BusTalk

Mr. Linsky · Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 4:04 pm Post subject:

Vern,

This is probably the worst one in my memory - and the picture below has stood out in my mind all these years.

American Airlines Flight 191 to Los Angeles ended just seconds after the DC-10 started its takeoff roll in Chicago on May 25th. 1979.

As the plane lifted off the runway, the engine mounted on its left wing ripped away and knocked out crucial hydraulic lines that connected the cockpit to the wings, rendering the plane uncontrollable. The left wing lost much of its lift, and the DC-10 came down, rolled over and crashed into a trailer park near O'Hare International Airport, killing all 271 people on board and a few on the ground. An amateur photographer near the airport captured chilling photos of the plane as it turned on its side.

Can you picture what must have been going through the minds of the pilots at the moment the photo was taken?

I never liked the DC10 because the tail engine was so loud and it vibrated like a buzz saw, and landings was so hard that you thought you were going right through the runway!

Information source; Wikipedia

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

Flight 191 in an unrecoverable bank moments before the crash. Its No. 1 engine had been severed on the runway

Dieseljim · Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 6:22 am Post subject: Air France Flight 447

Last report I heard was the plane transmitted messages hinting at a problem with the rudder.

Dieseljim · Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:18 am Post subject: The B-727

Don't forget the 727 that took a dive into Lake Michigan approaching Chicago. Early accidents with this aircraft all involved the landing phase of the flight. Most left a fair number of survivors behind, with the Lake Michigan swan dive being the exception.

Dieseljim · Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:23 am Post subject: American 191

That picture looks like the right wing engine is about to break away from the aircraft as it is rolling over on its back before the fatal dive into the ground.

Dieseljim

Latest on the tragedy of Air France 447 has it that the bodies of a pilot and flight attendent have been pulled from the water. If that is the case, then the searchers are getting closer to finding out what had happened. It has become apparent that the plane did indeed break up in mid air. If there is a structural flaw in the entire Airbus line of airlines besides the rudder, it could be like the deHavilland Comet episode all over again.

HwyHaulier · Joined: 16 Dec 2007 Posts: 932 Location: Harford County, MD

Dieseljim · Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 12:42 pm Post subject: Boeing 727

At that time, many of the pilots who began flying the 727 had just come off the piston engined equipment that they had been flying for most of their careers up to that point.In United's case some pilots came from Viscounts as well. Not only did they encounter an aircraft that behaved differently from what they were used to but was tail heavy and had a higher sink rate, which, unless arrested in time could result in a very messy landing in more ways than one. Any jet transport with engines mounted in the rear is bound to be on the tail heavy side, thus a higher sink rate than on other jets, such as the 707 or DC8s.