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If the DC-10 pbadengers doubted their luck, after the news of March 3, 1974, they definitely needed to run after the lottery tickets. The most recent at that time, the liner sank due to an error that almost caused another disaster two years ago. Then, serious and costumed people shook hands: they agreed to settle everything, if only it was without publicity. In fact, nothing has been corrected, and 346 people aboard the DC-10 Turkish Airlines have turned into 20 thousand fragments – at least as many rescuers found in the woods near Paris. The disaster would not have occurred if senior officials did not consider the development of the aircraft more expensive than the lives of pbadengers and crews.
Summary
The First Bell
At the end of the sixties, the big companies demanded from the builders the planes of the greatest possible capacity. At the request McDonnell Douglas and Boeing responded, taking off-DC-10 and 747 respectively. Now it is possible to say unequivocally that Boeing won the competition, but then the outcome of the battle was unlikely.
One of the first airlines to receive the DC-10 was American Airlines. The aircraft was used for more than a year without any complaints, until June 12, 1972. That day DC-10 was flying Flight 96 from Los Angeles to New York with landings at Detroit and Buffalo. Until Detroit, everything went well
Suddenly, at an altitude of about 3,500 meters, when the plane continued to climb to the level of the cruise, something like an explosion happened in the back of the cabin. The hydraulic systems are damaged, the rudder (responsible for the left-right bend in relation to the vertical axis) is out of order. The pilots thought at first that they were facing another plane.
The devil knows that in the badpit: because of the decompression, the air escapes overboard, things fly around the cabin, people panic. It's more difficult to imagine the state of the air hostess Sidia Smith, who was cooking coffee at the back of the cabin: through a hole in the ground she saw the Detroit neighborhood. The girl informed the crew about it, the pilots were very surprised by the damage described. The decompression itself was not as dangerous as a damaged hydraulic. The cables were placed in the floor which literally pbaded through the cargo hold because of the pressure drop
. On this flight, the captain was Bruce McCormick, an experienced pilot who had flown more than 24,000 hours. Leaving almost uncontrolled, the pilot used a non-uniform thrust of the engines to change direction, so that one wing sought to overtake the other. McCormick successfully applied this method to DC-10, the liner with a large radius returned.
The commander doubted the choice of the airport to land: civilian in Detroit, where he flew, or at the Wright-Patterson military base. The first option is closer, but the second is longer than the band, and for management problems that's a big advantage. McCormick preferred Detroit. A new problem was posed: the plane was about half as fast as needed – about 450 meters per minute. Due to lack of hydraulics, the commander had to increase the thrust of the engines. The speed of the descent has slowed down, but the plane has moved too fast to land.
The crew was able to direct the aircraft to the lane, but with a flap and a contact velocity of about 300 km / h, the large liner continued to float. has improved the situation. The DC-10 is far from the track and stopped 300 meters from its end. It was less than thirty minutes since leaving Detroit to return to the same airport. Remained alive, McCormick was rightly called hero, and the investigators had to find out how the new plane had a hole in the fuselage
The door came out
The door of the luggage compartment was missing, as if an explosion occurred. Was produced. But there were no other damages that would indicate a bomb. On the day of the incident, the Ontario police station received a strange phone call: the man said that there was a metal door and … a casket with the deceased on the floor. It was transported in the cargo compartment of the DC-10
Almost in all planes, the doors open to the interior. This is done for safety reasons: in flight, pressure exerts pressure on the inner walls. For this reason, the heroic attempts of the brawlers to open the door to the cruising altitude are doomed to failure: it will not be possible to resist such pressure, even very insistent.
But the DC-10 has an important function: luggage. The locking mechanism must withstand the pressure on the door during the flight. During the tests, investigators found that the lever that lowers the loader can be in the closed position, while the mechanism is actually not locked in the end. It is sufficient that in the cabin the dashboard of the closed door disappears. Outside the plane, it is impossible to detect a fault. Thus, neither the pilots nor the loaders can know the problem
Maybe we can agree?
The National Transportation Safety Council (NTSB) said the door needs to be refined urgently. Important clarification: The NTSB can only give recommendations, but the rights to suspend flights or something to require airlines or manufacturers are not. But that's with the FAA – the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States.
The McDonnell Douglas were not pleased with the NTSB's findings: the reputation of the newest liner was at stake. Boeing would benefit from the suspension of DC-10 flights to strengthen the 747 position in the market. McDonnell Douglas President Jackson McGowen struck a deadly deal with FAA boss John Schafer.
The essence of the gentlemen's agreement (so-called informal agreements, in which the reputation of the parties suffers from the parties' reputation) and the manufacturer will voluntarily change the design of the door – and l 39; incident with flight 96 of American Airlines will never happen again.
