a large radius turn to the east and then south back to
brazil ... so the pattern that is implied by the debris field is a
loss of control in either or both the rear stabilizer and an
engine by severe trauma to the external air frame IN ADDITION TO
the breach from the inside of the plane ... the finding of both a
wing section and a tail section could imply the "both" scenario as
well as an unknown cause of a breach opening up the plane fuselage
to the external atmosphere ... but at any rate read the posting
below for more details ... jim mccanney
June 09,
2009 posting ... 1:30 AM CDT ... NEW POSTING ... AIR FRANCE FLIGHT
447 UPDATE ... i began my career of disaster analysis when i got a
real education in around 1986 when i was a guest speaker at Los
Alamos National Laboratories to talk about my electrical comet
concepts and plasma physics to the high energy group in residence
there ... the morning before my talk i spent with one of the
groups that was doing high altitude atomic bomb death calculations
... since then i have posted and analyzed everything from
hurricane death toll estimates to tsunami death toll estimates and
in some cases analyzed the reasons for some of these being man
made events ... there is a basic analysis that one must take in
assimilating information and examining the results ... all too
many times the standard news stories float a cover story that
continues to be repeated and repeated until it becomes "the truth"
... when analysis tells otherwise ... the fate of Air France
flight 447 is emerging to be one of these cases ... today i
finally had enough data to make the following analysis ... you can
also follow this and make your own decision based on factual
information presented here ... and if you come to the same
conclusions ... you will then ask yourself ... why is a story that
cannot possibly be true be promoted in the international press
???
Analysis of Air France Flight
447 : the flight recorders and computers spent approximately four
minutes sending alarm information before going silent ... the
standard news media story states that the plane was lost in severe
weather and due to misguidance from conflicting computer commands
it stalled or went too fast and therefore fell from the sky into
the ocean ... being ignored are the following reporting ... note
that it is not the reports of the "flash" seen by two other pilots
that is paramount here (although this may or may not be related to
the Flight 447 air craft) ... but the fact that the other two
pilots would even see a flash in a situation that the standard
news media was reporting as the plane flying through severe storm
systems and being hit by lightning ... clearly ... the visibility
for the other two pilots to report seeing a flash indicate not
only that there may have been a flash related to Flight 447 ...
but more importantly ... there were no severe weather clouds
anywhere near Flight 447 let alone clouds at the estimated 35,000
feet producing lightning ... planes get hit by lightning all the
time and do not crash ... but in this case ... the plane as well
as near by planes were in an area with estimated 10 mile
visibility ... in other words ... NO SEVERE WEATHER ... so there
goes myth #1 being perpetrated by the french and world media ...
secondly ... the myth that the loss of speed or trouble with pitot
tubes that measure wind speed causing a problem with flight speed
is inconsistent with the loss of cabin pressure that was also
concurrently reported by the computers sending out distress
signals ... every system on the AirBus 330 was sending out
distress signals ... also findings of passengers with oxygen masks
in the area also indicate that there was a loss in cabin pressure
in the event ... loss of speed or a speed adjustment problem would
have no reason to cause cabin pressure loss ... clearly a lot more
was going on here ... the crux of the matter comes many days after
the tragedy when ships and search planes started to find the real
remnants of the missing air craft ... and also potentially
botching any chance of truly reconstructing the disaster ... but
what i did today was to reconstruct the last flight time of Flight
447 ... what i found proves that #1 ... there is a cover up going
on behind the scenes and #2 ... a possible effort in some fashion
to make sure the true story is never told ... the map of the
debris was finally released today giving times and dates of
discovery ... what is clear is that Flight 447 did not fall from
the sky and crash into the ocean in one piece ... the main
question i started to ask myself is ... with the amount of
information already gathered and with the bodies that have been
found ... it should be imminently clear already to investigators
whether the plane came apart in the air or hit the ocean in a
single piece (the standard news story with air sensor failure as
the cause) ... so i thought to myself ... why is this not being
reported ??? the answer came as i started to analyze the data
already released along with weather - wind speed and ocean current
data available from the crash area ... i pulled the data and
started looking at the published debris field and locations of
finds as well as the dates of the finds ... the flight was over
what is known as the "South Equatorial Current" (ocean surface
current) which flows west in this area at a rate of about 60
centimeters per second ... about 1.5 miles per hour ... or about
30 miles per day ... more importantly the dispersion rate of this
current is less than 1 mile per day given local wind conditions
that were somewhat strong in the first few days after the crash
but very calm ever since ... this means that a single piece air
craft crashing in this area and coming apart upon impact in the
ocean would have had ALL debris and remnants within a few mile
radius AT MOST even after a few days of drifting in this ocean
current ... i began to analyze the locations of debris found and
the times they were found as reported by the french news agency
... given the flow rate of the Central Equatorial Current and the
times of discovery the true story began to emerge ... here it is
... Air France Flight 447 was approximately 745 miles
north-northeast of Netal Brazil en route to Paris France ... the
last signal from the computers was approximately 11:14 PM local
time ... from here on the story becomes hypothetical relative to
what the pilot accomplished and what the airplane did on its own
... but the following flight scenario must be fairly accurate
given the data available ... as the pilot read the signals of the
instruments and knew there was a loss in cabin pressure along with
electrical failure and system failures ... at this point the pilot
made a right long banking turn that covered approximately 50 miles
and directed the plane south south west directly to the island
group of Isla de Fernando de Noronha approximately 220 miles off
the northeastern extremity of Brazil ... the closest point of land
... during this time the debris was coming off the plane including
the skin and parts of the plane as well as passengers and internal
contents of the plane were coming out and falling into the ocean
below ... the plane continued to fly for at least another 30
minutes and ... depending on air speed which may have been as low
as 100 miles per hour ... could have been airborne for well over
an hour ... as pieces of the aircraft and internal contents rained
from the sky as it attempted to find its way southward ... whether
the pilot was in control of the airbus 330 or for how long may
some day be determined ... or whether the pilot managed to set the
aircraft on autopilot is to be determined ... over ensuing days
the debris field swept westerly in the local ocean current which
is almost due west over the entire path ... so when debris was
found wednesday to a south westerly direction from the finds of
tuesday to the north and east ... this is indication that 1) the
searching started at the last known location of the aircraft far
to the north and 2) eventually continued to the south as more and
more remnants were discovered ... covering a flight path of
hundreds of miles ... so here we have Myth #3 reduced to myth
being propagated in the press ... that ocean currents were the
cause of the spreading of the debris field ... and therefore wide
distribution ... the plane was flying in tact but losing skin and
parts from the outside of the plane as well as contents from the
inside of the plane over a path which stretched for at least 100
miles and more likely a few hundred miles as it attempted to fly
southwards ... this would indicate that the main sections of the
plane finally came down far to the south of where search parties
are now looking for the black boxes ... and in a different area of
the ocean floor ... this brings up another issue with the recovery
of debris and passengers ... knowing who the passengers were and
where they were seated on the plane and identifying where they
were when recovered would be essential to knowing where there
appears to have been a breach in the body of the plane occurred
... also knowing and recording where each air frame part was
recovered is essential to understanding how the plane came apart
piece by piece as it attempted to make its way over hundreds of
miles of open ocean to the island archipelago off the coast of
brazil ... if recovery efforts assume the standard story and are
simply piling the debris into a big pile without recording the
locations of recovery ... then critical data in the reconstruction
of the events and history of Flight 447 will be lost forever ...
and the true story clouded in bad analysis ... exact times and
locations of finds will be critical in reconstructing the flight
and events of this flight ... but one thing is clear ... the
standard story being perpetrated in the news media cannot possibly
be true ... the story that appears to be more plausible is one of
a breach in the aircraft and its attempt to fly southward toward
the nearest point of land as the plane and contents came apart
over a few hundred miles before coming to rest in the ocean ...
jim mccanney
|
June 1,
2009 - 7:28 PM
Many feared dead in French plane crash
An Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro
in Brazil to Paris is presumed to have crashed into the
Atlantic early on Monday, killing all 228 people on board.
Most of the 216 passengers were Brazilian or French.
According to the French news agency, quoting a company
spokesperson in Rio, one Swiss citizen was on the flight.
The Swiss foreign ministry said it was following the
situation carefully.
The flight left Rio on Sunday evening local time,
and was scheduled to arrive at 11.15am French time.
The final message from the plane, sent
automatically, was received at 4.14am French time, and
indicated an electrical fault.
French and Brazilian reconnaissance planes joined
the search, and a French ship was diverted to help.
The head of communication at Air France said the
plane, an Airbus A330, had probably been struck by
lightning.
The plane had been in operation since 2005 and
undergone a thorough service in April 2009. The crew was
said to have been highly experienced.
If confirmed, the accident will have been the most
costly in human life in the 75 years in which Air France
has been in existence.
swissinfo.ch with agencies
June 2, 2009
Brazilian team 'finds
debris from Air France crash'
Search teams scouring the Atlantic
Ocean for the Air France jet which came
down in a storm yesterday have found
debris from an aircraft.
The Brazilian air force said
"small remains" were located 650km (400
miles) northeast of the Fernando do
Noronha archipelago in the area where
the jet is thought to have crashed.
It could not immediately be
confirmed that the debris was from Air
France flight AF 447 – which had 228
passengers and crew aboard but reports
from Brazil suggested that the search
teams had seen aircraft seats bobbing in
the sea.
Brazil’s Globo TV quoted a ham
radio operator who reported hearing air
force radio traffic that debris possibly
from the plane had been spotted. The
Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper reported on
its website that air force radar has
detected signs of oil and metal in the
same area.
If the debris is confirmed as that
of the Air France Airbus A33-200, air
crash investigators will be
significantly more confident as to the
prospects of recovering the plane's
"black box" flight recorder, which will
give clues as to what happened.
As search teams scoured a remote
area between Brazil and the coast of
Africa for traces of the plane, the
French Government announced that the
investigation would be led by Alain
Bouillard, who led the inquiry into the
fatal Concorde crash over Paris nine
years ago which helped hasten the end of
the supersonic airliner.
The flight disappeared early
yesterday after flying into a storm,
four hours into its scheduled 11-hour
flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the Air France
chief executive, said that the last
contact with the plane came in a flurry
of about a dozen automatically-generated
technical messages "indicating that
several systems had broken down...a
completely unheard-of situation".
“It is probable that it was
shortly after these messages that the
impact in the Atlantic came,” Mr
Gourgeon told reporters at Charles de
Gaulle airport, where the flight would
have landed yesterday morning.
A daytime search by eight
Brazilian air force aircraft doing
visual sweeps did not turn up anything.
The search continued overnight with a
transport aircraft fitted with equipment
to detect the plane’s emergency beacon
and another with onboard radar and
infrared gear that could detect bodies
in the water.
“All possibilities must be
examined. We cannot, by definition,
exclude a terrorist attack, because
terrorism is the main threat for all
Western democracies,” Herve Morin, the
French Defence Minister, said. “But
today we have no evidence whatsoever of
the cause of the accident."
President Sarkozy said yesterday
that the chances of anyone surviving
appeared "very slim" and Air France is
coming to terms with the worst loss of
life in its history and the worst
civilian air accident anywhere since
2001.
A civilian Brazilian pilot flying
for TAM airlines reported seeing orange
glimmers on the surface of the ocean
under Senegalese airspace, possibly
indicating wreckage in the water, but
there have been no further sightings.
