'Pilot error' kills 158 in fireball plane crash

Originally posted by JakiusFogg
Do you know that for a fact??

It's in the article:

Of the eight survivors, four had only minor injuries and one was unscathed.

"As I fled from the aircraft, flames engulfed it.”

So of course fire MUST have been the cause of the tragic deaths!! and not the impact??

What do you expect though after a crash like that. no fire.

OK look at it this way,if there was a fuel that did not ignite after being spilled, would everyone have walked away alive.

I cite the TACA crash in Honduras. similar accident, but only 6 killed. Including 3 on the ground. So what was the difference.

Its the Chaos theory. You never know. and in the end the determination will be made by the people whi have the information in hand.

Maybe it was a non standard approach, asymmetric flaps, spoiler float, gear collapse,

What was the type of 737?

Maybe it was a fuel tank rupture on landing. Cite the China Airways -800 that burnt up in Narita.

the vapor barrier has issues on winglet equipped new gens!

It could be anything!

The point is we here just do not know. nort are we fully equipped to discuss properly.

I advise people look at the pprune threads

Originally posted by JakiusFogg
reply to post by peacejet

 

Different aircraft type. and in that one (as in others) the T/R was locked out. but really a lack of thrust reversers should not have been an issue, I have been on sooooo many landings where they were not even used

He touched down 2000 ft down the runway.

what is your source??? do you have an ACARS link that we don;t know about?

I am in India, and since yesterday, all the news channels are blaring this out with no break.

Here is one source.

ATC sources told CNN-IBN that the pilot was flying much above the appropriate approach angle which could be why the plane touched down 2000 feet beyond the actual touchdown point on the runway. This left the pilot with only 5000 feet to bring the plane to a halt.

CNN-IBN

Please see the video link I posted, and you will see that 5000ft is well within the stopping distance on the 737.

I saw the video you posted and I know the plane can be stopped with that distance. Another possible issue that I can quote here is the faigue problem with pilots, especially Air India. The government owned airline has been performing poor lately. The airline has a lot of overshoot incidents lately(it was reported in Indian media, but didnt get a lot of highlight elsewhere), mostly attributed to overworked pilots operating mainly on red eye flights. That could also have been a significant contributor.

[edit on May 23rd, 2010 by peacejet]

More from the survivor:

"The plane started to fall. There was a loud thud," Totuttur said, recalling the crash that killed 158 people Saturday after the flight overshot the runway. "The right wing was on the ground, but the left wing of the plane was up in the air. Then I saw the plane break into two in the middle. I had very little time. But I jumped out, about eight feet."

Totuttur, the manager of a sporting goods shop in Dubai, is one of eight survivors.

"I could hear people trapped inside, screaming," he said, speaking by phone from his hospital bed in Mangalore. "I walked on fire for some time. I limped and fell and picked myself up again. When I turned back and looked, there was a loud explosion and smoldering fire."

Source

And video of the aftermath:

reply to post by JakiusFogg


It was a 737-800.

158 people died when the Mangalore-bound Boeing 737-800 flight from Dubai overshot the runway and burst into flames at the Bajpe airport here. Eight persons survived.

CNN-IBN

reply to post by dzonatas


The survivors accounts are contradictory at the moment. The survivors have different versions of how they escaped. This is what the survivors told to the TV cameras.

One says he jumped out of the window as the plane was still moving after the left side door of the aircraft suddenly opened. One says, he was thrown out the aircraft and landed on the railway tracks 50meters from the wreckage.

Originally posted by dzonatas
"The right wing was on the ground, but the left wing of the plane was up in the air. Then I saw the plane break into two in the middle. I had very little time. But I jumped out, about eight feet."

MLG Gear collapse!?? and subsequent structural failure aft of the belly fairing. Known weak spot on the 737-CL.

High Vref on landing?

Windshear?

Bounce and spoiler deploy?

Tail strike?

Side slip on landing. possible, cite the Lufthansa A320 that almost pwnd into the runway in Frankfurt. video all over the internet,

But there is no way that we can say what the cause was, and the MSN is notorious off the mark when it comes to aviation accidents. purely because it is usually so sensational they go crazy

reply to post by peacejet


good new plane, but like all it has it's issues

reply to post by JakiusFogg


The plane should have skidded to the left side and not the right based on the crash location. One survivor has said that the pilot slammed the brakes hard on landing, causing the tires to burst and hence go out of control.

Bad accident whatever the cause, I for one will wait for the final report. as will the rest of the professionals in the industry

reply to post by JakiusFogg


The black box has still not been found. Probably burned up along with the aircraft. Hope that it is found. Else we will have only speculative evidence.

reply to post by peacejet


Don't worryh it won't have brunt up. Its probably just buried under the dirt. so it just takes a little time to dig the bugger out.

BTW its called a DFDR. (Digital Flight Data Recorder) and there is also a CVR (cockpit voice recorder) and they are not black. they are orange.

They are only called black boxes becuase the concept was invented by a Mr Black, so it was originally known as Black's Box.

It appears the only thing the plane "slammed" into was the trees.

Trees may have broke the plane apart the wings and caused the fuel leakage.

We can assume people were in seatbelts for the land.

reply to post by JakiusFogg


Black box found

reply to post by peacejet


Have any reports stated where on the airplane the survivors were sitting?
Did all of the survivors exit the plane as it was breaking up upon landing?

[edit on 5/23/2010 by Aislin]

reply to post by Aislin


The plane broke into two at the wing segment as it fell into the ditch. All the eight survivors were sitting near the section where the plane broke and in that force they were thrown out through the opening and hence they survived. Otherwise they would have perished like the rest. Now that is what we can call 'lucky'.