Emery Worldwide Flight 17
| Emery Worldwide Flight 17 | |
|---|---|
,_Emery_Worldwide_AN0160370.jpg) An identical DC-8 from Emery Worldwide |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Loss of control due to mechanical failure due to maintenance errors |
| place |
Rancho Cordova , California , United States
|
| date | February 16, 2000 |
| Fatalities | 3 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
Douglas DC-8-71F
|
| operator |
Emery Worldwide
|
| Mark |
N8079U
|
| Departure airport |
Reno-Tahoe International Airport , Reno , Nevada , United States
|
| Stopover |
Sacramento Mather Airport , Rancho Cordova , California , United States
|
| Destination airport |
Dayton International Airport , Dayton , Ohio , United States
|
| Passengers | 0 |
| crew | 3 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On February 16, 2000, on Emery Worldwide Flight 17 (flight number: EB17 ), a Douglas DC-8-71F crashed into a car scrap yard shortly after taking off from Sacramento Mather Airport . All three crew members were killed in the accident. The cause of the accident was found to be improper maintenance work on the part of the operator Emery Worldwide , as a result of which the operating rod of the right Flettner rudder came loose during take-off and caused a loss of control.
The accident contributed significantly to the demise of the previously important cargo airline Emery Worldwide.
Plane and crew
The aircraft used was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-71F , which was first delivered to United Airlines on March 21, 1968 as a Douglas DC-8-61 passenger aircraft . Around July 1983 the machine was converted into a Douglas DC-8-71 and sold in September 1990 to the leasing company Aero USA, which leased it to Líneas Aéreas Paraguayas from the following month . In March 1994 the leasing return was converted into a freight machine and from March 31, 1994 leased to Emery Worldwide. In April 1998 the airline bought the machine. The machine had the model serial number 45947, it was the 341st Douglas DC-8 continuously produced. At the time of the crash, the machine was equipped with four CFMI CFM56-2C1 engines. At the time of the accident, the machine had completed 84,447 flight hours in 33,395 take-offs and landings.
crew
There was a crew of three, consisting of a captain, first officer and flight engineer on board. The 43-year-old captain, Kevin Stables, had 13,329 hours of flight experience, including 2,128 hours on the Douglas DC-8, the 35-year-old first officer, George Land, 4511 and 2080 hours, respectively, and the 38-year-old flight engineer, Russell Hicks , had 675 hours of experience on this type of aircraft for a total of 9775 hours.
Flight history
The flight was a scheduled cargo flight from Reno-Tahoe International Airport to Dayton International Airport with a stopover at Sacramento Mather Airport in Rancho Cordova , California . The flight was operated by Emery Worldwide , a major US cargo airline at the time.
The first part of the flight and the stopover at Sacramento-Mather Airport were uneventful. Before departure from Sacramento, the crew first worked through the checklists for taxiing and then at 1947 local time the checklists for take-off. Then an agreement was reached with air traffic control to take off from runway 22L.
the accident
After the machine had reached the decision speed during take-off , the captain announced the rotation . The angle of attack increased from 0.2 to 5.3 degrees when taking off. According to the recordings of the flight data recorder, the crew continued to press the control horn forwards and thus the aircraft nose down - but it still lifted. According to the records, the crew counteracted this behavior by using more force.
When it reached take-off speed , the aircraft rotated . Immediately after take off, the aircraft tilted to the left, whereupon the first officer immediately announced by radio that they wanted to return to the airport. The thrust of the engines decreased and the stall warning system activated. Believing that the cargo had shifted, the master declared an air emergency . The machine began to sway, leaning to the left increasing. Finally the machine began to sink.
While the engine continued to sink at an angle of 11 degrees and the engine power increased, the master again declared an air emergency. The crew increased the thrust, the machine began to climb, but the inclination to the left increased at the same time. The captain then contacted air traffic control and stated that they had an "extreme problem".
The machine continued its flight in a northwesterly direction. The pilots tried to stabilize the machine while it rocked left and right. The ground proximity warning system sounded. At 7:51 p.m., the left wing brushed the reinforced concrete girder of the roof of a two-story warehouse building that stood at the southeast end of a car disposal site . The wing tip tore off and the machine fell into the junkyard, burying hundreds of vehicles under it and going up in flames. All three crew members were killed.
root cause
The final report on the accident was published in 2003 by the US Air Safety Authority (NTSB ). In the investigation, the investigators came to the conclusion that the right Flettner rudder had already failed when taking off . The crew tried in vain to return to the airport. The failure of the right Flettner rudder was caused by the fact that the connection to its control rod had loosened, then wedged and thus blocked the Flettner rudder in the lowest position. Therefore, the elevator was pushed up into an extreme position by the air forces and the aircraft nose was also steered up so far that ultimately a loss of control and stall occurred. The incident was caused by a maintenance failure on the part of Emery Worldwide . As part of the accident investigation, investigators found more than 100 maintenance violations by Emery Worldwide. After another incident occurred at the airline on April 26, 2001, which could also be traced back to inadequate maintenance, the US Federal Aviation Authority withdrew its operating license, whereupon the airline permanently ceased operations on August 13, 2001.
Web links
Coordinates: 38 ° 33 '39.6 " N , 121 ° 15' 7.1" W.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Accident Report DC-8-71F, N8079U , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 23, 2019.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Aircraft Accident Report: Loss of Pitch Control on Takeoff, Emery Worldwide Airlines, Flight 17, McDonnell Douglas DC-8-71F, N8079U, Rancho Cordova, California, February 16, 2000 - ID : NTSB / AAR-03/02. (PDF) In: National Transportation Safety Board . August 5, 2003, accessed September 11, 2019 .
- ↑ N8079U Emery Worldwide Airlines Douglas DC-8-60 / 70. In: planespotters. Retrieved March 23, 2019 .
- ^ Miles Corwin, Jennifer Warren: Cargo Plane Crashes Outside Sacramento, Killing 3. In: Los Angeles Times . Retrieved March 23, 2019 .
- ↑ Fiery Cargo Jet Crash Ignites Huge Fire / Crew of 3 killed as DC-8 feared hits auto yard near Sacramento. In: SF Gate. Retrieved March 23, 2019 .