

OTD in 2005: The Plane That Flew Too High
>"A scene of devastation, in a remote region of Venezuela, confirms the fate of a missing passenger jet."
August 16th, 2005, At Tocumen International Airport in Panama, West Carribean Airways flight 708 begins boarding, two hours behind schedule. Flight 708 took off from Tocumen International Airport at 00:58 local time (05:58 UTC). It climbed initially to flight level 310 (31,000 feet or 9,400 metres). At 01:39, the pilots were cleared to climb from 31,000 to 33,000 feet. The aircraft reached FL 330 (nominally 33,000 feet or 10,000 metres) at 01:44. Five minutes later, the crew turned the aircraft's anti-icing systems back on (having turned them off during the final part of the climb). The system uses bleed air from the engines, and this reduces the thrust they can produce. With the anti-ice system on, the highest altitude at which the aircraft could maintain level flight was reduced to 31,900 ft (9,700 m). The aircraft was being flown too high for its weight and the icing conditions it faced. The captain noticed the reduction in engine output, but he did not realize the source of the problem, so he started a rapid descent as a precaution. At that time, the airspeed was already near stall speed, and the autopilot had already compensated with a nose-up attitude (angle of attack, or AOA) of 5.8° in an effort to maintain a constant altitude. West Caribbean, like all owners of the MD-82, had received an operation bulletin from the plane's manufacturer three years earlier, warning that the autopilot could try to compensate for inadequate speed, even allowing the speed to continue to drop towards a stall situation, without sending a warning or disconnecting; the bulletin advised pilots simply to monitor airspeed during autopilot level flight, but West Caribbean had not shared this bulletin with its pilots. Already approaching a stall condition, the airliner was pummeled by sudden turbulence, reducing the airflow into the intakes of the engines, which reduced thrust even more and the aircraft stalled. Although the first officer correctly diagnosed the situation as a stall and attempted twice to communicate this to the captain, the captain was likely confused by the unusual behavior of the engines due to the anti-ice system and probably the airflow disruption. The captain instead believed they were dealing with an engine flameout and told the first officer to communicate to the ground controller, therefore did not recognize the stall situation. The stall was further exacerbated when the captain increased the nose-up attitude to an AOA of 10.6°, which compounded the drop in airflow to the engines. In less than three minutes, the aircraft plunged from over 33,000 ft (10,000 m), reaching a maximum rate of descent of over 18,000 fpm, or 300 ft/s (90 m/s), crashing belly-first and exploding at 2:00:31 local time (07:00:31 UTC). The crash site was in a field on a cattle ranch near Machiques, in the western Zulia State, Venezuela (about 30 kilometres or 19 miles or 16 nautical miles from the Colombian border).
Fun Fact: The investigators in the Adam 574 crash are actually not listening to the CVR. Instead they are listening to 'Din Din Wo (Little Child)' It can be seen at 28:20.
OTD in 2016: Emirates flight 521
On the 3rd of August 2016, Emirates flight 521 was landing at Dubai Intl in the UAE. The plane touched down very late because of windshear, to the point where the RAAS issued a "LONG LANDING" warning, so the pilots decided to do a go-around. Six seconds after main-wheel touchdown, and with the nose-wheel still off the runway, the aircraft became airborne again after rotating to climb attitude. The flap setting was reduced to 20°, and the undercarriage was selected to retract, but the engine throttle remained unchanged because activation of go-around automation is inhibited after touchdown. The aircraft attained a maximum height above the runway of 85 feet (26 m) with its indicated airspeed decreasing, before commencing to settle back towards the ground. Twelve seconds after becoming airborne, the crew manually advanced the throttles to maximum, but the aircraft continued to sink, and it impacted the runway with its undercarriage in a partially retracted state 3 seconds later. The aircraft first impacted with the underside of its rear fuselage and skidded about 800 metres (2,600 ft; 870 yd) along runway 12L with its landing gear partly retracted as it turned to the right about 120°. As the aircraft skidded down the runway, the number-2 (starboard or right) engine detached and slid along the wing's leading edge toward the wingtip. Firefighting appliances were at the aircraft less than 90 seconds after it came to rest (which was 33 seconds after the initial impact) and started to fight fires at several locations, as all 300 passengers and crew were safely evacuated. Videos from inside the aircraft, taken on passengers' cellphone cameras, showed the passengers failing to evacuate, instead giving priority to carry-on luggage, resulting in an overly long evacuation and heavy criticism. Nine minutes after the aircraft came to a stop, with only the aircraft captain and the senior flight attendant still on board (checking for any remaining passengers), an explosion occurred as flames reached the aircraft's center fuel tank. The explosion resulted in the death of a firefighter.
What is your favorite soundtrack from the show?
Mine is probably the one at the start of S26E10
OTD in 1998 Proteus Airlines flight 706, a Beechcraft 1900D (reg. F-GSJM), crashed into the Atlantic at Quiberon Bay in France after a midair collision with a Cessna 177RG Cardinal (reg. F-GAJE), after trying to see the ship 'SS Norway' (previously named 'SS France'). Main cause in desc.
The Beechcraft was banking left right before the collision and the Cessna was approaching from the right. That and the fact that the pilot monitoring was the captain (a.k.a. pilot monitoring was in the left seat) made the Cessna impossible to see from the Beechcraft. From the Cessna, the Beechcraft was also almost impossible to see, because it was in a blind spot for most of the time. After the collision, the Beechcraft's tail was cut off by the Cessna and both planes came crashing down into Quiberon Bay. There were no survivors.
Does anyone know what this disconnected part of the caves is/was supposed to be?
The part with the light is where the pickaxe is, the part without it is a disconnected part of the caves after the sign