Ten Plane Crashes That Changed Aviation

"Ned" wrote in message ...
Ten Plane Crashes That Changed Aviation
Popular Mechanics David Noland October 13, 2007

Flying in a jetliner is extraordinarily safe: There has been only one
fatal crash in the United States in the past five years, an astounding
record considering that more than 30,000 flights take off every day. How
did flying get so reliable? In part, because of accidents that triggered
crucial safety improvements. Here are eight crashes and two emergency
landings whose influence is felt -- for the good -- each time you step on
a plane.
Its is weird yo posted this I was looking for something today and this came
up and I read it and now I see it again the same day. Wierd

1956 | GRAND CANYON | TWA FLIGHT 2 & UNITED FLIGHT 718
Upgrade: Improvements of air traffic control system; creation of FAA
The TWA Super Constellation and the United DC-7 had taken off from Los
Angeles only 3 minutes apart, both headed east. Ninety minutes later, out
of contact with ground controllers and flying under see-and-avoid visual
flight rules, the two aircraft were apparently maneuvering separately to
give their passengers views of the Grand Canyon when the DC-7's left wing
and propellers ripped into the Connie's tail. Both aircraft crashed into
the canyon, killing all 128 people aboard both planes. The accident
spurred a $250 million upgrade of the air traffic control (ATC) system --
serious money in those days. (It worked: There hasn't been a collision
between two airliners in the United States in 47 years.) The crash also
triggered the creation in 1958 of the Federal Aviation Agency (now
Administration) to oversee air safety.

1978 | PORTLAND | UNITED FLIGHT 173
Upgrade: Cockpit teamwork
United Flight 173, a DC-8 approaching Portland, Ore., with 181 passengers,
circled near the airport for an hour as the crew tried in vain to sort out
a landing gear problem. Although gently warned of the rapidly diminishing
fuel supply by the flight engineer on board, the captain -- later
described by one investigator as "an arrogant S.O.B." -- waited too long
to begin his final approach. The DC-8 ran out of fuel and crashed in a
suburb, killing 10. In response, United revamped its cockpit training
procedures around the then-new concept of Cockpit Resource Management
(CRM). Abandoning the traditional "the captain is god" airline hierarchy,
CRM emphasized teamwork and communication among the crew, and has since
become the industry standard. "It's really paid off," says United captain
Al Haynes, who in 1989 remarkably managed to crash-land a crippled DC-10
at Sioux City, Iowa, by varying engine thrust. "Without [CRM training],
it's a cinch we wouldn't have made it."

1983 | CINCINNATTI | AIR CANADA FLIGHT 797
Upgrade: Lav smoke sensors
The first signs of trouble on Air Canada 797, a DC-9 flying at 33,000 ft.
en route from Dallas to Toronto, were the wisps of smoke wafting out of
the rear lavatory. Soon, thick black smoke started to fill the cabin, and
the plane began an emergency descent. Barely able to see the instrument
panel because of the smoke, the pilot landed the plane at Cincinnati. But
shortly after the doors and emergency exits were opened, the cabin erupted
in a flash fire before everyone could get out. Of the 46 people aboard, 23
died. The FAA subsequently mandated that aircraft lavatories be equipped
with smoke detectors and automatic fire extinguishers. Within five years,
all jetliners were retrofitted with fire-blocking layers on seat cushions
and floor lighting to lead passengers to exits in dense smoke. Planes
built after 1988 have more flame-resistant interior materials.

1985 | DALLAS/FORT WORTH | DELTA FLIGHT 191
Upgrade: Downdraft detection
As Delta Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011, approached for landing at
Dallas/Fort Worth airport, a thunderstorm lurked near the runway.
Lightning flashed around the plane at 800 ft., and the jetliner
encountered a microburst wind shear -- a strong downdraft and abrupt shift
in the wind that caused the plane to lose 54 knots of airspeed in a few
seconds. Sinking rapidly, the L-1011 hit the ground about a mile short of
the runway and bounced across a highway, crushing a vehicle and killing
the driver. The plane then veered left and crashed into two huge airport
water tanks. On board, 134 of 163 people were killed. The crash triggered
a seven-year NASA/FAA research effort, which led directly to the on-board
forward-looking radar wind-shear detectors that became standard equipment
on airliners in the mid-1990s. Only one wind-shear-related accident has
occurred since.