“We received this information at
around 4.30am (0230 GMT) from a
Brazilian pilot who said he’d seen faint
glows on the surface, in an area
consistent with the A330’s last reported
position,” said Captain Christophe
Prazuck, a spokesman for the French
military command.
An 11-year-old Bristol schoolboy
was among the passengers aboard the jet,
it emerged today.
Clifton College Preparatory School
confirmed that one of its pupils,
Alexander Bjoroy, who is British, was on
the flight returning from a half-term
break spent with his family, who are
currently living in Brazil.
John Milne, the headmaster, said:
"Alexander was a well liked and
respected boarder who will be sorely
missed by his fellow pupils and staff.
Our deepest sympathies and condolences
are with the family in Brazil at this
time."
Air France say that there were
five Britons among the 216 passengers
aboard flight AF447. They are thought to
have included Arthur Coakley, a
61-year-old businessman from Whitby,
North Yorkshire.
Three Irish women, all in their
mid 20s, were also on the Air France
Airbus A330 flying from Rio de Janeiro
to Paris. They were named locally as
Aisling Butler, of Roscrea, Co Tipperary,
Jane Deasy of Dublin and Eithne Walls,
originally from Belfast.
The three best friends, who were
forging promising careers as doctors,
were returning home after a holiday in
Brazil with other friends who graduated
with them from Trinity College Dublin
two years ago. A Welsh woman was also
among the group of friends on the
flight.
A total of 228 people were on
board the Airbus A33-200, including 12
crew. The passenger list of 216 people
included 61 French, 58 Brazilians and 26
Germans, among the 32 nationalities on
board. The crew were all French.
6-3-09 Experts pick surprise storm as cause of
Atlantic plane crash
John Lauerman
THE disappearance of an Air France Airbus over the
Atlantic Ocean with 228 people on board may be
linked to massive, unexpected air currents that
have figured in crashes and near-crashes, aviation
experts said.While the cause of the accident
isn't known, Flight 447 met tropical thunderstorms
with 160 kmh updrafts and lightning that may have
caused structural or electrical failure, reported AccuWeather.com, a commercial forecaster in
Pennsylvania.
Aeroplanes are built to withstand roiling
currents far stronger than maximum loads that
arise in most storms, Hans Weber, the president of
Tecop International, San Diego-based consulting
firm, said yesterday. The Air France plane may
have hit something far worse.
"These were young storms that were really
developing as the plane flew into them," said
Henry Margusity, a meteorologist for
Accuweather.com.
"The updrafts were probably pretty tremendous
and the plane probably got knocked around a lot.
Whether it got hit by lightning remains to be
seen."
The Airbus A330-200 lost contact with
controllers as it flew to Paris from Rio de
Janeiro. The plane reported an electrical
breakdown, then sent 10 automated distress signals
and vanished. Brazilian Air Force search planes
yesterday found floating wreckage off Brazil's
north-eastern coast.
Last year Qantas pilots temporarily lost
control of an Airbus A330 travelling from
Singapore to Perth and abruptly lost altitude.
Australian air safety investigators said in a
preliminary report that a malfunction in a flight
computer caused the nosedive.
A similar malfunction, combined with severe
turbulence, might have been sufficient to send the
Air France flight out of control, Mr Weber said.
"Experience tells us in catastrophic accidents
there tends to be more than one contributing
factor.
"What if the computer acted up and the pilots,
who would have been challenged to regain the
aircraft in clear-weather conditions, had been
unable to regain control under turbulent
conditions?"
Meanwhile, Brazil announced three days of
national mourning in memory of those who died in
the accident.
And in Paris, Catholic and Muslim services will
be held in memory of the passengers and crew,
including one in Notre-Dame Cathedral that will be
attended by President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Bloomberg, Agence France-Presse
Source:
The Sydney Morning Herald
6-4-09
First plane crash debris recovered
A helicopter has recovered the first
wreckage from doomed Air France Flight 447,
Brazil's air force has said.
A structural support piece of the jet,
about 8ft long, was pulled from the Atlantic
Ocean some 340 miles north-east of the Fernando
de Noronha islands, off Brazil's northern coast.
Two buoys were also found but no bodies or
human remains have been spotted.
The helicopter was working off one of the
navy ships which arrived overnight at one of the
crash debris fields.
The air force released the information in
a statement on its website.
Meanwhile, the French agency investigating
the crash said automatic messages received from
the plane had failed to show exactly how fast
the aircraft was flying.
The Accident Investigation Agency said
only two findings have been established. One is
that the series of automatic messages sent from
Flight 447 were "incoherent" regarding the
plane's speed. The other is that the plane's
route on Sunday night was spotted with stormy,
unstable weather.
The agency warned against any "hasty
interpretation or speculation" about the crash.
The French newspaper Le Monde had
reported, without naming sources, that the Air
France plane was flying at the wrong speed.
Air France Flight 447 left Rio de Janeiro
for Paris on Sunday night but disappeared over
the Atlantic.
Copyright ©
2009 The Press Association. All rights reserved.
6-5-09
Air France Flight 447: Other pilots saw
'intense flash' in sky
Did Air France Flight 447 give off a
flash of light before crashing into the
ocean?Two pilots of an Air Comet
flight from Lima to Lisbon saw a bright
flash of light in the area where Flight 447
went down, the Madrid-based airline
told CNN. The pilots have turned in
their report to authorities.
"Suddenly, we saw in the distance a
strong and intense flash of white light,
which followed a descending and vertical
trajectory and which broke up in six
seconds," the captain wrote in the report.
The flash of light contributes to the
theory that an explosion is what brought
down Flight 447, which was carrying 228
people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Countering that theory is a Le Monde
newspaper report that quotes an
investigation official saying that the plane
was
flying too slow. Airbus is reportedly
going to warn operators of A330 jets to
speed up in storms.
Also countering the theory is Brazil's
defense minister Nelson Jobim, who
told reporters that the 12-mile oil
slick left by the plane indicates that the
plane did not break up until it hit the
water.
So what about that flash of light that
the pilots saw?
There are other explanations besides
an explosion. With their 270-degree view of
the world before them, air line pilots see a
lot of strange things in the sky.
"There's plenty of things that you
will see that you can't identify at first
because you're so far away," said David
Campbell, a Seattle-based air line pilot and
spokesman for the Air Line Pilots
Association. "The sun interacts with the
ocean in odd ways sometimes."
He gave an example from one of his
flights into Cincinnati.
"There was this huge fireball just
flying into the sky, and it looked like it
flew right over the airport at our level and
then it broke into pieces," he said. "Turns
out it was satellite space junk re-entering
the atmosphere."
Debris from space "will create an
incredible amount of light ,and it's
practically impossible, if you're just
looking at it, to get a sense of how big it
is, how far it is," Campbell said.
Technical details aside,
heart-breaking human stories are emerging
out of the crash.
The Independent shares this one,
among others:
Among the three Swedish victims of
the disaster were 34-year-old Christine
Badre Schnabl and her 5e-year-old son,
Philipe.
Mrs Schnabl had purposely travelled
on a separate flight (from) her husband
and their 3-year-old daughter, due to the
couple's shared fear of air crashes.
Mr Schnabl and their daughter caught
an earlier flight and landed safely in
Paris, where they were informed that the
second plane – which had taken off only a
few hours later – was missing.
The family had been living in Rio de
Janeiro for 10 years and was returning to
Sweden for a holiday. Mrs Schnabl's
mother, Annika Badre, said: "It's
impossible to comprehend that they are
gone. It's awful."
First-day coverage:
Airbus A330 disappears over Atlantic
Air France disappearance (video from AP)
Two Americans were on board Air France
flight 447 (list of nationalities)
Air France flight 447: What role did
lightning play?
Timeline of the disappearance of Air France
flight 447
Hunch prompted Dutch man to cancel flight on
Air France 447
Air France 447: Who was on board? Will the
mystery be solved?
Follow up coverage:
Air France 447: Searchers find life jacket,
seat, some fuel
Airbus.com, AirFrance.com pages reflect
flight 447 crash
Airbus A380 route expansions dampened by
A330 mystery crash
Wreckage in Atlantic is that of Air France
flight 447
Air France received bomb threat days before
447 crash
Air France flight 447 broke apart 14 minutes
after pilot signal
Air France Flight 447: Other pilots saw
'intense flash' in sky
Brazil military: Debris in ocean 'not' from
Air France Flight 447
Posted by
June 4, 2009 10:24 a.m.
Air France received bomb threat days
before 447 crash
Air France received a bomb threat for a
previous flight from South America to Paris
just days before Air France flight 447
crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.
Air France flight 447 disappeared over the
Atlantic on Monday en route from Rio de
Janeiro to Paris. All 228 people on board
are presumed to have been killed.
This report comes from
ABC News:
Also today, ABC News has confirmed
that Air France received a bomb threat
over the phone concerning a flight from
Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Paris days
before Air France flight 447 disappeared
over the Atlantic Ocean Sunday night.
Authorities at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza
Airport delayed the May 27 flight before
takeoff and conducted a 90-minute search
of the threatened aircraft. Passengers
were not evacuated during the search,
which yielded no explosive material. After
the inspection, authorities allowed the
plane to take off for Paris.
Four days later, flight 447 departed
from Rio de Janeiro. There was no known
threat against the missing flight.
It's difficult to know how often
airlines receive bomb threats, said Emily
McGee, spokeswoman for the Flight Safety
Foundation.
"I think that they happen
periodically," she said. "Here' were not
putting a whole lot of stock in it (the bomb
threat) in the discussions internally."
As far as theories of what happened to
flight 447, investigators had immediately
dismissed terrorism on Monday but have since
backtracked.
"First thing Monday morning, they were
saying it was definitely not terrorism,"
McGee said. "They seem to be pulling back
from that. It would strike me that they are
keeping all the options on the table."
Also on the table: Blaming
weather and blaming the computer.
InformationWeek editor at large Paul
McDougall
explores computer failure: "In the the
Air France disaster, there's a particularly
urgent need for government authorities to
eye the aircraft's on-board computer system
as a possible culprit."
He explains the purpose of the Air
Data Inertial Reference Unit, or ADIRU,
which sends data about the plane to the
autopilot.
"Never has 'garbage in-garbage out'
carried such dire consequences," McDougall
writes. "And the fact is, wonky ADIRUs have
been identified as the culprits in several
recent near-catastrophes. Last year, for
instance, authorities blamed the ADIRU after
a Qantas Airbus 330 started porpoising
wildly while at cruising altitude. There
were 51 passenger injuries, ranging from
broken bones to spinal damage."
Aviation Safety Network is
compiling details about the crash, as it
does for all plane accidents. This part is
technical, but it explains the computer
systems failures on board the aircraft:
Over a time span of four minutes,
starting at 02:10 UTC, a series of ACARS
messages were sent -automatically- from
the plane. The first message indicated the
disconnection of the autopilot followed
and the airplane went into 'alternate law'
flight control mode. This happens when
multiple failures of redundant systems
occur.
From 02:11 to 02:13, multiple faults
regarding ADIRU (Air Data and Inertial
Reference Unit) and ISIS (Integrated
Standby Instruments System) were reported.
Then on 02:13 the system reported failures
of PRIM 1, the primary flight control
computers that receive inputs from the
ADIRU and SEC 1 (secondary flight control
computers). The last message at 02:14 was
a 'Cabin vertical speed' advisory.
On the weather front, Bloomberg News
is
reporting that "updrafts and lightning"
may have helped "knock the airliner from the
sky."
