Posted on 10/14/2004 1:54:48 PM PDT by QQQQQ
A Boeing 747-200 aircraft with seven crew members aboard crashed Thursday at Halifax International Airport. All seven aboard the jet, which is owned by MK Airlines Ltd. of Britain and Ghana, were killed, say Canadian authorities.
The aircraft was loaded with fish, lobsters and lawn tractors, they say.
Parts of the 747 are made at Boeing Wichita.
Boeing Seattle spokeswoman Liz Verdier says a three-person team has been dispatched to the scene.
Boeing usually dispatches an investigation team to the site of crashes involving its jets, especially one involving its largest product, the 747 model. Verdier says it has been at least two years since the last fatal incident involving a 747.
The crash occurred at about 4 a.m. local time and resulted in a fire, officials say. A cause has not been determined, but officials say it appears the tail section separated from the rest of the aircraft on takeoff.
According to Aviation Safety Network, an independent safety agency, the crash was the fourth for MK Airlines.
But this sounds peculiar: "it appears the tail section separated from the rest of the aircraft on takeoff."
More detail:
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3626403
Britons Die in Jumbo Jet Crash
A British cargo jet crashed in a fireball after its tail section apparently broke off during take-off from Nova Scotia today.
All seven crew members – including two Britons – were killed.
The Boeing 747 jumbo jet, owned by MK Airlines of East Sussex and loaded with lawn tractors and 58 tons of lobster and fish, crashed shortly before 4 a.m. (0800 BST) into a largely wooded area near an industrial park north of Halifax.
The flight had originated from Hartford, Connecticut, and stopped in Halifax for refuelling en route to Zaragoza, Spain.
“Right now, we can confirm that there are believed to be no survivors as a result of the downed airplane,” said Constable Joe Taplin of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The tail of the jet lay in a field at the end of the runway, inside the fence surrounding the airport. The rest of the plane cut a wide, V-shaped swath through woods and brush and came to rest in pieces less than a mile away. The tops of several trees and power poles were sheared off.
The weather at the time of the crash was good with a partly cloudy sky and light winds.
A pilot familiar with large planes said tails of jets such as the 747 occasionally strike the ground during rotation – the point in the take off sequence when the pilot pulls back on the control stick, lifting the nose off the ground. Large aircraft have so-called strike bars that protect the tail section.
The crash was the fourth for the cargo company in 12 years and the second involving fatalities. All three previous crashes were in Nigeria.
Witness Peter Lewis was dropping off his wife at the airport and saw two explosions that resembled lightning.
“As we were approaching we saw what I thought was heat lighting because I told everyone in the car that we’ve got heat lightning in the sky,” he said.
“That was only a quick one followed by a second one that was bigger. And then we seen a very bright orange light and I mean bright. It took up the whole sky.”
U.S. Warns of Cargo-plane Threat
by Leslie Miller, Associated Press
Seattle Times - November 8, 2003
http://www.bluefish.org/cargopla.htm
WASHINGTON -- The Homeland Security Department is warning law-enforcement officers al-Qaida might be plotting to fly cargo planes from overseas into such crucial targets in the United States as nuclear plants, bridges or dams, an agency official said last night.
Explosives/Sabotage in the cargo packages?
More like the plane hitting power lines on the way down.
“As we were approaching we saw what I thought was heat lighting because I told everyone in the car that we’ve got heat lightning in the sky,”
SAMs??
Article says it sheared off the tops of power poles. This would produce a neat "lightning" effect.
Not sure how this relates to the story. There's no indication the plane was hijacked, and there's no reason to assume terrorism was involved.
LOL. Good one.
Load shift?..The lobsters all walked aft, thus shifting the plane's center of gravity..
What? The tail section seperated? Sounds like terrorism to me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.