WWII vintage, crashed and burned on take-off, all survived. Article and video here: All 13 Passengers Survive a Fiery Texas Plane Crash
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WWII vintage, crashed and burned on take-off, all survived. Article and video here: All 13 Passengers Survive a Fiery Texas Plane Crash
Good to hear all survived ! Too bad about the loss of the plane.
That looked a little odd, there were a few problems before wheels off and the pilot appeared to still opt to continue rather than abort. Possibly a control restriction. A real shame but at least all survived and still demonstrates the strength of the DC3/C47 after 80 years.
Looks like no flaps and insufficient speed at takeoff.
Possible control restriction was what I was thinking when I watched the video. I wondered if he had accidentally missed a control lock when he did his pre-flight. I remember reading that was the cause of the accident in which the US Army's Golden Knight parachute team was killed in 1973. That was a Dakota too. From memory, the investigators found a control lock still in place (rudder or elevator ????) at take off and after the crash.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brit plumber
I also wondered if he had a problem with the right engine speed (throttle? mixture control? fuel flow? magnetos?) since he took so long to get the tail up, and it appeared he veered to the right and was right wing low at one point then left wing low and veered left.
The accident investigation report will be interesting reading when it is published.
So few of these old birds left now in flying condition, really sad as many of these pilots have hundreds of hours on them, but they do seem to switch around from aircraft to aircraft.
Not saying that was at fault but it does look like a case of not enough elevation to lift at the point he crashed. As he survived with his passengers no doubt he will be able to answer the missing links!!
I watched a programme about the last surviving ATA lady Mary Ellis dying aged 101 I believe. She was saying she went from delivering a Spitfire one day and the next a Lancaster, what brave and ingenious women they were out of 1000 aircraft in her log book 76 different types and over 400 Spitfires. I'll see if I can find a link.
Here it is:
Mary Ellis death: Female Spitfire pilot and Second World War 'heroine' dies, aged 101 | The Independent
At least the BBMF DC3 is still in fine fettle!
Got a good video of her today leading the Lanc, Spit and Hurricne if someone can recommend a free video host.
He wasn't even going fast enough for the tail wheel to lift off the runway.
Unfortunately it’s opposite number hasn’t faired so well
Switzerland crash: Twenty dead in WW2 plane crash - BBC News
It’s a shame to lose a vintage aircraft but more so when it takes lives.
Something strange about that one. Three engines all fully serviced a couple of weeks ago and the plane takes a nose dive from a great height.
Sounds like the engines were starved of oxygen, could he have been too high?
To just drop out of the sky, as did the Ju indicates a catastrophic fuel supply failure to all 3 engines to me
.............or he didn't have any left and had a duff fuel gauge, as the needle was prone to do on the old crates, unless they were made by SMITHS of course!!;)
There is a possibility that it wasn't mechanical. Mountain area flying comes with an extra set of possible ways to die. One is that as a prevailing wind crosses on to the lee side of a ridge it can 'roll' like a breaking wave. This will create a 'roll cloud' if there is enough humidity in the air. What happens is as the wind (air current) passes over the ridge it rolls downward and then up again in the low pressure area that it has created near the ridgeline. There is a danger of being thrown into the side of the mountain if you are too close or too low near the ridge, or forced downward by the down draft where the air current descends. There is also the possibility that lift could be lost as one flies into the 'roll'. Also, there is the possibility of a 'micro-burst' (downward rush of air commonly found even miles away from active or forming thunderstorms) putting the aircraft on the ground.
Every pilot in the world is trained in engine out procedures almost from day one, so even a no fuel state engine failure would not normally cause a crash.
I had a real life engine out happen while I was getting ready to land after a long (over-night) cross country flight when I forgot to change tanks. Sputter, sputter, 'Oh SH*T!', set up to glide, look at gauges, check throttle and mixture controls, check tanks lever, 'SH*T!', switch tanks, prime and restart. That was followed immediately by a big sigh of relief, a mental b*ll*cking and a very careful landing.
Troll
Yes I have let Doug know............................whats that got to do with a Dakota?
Lots of people pointing fingers at high density altitude issues...........the Ju-52 was one of 3 fatal accidents in Switzerland within a few days where high density altitude was possibly a contributing factor, with pilots being caught out by the heatwave across Europe.....and mountain flying close to max aircraft performance margins leaves little very little room for errors, even for very experienced crews.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gil Boyd
Awful crash.
The crashed Ju-52 was the one they used for filming the scenes in Where Eagles Dare.
I didn’t realise that one was from ‘Where Eagles Dare’ . I love the opening scene and music. A real shame that lives where lost.Quote:
Originally Posted by GeeRam
What is surprising and tends to support the sudden nose dive witnessed by many, is the fact that these corrugated old reliable buses glided well.
Something catostrophic must have happened here, besides tha lack of lift
Aircraft was attempting a 180 deg turn at end of valley, aircraft lost all lift during turn, rolls inverted into dive, hits ground.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gil Boyd
Aircraft didn't nose over into vertical from level flight.
I wondered if it might have been.Quote:
Originally Posted by GeeRam
That Dakota suffered a classic case of rotating too soon and too steep causing a stall. (Aerodynamic, not engine)
The left wing had the higher angle of attack and stalled first causing it to bank hard left, striking the ground.
Cause could be either mechanical control lock or over zealous pilot technique.
Contol lock is very possible as the tail wheel wasn't off the ground but a few seconds before the aircraft rotated, jamming the tail wheel back against the ground like the pilot couldnt control it.
No way any pilot would intentionally rotate that aggressively especially on a classic, heavy aircraft.
As mentioned it does appear the flaps were not selected for takeoff, but this should have just caused a longer than normal takeoff roll if the pilot was doing his part, not the sharp rotation seen.
Extremely glad everyone survived.
---------- Post added at 04:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:10 PM ----------
As far as the junker is concerned, aircrafts dive do to lack of lift, not engine power.
An aircraft turning 180 degress then plummeting could be due to a single engine malfunction and loss of airspeed. The lack of airspeed reduces the effects of the ailerons to the point where full inputs are counter acted by the running engine (called vmca roll, or single engine minimum airspeed control).
If the running engines power is not reduced and the aircrafts pitch attitude reduced to regain airspeed, the running engine will eventually roll the aircraft over and into a dive.
At high altitude, this could happen at a much higher airspeed than whats published in the SOP as published airspeeds are tested at lower altitudes where aircrafts perform better.