And finally, Miles O'Brien
writes about the long, slow search to
find the airplane's black box, and what
researchers will do to find it.
6-6-09
Flight 447 crash could join
list of mysteries
By Craig Johnson
Special to CNN
(CNN) -- As the possibility
decreases that investigators will learn
what happened to Air France Flight 447
on Monday over the Atlantic Ocean, the
chances of it entering the folklore of
mystery crashes grows.
What happened to Amelia Earhart,
whose plane vanished over the
ocean in 1937, has been an
enduring mystery.
Brazilian air
force officials
still have not
identified
debris from the
Airbus A330, and
a former U.S.
National
Transportation
Safety Board
official said
currents would
be scattering
any debris from
the flight over
an increasing
area, reducing
the probability
of finding the
jetliner's voice
and flight data
recorders.
Experts said
lack of answers
about what
happened to
Flight 447 could
give it a
lasting place in
the public
consciousness,
like TWA Flight
800.
Flight 800,
headed to Paris,
France, from New
York, crashed
into the
Atlantic off
Long Island in
1996, killing
all 230 people
aboard.
Initially
speculating that
the plane was
the target of a
terrorist
attack, the NTSB
in 2000 released
a report citing
a short circuit
around the
center wing fuel
tank as the
probable cause.
The exact
cause still has
not been
determined, and
several other
explanations
have been
offered over the
years.
Clint V.
Oster Jr., a
professor of
public and
environmental
affairs at
Indiana
University in
Bloomington,
Indiana, said
that while the
public may more
readily process
a single
explanation, the
reality is that
many crashes are
the result of
compound
difficulties.
"Many crashes
don't have a
single cause,
but rather are
the result of a
complex sequence
of events
involving
multiple
failures.
Understanding
how these
multiple factors
interacted to
cause the crash
can be
difficult," said
Oster, co-author
of "Why
Airplanes Crash:
Aviation Safety
in a Changing
World."
Pilot and
author Phaedra
Hise of
Richmond,
Virginia, said a
love of
mysteries
multiplied by
the fact that
air travel still
captivates the
public keeps
fascination
high.
"If [John F.
Kennedy Jr.] had
died in a car
crash, there
would not be the
same level of
fascination.
Aviation for a
lot of people is
still pretty
magical," said
Hise, author of
"Anatomy of a
Plane Crash."
"If you don't
know how [a
plane] works,
it's pretty
magical; this
huge thing takes
flight. It's
just a big
mystery. There's
a lot of romance
with that, a lot
of drama," Hise
said. "The
people who fly
them are
considered brave
and have a lot
of heart. And
people just
don't
understand, so
many people just
don't
understand, how
airplanes work."
A number of
unsolved plane
crashes have
remained in the
public psyche
for years:
One of the
most famous was
that of aviator
Amelia Earhart,
whose
twin-engine
Lockheed Electra
vanished over
the Pacific
Ocean in 1937
while on a
round-the-world
flight.
Earhart
and her
navigator, Fred
Noonan, were
never heard from
again.
Because of
the social
intrigue,
theories -- and
conspiracies --
related to
Earhart's
disappearance
have become
legend.
None of
course ranks as
high in mystery
as the
Bermuda Triangle,
a cone-shaped
vicinity
extending
northward from
Puerto Rico to
about halfway up
the U.S. Eastern
Seaboard.
Its
origins come
from the loss of
Flight 19, a
team of five
Navy bombers
that vanished in
1945 after
getting
disoriented and
confused about
its coordinates.
More
recently, South
African Airways
Flight 295, a
Boeing 747 en
route to
Johannesburg
from Taiwan in
1987, crashed
into the Indian
Ocean shortly
after the pilot
reported smoke
in the cabin.
While debris
that washed up
on the shores of
Madagascar was
tested, the
cause of the
crash has never
been positively
established.
In 1994, U.S.
Air Flight 427
crashed in
Aliquippa,
Pennsylvania,
after taking off
in Chicago,
Illinois, en
route to West
Palm Beach,
Florida. While
federal
officials
identified a
problem with the
rudder but could
not explain why
the plane
suddenly flipped
and crashed, not
a single clue
has revealed why
the mechanism
failed. All 132
people aboard
died.
Golfer Payne
Stewart's
Learjet crashed
in 1999.
Although federal
investigators
revealed that
the cabin air
system lost
pressure, it
still has not
been determined
why. The pilots
reportedly lost
contact with air
traffic
controllers
about 15 minutes
into the flight.
The
investigation
uncovered that
the jet flew a
straight course
until it ran out
of fuel and
crashed in South
Dakota.
In January
2008, a British
Airways Boeing
777 crashed
short of the
runway at
Heathrow Airport
in London,
England.
Nineteen of the
152 people
aboard were
injured. There
still is no
explanation for
why the plane's
engines lost
power.
"The one that
fascinates me is
Steve Fossett,"
said Hise."I
have absolutely
no idea what
happened to that
man."
Fossett, an
adventurer
famous for being
the first person
to complete a
solo balloon
flight around
the world, was
reported missing
over Nevada
in
September 2007.
Months after
investigators
searched for his
body, his widow,
in February
2008, requested
that he be
declared legally
dead. His bones,
found more than
a half-mile from
where his plane
wreckage was
discovered, were
positively
identified later
that year.
"He was
flying in clear
skies, in an
area he was
familiar with.
That's the one
that kind of
eats away at
me," Hise said.
With all the
mystery, David
M. Primo,
associate
professor of
political
science at the
University of
Rochester, said
there's a
broader effect
when
investigations
fail to find
clues about how
an aircraft go
down.
"An unsolved
crash has the
effect of
creating an
erroneous
perception that
flying is
unsafe, even
though it is a
remarkably safe
form of travel,"
said Primo,
co-author of
"The Plane
Truth: Airline
Crashes, The
Media and
Transportation
Policy."
The odds of
dying in a
domestic plane
crash are one in
70 million,
according to MIT
statistician
Arnold Barnett,
who has
performed
analyses for the
Federal Aviation
Administration.
6-7-09
More Bodies Recovered Near Site of Plane Crash
By ANDREW DOWNIE
Published: June 7, 2009
SÃO PAULO,
Brazil — Brazilian ships picked three more corpses from the
water on Sunday, bringing to five the number of bodies recovered
from the area where an Air France
Airbus disappeared over the Atlantic a week ago.An
unspecified number of other bodies have been spotted floating in the
sea and “will be picked up in the coming hours,” the Brazilian Air
Force said in a statement Sunday morning.
The three bodies were picked up Sunday morning by the Brazilian
navy ship Caboclo. Two others had been pulled from the sea on
Saturday.
All five corpses were transferred to another ship, the frigate
Constituição, which is taking them to Fernando de Noronha, an
archipelago roughly 45 miles away. The bodies will arrive there
Monday before being transferred to Recife, the coastal city where
the search and rescue operation is being run, the statement said.
Five Brazilian ships and a French frigate are involved in the
search operation, along with 12 Brazilian and two French planes.
Although weather conditions were described as “unfavorable for
air missions,” the search was continuing Sunday, the statement said.
Most of the focus is on the area where the bodies were found but
Brazilian air force R-99 reconnaissance planes are also flying over
adjacent areas.
6-9-09
Crews Find Key
Part in Air France Crash
US Team to Search for Plane's Black Boxes
By BRADLEY BROOKS
RECIFE, Brazil (June 9) - The recovery of Air France
Flight 447's tail section could provide key clues as
to why the airliner with 228 people on board went
down in the Atlantic and where best to search for
the black boxes, experts said.
The tail section includes the vertical stabilizer —
which keeps the plane's nose from swinging back and
forth — and the rudder, which generates and controls
the side-to-side motion of an aircraft.
Brazilian sailors on Monday secure a large section of the tail
from Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atantic Ocean
far off the coast of Brazil after flying into a storm on May 31.
Later in the day, crews also recovered the jet's vertical
stabilizer -- a key item in finding the cause of the tragedy. All
228 people aboard died, and it's not clear yet why the plane went
down.
The data and voice recorders are located in the
fuselage near the tail.
In a video posted Monday on a Web site, Brazil's air
force revealed that search crews had recovered the
vertical stabilizer from the tail section of the
plane. Brazilian military officials have refused to
detail the large pieces of the plane they have
found.
Eight more bodies also were found, bringing the
total recovered to 24, Air Force Col. Henry Munhoz
said. The plane disappeared during a flight from Rio
de Janeiro to Paris on the night of May 31 with 228
people on board.
The Air Force video, titled "Vertical Stabilizer
Found," shows the piece being located and tethered
to a ship. The part had Air France's blue-and-red
stripes, was still its original triangular shape and
was not visibly burned.
William Waldock, who teaches air crash investigation
at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott,
Arizona, examined the photos and video of the
stabilizer and rudder and said the damage he saw
looks like a lateral fracture.
Eithne Walls, a 28-year-old Irish
doctor, joined the ophthalmic team at
the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital
in Dublin in January. Her family said
she had dreamed of being an eye doctor
since childhood. Before she began her
medical studies, she was a performer
with Riverdance, spending a year on
Broadway.
"That would reinforce the idea that the plane broke
up in flight," he said. "If it hits intact,
everything shatters in tiny pieces."
That there were no signs of burn marks on the
stabilizer is not necessarily significant, according
to Waldock, who said that any explosion or fire in
the fuselage would likely not make its way back to
the tail section. Examining the fracture surfaces is
important, since they will indicate from what
direction the force came that snapped the piece, he
said.
Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the
National Transportation Safety Board, said recovered
passenger bodies also will play a role. If
investigators can determine the identity of a body
and know where that person was sitting in the plane,
the types of injuries sustained could offer clues
into the crash, he said.
The investigation into TWA Flight 800, which crashed
off the coast of Long Island, New York, in 1996,
found that victims sitting in front of row 30
sustained flash burns. Goelz said that helped
investigators confirm that the nose broke off and
fire blew back from the fuel tank onto those
passengers.
The discoveries of debris and the bodies also are
helping searchers narrow their hunt for the cockpit
voice and data recorders, commonly known as the
"black boxes," perhaps investigators' best hope of
learning what happened to the flight.
Waldock said the black boxes won't necessarily be
located near where the debris was recovered, "but
finding the tail narrows down the area even
further."
The wreckage and the bodies were found roughly 400
miles (640 kilometers) northeast of the Fernando de
Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast, and
about 45 miles (70 kilometers) from where the jet
was last heard from on May 31.
Searchers must move quickly to find the recorders
because acoustic beacons, or "pingers" on the boxes
begin to fade 30 days after crashes.
Some high-tech help is on the way for investigators:
two U.S. Navy devices capable of picking up the
pingers to a depth of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters).
The listening devices are 5 feet (1.5 meters) long
and weigh 70 pounds (32 kilos). One will be towed by
a Brazilian ship, the other by a French vessel,
slowly trawling in a grid pattern across the search
area. The devices will be dropped into the ocean
near the debris field by Thursday, Berges said.
An Indonesian air force plane carrying
soldiers and their families crashed in a
residential neighborhood in Magetan,
Indonesia, May 20, killing at least 98
people. Witnesses described seeing the
right wing of the C-130 Hercules plane
snap off while it was in flight. "I
heard at least two big explosions and
saw flashes of fire inside the plane,"
one witness said.
Cables attached to the devices lead to on-board
computers, enabling a 10-person team that
accompanies each device to listen for pings and to
visually see them on a screen, like a radar spotting
objects in the air.
