Air crash of an Omega Air Boeing 707 in 1990
| Air crash of an Omega Air Boeing 707 in 1990 | |
|---|---|
 A Boeing 707-300 similar to the one in the accident |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Departure from the runway due to incorrect take-off configuration |
| place |
Pinal Airpark , Marana , Arizona , United States
|
| date | 20th September 1990 |
| Fatalities | 2 |
| Survivors | 1 |
| Injured | 1 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
Boeing 707-321B
|
| operator |
Omega Air Inc.
|
| Mark |
N320MJ
|
| Departure airport |
Pinal Airpark , Marana , Arizona , United States
|
| Destination airport |
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base , Tucson , Arizona , United States
|
| Passengers | 0 |
| crew | 3 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
The air accident of a Boeing 707 of Air Omega took place on 20 September 1990, when a Boeing 707-321B discarded that their last flight to cannibalizing on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson , Arizona was to start, at the start of Pinal Airpark crashed. Two people were killed in the accident. In the course of the aircraft accident investigation it turned out that the crashed aircraft had already been partially dismantled and was not airworthy.
background
The operator Omega Air Inc. was a company founded by the brothers Ulick and Desmond McEvaddy in 1980 and specialized in the trade in aircraft fuselages and spare parts for the Boeing 707. The company was finally merged into Omega Aerial Refueling Services in 2001 .
The Boeing 707-321B, which was to be used for the transfer flight, was part of a larger batch of discarded Boeing 707 and Boeing 720 machines that the United States Air Force had bought. In particular, the engines and engine pylons should continue to be used for machines of the United States Air Force (USAF). The background to this was that, after its production as a civil airliner, this type of aircraft had continued to be built as a military aircraft for many years until 1991 and was operated in large numbers by the United States Air Force and the USAF had stocks of spare parts for those in operation Machines created.
plane
When used machine, there was a discarded Boeing 707-321B that as 783. Machine Series 707/720 with serial number 20028 was manufactured and on 6 February 1969 with the aircraft marks N891PA and the name Clipper Gem of the Ocean for the first time the Pan American World Airways had been admitted. From August 1976 to June 1982 the Boeing was then operated by BWIA West Indies Airways and was then registered for three other owners before it was registered with Omega Air Inc. on September 8, 1990. The four-engine long-range narrow-body aircraft has four Turbojettriebwerken of the type -3 JT3D Pratt & Whitney driven. The machine had a cumulative total operating performance of 34,965 operating hours.
crew
For the flight, a crew of three, consisting of the captain, first officer and flight engineer, sat in the machine. The 60-year-old flight captain, who was on the flight of Pilot Flying , had 13,192 hours of flight experience, around 4,000 of which he had completed in the cockpit of the Boeing 707.
Weather
On the day of the accident, sunny weather with no wind prevailed over the Pinal Airpark with scattered clouds at an altitude of 7000 ft (approx. 2134 m ). The visibility was 40 mi (approx. 64 km )
Flight plan
Before the accident, the machine was parked at Pinal Airpark , an airport in the Arizona desert that includes a disposal site for disused commercial aircraft and where machines are also cannibalized. The discarded passenger plane had been purchased by Omega Air Inc. in the same month and was to be flown to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to be dismantled by the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group . The spare parts obtained in this way were to be used for the maintenance of machines such as the Boeing KC-135 , Boeing C-135 , Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint STARS or the Boeing E-3 Sentry . Since the two locations are only around 50 miles (approx. 80 kilometers) apart as the crow flies, only a short transfer flight of around 10 minutes was planned according to visual flight rules and well below the usual cruising altitude.
the accident
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When taking off from runway 12 shortly after take-off , the machine rolled to the right because the rudder was incorrectly adjusted. The plane went down and spun on its own axis, causing the fuselage to break apart. The flight captain was killed.
Cause of accident
The investigation into the accident came to the conclusion that the master had probably worked through the checklist off the cuff and overlooked an incorrect rudder trim. In addition, the machine was basically handed over in a no longer airworthy condition: The cockpit was partially dismantled: around 50 displays and switches, which were contractually available to other recycling companies, had already been removed. Only two speed displays, an altimeter and an artificial horizon were available as displays. The compass was missing, as was part of the checklists. The displays for the engine thrust (measured as Engine Pressure Ratio , EPR ) were only temporarily attached.
In its final report, the NTSB on the one hand gave the pilot responsibility for the accident, as he had not used a checklist, but had also recently gained little flight experience with this type of aircraft. In addition, the NTSB also criticized the commissioning of an obviously non-airworthy aircraft as well as insufficient monitoring of the process by the Federal Aviation Administration , especially since the machines were operated with a special permit.
swell
- Video of the original machine before the accident
- Peter Garrison: The last "ya-hoo" , Flying Magazine , Oct. 1992, p. 110.
- 707 on Way to Plane Graveyard Crashes , Los Angeles Times , September 21, 1990.
- 707 Crashes En Route to Graveyard , Tulsa World , September 21, 1990.
- Accident report , National Transportation Safety Board , Jan. 15, 1992.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Accident Report B-707-300 N320MJ Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 15, 2019.
- ↑ Operating history B-707-300, N320MJ jetphotos (English), accessed on March 15, 2019
Coordinates: 32 ° 30 ′ 3.4 ″ N , 111 ° 19 ′ 7 ″ W.