BREAKING: FAA: UPS jet crashes in Birmingham, Ala.

CBS 12 News ^ | August 14, 2013 | Michele Wright

[The Working Man]

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A federal aviation official says a large UPS cargo plane has crashed near an airport in Birmingham, Ala.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen tells The Associated Press that the A300 plane crashed on approach to the airport before dawn Wednesday. [snip]

[Yosemitest]

Accident reports from a tower controller's perspective are a real headache.
But the controllers can walk away from the crash after they get relieved of duty, and go have a drink.

But I still wonder about thunderstorms in the area, lightening strikes on final (electrical and computer failure/reboot, and flame outs on both engines),
and micro-burst from a rainstorm, or just a sudden change of direction in wind and a sudden change in wind speed with a micro-burst.
All of this could have happened in sudden sequence, or at the same time.

[Yosemitest]

After watching that video,

there's a bright flash of light, not yellow like fire, but white, like lightening,
at the 12 to 13 second spot, at the 25 to 26 second spot, and at the 38 to 39 second spot, where it replays itself.

More proof that thunderstorms were in the area ... or is it just as glitch in the replay function of that video ???

[Yosemitest]

One other question,

Is Birmingham Terminal Approach Control and Tower manned 24 hours a day,
or do they close and turn their airspace over to Atlanta Center from Midnight to 6 AM, every day,
and the airport becomes Unicom during those hours?

[imemyself]

The 2nd pilot in the plane was a woman . . .

[Yosemitest]

Thank machogirl because she's the one who found and linked that fact.

[Yosemitest]

Source?

[machogirl]

I did see that white flash while watching. Will a lightening strike while take off or landing fry everything? or enough that recovery is tough?

[machogirl]

wow, thanks

[Yosemitest]

Update:

UPS Cargo-Jet Crash Kills Two Near Airport in Alabama

(excerpt)

"Flight 1354, an Airbus SAS A300-600, was en route from Louisville, Kentucky, Peggy Gardner, a UPS spokeswoman, said by e-mail.
The pilot and copilot died when the jet came down about 900 yards (823 meters) from the airport, said April Odom, a city spokeswoman, citing Birmingham Mayor William A. Bell Sr.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration are investigating, the agencies said.
Odom said there was no property damage on the ground beyond toppled trees and power lines after the twin-engine aircraft slammed down in a field, where photographs showed the A300 was scorched and sheared into pieces.

“I’m talking about 150 feet and he would have hit my house and my family would have been dead,” Freddy Carter, whose home is near the crash site, said in an interview.

Carter said the plane sounded low when it passed his home moments before the crash.
“That plane went down and it was just a big boom,” he said.

The plane left Louisville, an air hub for UPS, at 5:04 a.m. New York time.
It was northeast of the Birmingham airport at 4:47 a.m. local time when industry data tracker FlightAware.com received its last report.
At that point, it was descending from about 850 feet above the ground, FlightAware data show.

Localizer Approach

“We will immediately engage with the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation, and we will work exhaustively on response efforts,” UPS Airlines President Mitch Nichols said in a statement.
Atlanta-based UPS is the world’s largest package-delivery company.

Flight 1354 was landing to the south on Runway 18, which lacks an instrument-landing system to provide planes with a glide slope guiding them to the runway, according to pilot-information website AirNav.com.

Air-traffic controllers cleared the jet for a so-called localizer approach, said a government official with knowledge of the accident who wasn’t authorized to discuss the case.
Pilots on a localizer approach rely on a radio beam that doesn’t give them a path for the angle of descent.
Airport lights tell pilots whether they are too high or too low as they near the runway.

Pilots on an Asiana Airlines Inc. plane that crashed short of the San Francisco International Airport runway on July 6 also didn’t have a glide-slope indicator when their Boeing Co. (BA) 777 flew too low and slammed into a seawall.

’Black Hole’

A hillside rising from the end of Birmingham’s Runway 18 may have contributed to today’s crash, said Kevin Hiatt, chief executive officer of the Alexandria, Virginia-based Flight Safety Foundation and a former Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) pilot who said he has landed on that strip “dozens of times.”

The hillside would have been veiled by darkness when the plane landed, creating what pilots call a “black hole” that may have obscured the dangers of getting too low, Hiatt said.

“You’ve got a lot of airports around the country, when you approach them there is no visual reference either because of a dark area near the runway or around the entire airport,” he said.

Pilots prefer the airport’s other runway, which is about 12,000 feet long compared with 7,100 for Runway 18, Hiatt said.
Wind direction helps determine which runways are in use at any given time.

“The hillside there isn’t a radical hillside, but it does rise up,” Hiatt said.
“It increases the risk.”

Possible Fatigue

Investigators will examine whether the pilots, who were landing shortly before dawn, were suffering from fatigue, John Cox, president of Washington-based Safety Operating Systems and a former airline pilot, said in an interview.

Cargo airlines were exempted from rules mandated by Congress that restrict how many hours passenger-airline pilots can fly, particularly during overnight hours.
The rules go into effect in 2014.