The French nuclear attack submarine Emeraude,
arriving later this week, also will try to find the
acoustic pings, military spokesman Christophe
Prazuck said.
If the pings are located, French deep-water unmanned
subs aboard the oceanographic survey ship Pourquoi
Pas will attempt to retrieve the boxes from the
ocean floor.
Crash theories being considered by investigators
include the possibility that external speed monitors
— called Pitot tubes — iced over and gave
dangerously false readings to cockpit computers in a
thunderstorm.
Goelz said the faulty airspeed readings and the fact
the vertical stabilizer was sheared from the jet
could be related.
The Airbus A330-200 has a "rudder limiter" which
constricts how much the rudder — which is attached
to the vertical stabilizer — can move at high
speeds. If it were to move too far while traveling
fast, it could shear off and take the vertical
stabilizer with it.
"If you had a wrong speed being fed to the computer
by the Pitot tube, it might allow the rudder to over
travel," Goelz said. "The limiter limits the travel
of the rudder at high speeds and prevents it from
being torn off."
Asked if the rudder or stabilizer being sheared off
could have brought the jet down, Goelz said:
"Absolutely. You need a rudder. And you need the
(rudder) limiter on there to make sure the rudder
doesn't get torn off or cause havoc with the plane's
aerodynamics."
The L-shaped metal Pitot tubes jut from the wing or
fuselage of a plane, and are heated to prevent
icing. The pressure of air entering the tubes lets
sensors measure the speed and angle of flight. An
iced-over, blocked or malfunctioning Pitot tube
could cause an airspeed sensor to fail, and lead the
computer controlling the plane to accelerate or
decelerate in a potentially dangerous fashion.
A memo sent to Air France pilots by the Alter union
Monday and obtained by The Associated Press urges
them to refuse to fly unless at least two of the
three Pitot sensors on each planes have been
replaced.
An official with the Alter union, speaking on
condition of anonymity because the memo was not
publicly released, said there is a "strong
presumption" among its pilot members that a Pitot
problem precipitated the crash. The memo says the
airline should have grounded all A330 and A340 jets
pending the replacement, and warns of a "real risk
of loss of control" due to Pitot problems.
Air France said it began replacing the Pitot tubes
on the Airbus A330 model on April 27 after an
improved version became available, and will finish
the work in the "coming weeks." The monitors had not
yet been replaced on the plane that crashed.
The leader of another pilots' union, however, said
Monday that Pitot troubles probably didn't cause the
Flight 447 disaster.
In addition to the vertical stabilizer and numerous
bodies, searchers have spotted two airplane seats
and debris with Air France's logo, and recovered
dozens of structural components from the plane.
Brazil says the search area lies southeast of the
jet's last transmission — automatic messages
signaling catastrophic electrical failure and loss
of cabin pressure. The messages mean Flight 447
likely broke apart in turbulent weather. The
location of the wreckage could mean the pilot was
trying to turn around in mid-flight.
France's defense minister and the Pentagon have said
there were no signs that terrorism was involved in
the crash.
Marco Sibaja reported from Recife and Bradley
Brooks from Rio de Janeiro. AP Writers Alan
Clendenning and Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo; and Cecile
Brisson, Angela Charlton, Emma Vandore and Greg
Keller in Paris, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
4 PEOPLE
MISSED THE DOOMED FLIGHT
By GREG KELLER
PARIS (June 5) -- A reservation mix-up, an
overbooking and a Brazilian cabbie's passion for
soccer are all that saved some would-be passengers
on Air France flight 447 from the fate of 228 others
who lost their lives in the mid-Atlantic.
The survivors say their relief is overshadowed by
the immense sense of loss they feel for those who
didn't make it.
"It feels miraculous and sad at the same time," said
Amina Benouargha-Jaffiol, who tried to get on the
flight Sunday night, even enlisting a diplomat
friend to try to pressure Air France to let her and
her husband on.
A French couple, Claude Jaffiol and Amina
Benouargha-Jaffiol, hold the tickets they tried
to change so they could get on Air France Flight
447.
"Of course, at some level we feel lucky, but we also
feel an enormous sadness for all those who
perished," she said.
For some it was a simple matter of arriving at Rio's
airport late; for Andrej Aplinc, it was because he
got there early.
The 39-year-old Slovenian sailor and father of two
was spared because his cab driver was in a hurry to
see a soccer match.
With time to spare at the airport, Aplinc, who was
supposed to take Flight 447, learned there was no
seat on the plane with enough legroom for him to
stretch out his bum knee. But since he'd arrived
early, he was able to board an earlier 4 p.m. Air
France flight, which did have a roomy seat.
"It was such huge luck that I flew with that earlier
plane," Aplinc said from his home in Radelj Ob Dravi
in northeastern Slovenia.
Brazilian sailors on Monday secured a
large section of the tail from Air
France Flight 447, which crashed into
the Atantic Ocean far off the coast of
Brazil after flying into a storm on May
31. Later in the day, crews also
recovered the jet's vertical stabilizer
-- a key item in finding the cause of
the tragedy. All 228 people aboard died,
and it's not clear yet why the plane
went down.
Gustavo Ciriaco was scheduled to be on that 4 p.m.
flight. But he arrived late at the check-in and was
told airline agents could not find his seat and the
gate was about to close.
The 39-year-old Brazilian choreographer and dancer
was on his way to Europe for two weeks of rehearsals
for his next ballet, and had a connecting flight to
catch in Paris.
Ciriaco pleaded to be let him on the plane, and
finally the airline discovered the seating error and
relented.
If the reservation mix-up hadn't been resolved, "I
would have tried to take the following flight
because I would have arrived in Paris with enough
time to catch my connection," Ciriaco said.
The next flight? Air France 447.
"Survivors" like these often need psychological
counseling, said Guillaume Denoix de Saint-Marc,
whose father was among the 170 people killed in 1989
when Libyan terrorists downed UTA Flight 772 with a
suitcase bomb. He now heads an association that
helps victims of airline disasters.
"They can have big psychological problems. We meet a
lot of people like that," said Denoix de Saint-Marc,
who was asked by French authorities to counsel
relatives of the victims of Flight 447 at a crisis
center at Paris' airport.
Eithne Walls, a 28-year-old Irish
doctor, joined the ophthalmic team at
the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital
in Dublin in January. Her family said
she had dreamed of being an eye doctor
since childhood. Before she began her
medical studies, she was a performer
with Riverdance, spending a year on
Broadway.
In the case of UTA flight 772, some of the pilots
and cabin crew who had flown the French DC-10
jetliner before handing it over to the doomed crew
"couldn't resume their careers," Denoix de
Saint-Marc said.
"They lost their flying licenses because of big
psychological problems or alcoholism," he said.
Such traumas have a name: "Survivors' syndrome,"
seen often in combat and other crisis situations in
which those who make it feel as though they fled,
deserted their buddies or were cowardly, said
psychiatrist Ronan Orio.
But being saved by the ticket counter, traffic or
other caprices of life should not be considered
traumatic, said Orio, who has worked with victims of
hostage situations, terror attacks and airline
crashes.
Instead, near-miss situations should be viewed in a
positive light, he said.
"People who take a plane and have a second chance
win the lotto. They have the right to continue where
the others died," he said.
Benouargha-Jaffiol and her husband Claude Jaffiol
got a second chance last Sunday.
The couple, who live in Montpellier, France, had
pulled strings to try to get on Flight 447, even
drafting a family friend, a Dutch diplomat, to phone
Air France and try to get them seats on the
overcrowded plane.
Engineer decodes Air France Flight 447
emergency messages
I just finished listening to a podcast
where an avionics engineer goes over
the final messages sent by the Air
France Flight 447 plane before it
crashed. The error messages sent by
the plane show that multiple computer
failures happened simultaneously,
starting at 02:10 GMT, when a series
of 14 warnings and failures emerged at
once.
Addison Schonland, president of
Innovation Analysis Group, and Michael
Ciasullo, IAG's managing director of
consulting services, led the podcast
discussion. The engineer, who went
only by Darryl, and his interviewers
were careful not speculate.
Darryl is introduced as an engineer
familiar with the the Honeywell ACARS
system. His full name is not given
because of the sensitivity over the
crash, Schonland said. He does not
work for Air France or Airbus.
He explains each ACARS message line
by line. The ACARS is the aircraft's
communications addressing and
reporting system, which sends short
pieces of data to other aircraft and
satellites. When investigators talk of
the "automatic messages" that give
clues as to why the plane crashed,
they are referring to the ACARS
messages.
(You
can see the ACARS for Flight 447 here.
PDF.)
The cryptic lines contain chilling
meaning.
First, the auto pilot system
disengaged. Then came a basic auto
flight message warning. Next,
something within the flight control
computer failed. Then, warning flags
appeared on the personal flight
displays of the captain and co-pilot.
Then the rudder exceeds the limits of
normal flight. And on it goes.
"With all of these failures, they
don't have the information that they
need to fly the aircraft in a safe
environment," Darryl says. "If the
pilot or first officer don't have any
display functioning, then they're
flying blind in the night. ... You're
trying to fly the aircraft with no
technology."
The last message received is a
cryptic "213100206ADVISORY" warning at
02:14 GMT. It indicates loss of cabin
pressure.
"There's so much going on, the
pilots don't know what to do other
than take a hold of the stick and fly
the aircraft, because the airplane is
not flying itself," Darryl said. "If
this was happening in a clear day in
the middle of the day, you'd still be
in serious trouble, but at least you'd
know if you were climbing or
descending."
Update: 11:10 p.m.: Schonland says
he's making the podcast available
for free as a public service
6-10-09
Wednesday June 10, 2009
Peter Allen, in Paris
Two
passengers with names linked
to Islamic terrorism were on
the Air France flight which
crashed with the loss of 228
lives, it has emerged.
Debris from Air France
flight AF 447 has been
recovered from the Atlantic
French secret servicemen
established the connection
while working through the
list of those who boarded
the doomed Airbus in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, on May 31.
Flight AF 447 crashed in
the mid-Atlantic en route to
Paris during a violent
storm.
While it is certain there
were computer malfunctions,
terrorism has not been ruled
out.
Soon after news of the fatal
crash broke, agents working
for the DGSE (Direction
Générale de la Sécurité
Extérieure), the French
equivalent of MI6, were
dispatched to Brazil. It
was there that they
established that two names
on the passenger list are
also on highly-classified
documents listing the names
of radical Muslims
considered a threat to the
French Republic.
A source working for the
French security services
told Paris weekly L'Express
that the link was "highly
significant".
Agents are now trying to
establish dates of birth for
the two dead passengers, and
family connections.
There is a possibility
the name similarities are
simply a "macabre
coincidence", the source
added, but the revelation is
still being "taken very
seriously".
France has received
numerous threats from
Islamic terrorist groups in
recent months, especially
since French troops were
sent to fight in
Afghanistan.
Security chiefs have been
particularly worried about
airborne suicide attacks
similar to the ones on the
US on September 11, 2001.
6-13-09
Bodies,
debris provide vital clues
about Flight 447 crash
By Staff Reporter
13 June 2009 @ 3:24 pm IST
Paris - The French and
Brazilian governments said,
Friday, they are yet to
determine what caused Air
France Flight 447 to crash, en
route from Rio de Janeiro to
Paris on June 1 with 228
people on board, but added
that recovery of the bodies
and debris from the ocean
provide important clues that
could help explain what
happened during the final
moments of the doomed flight.
