May 24, 1988: The day a Boeing 737 almost crashed in New Orleans East(Pictures)

http://www.nola.com ^ | 5/24/18 | Melinda Morris

[BBell]

It's a good thing Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans had an old abandoned airstrip on its property in 1988. Otherwise, a Boeing 737 from San Salvador might have had no place to land.

As The Times-Picayune reported in 1988, TACA Flight 110 lost engine power on its May 24 approach to New Orleans. The National Transportation Safety Board released a transcript of the cockpit voice recording later that year, and it shows the confusion of the pilot and first officer after the flight, en route from San Salvador via Belize, fell to an altitude of about 1,000 feet.

The transcript, combined with handwritten statements by crew members, seems to indicate that the TACA crew had little time and much to do from the time the engines quit until the plane landed -- a period of less than five minutes, the Picayune reported at the time.

"It's several tense moments and there's a lot happening in the cockpit," said Warren Wandel, the safety board investigator heading the crash study. But while the forced landing was required by engine failure, just why the engines died in midflight remains a mystery, Wandel said at the time.

The Picayune reported that after losing power in heavy rains over the Gulf of Mexico, the crew thought its engines had restarted when the plane reached Lake Borgne. Capt. Carlos Dardano at first told the New Orleans control tower he had one engine, then both.

Seconds later, he realized he had none.

"This (expletive) is not starting," Dardano told his crew at one point, according to the transcript.

He told the tower he could not land at New Orleans Lakefront Airport and Interstate 10 were beyond reach, too, he said.

Dardano told the tower he planned to make a 360-degree turn, head back toward Lake Borgne and

[smokingfrog]

Thanks

[BBell]

Thanks. The comments were interesting and a few people pointed out that it was not an abandoned landing strip but just a grassy strip of land. Quite a feat this pilot pulled off, one eye dead eye he is.

[BBell]

The Soviets can build some good stuff.

[OldMissileer]

That’s a pretty short landing! If the engines were off, how did it stop so short?
PS. I’m a pilot.

I am a private pilot but when I was young I read everything I could about aviation and the 737 when it first came out and started service at my hometown.

The 737 was made for small airfields so flaps, slats, hit the air brakes as soon as you touch down and apply the regular brakes. For that aircraft that would do the job.

[Zuriel]

**Dardano told the tower he planned to make a 360-degree turn, head back toward Lake Borgne.....**

Some reporter must have gotten his facts wrong. After a 360 degree turn, they wouldn’t be going back.

[albertabound]

here’s another miracle...The Gimli Glider
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl4fhHLa5As