Posted on 07/10/2006 11:53:58 AM PDT by oxcart
The collision of two NWA planes last year at Minneapolis/St. Paul International is still under investigation so NWA and the NTSB wouldn't comment for this story. In fact, investigators didn't want us to get our hands on the tape until now.
Experts who have viewed the tape wonder why the planes didn't explode on impact.
May 10, 2005, an airport security camera is rolling as Northwest flight 1849 pushes back from the gate. Onboard 38 passengers, five crew members and thousands of gallons of fuel for the flight to San Antonio.
At the same time, another Northwest plane is just arriving from Columbus. That plane's crew is just discovering their hydraulic system has failed. They cannot steer or stop. The out of control DC-9 with 99 people aboard slams into the larger airbus pushing it 60 feet.
"Once we got close to the terminal, everybody just popped the belt to get off the plane the next thing we know we hit the larger plane," one passenger said.
The collision is violent. The wing of the airbus rips open the cockpit of the smaller plane, jet fuel pours out.
Brian LaCroix of Allina Medical is part of a team of Twin Cities emergency personnel who have created a plan to deal with this type of crash.
"It had to be horrifying to be in that cockpit," said Brian LaCroix.
A single spark could have created a fireball.
"It is an ignition source away from a catastrophe, just an amazing catastrophe," LaCroix said. "Within the first several minutes we had 22 ambulances en route."
The tape shows ramp workers rushing to help passengers and crews escape. The back stairs of the DC-9 are quickly lowered and passengers are led to safety. On the airbus, the slide is deployed and passengers and crew jump out.
"There were firefighters and paramedics at the base of the slide," he said.
The result was the best possible outcome in a crash which, by many accounts, could have been the deadliest Minnesota has ever seen.
The DC-9 had reported hydraulic problems in flight, but landed without a problem and began taxiing just fine. It was only later on the ground that the control systems failed; it would have been impossible for the Captain to avoid a crash. The NTSB is still investigating the case.
Have you seen this? (((PING)))
Link to video; http://kstp.dayport.com/viewer/viewerpage.php?Art_ID=167944
Why was a plane with hydraulic problems not stopped at the end of the runway?
The plane landed safely but lost complete hydraulics en route to the terminals. They are lucky to hit the other plane rather than the immovable building.
Occam's Razor.
Probably because the problem hadn't manifested itself yet.
Otherwise the plane would have run off the end of the runway.
D'OH!
bump for later
You prefer Realplayer morons?
Actually more people have the MS stuff...
Correct. The fault lies both with the cockpit crew, who should have known better; and the ground controller who would have had to direct the plane to a location filled with other aircraft.
Stupid, stupid, stupid!!!
The story says that the pilot reported hydraulic problems in the air...
I bet the wet weather prevented any ignition...if it were a hot summer day there most likely would have been a different outcome!
The article says they had known hydraulic problems while still in flight.
I have firefox and ie. I had to c&p the url into ie to run the video
Umm...jet fuel is not stored in the cockpit. Stupid TV news people...
The hydraulic problem could have been anything from a slow flap or landing gear to low pressure. Without looking at the NTSB report, who knows how severe the original problem looked.
But it is stored in the wing of the Airbus.....
The DC-9 had reported hydraulic problems in flight,...
The hydraulic problem had already manifested itself during the flight. Once the plane had landed, I'd have expected that the possibility of the problem recurring would have been considered.
If every airplane that had a problem of some sort on take-off or landing were to be stopped at the end the runway, you'd turn every major airport in the world into a used airplane lot.
Most likely there was no indication that the redundant system was going to also fail. There are very few single points of failure on an aircraft, but there are some. If when the pilots landed, the necessary systems were functioning ie brakes and steering, they probably figured they were safe to get to the gate.
It will be interesting to see the report that tells just where the failure was.
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