Oxygen masks from
the missing Air
France flight 447
are seen at the Air
Force base in Recife
June 12, 2009. The
French and Brazilian
governments said,
Friday, they are yet
to determine what
caused Air France
Flight 447 to crash,
en route from Rio de
Janeiro to Paris on
June 1 with 228
people on board, but
added that recovery
of the bodies and
debris from the
ocean provide
important clues that
could help explain
what happened during
the final mome...
Members of the
Brazilian Air Force
carry the body of a
victim of the Air
France Flight 447
that went missing en
route from Rio to
Paris at a base in
Fernando de Noronha
island June 9, 2009.
(Reuters Photo)
Though crash investigators
suspect that malfunctioning
air speed sensors or Pitot
tubes could have transmitted
unreliable speed data to the
main computer system of the
plane, causing it to fly at
wrong speed - a potentially
deadly mistake in severe
turbulence, as flying too
quickly can damage a plane's
airframe, while traveling
too slowly can result in
loss of lift, produce a
stall and loss of control
yet they are not willing to
make any public announcement
on the cause of the crash
till the voice and data
recorders, which could be
thousands of feet below the
ocean surface, are
recovered, as they could
explain how the giant
aircraft fell out of the sky
from an altitude of about
35,000 feet without any
distress calls from pilots.
However, the investigators
said the bodies, 50 found so
far, and debris recovered
from the ocean so far could
provide important leads on
the cause of the crash.
Related Story:
French ship finds six more
bodies of Flight 447 crash
victims, search may end soon
For instance, they said
the bodies recovered could
provide important clues as
to whether the plane broke
up in mid-air or was intact
when it crashed into the
ocean.
Initial examination of
the bodies, the
investigators said, appear
to suggest that a massive
depressurization could have
ripped the plane apart in
mid-air. "Most bodies were
found naked or with minimal
clothing, suggesting the
wind may have removed the
garments. Multiple fractures
on almost all the bodies
also suggest that the plane
encountered a violent
turbulence before it
crashed," a senior Brazilian
military official said, on
condition of anonymity, as
he is not supposed to speak
on the matter.
The huge distance over
which the bodies were found
also suggests that the plane
broke up in mid-air," the
official said.
According to the
official, victims' lungs did
not contain water "which
rules out death due to
drowning."
The official also said
that absence of burn marks
or bomb residues on the
bodies also excludes the
possibility of an explosion
or fire in the aircraft.
Crash investigators said
the debris recovered from
the site of the crash also
reveals clues about the
plane crash. Till date, over
150 items of debris,
including part of an
internal wall with two
flight attendants' seats
attached, oxygen masks,
vertical stabilizer of the
tail fin, part of a wing and
some personal belongings of
the passengers of Flight
447, have been recovered,
but not enough to help the
investigators reconstruct
the aircraft which would
enable them to pinpoint the
cause of the crash.
However, the most
important piece
recovered to date
is the virtually
intact vertical
stabilizer, which
could give the
French Bureau of
Accident
Investigations
(BEA), the French
air safety
investigation
agency, which is
leading the
investigation,
solid clues about
what prompted the
crash. A BEA
official said the
final automated
message
transmitted by
Flight 447 was
"cabin in vertical
speed," which
suggests a sudden
loss of cabin
pressure, either
the cause or the
consequence of the
plane breaking up
in mid-air. "The
wide area over
which the debris
was found also
suggests that the
plane broke up in
mid-air and not as
it hit the ocean,"
the official said.
Agrees William
Waldock, who
teaches air crash
investigation at
Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical
University in
Prescott, Arizona.
According to
Waldock, the
lateral fracture
on the vertical
stabilizer of the
tail fin of Flight
447 suggests that
"the plane broke
up in flight."
"If it hits
intact, everything
shatters in tiny
pieces," Waldock
said.
Examining the
fracture surfaces
will also be key,
Waldock said,
since it will
indicate from what
direction the
force came that
snapped the piece.
Absence of
visible burn marks
on the vertical
stabilizer also
suggests that the
plane probably did
not erupt in
flames as it went
down, Waldock
said. However,
"any explosion or
fire in the
fuselage would
likely not make
its way back to
the tail section,"
he added.
Waldock also
said the location
where the vertical
stabilizer was
found could
provide clues as
to where the black
boxes are.
"The data and
voice recorders
are located in the
fuselage near the
tail section of
the jet. Though
they may not
necessarily be
located near where
the debris was
recovered, yet
finding the tail
narrows down the
area even
further," he said.
This article is copyrighted by
Ibtimes.co.in.
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Two killed in
crash of plane
By Mark HavnesThe Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 05/29/2009 10:23:45 PM MDT
The Boulder community is mourning the loss of one
of its prominent citizens in a plane crash Friday
morning.
John Austin, 64, was piloting the plane when it
crashed into high-voltage power lines at 8:45 a.m.
about three miles southwest of the Calf Creek
Recreation Area along State Road 12, according to
sheriff's spokeswoman Becki Bronson.
The plane then skidded along the road until it hit
Calf Creek Bridge, she said.
Susan D. Jordan, a 67-year-old passenger in the
plane, also died in the crash.
Several residents who live near the crash site,
between Boulder and Escalante, had called into the
Sheriff's Office to report a low-flying aircraft
moments before the plane crashed, Bronson said. She
said the plane "may have purposely been flying too low
before it crashed."
Austin, a health care executive, also lived in
Oakland, Calif., but had spent time in Boulder every
year since he was 16, after his family bought a home
in the town in the 1960s. He would ride, hunt, fish,
hike and -- when he could -- work for local ranchers.
In 2007, when Austin learned that a longtime ranch
in Boulder was in danger of being subdivided, he
bought the ranch and, working with the Nature
Conservancy, put it under the protection of a
conservation easement. The contract bars development
and ensures the property will remain a working ranch.
"The result is a permanent, protected ranch and a
preservation of ranching in the valley," Austin
Muse said Austin employed people to
work at his ranch, where he raised a
strain of Chilean horses and organic
crops.
He said Austin had been in town
since Memorial Day weekend and last
Saturday participated in a community
cleanup.
"He was really upbeat because he
had just sold some horses," said
Muse. "He was a personal friend and
I'm really saddened."
Boulder resident, Mark Austin, no
relation, also said John Austin was
well liked by everyone and will be
missed.
"Its beyond tragic and a great
loss to the community," he said.
"It's a sad situation. He did a lot
for [Boulder]."
Mark Austin said John Austin and
wife, Jacqui Smalley, had just
finished a house at their ranch
where they planned to retire.
He described John Austin as a
superb pilot who liked to fly over
the neighboring Grand
Staircase-Escalante National
Monument to sight-see.
According to her Web site, Jordan
was a defense attorney with offices
in Ukiah, Calif. She was well-known
for her work with defending women
charged with violent crimes and is
credited with the creation of the
battered spouse defense.
The plane, an SS-MK4 manufactured
by Storch Aviation Australia, is a
home-built fixed-wing single-engine
aircraft built in 2000, said Mike
Fergus, a spokesman with the Federal
Aviation Administration.
It was recertified by the FAA in
2006, which usually indicates a
title transfer, said Fergus.
The crash will be investigated by
the FAA and the National
Transportation Safety Board.
Salt Lake Tribune reporter
Melinda Rogers contributed to this
story.
mhavnes@sltrib.com
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1 dead in Daytona Beach plane crash
The Associated Press
5-25-09
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- One
man is dead and his son is critically injured after a small
plane crashed in Daytona Beach.Volusia County
officials say the twin-engine plane went down at Daytona
Beach International Airport around 9 a.m. Monday., not long
after taking off.
Killed in the crash was the pilot, 80-year-old Douglas
James Clark of Port Orange, who reported engine trouble
before going down. His son, 45-year-old Douglas Andrew Clark
of Daytona Beach, remains hospitalized.
Officials say the Clarks are well-known at the Daytona
Beach airport, where they run a business
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Pilot killed in light plane crash
May 25, 2009
A man has died and a woman was seriously injured when a
light aircraft crashed following a mayday call.
Police received a mayday call at 3.30pm on Sunday from a
light aircraft reporting difficulties while flying near to
Stalbridge, Dorset.
Shortly afterwards, the aircraft was seen by an off-duty
police officer to crash near to Stourton Caundle, north
Dorset.
Paramedics were called to the scene and found that the
pilot of the plane, a man in his 60s from Hindon, Wiltshire,
had died.
A 25-year-old woman who was the only passenger in the
plane was taken by the Dorset police helicopter to the Dorset
County Hospital in Dorchester suffering non-life threatening
injuries.
A Dorset police spokesman said: "The government's Air
Accidents Investigation Branch have been called to investigate
what caused the crash, with the support and assistance of
Dorset police."
Copyright © 2009 The Press
Association. All rights reserved.
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5-23-09
|
Plane crash near Plainwell, 2
people dead
Area pilots killed in crash
were members of Mishawaka Pilots Club
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May 21, 2009 - 1:08 PM
ALLEGAN COUNTY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Two people are
confirmed dead in Allegan County after a plane went down
in a field near the Plainwell Municipal Airport, leaving
both the pilot and passenger killed.Crews remain
on the scene Thursday night, trying to piece together just
how the crash happened. The plane went down around 1:00
Thursday afternoon, crashing in a field in the 800 block
of 106th Avenue, not far from the Plainwell
Municipal Airport on 10th Street.
Investigators have identified the
passenger of the plane as a 68-year-old man
from Indiana, but they are still working to
identify the pilot and determine how he took
off from Plainwell's airport and crashed
into the field. The plane was a
R.V.6.A experimental plane.Dan
Royston witnessed the crash.
"Heard a plane, heard a loud bang,"
said Royston, "walked out back, just watched
it totally blew up."
The Allegan County Sheriff's
Department says the crash and explosion
killed the pilot and passenger inside the
experimental aircraft.
Paul Brindley, a maintenance engineer
at Plainwell Airport, saw the plane earlier
in the day.
"It was sitting on the ramp, the
people were in for lunch," said Brindley.
Detectives believe the two men in the
plane stopped at the 747 for lunch before
taking off again.
"His description was that it began to
lose altitude rapidly," said Lt. Mike Larsen
of the Allegan Co. Sheriff's Department.
The Sheriff's Department says the
plane aborted its first attempt to land and
was circling around for a second attempt.
"He thought that potentially the
second attempt was going to be the field and
not the runway because of the drastic and
quick loss of altitude," said Lt. Larsen.
"At first I thought it was farm
equipment," said Royston.
Then, Royston says he heard a bang in
the field behind his home on 106th
Avenue.
"And then I realized it was a plane,
soon as I realized that, it just blew up,
nothing but fire and smoke, it was really
bad," said Royston.
Investigators say the passenger was
the only one carrying ID with him on
Thursday. They do not yet know where the
plane was going and have no record of any
radio communication or distress call before
it crashed.
An FAA official was at the scene of
the crash, investigating the cause
Newschannel 3 has learned the identity
of one of the men killed in the crash.
77-year-old Jerry D. Thorton. Thorton had
been in the air force when he was in his
20's. The plane that crashed Thursday was
the only plane Thorton had ever owned.
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009
INDONESIA
Military Plane Crash
Kills More Than 60An Indonesian
military plane carrying more than 100 people
crashed into several houses and burst into
flames Wednesday, killing at least 69 people,
officials said.
Air force spokesman Bambang Sulistyo said
the C-130 Hercules was on a routine training
mission when it crashed near the base in East
Java province.
