# Air Disasters



## oldman (Feb 26, 2018)

Last evening, I watched the newest episode of the TV show, "Air Disasters" on the Smithsonian Channel. The show was a presentation of the airline crash, which occurred in the Alps in March of 2015. The cause of the crash was determined to be by pilot suicide. Shortly after takeoff, the First Officer (F/O) told the Captain that if he wished to use the lavatory, "This would be a good time." The Captain agreed and left the cockpit with only the F/O remaining on the flight deck. When the Captain returned from using the lavatory, he could not get back in through the cockpit door. 

In the meantime, the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) who was watching the plane on radar noticed that the A320 has started a decent. The ATC made several attempts to contact the aircraft, but no one responded. Meanwhile, the Captain continued trying to gain entry to the flight deck, even by using the crash ax. 

It was later determined that after the Captain left the cockpit, the F/O locked the door and set the Autopilot's altitude to 100 feet and changed the air speed to its fastest allowable speed by the Autopilot, (probably around 600 mph). The investigators of the accident also ascertained that that the F/O had suffered from severe (psychotic) depression and had lost his license to pilot. The F/O did travel to the U.S. for additional training and received his license and also passed his physical, which allowed him to again become gainfully employed as a pilot for an airline. He was then hired by Germanwings, which is owned by Lufthansa and is their low cost carrier. The investigators also learned that the F/O had been seen by 40 different doctors and not one of them contacted the airline to advise them of the F/O mental state. Supposedly, it is a law in Germany that doctors are not permitted to disclose any information about a pilot to anyone. If they do, they can be arrested and tried in a German court. 

Shortly after, the Airbus crashed into the side of the Alps. Today, many (most) airlines require at least two people are in the cockpit while the plane is in the air. United has had this as a requirement for many years. If I had to leave the cockpit, I would have the Purser come into the cockpit and sit in my seat until I returned. In this accident, 144 passengers, plus six crew members lost their life. As I watched this show, I slowly found myself becoming ill. I really have a lot of questions that I know will never be answered. 

Here is a recreation of events, using a Microsoft Simulator.


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## hollydolly (Feb 26, 2018)

Being a retired Pilot, this must extremely fascinating for you to watch...


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## Ken N Tx (Feb 26, 2018)

I have seen a movie with the same story line, but I don't remember the name of it..


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## oldman (Feb 26, 2018)

hollydolly said:


> Being a retired Pilot, this must extremely fascinating for you to watch...



You may find this hard to believe, but when I have watched some of these episodes where I knew that passengers were going to lose their life, I sometimes became very upset. My wife asks me why do you watch these shows if they upset you. I told her that I really didn't know, but I felt drawn to them. I will sometimes even yell at the TV set saying things like, "Pull up, you ninny." or, "Watch your speed, you're going to stall." My wife said she sits and watches me watch the show because sometimes, I am better entertainment than the show.


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## oldman (Feb 26, 2018)

Ken, there is another set of shows that are shown mostly on the Weather Channel called, "Terror in the Skies." 

Unless a crash is caused by suicide by pilot, there are normally a set of events that causes an airliner to go down. Flying today is more safer than ever. There have been so many different fail safe systems built into a plane's avionics, that it's almost impossible to have a crash. (Remember, I said "almost.") I flew for almost 34 years and never came close to having an accident and not even a reportable incident to the NTSB. I did have a few blown tires and on one occasion, I lost use of the spoilers, but other than circuit breakers that would keep tripping, no real issues. I think one thing that really helped me to stay safe was that I never took chances, especially during bad weather. I was a very fortunate pilot.


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## Smiling Jane (Feb 27, 2018)

My cousin who was an engineering student at the University of Oklahoma and a midshipman in the Naval ROTC program was killed on July 17, 1953 when a plane carrying 40 ROTC students crashed on takeoff in Florida. At the time it was considered a major air disaster. 43 were killed, so not such a big deal now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USMC_R4Q_NROTC_crash


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## oldman (Mar 1, 2018)

Jane: I am sorry for your loss. As a passenger, it must be the worse feeling in the world to know that you are about to lose your life. Every plane crash, no matter when it occurred in time was/is a big deal. After every crash there is an investigation like no other. The reason behind the crash 'must' be found and then a preventative action or measure put in place, so that it is not repeated. Believe it or not, out of all of the crashes that have ever occurred, only three crashes have never been able to be assigned a reason. When I was studying aviation at flight school, I learned that it is not just one single event that causes a crash. It may be two, three or more missteps that causes a plane to go down. I always had a tremendous amount of respect for the men and women that investigate crashes at the NTSB and make their recommendations to the FAA, so that they are not repeated. Some investigations are settled in a few days, while others may take months. (I can remember one that took at least two years. Air France) I testified three times in my career before the NTSB, just as a witness and once before the FAA. I have to say that I was very nervous. Those people are aviation experts, so when a person gives testimony, they better be darn sure that they know what they are talking about. 

There has never been no other time in history as of now that flying is the safest mode of transportation, second only to trains. In school, we were always taught that there are three main reasons that cause a plane to crash, mechanical failure, weather and pilot error, but not necessarily in that order and without checking it out on Google, I don't know the order. But, like we in the industry have always said, "The most dangerous part of flying is the drive to the airport."


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## Smiling Jane (Mar 1, 2018)

oldman, did you see this in the Wikipedia article about my cousin's crash?

Many of the Holloway Plan  midshipmen were engineering students; and surviving midshipmen on other  planes recalled *one of those killed had completed an evaluation of the  R4Q aircraft as an exercise and shared his conclusion that the aircraft  could not maintain altitude if one engine failed during takeoff with a  full load of fuel and cargo*.

That's exactly what happened.


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## oldman (Mar 2, 2018)

Jane: When I read your post re: your cousin's plane, I did read Wikipedia about the crash. I found it to be very interesting. I know from studying aviation that back in those days and up until the early 80's many military planes had issues with weights and balances. I am not a know-it-all aviation expert, but I can't think of a single passenger jet today that could not fly on just having one active engine. Most all passenger jets today have what are called turbofan engines, which their earlier predecessor was called a turbojet engine and actually used an afterburner to power the fan and gain thrust. The turbofan engine used today is much more efficient by bypassing the afterburner and building thrust much quicker. 

In fact, there have been many jets that have reported a flame out on one of their two engines and were still able to climb out, circle the airport and land safely with no injuries. The plane that your cousin was in reminds me of the old Lockheed Constellation with the twin tail. I think it's terrible that someone knew first-hand that the plane could not climb out if the plane was at GTOW (Gross Takeoff Weight) and lost an engine. There have been snitches in the airplane business that have reported maintenance issues to the FAA, only to be fired for being a whistleblower. John Liotine was the last whistleblower to make a report to the FAA that cost him his job, but probably saved thousands of lives. If you ever have time, read about him.


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## Smiling Jane (Mar 2, 2018)

I certainly will read about him. Thanks, oldman.


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## fmdog44 (Mar 17, 2018)

Picture the passengers hearing the pilot screaming at the other pilot to open the door. They all knew there was something horrible wrong making their deaths even more morbid.


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