Stop
Drop
and
Roll.............That’s what they taught us in school!......
Hopefully Canadians will LEARN THEIR LESSON regarding DEI.
Landing gear failure?
Looks like it hit hard and scraped the right wing HARD on the runway.
Looks like he dug in the right wing due to crosswinds.
Shedding the wing saved everyone on board. The fuel was in the wing and it was left burning on the runway while the fuselage kept sliding.
Hitting the ground that hard might have even resulted in some spinal injuries.
It took a considerably long time for this video to be made public... Maybe I’m just being cynical, but was somebody profiting from this tragedy???
This video shows us two things.
First of all... That this wasn’t just a simple gust of wind that turned the plane over... There was obviously a problem with the landing itself. One commentator said the plane appeared to be coming in too fast, which means that the wind could still be a contributing factor, but now pilot error also comes into play.
The video also shows us that these people were very lucky to have survived. Some of the passengers said that their cloths were were soaked with fuel... That must have been terrifying.
Bearing in mind that early reports are usually wrong, and sitting in my FR ‘expert’ arm chair, I’ll offer the following:
Rate of descent on final approach was (early) reported to be 1100 feet per minute and KIAS (knots indicated air speed) less than 130 knots. This is arguably too fast of a descent on approach (should be ~500 fpm or less). Don’t know the crosswind component so can’t comment on the proper airspeed, plus I was never typed in ANY jet, so experts (for real) can point to a proper airspeed. Yet the <130 KIAS seems quite slow.
It looked like the pilot did have the right wing dropped (normal flying behavior) to counter drift from the crosswind, but higher airspeed would have helped reduce the required roll and rudder to ‘crab’ onto the centerline of the runway.
Couple that roll ° plus low airspeed plus high rate of descent adds up to a HARD touchdown on the right gear *perhaps* leading to structural failure or at least blown tires. Both would yaw the plane to the right. *IF* the right wing hit the earth the plane is going to ground loop in a clockwise manner. At some point the wing detached from the fuselage. My obeervation from my FR arm chair looking at the fuselage is that the wing came off ‘cleanly’ as if the attachment points failed/bolts sheared. The CRJ (per the internet) only carries fuel in the wings, so the fire was from the fuel leaking from the right wing. Per se the plane’s fuselage did not erupt in flames, only the fuel from the wing(s).
Also PRESUMING the plane landed that hard, some of the injuries may have occurred right then.
My FR armchair opinion is that the pilot blew the approach yet proceeded to attempt the landing due to get-there-itis. I have been there and saved a landing, but by the time I finished engine shutdown, I knew I did a stupid thing.
Net: pilot error all the way.
Now getting out of my armchair to go pee 😉
Sabotage?
Observers on aviation sites have noted what appears to be:
- no flaps
- possible premature thrust reverser deploy
- very hard landing with immediate right gear collapse
My guess is that there was also a right wing fuel tank rupture, and the impressive but not deadly fire was merely due to fuel vapor reaching the engines.
The aircraft might have been on a stable, 500-per-minute descent, but I didn’t see the flare near the end to arrest the descent. I’m not surprised to see this result in collapse of the landing gear and snapping at the right wing off.
It is difficult to land on a snow-covered runway.
"Every one already knows the definition of a 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. But very few know the definition of a 'great landing.' It's one after which you can use the airplane another time."
The plane didn’t flare and do that slow descent to a soft touch of the wheels. It hit hard like an F-18 on a carrier.