Witnesses said that the plane split
apart in the air after a loud explosion and
that many of the victims were badly burned.
-- Associated Press
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5-20-09 "Three Separate Crashes Over Southern California Air Space"
Three Separate Crashes Over Southern California Air
Space
 Three
people were killed and two are still missing after a
U.S. Navy helicopter crashed Tuesday night in the
water off the San Diego coast.Rescue crews from
the Coast Guard and other agencies have recovered
the bodies of three of the five people on board, and
are continuing to search for the other two.
The cause of the helicopter crash is not yet
known, nor are the names of the people on board.
The night before, a pilot reported seeing two small
planes crash mid-air off the coast of Southern
California. The Coast Guard announced today that it
has suspended its search for survivors.
Rescue efforts had been focused around a
160-square-mile area off Long Beach Harbor, where
the planes were spotted after taking off from Long
Beach Airport.
 One
plane has been identified as a single-engine Cessna
172, flown by a student pilot and a flight
instructor. Some debris from the wreck has been
recovered and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s
department will continue to search for more
wreckage.
Meanwhile, investigators are trying to determine
the cause of a home-built plane crash in San Diego
County on Saturday, which killed the two people on
board.
According to Ian Gregor of the FAA, the
experimental plane’s wing fell came off around 2:35
p.m. after the pilot was performing stunts mid-air.
The plane was a Bakeng Deuce, an open-cockpit,
single-wing plane that can be assembled from a kit.
The pilot and passenger killed were local
residents and had taken off from the nearby Ramona
Airport.
By Sarika Chawla for PeterGreenberg.com.
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5-15-09 Two dead, others injured Lee Co. plane crash
Posted:
May 15, 2009 11:47 AM PST
Posted by: Matt Stanley -
bio |
email
Posted by: John Shryock -
OPELIKA, AL (WSFA) - Two people are
dead and several others are injured after a
small plane crashed in Lee County Friday. The
craft, identified as a single engine
Beechcraft Bonanza, crashed around 11:30am in
a field off Lee Road 112 in Beauregard.
Victims killed in the crash include Sanford
Jones, 56, of Fairburn, Georgia and Sasha
Medina, 19, of Newnan, Georgia. Jones is the
Chief Judge for the Fulton Co., Ga. Juvenile
Court.
Injured victims were identified as Sarah
Conklin, 19 and Joshua Rumohr, 18 both of
Newnan, Georgia. Each was transported to East
Alabama Medical Center with
non-life-threatening injuries. Authorities say
the survivors called 911 and directed rescue
personnel to the crash
location. First responders were on the scene
within 16 minutes.
The victims knew each other from a church
group. The teens had apparently traveled by
car to Destin, Florida and the judge was
flying them back to Georgia when the accident
occurred.
Investigators say the plane experienced
engine trouble and the pilot radioed the
Opelika-Auburn Airport for help. When the
plane's engine quit two miles out from the
airport the pilot started looking for a field
to land in.
The emergency landing was unsuccessful,
however, as the plane clipped a patch of trees
and nose dived into the ground. Lee County
Coroner Bill Harris pronounced Jones and
Medina dead at the scene. They suffered severe
head trauma and multiple blunt force injuries.
The FAA and NTSB were on the scene
investigating the crash.
WSFA 12 News will have more information as
it becomes available.
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5-15-09
Fulton Judge, Teen Die In Plane
Crash
Fulton County Judge Sanford Jones
Was Crash Victim
POSTED: 3:37 pm EDT May 15, 2009
ATLANTA --
A single engine plane with four people on board
crashed three miles short of the Auburn, Ala. airport,
killing a Fulton Co. judge.
The pilot, Fulton County Judge Sanford Jones,
and front seat passenger, 19-year-old Sasha Medina
died in the crash in Beauregard, Ala.
Two passengers, 19-year-old Sarah Conklin and
18-year-old Joshua Rumohr, survived the crash and were
taken to an area hospital.
One of the passengers called 911.
According to WTVM in Columbus, all of the occupants
of the plane knew each other from a church group.
The three teens drove to Destin, FL and the
judge was flying them back to Newnan, GA when they
experienced engine trouble near Auburn.
Jones attempted an emergency landing in the field.
Jones was appointed to the Juvenile Court of
Fulton County in January 1992 and now serves as the
Chief Presiding Judge of one of the largest juvenile
courts in the southeast.
"He was the kind of person where when he came into
a room, he wasn't the person to dominate but he had a
presence that everyone respected. He'd done so many
things for Fulton County juvenile court over the years
that he had the respect, admiration and friendship of
everyone in the court community," said court spokesman
Don Plummer.
The plane was a Beechcraft Bonanza Single engine
six-seater plane with the registration number N-191MK.
The plane was registered to Attorney Louis Levenson
of Atlanta.
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5-10-09 RENO, Nev. (AP) Five people are dead after a small
plane crashed this afternoon in a pasture in northern Nevada. The
sheriff of Douglas County says the twin-engine Beechcraft BE95 went down
near the town of Gardnerville, about 10 minutes after taking off from
Minden Tahoe Airport. |
5-6-09
Two People Dead In Lantana Plane Crash
Deceased: (names withheld by editor of this
page)
Ted Scouten
E-mail
LANTANA (CBS4) ―
Two people were killed after a single engine plane crashed
into an unoccupied plane at Palm Beach County Airport in
Lantana Wednesday morning.
"I saw him come over the top of this hangar here, probably
50 feet off the ground banking really hard," said chopper
pilot Brad Coulson. "He banked it a little harder and then
just dropped out of the sky."
People on the ground say they heard the engine sputter and
then quit just moments after the plane lifted off. Coulson
says it looks like it only gained 70 feet before the pilot
tried to make a u-turn. That's when it plowed into that
other plane, ripping a wing off. That sent the V 35 Bonanza
spinning out of control, wedging itself under a
tractor-trailer, tearing the whole thing apart.
According to officials, 68-year-old Jack Howard Henderson
and 78-year-old James Donald Breazeal worked for months on
the 1959 Beechcraft before taking it out on its test run
Thursday. Both died in the accident.
Chopper mechanic John Evans ran to help seconds after it
crashed. "I went right over and I stood right over the two
guys like this trying to pull one out," said Evans. "They
were already dead, I just stepped back and started crying
man."
Experienced pilots say if the pilot tried turning around,
that could have been the fatal mistake. If a plane is low, a
sharp bank can cause it to go into a stall. "Most people
would have gone straight and found another place to land
where it's safe," said pilot Carl Holme. "Most likely if he
would have taken off straight and landed in Lake Osburne, he
would have walked away and been fine. "
No one on the ground was injured. The National
Transportation Safety Board has investigators on the scene
as well as the FAA. The cause of the accident remains under
investigation.
CBS4.COM's John MacLauchlan contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting
Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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5-6-09
CHINO--Pilot error and fog combined to cause a twin-engine plane
to crash near the Chino Airport killing the two men aboard.
That’s the cause of the November, 2007 accident issued Wednesday by the
National Transportation Safety Board.
Pilot Robert Lewis of Chino was using instruments to guide the plane’s
take-off, but failed to maintain a positive climb rate. It made a slight
turn before hitting some 25-foot-high trees. A wingtip struck the ground
causing the plane to cartwheel and burst into flames.
Lewis and his passenger, Roland Barthelemy, 76, of Orange, perished
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5-2-09
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Lafourche pilot dies in plane crash
Nikki Buskey
Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 11:00 a.m.
THIBODAUX — A Lafourche Parish pilot was killed Wednesday
after his single-engine plane crashed into a cow pasture in Des
Allemands.
Ronnie Paul Tregre, 64, who lived on the Lafourche side of
Des Allemands, was killed on impact, said Capt. Patrick Yoes, a
spokesman for the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Tregre was alone in the plane when it crashed just before 4 p.m.
Wednesday, and no one else was injured. The plane crashed into
an empty pasture just off Down the Bayou Road.
Federal Aviation Administration investigators were in St.
Charles Parish this morning investigating the cause, Yoes said.
The investigation will take several weeks, as officials
may have to send the plane’s engine off to the manufacturer for
examination, said Roland Herwig, a spokesman with the Federal
Aviation Administration.
“It appears the plane banked to the west, struck some
trees and crashed into an open field,” Yoes said.
The plane was reduced to “a pile of mangled mess,” Yoes
said.
Tregre was flying a two seat Aventura II, a seaplane that
is categorized by the FAA as an experimental aircraft. He was
the registered owner of the plane.
Experimental aircraft like the Aventura II are constructed
from build-it-yourself kits you can order off the Internet, but
both the plane and the person who builds it must be certified by
the Federal Aviation Administration, Herwig said.
All rights reserved.
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Don’t be alarmed: Mock plane crash
in town Saturday
Training exercise scheduled at
Hook Field; public can watch the spectacle
By Meagan Engle
Staff Writer 1:42 AM Friday,
April 17, 2009
MIDDLETOWN — A plane will go down at Hook Field this
weekend with injured survivors that need medical transport.
But don’t be alarmed by the wreckage, it’s all part of a
training exercise.
The mock disaster will take place from about
9 a.m. to
noon Saturday, April 18, at the Middletown Regional Airport.
The airport will be closed from 9 to 11 a.m., according
to Middletown police.
The exercise will simulate an aircraft collision that
caused several casualties.
The Federal Aviation Administration, Middletown police
and firefighters, Care Flight medical helicopter, Duke Energy,
Middletown police clergy, fire departments from Madison Twp.,
Monroe and Trenton and the Civil Air Patrol — a citizen
auxiliary of the Air Force — will team up on the training,
which is done on this scale once a year in different areas,
said Civil Air Patrol Lt. Scott Zimpfer.
Anyone wishing to watch the training must be at the
observation area prior to 9 a.m. After that time, the area
will be closed for safety reasons, according to Middletown
police.
More than 14 pieces of equipment will be used in the
exercise. A Mass Casualty Unit and Mass Decontamination Unit
will be on display during the event.
Anyone planning to attend should contact Jack Wolf at
(513) 594-5715.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or
mengle@coxohio.com.
|
Pilot dies after
plane crashes into Oakland Park home
BY
AMY SHERMAN AND JULIE KNIPE BROWN
Federal aviation authorities
are investigating the cause of a
fatal plane crash that sliced
through an Oakland Park home
minutes after the homeowner's
nephew left for work Friday
morning.The small
twin-engine Cessna 421 struck the
single-story home like a torpedo,
shredding everything in its path,
rupturing its roof, walls and
windows. Rattled witnesses ran for
cover, kids were rushed off
playing fields and a few daring
neighbors armed themselves with
garden hoses.
The pilot, identified by
neighbors as Cecil Murray, was
killed in the accident, which
happened about 11:15 a.m., just
after take-off from Fort
Lauderdale Executive Airport.
Witnesses reported seeing flames
from the plane's engine before it
went down in the 5200 block of
Northwest First Avenue, near
Commercial Boulevard and Andrews
Avenue.
The owner of the house,
Oscar Nolasco, left for work about
5:30 a.m., but his 17-year-old
nephew missed the crash by
minutes. Alex Martines had just
left for his job at Nicks in
Oakland Park right before the
plane went down.
''He's so lucky he left 10
minutes before it all happened.''
said his aunt, RuthQuiroga.
Several witnesses saw the
plane go down.
''I saw flames and I heard
an explosion and a big fireball
coming across the street,''
neighbor Laurie Hewett said.