1986 | LOS ANGELES | AEROMEXICO FLIGHT 498
Upgrade: Collision avoidance
Although the post-Grand Canyon ATC system did a good job of separating
airliners, it failed to account for small private planes like the
four-seat Piper Archer that wandered into the Los Angeles terminal control
area on Aug. 31, 1986. Undetected by ground controllers, the Piper
blundered into the path of an Aeromexico DC-9 approaching to land at LAX,
knocking off the DC-9's left horizontal stabilizer. Both planes plummeted
into a residential neighborhood 20 miles east of the airport, killing 82
people, including 15 on the ground.

The FAA subsequently required small aircraft entering control areas to use
transponders --electronic devices that broadcast position and altitude to
controllers. Additionally, airliners were required to have TCAS II
collision-avoidance systems, which detect potential collisions with other
transponder-equipped aircraft and advise pilots to climb or dive in
response. Since then, no small plane has collided with an airliner in
flight in the United States.

1988 | MAUI | ALOHA FLIGHT 243
Upgrade: Retiring tin
As Aloha Flight 243, a weary, 19-year-old Boeing 737 on a short hop from
Hilo, Hawaii, to Honolulu, leveled off at 24,000 ft., a large section of
its fuselage blew off, leaving dozens of passengers riding in the open-air
breeze. Miraculously, the rest of the plane held together long enough for
the pilots to land safely. Only one person, a flight attendant who was
swept out of the plane, was killed.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) blamed a combination of
corrosion and widespread fatigue damage, the result of repeated
pressurization cycles during the plane's 89,000-plus flights. In response,
the FAA began the National Aging Aircraft Research Program in 1991, which
tightened inspection and maintenance requirements for high-use and
high-cycle aircraft. Post-Aloha, there has been only one American
fatigue-related jet accident -- the Sioux City DC-10.

1994 | PITTSBURGH | USAIR FLIGHT 427
Upgrade: Rudder Rx
When USAir Flight 427 began its approach to land at Pittsburgh, the Boeing
737 suddenly rolled to the left and plunged 5000 ft. to the ground,
killing all 132 on board. The plane’s black box revealed that the rudder
had abruptly moved to the full-left position, triggering the roll. But
why? USAir blamed the plane. Boeing blamed the crew. It took nearly five
years for the NTSB to conclude that a jammed valve in the rudder-control
system had caused the rudder to reverse: As the pilots frantically pressed
on the right rudder pedal, the rudder went left. As a result, Boeing spent
$500 million to retrofit all 2800 of the world's most popular jetliner.
And, in response to conflicts between the airline and the victims'
families, Congress passed the Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act,
which transferred survivor services to the NTSB.

1996 | MIAMI | VALUJET FLIGHT 592
Upgrade: Fire prevention in the hold
Although the FAA took anti-cabin-fire measures after the 1983 Air Canada
accident, it did nothing to protect passenger jet cargo compartments --
despite NTSB warnings after a 1988 cargo fire in which the plane managed
to land safely. It took the horrific crash of ValuJet 592 into the
Everglades near Miami to finally spur the agency to action. The fire in
the DC-9 was caused by chemical oxygen generators that had been illegally
packaged by SabreTech, the airline's maintenance contractor. A bump
apparently set one off, and the resulting heat started a fire, which was
fed by the oxygen being given off. The pilots were unable to land the
burning plane in time, and 110 people died. The FAA responded by mandating
smoke detectors and automatic fire extinguishers in the cargo holds of all
commercial airliners. It also bolstered rules against carrying hazardous
cargo on aircraft.

1996 | LONG ISLAND | TWA FLIGHT 800
Upgrade: electrical spark elimination
It was everybody's nightma a plane that blew up in midair for no
apparent reason. The explosion of TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747 that had
just taken off from JFK bound for Paris, killed all 230 people aboard and
stirred great controversy. After painstakingly reassembling the wreckage,
the NTSB dismissed the possibility of a terrorist bomb or missile attack
and concluded that fumes in the plane's nearly empty center-wing fuel tank
had ignited, most likely after a short circuit in a wire bundle led to a
spark in the fuel gauge sensor. The FAA has since mandated changes to
reduce sparks from faulty wiring and other sources. Boeing, meanwhile, has
developed a fuel-inerting system that injects nitrogen gas into fuel tanks
to reduce the chance of explosions. It will install the system in all its
newly built planes, starting in 2008. Retrofit kits for in-service Boeings
will also be available.