The rate of fatal accidents on cargo carriers around the world was eight times higher than on passenger planes in the 10 years from 2002 to 2011, according to a study by the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority published in June.

In addition to operating more flights at night, when fatigue is most prevalent, cargo airlines have other risk factors, such as flying into smaller airports without as many safety protections, Cox said.

Terrain Alert

Investigators will also examine whether a mandatory safety system in the cockpit that alerts pilots when they get too low was operating, he said.

The Terrain Awarness and Warning System, credited with preventing multiple crashes, is programmed not to issue alerts when a plane is about to land, Cox said.

The UPS pilots didn’t make a distress call to the airport control tower, said Odom, the Birmingham spokeswoman.
The lack of a call suggests the pilots weren’t aware of an onboard fire or other issue that led to the accident.

FlightAware said visibility was about 6 miles amid mist and a layer of broken clouds at 700 feet above the ground.

Airbus said it was assessing the situation, and Pratt & Whitney, the United Technologies Corp. unit that made the engines on the jet, said it would work with accident investigators. "

(continued)

[Yosemitest]

Lightening strikes act differently and are very dangerous.
Very rarely is there no damage at all.
It really is hard to tell, and todays composite carbon-fiber aircraft are more prone to damage than the older type, aluminum skinned aircraft.
But each lightening strike is different, and you really can't assume anything is safe when it comes to lightening.

[ConservativeStatement]

I meant if any domestic passenger airlines currently fly the A300. Delta, American, etc. I wasn’t sure if those that did completely retired the planes. I received an answer.

[machogirl]

thanks for the info, so much for pilots and controllers have to prepare for.

it will be another 30 years before i fly again.

when i was 16 i wanted to take flying lessons and become a pilot.

for everyone’s sake, it’s a good thing i did not.

[machogirl]

wow, that’s a lot to consider.

[MRadtke]

“I assume your source is TWA Flight 800 crash caused by overheated fuel tank vapors, not bomb or missile: officials ? “

That is what I was referring to, but I admit I was just being sarcastic.

[radec]

The video I watched this morning showed it to be on fire before the crash.

[Yosemitest]

NOTICE THE DIFFERENCE:

FlightAware said visibility was about 6 miles amid mist and a layer of broken clouds at 700 feet above the ground.

VERSUS:

14-Aug 04:53AM VFR 340° 4kts Broken 3,500 10 23° 73° 22° 71° 94% 29.97

There's a huge difference between flying VFR with a 3,500 ft ceiling,
and flying IFR, but on a "Visual Approach" with a ceiling of SEVEN HUNDRED FEET Broken cloud base.

That is definately a RED FLAG, and someone needs to explain the difference between the statement given by Jennifer Surane, Alan Levin & Thomas Black of Bloomberg.

"It was northeast of the Birmingham airport at 4:47 a.m. local time when industry data tracker FlightAware.com received its last report."
...
"FlightAware said visibility was about 6 miles amid mist and a layer of broken clouds at 700 feet above the ground."

The National Weather Service site for KBHM reported:

14 03:53 Calm 10.00 Overcast BKN010 OVC075 74 71 91% NA NA 29.97 1013.8

So at 03:53 AM Birmingham has 1,000 ft Broken Clouds with Overcast Ceiling at 7,500 Feet with 10.00 miles Visibility.
This is a lot different than Broken Ceiling at 3,500 feet and 10 miles visibility.
Then, the nest report after the crash reports:

14 04:53 N 5 10.00 Overcast FEW011 BKN035 OVC075 74 72 94% NA NA 29.97 1014.1

That's a Few Clouds at 1,100 feet, Broken Ceiling at 3,500 feet, and Overcast at 7,300 feet with visibility at 10 miles.
I don't see what they reported as:

"FlightAware said visibility was about 6 miles amid mist and a layer of broken clouds at 700 feet above the ground."

This is a huge difference in the situation.
Was it a pilot report from their own pilot before the crash ?

[radec]

The difference in weather reports is interesting, but I would like to know how it caught on fire before the crash.

[Yosemitest]

Something else of interest:

FlightAware said visibility was about 6 miles amid mist and a layer of broken clouds at 700 feet above the ground.

Now the Weather minimums on the LOC RWY 18 Approach Plate are above what Bloomberg says that FlightAware said:
Weather Minimums for the Localizer Runway 18 Apoporoach are as follows: Category A or B pilots/aircraft:

1,380 foot ceiling or above, and at least 1 Mile visibility

When using IMTOY Fix Mimimums
1,200 foot ceiling or above, and at least 1 mile visibility

Category C or D pilots/aircraft:

1,380 foot ceiling or above, and at least 2 Mile visibility

When using IMTOY Fix Mimimums
1,200 foot ceiling or above, and at least 1-5/8 mile visibility

That's a greater requirement than the CEILING Broken Clouds at 700 feet.
That's another RED FLAG!

[Yosemitest]

"...showed it to be on fire before the crash."

Hitting trees before crashing into the field would cause that.