Patrick Faustin, 22, who
lives about two blocks from the
crash site, was driving west on
Commercial Boulevard when he saw
``a plane coming east with the
wing on fire.''
He continued driving west
and followed it, guessing it was a
10-seat aircraft. He called police
from his car and ''told them a
plane is on fire in the air and
it's going to crash'' and then
''BOOM,'' he said, describing what
he heard.
Faustin grabbed a hose from
a house across the street from the
crash and tried to extinguish the
fire.
''Everything was on fire. I
was just panicking. I was scared,
nervous,'' Faustin said.
Miami Herald news partner
WFOR-CBS 4 reported that a woman
called the television station to
say her husband piloted the
airplane and was alone. The woman,
who was not identified, said her
husband was headed to the
Jacksonville area to sell the
plane. She also said her husband
has relatives in Costa Rica.
The popular plane, first
introduced in 1968, can carry up
to eight passengers. There is one
for sale now on ebay for $199,000.
The plane, owned by Sebring
Air Charter, Inc. in Tamarac, went
down only about two miles after
taking off from the airport.
According to FlightAware.com,
a private website that tracks FAA
radar position and flight
information messages, the plane
was headed to Fernandina Beach. It
arrived in Ft. Lauderdale
Wednesday from Cozumel, Mexico.
At Murray's Tamarac home
Friday afternoon, news crews and
police cruisers massed on the
street outside The Mainlands, a
55-and-over community. Neighbors
described Murray has a seasoned
pilot who spent part of his time
in Costa Rica.
'When you hear it's your
neighbor, it's like `oh my God!'
It's absolutely awlful,'' said
neighbor Carol Frotin.
Federal Aviation
Administration spokeswoman
Kathleen Bergen said the flight
plan only listed one person on the
plan -- though there may have been
others.
''This just shows one, it
doesn't mean there can't be
more,'' she said.
Rescue crews were on the
scene dousing flames from the
aircraft. FPL cut electricity to
hundreds of nearby homes as a
precaution.
Inside the house, charred
debris and pieces of the plane
were scattered. Authorities said
Nolasco, the homeowner, had lived
in the neighborhood for 20 years.
Ashley Salazar and Tracy
Baughn were leaving a house in the
neighborhood to head to North
Andrews Gardens Elementary, where
they are members of the PTA, when
they heard the explosion. They
hopped in their car and called the
school principal en route. The
principal told Salazar that the
coach cleared students off the
field when he saw a plane on fire.
Meanwhile, Chris Tom, 45,
was cooking rice and chicken in
his kitchen when he heard a
massive boom and immediately felt
heat coming from the house that
abuts his backyard.
''I heard a big explosion
and then, just fire,'' he said.
He ran outside and turned on
his garden hose, trying to do
whatever he could to douse his
neighbor's home, which was
engulfed in flames. A friend with
Tom said he saw the plane falling
from the sky with smoke coming
from one side.
Another witness, Tony Mejia,
said he was driving when he saw
the plane about 500 feet above
him. The pilot, he said, appeared
to be trying to return to the
airport.
''The plane was not
climbing. The fire was on the back
of the engine to the right side,''
he said.
In 2007, The Miami Herald
reported that Fort Lauderdale
Executive Airport holds one of the
nation's most troubling safety
records.
In a 40-month period
examined by the newspaper, eight
people died in crashes shortly
after takeoff from the city-run
airport, and several close calls
barely averted catastrophe on the
ground. Planes from the airport
have previously hit homes, a Fort
Lauderdale auto body shop, and the
swale on I-95.
Miami Herald staff
Writers David Smiley, Jennifer
Lebovich, Michael R. Vasquez,
Susannah Nesmith and Chuck Rabin
contributed to this report.
|
11
feared dead in Indonesia plane crash
MIMIKA, Indonesia, April 17 (UPI)
-- A reported 11 people were feared
dead in the crash of a small
chartered plane Friday in remote
eastern Indonesia, police said.
Rescue teams said they would
be unable to search for the wreckage
until Saturday because of bad
weather in the isolated Mount
Gergaji area near Mimika in the
Papua province.
Officials told CNN they still
were getting a signal from the
plane, which was reported chartered
by the local government.
Carrying three election
officials with documents from the
April 9 legislative polls, the plane
took off from Ilaga for the remote
highlands on what was expected to be
a half-hour flight. But, officials
said air traffic control lost
contact and later confirmed there
had been a crash.
The Jakarta Post said those
aboard included nine passengers,
including two children, plus the
pilot and co-pilot.
© 2009 United Press International,
Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
|
One Dead in El Dorado Hills Plane Crash
Posted By: Jason Kobely
EL
DORADO HILLS, CA - Authorities
confirmed one person died
after a small plane crashed
between two homes in an El
Dorado Hills neighborhood
Friday afternoon.
The
small two-seater Sportsman
aircraft went down at 5:11
p.m. Friday near Queen Anne
Court and Crown Drive.
El
Dorado County sheriff's Sgt.
Phil Chovanec said the plane
went down between two houses
late Friday afternoon.
HOME VIDEO: See the
crash's fiery wreckage;
4/17/09, 5:15 p.m.
Cal Fire
confirmed one person died in
the crash, although it was not
immediately clear if the
person who died was the pilot.
Chovanec
said the plane caught fire,
but there was no damage to
either house and no injuries
on the ground.
Home
video taken by nearby resident
Dirk Comstock-Ervin showed the
plane's wreckage fully
engulfed in flames as the
first fire crews arrived on
scene.
The
National Transportation Safety
Board was contacted and would
conduct an investigation to
try to determine the cause of
the crash.
News10/KXTV
Copyright 2009
/ All Rights Reserved
|
KIVI-TV TODAY'S 6 NEWS
Pilot Walks Away
From Plane Crash
Unharmed
CALDWELL, IDAHO
Emergency responders
surround a plane
after it crashed to
the ground. The
pilot Kurt Becker
walked away
unharmed. Becker
says he took off
from Sunrise Sky
Park in Melba and
that he was testing
the new plane for
the owners when he
decided he wanted to
grab lunch in
Caldwell.
"As I was coming
over here the
vibrations started
getting worse and I
could tell it was on
the right side of
the plane but I
couldn't see what it
was.", says Becker.
Becker said he
felt vibrations
several times before
hitting the ground
but didn't think
anything was wrong
so he didn't call
for help. However,
he says as the
flight went on the
vibrations started
to get worse.
"I tightened my
seatbelt and
snuggled real hard
downwind just
because I thought it
might not be
pretty", Becker
said.
Airport officials
closed down the
runway for about 4
hours until the
plane Becker was in
could be removed.
Right now
investigators are
still looking into
what caused the
plane to go down.
|
Crash at
Caldwell, Idaho
Airport
4-17-09
A plane crash
today at the
Caldwell airport. It
happened just after
1pm when the small
plane was attempting
to land. Police say
the pilot was the
only person on
board. He was taken
to the hospital, and
was treated and
released. The
airport runway was
shut down for a
while, but has since
re-opened.
|
Authorities
say two
men were
lucky to
escape
serious
injury
when their
light
plane
ditched
into the
ocean on
south-east
Queensland's
Sunshine
Coast.
The
plane
crashed
into the
water just
off
Shelley
Beach at
Caloundra
late this
morning.
Ross
Ginns from
the Fire
and Rescue
Service
says the
pilot and
passenger
were
helped
from the
wreckage
by people
on the
beach.
"I
would say
the pilot
and the
other
passenger
were very
lucky that
they
survived
this
incident,"
he said.
"Given the
condition
of the
wreckage
they
should go
and buy
themselves
a lotto
ticket.
"Also the
people who
were also
on the
beach at
the time,
they were
very lucky
that they
weren't
hit as
well."
Engine
failure
will be
examined
as a
possible
cause of
the crash.
Mr
Ginns says
neither
man was
badly
hurt.
"The
aircraft
was
overturned
in the
water and
was being
washed in
and out
with the
wave
action,"
he said.
"The
aircraft
on arrival
was
totally
destroyed,
the wings
had been
torn off
it and
were only
hanging by
the stays
attached
to the
aircraft
itself."
Tags:
disasters-and-accidents,
accidents,
air-and-space-accidents,
qld,
caloundra-4551
|
|
|
|
Marine Air Station Miramar plane crash
victim identified
2009-04-11 02:46:55 (GMT) (JusticeNewsFlash.com
- Aviation Airline Accident, Justice
News Flash)
California plane crash victim
identified by Medical Examiner’s Office.
San Diego, CA(JusticeNewsFlash.com)–The
second body recovered from a
single-engine Piper Comanche plane crash
near Marine Air Station Miramar,
California was identified today by the
Medical Examiner’s Office. The fatal two
person aviation accident which occurred
Saturday morning remains under
investigation by aviation accident
authorities as reported by San Diego
News10.
Mary Weber, 58, of Burbank died of
severe traumatic injuries in the plane
crash along with her husband, 51
year-old Friedrich Leo Weber, who owned
the airplane. The Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) www.faa.gov and the
National Transportation Safety Board
(NTSB) www.ntsb.gov investigators have
not determined who was piloting the
plane when it went down. The
single-engine airplane took off from
Whiteman Airpark in San Fernando Valley
and was en route to Brown Field when it
crashed at about 11 a.m. Saturday. The
cause of the fatal aviation accident is
unknown at this time.
JusticeNewsFlash.com news for
California aviation accident claims.
|
Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 1:42pm
MST
Flight school
plane crash lands at west Phoenix
school field
Phoenix Business Journal - by
Mike Sunnucks
A single-engine Cessna
flown by a flight
instructor and student
crash landed in a
school field near
Glendale Municipal
Airport Wednesday
morning.There were
no injuries and no
damage at Villa de Paz
Elementary School,
located near Camelback
Road and Loop 101. The
school is about 1 mile
southeast of the
Glendale airport,
according to the
Federal Aviation
Administration. It’s
also just south of the
University of Phoenix
Stadium and near the
new spring training
homes of the Los
Angeles Dodgers and
Chicago White Sox.
The FAA said the
instructor reported
engine trouble and was
trying to return to
the Glendale air field
at about 9:30 a.m.,
but opted to land in
the school’s field. A
school official said
the plane was damaged
but the school was not
impacted and remains
open.
The plane is used
by the Air Safety
Flight Academy, a
flight school based
out of the Glendale
airport. The company
confirmed there were
no injuries and that
the Cessna 152 was one
of its instruction
plan |
Father
and
Daughter
Heading to
Idaho
Falls
Survive
Plane
Crash
Posted:
April 14,
2009 09:15
AM PST
Teton
County
Sheriff's
Office
report that
a father
and
daughter survived a
plane
crash
when
flying
from Wyoming
to Idaho
Falls.
Monday
afternoon,
Donald
Ballard
and his
teenaged
daughter
were
flying
over the
Togwotee
Pass
area
when the
plane
was hit
by a
downdraft.
The draft
forced the
plane
into a
ravine
where Ballard
did not
have
enough
power to
climb
out. As
the
plane
went
down,
the left
wing was
ripped
off as
it
clipped a
tree,
resulting
in a
nose-dive
into the
side of
the
ravine.
The
plane
came to
rest
with its
nose
down and
its tail
up in
the air
approximately
10-15
feet.
The
passenger
area of
the
plane
was
partially
buried
in the
snow.
Ballard
was able
to
contact
emergency
services
using
his cell
phone.
Teton
County
Sheriff's
Office
dispatchers
were
able to
trace Ballard's
location
from the
GPS on
his cell
phone.