McDonnell Douglas did make some changes to the design of the DC-10, but the improvements were minor. A window and a warning sign for the movers appeared at the door: when they were locked, they had to visually check that the mechanism was properly closed and that the device itself was slightly modified. At the same time, the NTSB also recommended making ventilation holes between the badpit and the cargo hold, so that during the decompression of air the air was coming out rather than deforming the ground.
Another important study was to close your eyes. The doors for DC-10 have been developed by Convair. Just two weeks after the 96th incident, a specialist at the company Dan Applegate prepared a report for his superiors who asked McDonnell Douglas to report: the DC-10 is catastrophically degraded during decompression, which may be due to design errors. In addition, it became evident even during the ground tests before putting the liner into service. "According to Murphy's Law, for about 25 years of DC-10 operation the cargo door will open .I guess this will lead to the loss of the plane," warned Applegate. Bosses insinuated laconically to Applegate that the problem was exaggerated, and McDonnell Douglas had already promised to repair the defect
After the 96-flight incident, the liners of the DC-10 flew for two years without serious incidents. The incident was forgotten, the problem was considered resolved. March 3, 1974 comes the terrible news: nine minutes after the departure of Paris-Orly airport, the DC-10 Turkish Airlines crushes with 346 people on board. There are no survivors. The disaster of the time has become the most important in the history of aviation. A bad record will exceed the collision in Tenerife of two Boeing 747 three years later.
There was practically nothing left of the plane. People could not survive: the force of impact was such that at the site of the accident, the rescuers found 20 thousand body fragments, and most of the fragments of the lining were less than 30 centimeters . Nine pbadengers have never been identified. Specialists began to investigate the first collapse of the DC-10
Experts immediately notice the disturbing similarities between this accident and the incident with the DC-10 similar to two years ago in the United States. At about the same altitude (12,000 feet, or about 3,650 meters), the plane breaks down – the ground breaks through again, and with such force that six pbadengers with the seats come out of the cabin. The hydraulic is destroyed, the plane becomes uncontrollable
The flight of Turkish Airlines is doomed: the damage is more serious than those of an American Airlines plane. The DC-10 sank in the ground at a speed of 780 km / h approximately 72 seconds after decompression. He fell trees on the territory of 700 × 100 meters.
The seats with pbadengers will find a day later 15 kilometers from the site of the accident. It becomes clear that the pbadengers were thrown before the collision of the liner with the land. At the same place, specialists notice the DC-10 left loading door. Traces of thermal effects, which would indicate an explosion, no. There was only one option: the vulnerability of the door was not going anywhere
Accidents did not finish
NTSB employees are lost: after the l '9 9 employés [[1965196519651965196519651965196519651965incidentwiththeaircraftofAmericanAirlinestheyweresurethattheproblemremainedinthepastNowitisbecomingclearthatallDC-10sareinpotentialdangerandtherecurrenceofthedisasterisamatteroftimeMcDonnellDouglaschangeswereuseless:mostmoversgenerallydidnotknowwhythewindowinthecargodoorofthelinerwasneeded
The agreement between FAA and McDonnell Douglas was opened at the same time, and door issues with the DC-10 test. The manufacturer paid a high price for negligence: claims of relatives of the victims of the flight 981, a tarnished reputation as the aircraft as the company itself, and now the ban on flights to complete the Elimination of deficiencies. It was only after the crash in France that the problem was finally solved.
DC-10 received a bad reputation, which it was not possible to get rid of. Only McDonnell Douglas corrected the locking mechanism of the door and everything arranged relatively, as in 1979 there is a new disaster: leaving Chicago DC-10 American Airlines because of poor maintenance, the engine left is broken, damaging the wing. The plane became uncontrollable, all people were killed on board (271 people) and two others on the ground. The FAA again suspended the flights of this model
Six months later, a new shock: the DC-10 New Zealand crushes on Mount Erebus (Antarctica), killing 257 people. The reasons were an incorrect flight plan and erroneous actions of the crew. Formally, the plane was not involved, but as soon as they called DC-10 in the press: Death Cruiser, Deadly Crash, Death Contraption. There were other incidents with this airliner
McDonnell Douglas' business collapsed. In the early 90's, the company released MD-11, the successor to DC-10, which borrowed many items from the ancestor. The automaker has also considered creating a two-story MD-12, but the airlines have not shown interest in the liner. Finally, in 1997, Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas, gradually reducing the release of MD-11
The case of Flight 981 has influenced aviation. No agreement between the manufacturer and the regulator can now be: in 2013, the FAA suspended the flights of Boeing 787 for about four months due to a few cases of battery fires. Supervisory authorities in other countries have followed suit. Unlike the events of the 1970s, this time nobody expected the accident
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