Posted on 10/14/2004 6:18:02 PM PDT by Clive
HALIFAX (CP) -- The tail section of a Boeing 747 snapped off seconds before the loaded cargo jet crashed into woods at the end of a runway at Halifax International Airport early Thursday, killing all seven crew members.
"Our thoughts and our prayers go to the families of those killed in this tragedy," said Pat Chapman, a spokesperson for the airport authority.
The tail of the wide-body plane, owned by MK Airlines Ltd. of Britain and Ghana, lay in a field at the end of the runway, inside the fence surrounding the airport property.
"The aircraft basically didn't take off," said Steve Anderson, an airline spokesman in Sussex, England. "She continued her (takeoff run) and ran off the runway and ran into woods."
There didn't appear to be casualties on the ground as there are no homes in the area.
The fuselage and wings of the aircraft cut a wide, V-shaped swath through woods before coming to rest in pieces about a kilometre away.
"We've recovered some remains at the scene," said RCMP Const. Joe Taplin.
He said the RCMP were treating the crash as a potential criminal investigation after reports of an explosion. He didn't elaborate.
Bill Fowler, an investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said it's not unusual for police to take the lead in the early stages of investigations involving fatal crashes.
"We are providing technical assistance and we will continue to do so until that investigation changes, if it does, to a safety investigation," he said.
The tops of several trees and power poles were sheered off. The jet's severed wings lay in the brush, which was still burning in places several hours later. A mangled engine and a charred portion of fuselage lay nearby.
The Boeing 747-200, which was loaded with fuel for a flight to Spain, crashed shortly before 4 a.m. local time near an industrial park and quarry about 30 kilometres north of Halifax.
Pictures from the scene showed an orange glow in the pre-dawn sky. It took about 60 firefighters and 20 trucks about three hours to control a fire caused by burning jet fuel on the ground.
Dave Carroll, a volunteer firefighter, said he arrived to see a large "fireball in the bushes."
His face smeared with soot, Carroll said he'd never seen such wreckage and was saddened by the fact "it was such a big plane and there were lives lost."
"It's one of those things you hope you never come to a second time," he said.
The crash forced the airport to close for several hours, delaying or cancelling 17 flights. Power was temporarily knocked out, but flights resumed on one runway later in the morning.
MK Airlines said the dead crew members were all males. Six were from Zimbabwe while the seventh was South African.
Aside from the usual three-person crew in the cockpit, the plane was also carrying a loadmaster and a spare crew.
The weather at the time of the crash was good with a partly cloudy sky and light winds.
The huge aircraft, which stopped in Halifax to refuel and take on cargo, was loaded with lawn tractors and 53,000 kilograms of lobster and fish bound for Zaragosa, Spain.
Fowler said preliminary indications suggest the aircraft wasn't overloaded.
Witness Peter Lewis was dropping off his wife at the airport and saw two explosions.
"As we were approaching we saw what I thought was heat lightning," he told radio station CJCH. "That was only a quick one followed by a second one that was bigger. And then we saw a very bright orange light -- and I mean bright. It took up the whole sky."
The MK Airlines spokesman said the company had never had problems with this particular aircraft.
"She's been an absolute gem," Anderson said, noting the aircraft had been in service for about six years. He also said the company has been flying out of Halifax for the past 18 months.
The crash was the fourth for the cargo company in 12 years and the second involving fatalities. All three previous crashes were in Nigeria.
In 2001, one crew member was killed when a 747 went down about 700 metres short of the runway.
In 1996, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8F-55 struck trees during approach. There were no fatalities.
In 1992, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8 crashed and caught fire, also during final approach.
The information on the previous crashes is listed on a website for the Aviation Safety Network, an independent aviation safety watchdog.
The TSB has assembled a team of investigators in Ottawa. The board is an independent agency that investigates transportation accidents and prepares incident reports.
Fowler said the jet's flight data recorders had yet to be recovered.
The flight originated near Hartford, Conn., and the flight to Halifax was uneventful, Anderson said.
