Miami Seaplane Lost Wing Before Crash

airwise news, reuters ^ | December 21, 2005 | staff

[thinking]

if I may...The comparsion is valid; the number of landing/takeoff cycles for this aircraft far exceeded the expected cycles for air service...the operator would be landing every 60 minutes or so, all day long.

That coupled with landing on the water, with the hull bouncing off the waves, which would flex the wings excessively...makes one wonder how the aircraft held up this long...

It has been announced that cracks were found in the main spar...

[saganite]

I'll go out on a limb here and suggest the turboprop engines which were retrofitted on this aircraft had a lot to do with it.

[Ninian Dryhope]

"Remember the Hawaiian Airlines plane that lost the top of the fuselage because of metal fatigue"

Yes, but these planes don't get high enough to even be pressurized. It is not like the Hawaiian plane where it is being pressurized while six miles up in the sky and then coming back down to sea level. At least back when I flew on one of these planes, back when it had radial piston engines, the plane hardly got off the ground.

[thinking]

I support that...was going to include that observation...I can imagine that the turbos impacted plenty of torgue on the wing spar....

[Blood of Tyrants]

I figured as much.

[jwpjr]

re: It was structural failure

That would certainly appear to be the case. Sad, especially since the cracks were all but invisible to the naked eye. You can bet the NTSB won't stop with the investigation at this point and simple declare it to have been the failure of that spar that resulted in the accident. They some very sophisticated tests and examination procedures to determine what part those stress fractures played in the accident and what caused them.

Truth is, I would have had no qualms about boarding that airplane for a trip to Bimini. As a long time pilot and aviation buff I would not have had a second thought about the safety of the aircraft. Certainly gives me pause for thought!

[jwpjr]

Not to mention the amount of saltwater spray that must make its way into and around the engine on every landing.