Posted on 02/07/2015 8:19:25 PM PST by Reverend Saltine
The bodies of Liao and his co-pilot were retrieved from the almost-new turboprop ATR 72-600's cockpit still clutching the joystick, with their legs badly broken, investigators said.
UPDATED
taiwan-crashTAIPEI: The pilot of the crashed TransAsia plane was still clutching the joystick when his body was found in the cockpit, after he battled to avoid populated areas, reports said Friday as the airline faced sanctions over its second fatal accident.
The TransAsia Airways ATR 72-600 crashed shortly after take-off from Songshan airport in Taipei on Wednesday, hitting an elevated road as it banked steeply away from buildings and into the Keelung River.
Pilot Liao Chien-tsung, 41, was among at least 35 people who lost their lives in the accident. Fifteen people survived and rescuers are still searching the river and submerged wreckage for another eight who remain missing.
Liao has been hailed as a hero for apparently making a last-ditch attempt to steer the turboprop plane, with 53 passengers and five crew on board, away from built-up areas during its steep descent, avoiding more deaths and damage.
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Didn’t the Taiwanese already release that the pilots had an engine malfunction and then shut down the good engine?
I think of Sopwith Camels when I hear joystick, aren’t the controls in modern aircraft called yokes?
Yes. They had a failure of engine 2, and about 40 seconds later, they shut down engine 1.
It’s pretty unlikely that either pilot managed to hang on to the sidestick in the crash.
It doesn’t look like they had much control of the plane.
Airbus and a few other aircraft do not have yokes. They have side mounted joysticks.
The ATR-72-600 does indeed have yokes:
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Royal-Air-Maroc/ATR-ATR-72-600-%28ATR-72-212A%29/1952510/L/
It looks like a Total Loss Of Power At TakeOff!The only thing worse:?Obongo as POTUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
apparently they were having trouble with both engines
Nope. FDR data seems to show #1 is fine until it is shut off.
Wasn’t the plan theoretically flyable with one engine? Is it possible better training might have helped?
Can’t be certified to carry passengers if it can’t takeoff with an engine failure.
So yes, it can takeoff with the loss of one engine.
Losing one engine on takeoff can be worse than losing both. If you are flying below minimum controllable airspeed, critical engine out, that is worse. Many aircraft have a best rate of climb speed very close to the above. If you lose the critical engine and have found yourself at too slow of an airspeed, you will roll right over on your back. There is no recovery from it unless you have a few thousand feet below you to play with.
I think they struggled to clear the buildings. Google has street view for the crash site, and it shows there were power lines right in front of them that crossed the river. It’s a very densely populated area with nowhere to land.
What becomes the issue is the airflow over the rudder and stabilizer. If you lose enough airflow, there is no ability in the rudder to counteract the high torque from the operating engine, and thus you roll over and pancake.
That makes sense..
Required Engine power is at absolute maximum during takeoff. If one engine fails in a 2 engine aircraft, and aircraft has not reached high altitude, it must be impossible to control the aircraft. It will turn sideways as this one did, with the good engine above the bad one.
My guess is the pilot turned off the good engine with a hope of a crash landing in the river. But just did not have the altitude to pull it off.
Whatever happened to the engines, it is pretty clear that this plane is stalling and starting to do it’s death spiral.
I dislike these ATR’s for a number of reasons, not the least or which is the lack of a nice looking and sufficiently sized wing. The compromises the designers made in getting this aircraft to be commercially viable are ones that make sense, but also make the aircraft less and less airworthy.
Just my opinion.
Oldplayer
Thank you. Sounds like a mistake, so sad.
There is the problem: Flying an Airbus.
Before V1, you reject.
After V1, you do the engine out procedure and return to the airport.
All passenger certified twins will follow those guidelines as far as I know.
ATR72-600 meets all requirements for one engine climbout.
It can climb to and maintain FL110 with one engine.
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