1998 | NOVA SCOTIA | SWISSAIR FLIGHT 111
Upgrade: Insulation swap-out
About an hour after takeoff, the pilots of Swissair's Flight 111 from New
York to Geneva -- a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 -- smelled smoke in the
cockpit. Four minutes later, they began an immediate descent toward
Halifax, Nova Scotia, about 65 miles away. But with the fire spreading and
cockpit lights and instruments failing, the plane crashed into the
Atlantic about 5 miles off the Nova Scotia coast. All 229 people aboard
were killed.

Investigators traced the fire to the plane's in-flight entertainment
network, whose installation led to arcing in vulnerable Kapton wires above
the cockpit. The resulting fire spread rapidly along flammable Mylar
fuselage insulation. The FAA ordered the Mylar insulation replaced with
fire-resistant materials in about 700 McDonnell Douglas jets.

"Craig Welch" wrote in message
...
"aluckyguess" said:


Its is weird yo posted this I was looking for something today and this
came
up and I read it and now I see it again the same day. Wierd

What is really wierd [sic.] is that someone with your lack of
word-skill can get access to a computer when no-one's looking.

Get a life. Looser. Go back to reading youre dictionary. Who really cares.
--
Craig http://www.wazu.jp/
1,239 Unicode fonts for 82 written language groups:
Price your own web plan: http://www.wazu.jp/hosting/

"aluckyguess" wrote in message
...

"Craig Welch" wrote in message
...
"aluckyguess" said:


Its is weird yo posted this I was looking for something today and this
came
up and I read it and now I see it again the same day. Wierd

What is really wierd [sic.] is that someone with your lack of
word-skill can get access to a computer when no-one's looking.

Get a life. Looser. Go back to reading youre dictionary. Who really cares.

Hmmmm.

--
Kwyj

"Craig Welch" wrote in message
...
"aluckyguess" said:


"Craig Welch" wrote in message
. ..
"aluckyguess" said:


Its is weird yo posted this I was looking for something today and this
came
up and I read it and now I see it again the same day. Wierd

What is really wierd [sic.] is that someone with your lack of
word-skill can get access to a computer when no-one's looking.

Get a life. Looser. Go back to reading youre dictionary. Who really cares.

Heh. The irony of a newsgroup poster telling another newsgroup
poster to get a life.

Communication is one of life's most important skills. You're
deficient. Fix it.
Ok here it goes, you ready. PLONK thats all the communication I need with
you.


Craig http://www.wazu.jp/
1,239 Unicode fonts for 82 written language groups:
Price your own web plan: http://www.wazu.jp/hosting/

"aluckyguess" wrote in message
...

"Craig Welch" wrote in message
...
"aluckyguess" said:


"Craig Welch" wrote in message
...
"aluckyguess" said:


Its is weird yo posted this I was looking for something today and this
came
up and I read it and now I see it again the same day. Wierd

What is really wierd [sic.] is that someone with your lack of
word-skill can get access to a computer when no-one's looking.

Get a life. Looser. Go back to reading youre dictionary. Who really
cares.

Heh. The irony of a newsgroup poster telling another newsgroup
poster to get a life.

Communication is one of life's most important skills. You're
deficient. Fix it.
Ok here it goes, you ready. PLONK thats all the communication I need with
you.

Hmmm.
Punctuation's not a strong point either, I see.

--
Kwyj.

Craig Welch wrote:
"aluckyguess" said:

"Craig Welch" wrote in message
...
"aluckyguess" said:


Its is weird yo posted this I was looking for something today and this
came
up and I read it and now I see it again the same day. Wierd
What is really wierd [sic.] is that someone with your lack of
word-skill can get access to a computer when no-one's looking.

Get a life. Looser. Go back to reading youre dictionary. Who really cares.

Heh. The irony of a newsgroup poster telling another newsgroup
poster to get a life.

Communication is one of life's most important skills. You're
deficient. Fix it.


And double the irony when you suggest someone read a dictionary and then
misspell loser. :-)

Matt