Search
and
rescue
personnel
from
both
Fremont
County
and
Teton
County
launched
a
response.
Rescuers
maintained
cell
phone
contact
with
Ballard
and once
close to
where
they
believed
him to
be,
sounded
their
siren.
Ballard
heard
the
siren
and was
able to
direct
rescuers
to his
location.
Using
snowmobiles,
rescuers
were
able to
reach
Ballard
and his
daughter.
Ballard
was
uninjured
and
declined
treatment.
His
daughter
complained
of neck
and
shoulder
pain.
She was
placed
on a
backboard
and
transported
to St.
John's
Hospital
in
Jackson,
Wyoming.
|
|
 |
Plane crash: 2 died when
Chicago-area plane crashes
Pilot had taken up 2
friends and crashed with a
3rd friend
By Steve Schmadeke
Tribune reporter
April 12, 2009
Randy Hougham ate
breakfast, got a haircut
and, seeing it was a
beautiful Saturday
morning, decided to take
friends up in his restored
vintage plane in
DeKalb County, family
said.
Meeting him at Sandwich
Airport were several
members of the Hamilton
family, including Lauren
Hamilton, 22, a recent
Bradley University
graduate home for
Easter.
Her father and grandfather
went up and landed safely.
But something went wrong
on Lauren's flight, and
she and Hougham were
killed when the
single-engine 1946 Ercoupe
415-C crashed and burned
about 1:50 p.m.,
authorities said. The two
died at the scene, a
cornfield along Illinois
Highway 34 and near
Edgebrook Drive, just
north of the private
airstrip.
The
plane had belonged to
Hougham's grandfather.
Hougham tracked it down
after finding an old
picture his mother had
taken of it in 1948,
according to a post he
left on an aviation
message board. The plane
took more than a year to
restore, and he started
flying it in 2006,
according to those posts.
"He was a great guy, a
good family man, a good
dad," said Hougham's
brother-in-law, Bruce
Burlingame of
Glen Ellyn. "He was
just a normal guy who did
construction work and had
a plane."
Hougham, 53, of Sandwich
had two adult sons,
Burlingame said.
Hamilton, a "happy,
smiley, bubbly" woman, was
living in Peoria, said
Sheila Kotecki, whose
daughter was good friends
with her. The 2005
Sandwich Community High
School graduate loved
theater and being with
friends, Kotecki said.
Bill Coons of Lombard, a
retired FAA aviation
counselor and longtime
Ercoupe owner, supplied
Hougham with information
for restoring the plane.
He also gave Hougham his
first ride in an Ercoupe,
he said. Hougham kept the
plane meticulously
maintained, Coons said.
"Randy was a very capable
guy. He was flying all the
time," Coons said.
"Something mechanically
must've gone wrong."
Tribune
reporter Dan P. Blake
contributed to this
report.
sschmadeke@tribune.com
Copyright © 2009,
Chicago Tribune
|
Plane crash dead named
in England
4-10-09
Close, Stevenage and Carol
Ann Potter (49) of
Peterborough Road, Farcet,
Peterborough were killed
when their private Piper
fixed wing single engine
aircraft crashed into
woodland at Wheatham Hill,
near Stoner Hill and the
Hangers Way footpath..
Mr Boon and Mrs Potter were
travelling in a private
aircraft flying from
Hertfordshire to Jersey at
the time
The investigation into the
crash is being conducted by
the Air Accidents
Investigation Branch.
|
|
Cagayan cops set
out to retrieve
Chemtrad plane
crash victims
04/2/2009 |
09:04 AM
MANILA,
Philippines -
After locating
the wreckage of
the plane,
police are now
focusing their
efforts on
retrieving the
remains of
victims in the
crash of a
chartered plane
in Cagayan last
April 2.
Radio dzXL
reported
Wednesday that
Cagayan Valley
regional police
director Chief
Superintendent
Roberto Damian
said he has
virtually ruled
out the
possibility of
survivors.
Damian
said they
located Tuesday
the wreckage of
the private
plane at Sitio
Bayang in San
Miguel village
in Baggao town
in Cagayan
province.
The plane,
chartered by
Chemtrad, had as
pilot Capt.
Tomas Yaòez and
co-pilot Capt.
Reiner Ruiz.
Its passengers
were listed as
SPO2 Rolly
Castaòs,
Celestino
Salacup,
Abelardo Baggay,
Joel Basilio and
James Bakilan. -
GMANews.TV
|
Plane in deadly
Montana crash was crowded
By
Emilie Ritter
BUTTE,
Montana (Reuters) - The plane that
crashed in Montana and killed all
seven children and seven adults
aboard had more passengers than
seats, a federal official said on
Monday.
National
Transportation Safety Board Acting
Chairman Mark Rosenker said his
team is investigating whether the
10-seat plane was carrying too
much weight and why it nose-dived
short of the runway in mountainous
Butte, Montana. The single-engine
plane had no "black box" flight
data recorder and the
investigation could take months.
All the
children were under age 10. Only
one, a 1-year-old, by regulation
could have been seated on an
adult's lap for the flight. That
left 13 people and 10 seats.
"We are going
to have to try and understand how,
and why, there were three
additional people on board the
aircraft." Rosenker told
reporters.
He stopped
short of saying the plane was
overcrowded. Officials changed the
number of passengers and seats
aboard the plane as the
investigation progressed.
Rosenker said
three families were in the Pilatus
PC-12 turboprop plane heading from
California to a ski vacation near
Bozeman, Montana. Bozeman and
Butte are towns of about 30,000
each in the mountainous western
part of the state.
The pilot, a
65-year-old man with years of
flying experience, requested twice
to divert to Butte from Bozeman,
without giving a reason, and both
times the Salt Lake City flight
controller approved the change,
Rosenker said.
Rosenker said
the plane appeared to have enough
fuel. Witnesses, including Harley
Howard, described the plane flying
low and suddenly diving.
"All of a
sudden, the airplane tail lifted
up and as it lifted, it spun
around and was at a 90 degree
angle to the ground, and the top
of the airplane was facing us and
just looked like someone took a
hold of the plane and it just
drove into the ground," he said.
"There was a ball of fire when it
crashed."
(Reporting by
Emilie Ritter, writing by Peter
Henderson, editing by Bill Trott)
*****
14 People killed in plane crash
The plane was only designed for 11 people.
May 22, 2009
Was Ice a
Factor in Montana Plane Crash?
Former NTSB
Official Says Ice Could be a
Factor in Crash That Left 14 Dead
By STEPHEN SPLANE, MATT
HOSFORD and HUMA KHAN
March 24, 2009
Flight safety experts say
icing could emerge as a
contributing factor to the plane
crash in Montana that left 14
people dead.
Investigators say
Montana-bound plane may have
been bogged down with
passengers.
Conditions at the time were
ideal for ice, meteorologists say,
just like last month's crash of a
Continental Airlines commuter
plane near Buffalo, that killed
50.
The cause of Sunday's crash
in Montana is still under
investigation, but ice may
certainly been a factor
investigators have said.
"It's Buffalo all over
again, or it could be," former
National Transportation Safety
Board official John Goglia told
The Associated Press.
Unlike the Buffalo crash,
there were no flight data or voice
recorders on board the Pilatus
PC-12, a high-end, single-engine
turbo prop, that could help
pinpoint a cause.
The
Pilatus Sunday was overloaded
officials confirmed Monday. It was
carrying three more passengers
than it is supposed to when it
crashed.
However seven of the 14
passengers were children varying
in age from 1 to 9, so weight may
not have been a factor. Mark
Rosenker, acting chairman of the
NTSB, said Monday they will be
calculating the weights of the
luggage, fuel and passengers.
ABC News' aviation
consultant John Nance said the
Pilatus PC-12 is a good, resilient
aircraft but that extra people on
this type of a plane creates not
only a possible weight problem but
a balance problem as well.
|
|
125 Survive Amsterdam Plane Crash
Emergency personnel work at the
scene of Wednesday's plane crash
near Amsterdam's Schiphol
Airport. The Turkish Airlines
plane crashed into a field while
trying to land, and it broke
into three pieces. Nine people
are confirmed dead in the crash.
By TOBY STERLING
,
AP
AMSTERDAM (Feb. 25, 2009) - A Turkish
Airlines jetliner plummeted out of cloudy
skies and plowed into a muddy field on
approach to Amsterdam on Wednesday, but
remarkably some 125 people — the vast
majority of those aboard — survived. The
nine dead included both pilots.
Low death toll in Turkish plane
crash a 'miracle': minister
Martine Pauwels |
February 26, 2009 - 12:32PM
Turkish Airways jet crashed into a
muddy field as it came into land at
Amsterdam airport on Wednesday killing
at least nine people but officials
said it was a ''miracle'' there were
not more victims.
Witnesses described seeing the tail of
the Boeing 737-800 hit the edge of a
busy road in light fog and drag along
the ground before the twin-engine
airliner broke into three just short
of the Schipol airport runway.
---------------------
VIDEO: Plane crash kills nine
PHOTOS: Horror crash in Amsterdam
---------------------
Six people were said to be in
critical condition in hospital and
another 25 were ''seriously'' wounded,
Dutch authorities said.
While many among the 127 passengers
and seven crew on the flight from
Istanbul fought their way out of the
mess of tangled wreckage, local
residents and car drivers rushed to
the scene.
About 40 passengers quickly escaped
through a hole in the cabin caused by
a wing that was ripped off, one
witness told Dutch television channel
NOS.
''The chance of survival in plane
accidents is close to zero. And this
is a miracle,'' Turkey's Transport
Minister Binali Yildirim said of the
death toll, Anatolia news agency
reported.
Tuncer Mutluhan, a representative for
a Turkish bank in the Netherlands,
said everything happened in a flash as
the jet approached Schipol on
Wednesday morning after a three-hour
flight.
''While we were making a normal
landing, it felt like we fell into a
void, the plane lost control, suddenly
plunged and crashed,'' he told Turkish
television channel NTV.
''It all happened in three or five
seconds.... There was panic after
that.''
About 750 ambulance and fire crew took
part in the rescue operation that was
quickly set underway. The injured were
taken to about 11 different hospitals
in the region.
Bodies were at first laid out under
white sheets next to the wreckage.
Authorities were identifying the dead
late Wednesday, but officials
confirmed that three of those killed
were crew in the cockpit of flight TK
1951 at the time of the crash.
According to rescue officials, six of
the injured were in critical
condition.
The Turkish transport ministry said
the flight carried 78 Turkish
nationals and 56 people of other
nationalities.
Passenger Kerem Uzel said the
airplane's tail hit the edge of the
highway near the airport.
''We were at an altitude of 600 metres
when we heard the announcement that we
were landing,'' Kerem Uzel told NTV.
''We suddenly descended a great
distance as if the plane fell into
turbulence. The plane's tail hit the
ground.... It slid from the side of
the motorway into the field.''
The Turkish transport minister said
the fact that the jet hit soft ground
and there was no fire had ''decreased
the death toll''.
Amsterdam-Schipol police chief Robert
Veltman also said the number of
victims was cut back because the
aircraft did not catch fire and had
been flying at low altitude when it
came down.
Survivors told of the panic on board
with passengers stuck between seats
screaming for help.
The engines were found some 100 metres
from the rest of the wreckage.
A Turkish Airlines plane carrying 67
relatives of those on the plane
arrived on a special flight late
Wednesday. Psychologists were waiting
|