A pilot familiar with large planes said the tails of jets such as the 747 occasionally strike the ground during rotation -- the point in the takeoff 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 when the pilot over-rotates and the tail strikes the runway.
"It doesn't happen that often," said the pilot, who didn't want his name used. "You can encounter turbulence right at rotation."
While tail strikes are uncommon, pilots can recover from them, he said.
Anderson, the MK spokesman, confirmed the aircraft was in the process of rotating when it crashed.
In Ottawa, federal Transport Minister Jean Lapierre said "my thoughts are with the families of the people involved in this tragic accident."
Fowler said the downed jet was likely equipped with depleted uranium, a radioactive material often used as ballast in the rudders and wings of wide-body aircraft.
Depleted uranium is the dense, heavy waste produced during the making of nuclear fuel and weapons.
A 747 may contain as much as 1,500 kilograms of the material, which is denser than lead and 60 per cent as radioactive as natural uranium.
Fowler said "there is no threat or concern" about exposure to those working on the wreckage.
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Sad,........another 'Spain' trainwreck.......
.....the plane left the ground.....but,....'reasons' why it couldn't get any higher may have been 'the problem'...
.....?......loadmaster on board?
What the heck? I've NEVER heard of jetliners carrying depleted uranium as ballast before, is this true?
My uneducated half-assed opinion: The two most likely explanations are:
(a) somehow the cargo shifted aft during rotation for takeoff, the plane pitched up hard, slammed the tail into the runway, hopped off the ground, stalled, and crashed back into the runway at a nose-up angle and broke off the tail; or
(b) the crew didn't set the takeoff flaps properly, it didn't lift properly during the rotation and suffered a tailstrike.
BTW, I also didn't think that tailstrikes were such a ho-hum thing. Every time I've ever heard or read about one, the plane was immediately sent back to the departing airport. Then again, I suppose I wouldn't read about it if the plane routinely carried on to its destination.
}:-)4
.......real 'heavy'......kind of lobsters and fish....?
"Can" and "always do" mean slightly different things. People can survive a jump from the Golden Gate Bridge.
BTTT
Ping
Sad. My thoughts are with their families.
As a former airman, the brotherhood of the air is mourning the loss of our brothers.
May they rest in peace.
"""was loaded with lawn tractors and 53,000 kilograms of lobster and fish bound for Zaragosa, Spain. "" (sorry, haven't figured out how to italicize within the reply box)
Well, guess their little snub of the US will be short some party items. (see Byron Norris' post above)
3rd option - it wasn't an accident...especially if the plane "has been an absolute gem"
Yeah, and you can recover from a stall, too, if you've got enough altitude.
Let's see.....
1. Tail section laying separate from the rest of the wreckage, so it was somehow separated from the fuselage prior to the crash.
2. It sounds like the pilot was rapidly running out of runway. They say it wasn't overloaded. (With declared items, but how about total weight?) Winds at the time? Possible heavy tailwind causing lack of lift?
3. Witness saw "flashes" prior to the crash. Explosive? Engine grenading? Titanium and magnesium both flash quite brightly, and both are present in turbines. I can't imagine al Qaida taking down a transport to Spain at 4 AM. Not their style.
I'm betting on overloading or over rotation. Over rotation done properly could definitely sever the tail. It would also cause massive sparks or flashes prior to crashing.
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Put these <*i*> ____ <*/i*> on each end of what you want to italicize (without the astericks).
Exactly, what terrorist would attack a transport plane flying out of Halifax NS at 4am? Unless they were trying to hijack it for a 9-11 type scenario, of course.
I'm just glad that:
1) This was a transport and not a passenger plane. While it's sad that the crew lost their lives, a whole 747 load of people would have been a real tragedy.
and
2) That Halifax Intl. Airport is well outside populated areas, not right in the middle of it like Pearson Intl. The main reason that it's out where it is have to do with geography - the land immediately around Halifax/Dartmouth isn't really suitable for airport construction, being very hilly and full of small lakes. If this same type of accident had happened at Pearson (Toronto) Intl. airport in Mississauga, ON, there definitely would have been loss of life on the ground.
Do we have a conspiracy developed yet? ;)
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