Infamous aircraft accidents

I have always had a fascination with this subject and have read official report of many aircraft accidents. The one accident that keeps circulating through my head set is the Air New Zealand DC-10 sightseeing flight to Antarctica and crash on Mount Erebus. An accident that had its genesis seventeen months before the accident when ANZ navigation section computerized flight coordinates and one wrong key stroke went unnoticed until a week or so before the accident. The coordinates were changed just hours before the flight left Auckland , but what was believed to be a three mile change was in reality twenty seven miles. If your interest has brought you to this post, you might find the report of the Royal Commission inquiry into this accident compelling reading. Here is an appetizer. Royal Commissioner Peter Mahon described Air New Zealand executives' attempt to blame the flight crew for the accident,"an orchestrated litany of lies."
 
I remember watching an "Air Disaster" or similar episode on that crash.

One keystroke.

Just like AA 965 in Cali... One keystroke...and the airplane went where it was told to go...but not where the crew thought it was going...
 
Astro14 said:
I remember watching an "Air Disaster" or similar episode on that crash.

One keystroke.

Just like AA 965 in Cali... One keystroke...and the airplane went where it was told to go...but not where the crew thought it was going...
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Right on Astro, "one keystroke." And consider this. A mistake attempting to fix a mistake that was actually the best coordinate because it took flights down the flat ice of McMurdo Sound which was the military route. They say that most airplane accidents are caused by a series of events or things and this accident has it all plus some. You can't make this kind of stuff up. Regards
 
The one that sticks in my mind is United 232. I remember watching the attempted landing live on tv of the disabled DC10. 296 passengers of which 111 died. The skill of Captain Al Haynes had a large part with the remaining 185 passengers surviving. It was very clever on his part by varying the thrust to the remaining two engines he was able to somewhat steer the jumbo jet which had lost all hydraulic control.
 
Lubener said:
The one that sticks in my mind is United 232. I remember watching the attempted landing live on tv of the disabled DC10. 296 passengers of which 111 died. The skill of Captain Al Haynes had a large part with the remaining 185 passengers surviving. It was very clever on his part by varying the thrust to the remaining two engines he was able to somewhat steer the jumbo jet which had lost all hydraulic control.
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We live about 120 miles from Sioux City and I would like to go there and visit the memorial at the airport.
 
Direct_Rejection said:
Re TWA Flight 800, how can you dismiss the eyewitness accounts ?
I say it was a USN missile, and a tragic accident.

Re Juan Brown, he is intentionally slow and methodical.
His Kobe Bryant crash reports were excellent.
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I watched the network feeds on unencripted x band satellite. There was a fire trail from the surface to the plane in one of the videos. I never saw that fed again again. But I certainly saw it once.
 
Astro14 said:
If they had given it full power from the beginning of takeoff, they could’ve made it.

If they had properly cleared the probes during de-icing they could’ve made it.

And, if they had done an EPR/RPM cross check, they could’ve made it.

So many ways to have avoided this one. So many things we changed as a result.
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Lenny Skutnik was the bravest man of all that day when he jumped in that freezing river and rescued a woman who was so weakened she couldn't hold on to a lifeline. One of the best things I have ever seen was his standing ovation when President Ronald Reagan acknowledge him at the 1982 state of the union address. You're a better man than I am Mr. Skutnik
 
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Yah teh hey: I think the woman he saved was blinded from the jet fuel in her eyes they said. Yes, Lenny Skutnik is a hero
 
53' Stude said:
The one that really blows my mind is the Tenerife disaster in I think 1977. Fog and Air traffic controller problems never end well. 😓
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This one also sticks out in my mind.

More so after I witnessed an runway incursion first hand, forcing the plane on approach to do a go-around. This occurred during daytime, in clear weather, and good visibility.

Makes me wonder how often these things happen, and who dropped the ball. Heck, I was just plane spotting, and could see the situation unfolding as a lay observer.

Flightradar captured the whole thing; it caused the arriving flight to be late by half an hour, though it could have been much worse.

I also wonder if incidents like these are put on some record, or just forgotten, since it didn't end in an accident.
 
Carmudgeon said:
This one also sticks out in my mind.

More so after I witnessed an runway incursion first hand, forcing the plane on approach to do a go-around. This occurred during daytime, in clear weather, and good visibility.

Makes me wonder how often these things happen, and who dropped the ball. Heck, I was just plane spotting, and could see the situation unfolding as a lay observer.

Flightradar captured the whole thing; it caused the arriving flight to be late by half an hour, though it could have been much worse.

I also wonder if incidents like these are put on some record, or just forgotten, since it didn't end in an accident.
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Teneriffe like all accidents was chain of events. Small airport, never built to handle such airplanes, fog, understaffed tower, arrogant captain (KLM) etc.
Like Astro14 pointed several times, we learn from these things, and aviation is specifically good at that.
 
Hi
As my username suggests i am a Hunter and a keen Shooter. I had some Deer Hunting ground very near to Lockerbie. I regularly drove past the field the the cockpit section of the 747 crashed into. You will no doubt remember the pictures well. Driving through the town makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
 
john_pifer said:
The National Airlines Flight 27 incident of November 1973 has always been fascinating to me (RIP, to the passenger who died):
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The crazy part was the guy who got sucked out the window, and they didn't find him until 2 years later. :oops:
 
Pan Am Flight 845 (San Francisco, 1971) was also a pretty crazy incident. A miscalculation ended up with them not being able to clear approach lighting structures, part of which penetrated the fuselage and seriously injured a couple of passengers, who had to be triaged on the jet while the pilots flew around San Francisco Bay, until they could burn off enough fuel to land.

Then, during evac, many more passengers suffered serious back injuries when they went down escape slides while the jet settled back onto its tail due to weight distribution problems.

en.wikipedia.org

Pan Am Flight 845 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

 
Direct_Rejection said:
Re TWA Flight 800, how can you dismiss the eyewitness accounts ?
I say it was a USN missile, and a tragic accident.
Click to expand...

Eyewitness accounts are the least reliable. There's several articles out there on how bad it can be.

You may say it was a missile, but then they'd have to be short a missile right?

You can have as many theories as you like, but then you need the proof to back it up. No proof of the missile, lots of others to point to what really happened. People need to use Occam's Razor more often.

Why Science Tells Us Not to Rely on Eyewitness Accounts

Eyewitness testimony is fickle and, all too often, shockingly inaccurate
www.scientificamerican.com www.scientificamerican.com
 
One I watched today was Air Midwest flight 5481 in 2003. The “maintenance error” really made me just shake my head.

I saw a Emery Worldwide flight 17 last night. Another shoddy “maintenance errror” cost lives.
 
Comair 3272 and ASA 529 were the ones that will always be with me. Was flying on the Brasilia at ASA when both of these happened.
 
SpanAir 5022 is what happens when protocol and preflight and pre takeoff checklists aren’t followed 🤔🤬
 

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