Trans-World Airlines Flight 159
| Trans-World Airlines Flight 159 | |
|---|---|
_JP5932453.jpg) An identical Boeing 707-131 of the TWA |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Agreement from the runway after aborted take-off |
| place |
Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport , Erlanger , Kentucky , United States
|
| date | November 6, 1967 |
| Fatalities | 1 |
| Survivors | 35 |
| Injured | 10 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Boeing 707-131
|
| operator |
Trans World Airlines
|
| Mark |
N742TW
|
| Departure airport |
John F. Kennedy International Airport , New York City , United States
|
| Stopover |
Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport , Erlanger , Kentucky , United States
|
| Destination airport |
Los Angeles International Airport , California , United States
|
| Passengers | 29 |
| crew | 7th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
Trans World Airlines Flight 159 was a scheduled Trans World Airlines flight from New York to Los Angeles with a stopover in Cincinnati . On November 6, 1967, the Trans World Airlines Boeing 707-131 N742TW crashed after an aborted take-off. A person was killed.
plane
The machine was a Boeing 707-131, which was delivered to Trans World Airlines on July 1, 1959 and has been operated by Trans World Airlines since then. It was the 43rd Boeing 707 from ongoing production, the machine had the factory number 17669. The long-haul - narrow-body aircraft was equipped with four Pratt & Whitney JT3C-6 engines. At the time of the accident, the machine had completed 26,319 flight hours.
crew
There was a three-person cockpit crew on board, consisting of a master, first officer and flight engineer. The 45-year-old Captain Volney D. Matheny had 18,753 hours of flight experience. First officer was the 26-year-old Ronald G. Reichardt, who had flown 1,629 hours by the time of the accident. 39-year-old flight engineer Robert D. Barron had 11,182 hours of experience in his role. There were also four flight attendants on board.
the accident
Flight 159 was to lead from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Los Angeles International Airport , California , with a stopover at the Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport was planned. The flight went to Cincinnati without incident.
At 18:38, the aircraft taxied to runway 27L after the air traffic controller instructed the crew to position the aircraft for departure and to wait for further instructions. While the machine was taxiing to the runway, a Douglas DC-9, with which Delta Air Lines Flight 379 was operated, landed on the same runway. After the machine landed, the crew received clearance to make a 180-degree turn to reach an exit that they had initially rolled past. She was unable to complete the curve, so that the machine went off the asphalt runway. While most of the machine was then stuck in the mud next to the runway, the rear was only about two meters from the runway threshold.
When the air traffic controller noticed that the DC-9 was not moving, he asked the aircraft's crew whether they had left the runway. The captain of the machine confirmed this, but noted that his machine was stuck in the mud. The air traffic controller informed the crew of the TWA machine at 18:39 that the DC-9 had left the runway and gave her take-off clearance. The Boeing First Officer then carried out the runway 27L take-off run.
Since the DC-9 was about 14 meters away from the runway, both pilots did not initially realize how close the machine was to the runway. The captain only noticed this shortly before the Boeing passed the DC-9. The next moment the pilots heard a loud bang, felt a jolt in the control horn, and noticed the machine's yaw movement. Believing that the machine had collided with the DC-9, the first officer initiated an aborted take-off. Both pilots applied the brakes, activated reverse thrust and deployed the spoilers to stop the machine.
The machine rolled over the end of the runway, rolled over a hill, rose briefly into the air behind it and came back to the ground after 20 meters, with the main landing gear being torn off and the nose landing gear buckling backwards. The machine slid down an embankment and came to a halt 128 meters past the end of the runway with a broken hull. A fire developed in the area of the left wing, but it was quickly extinguished.
The 29 passengers and 7 crew members initially all survived the accident. There were 10 injured, two passengers had to be hospitalized. Four days after the accident, an accident victim died in the hospital.
Due to the severe damage, the machine had to be written off as a total loss.
Accident investigation
The US National Transport Safety Authority (NTSB) took over the investigation after the accident. Investigators found that the DC-9 was outside the asphalt runway, but its engines were still active and idle and hot exhaust gases were emitted over the runway.
Investigators complained that the crew of the DC-9 had stated that they had already left the runway, although this was not true. Apparently the crews of the two machines and the air traffic controller had different views of what was meant by leaving the runway. Although the DC-9 was no longer on the paved area, the beams from its idle engines would have posed a danger to any aircraft using runway 27L at the time. The investigators found that the aviation authority had not yet made any determination of what should be understood by leaving the runway, nor had Cincinnati Airport done so. Investigators made a recommendation to consider aircraft engine jets when defining runway exit.
The bang the pilots heard was not caused by a machine crash. In fact, they had not touched each other during the incident. Rather, the jet engine of the DC-9 had caused a flameout on engine number 4 of the 707. The NTSB came to the conclusion that overshooting the runway was inevitable at the time when the abortion was initiated. The speed of the Boeing 707 was too high for this.
The Trans World Airlines operating manuals warned that aborted take-offs at high speeds were dangerous and recommended that aborted take-offs should no longer be carried out in the event of an engine failure after reaching the decision speed, as overshooting the runway would be inevitable in this case. However, since the master had forgotten to announce that the speed of decision would be reached, the first officer believed that he had not yet reached it. The decision-making speed of the Boeing 707 in this particular case was 132 knots (approx. 244 km / h), the crashed machine had accelerated to a speed of 145 knots (approx. 269 km / h).
The investigators noted that the guideline values for aborted take-offs were not relevant in the case under investigation, as they only gave instructions for dealing with engine damage. They described the first officer's decision to abort the take-off as understandable, since based on his assumptions, he had to assume that the aircraft structure was damaged by a collision and that the aircraft was therefore no longer airworthy. However, the investigators criticized the aborted start of the pilots as not being quick enough.
A member of the investigative commission described the aborted take-off under the circumstances as both understandable and necessary, although the decision-making speed had already been reached and it was foreseeable that the machine would overshoot the runway.
According to the majority opinion of the investigation commission, the accident was caused by the speed-related inability of the crew to successfully abort take-off. The NTSB recommended a revision and expansion of the provisions regarding the clearing of runways by landing machines.
consequences
A court awarded the family of the lone death victim $ 105,000 in compensation to Delta Air Lines for the loss of their loved one. The company also had to compensate Trans World Airlines $ 2,216,000 for the loss of their plane.
context
Just two weeks later, another Trans World Airlines aircraft, a Convair CV-880 , crashed while approaching the same airport , killing 70 of 82 people on board the aircraft (see also Trans-World Airlines flight 128 ) .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h accident report B-707-100, N742TW Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 28, 2019.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Aircraft Accident Report. Trans World Airlines, Inc. B707, N742TW, The Greater Cincinnati Airport, Erlanger, Kentucky. November 6, 1967 (PDF), National Transportation Safety Board , Washington, DC 1968 (Retrieved March 24, 2019). (Available at Embry-Riddle University Library ( Memento of the original dated June 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. )
- ↑ Operating history B-707-100, N742TW Planespotters (English), accessed on March 28, 2019.
Coordinates: 39 ° 3 ′ 0 ″ N , 84 ° 40 ′ 0 ″ W.