The engine of an American Airlines jet broke apart in midair and showered a Queens neighborhood with shards of turbine blades as it made an emergency landing Wednesday. Luckily, no one was hurt on the Chicago-bound plane or on the ground, though pieces of the MD-83 hit a warehouse and cracked the windshields of two parked cars in College Point.
"We heard a very loud explosion followed by 30 seconds of debris raining down," said Bob Bellini, who owns Varsity Plumbing and Heating Corp. on 123rd St.
The twin-engine plane, carrying 88 passengers and five crew members, took off from LaGuardia around 8 a.m. The pilot reported trouble with the right engine minutes later, reversed course and made a beeline for Kennedy Airport.
"Captain got on and said we lost an engine and would be doing an emergency landing at Kennedy Airport," one passenger told WNBC's "News 4 New York." "[I] thought about my wife and children and just was praying that we would land safely."
The engine turbine failed but the blades did not pierce the cowling, the metal covering around the engine, or the plane's fuselage, officials said.
The aircraft was built to spit out pieces of the blades during a failure and it appears that's what it did, said National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson.
A repair history for the plane, built in 1999, was not immediately available. The Federal Aviation Administration had no record of accidents, but the model was grounded last April because of hydraulic problems.
MD-83s are a newer version of the MD-80s. Queens Borough President Helen Marshall said the series is outdated, bad for the environment and potentially dangerous.
"We are lucky no one was hurt here," she said in College Point. "They certainly need to be taken out of operation."
American spokesman Tim Smith, however, defended the model. "These aircraft are fully safe," he said.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
SARAS Crash Claims the life of two IAF Pilots and one Flight Engineer
India's national pride and the second prototype of Saras, India's first indigenously designed civilian plane, crashed during a test flight on Friday killing all the three crew members on board at Bidadi near here in a "setback" to the project.
The NAL-built small prototype aircraft crashlanded in an open area at Sheshagirihalli at 3.45 PM and burst into flames. Charred bodies of Wing Commander Praveen, Wing Commander Shah and Squadron Leader Ilayaraja were retrieved from the wreckage of the aircraft which was completely destroyed in the accident. All the three crew members were experienced persons drawn from Air Force.
Saras is a twin turboprop powered multi-role aircraft. It is designed to take-off and land on short semi-prepared runways. Saras is capable of flying upto a maximum speed of 550 Km/ hour at a cruise altitude of 7.5 km.
According to an eye witnesses, people around the spot, where the incident took place, heard a loud sound and saw the air craft coming down. It fell on a vacant plot and burst into flames. The pieces of the charred aircraft were strewn around the area.
The army, police and the fire brigade are at the spot with a rescue chopper from the HAL.
This aircraft was second prototype of Saras and was on its test flight schedule.
The aircraft crash-landed near Bidadi. It is too early to say the reason for the crash of saras. The aircraft, which is eight to 14-seater, was on its 49th test flight.
This will create a major impact on the saras project.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Turkish Airlines crash that killed nine people and injured more than 100
Investigators are examining turbulence as one of the possible causes of the Turkish Airlines crash that killed nine people and injured more than 100 near Amsterdam's main airport, a spokesman said Saturday.
Fred Sanders, a spokesman for the Dutch Safety Authority investigation team, also said that the wreckage that has lain in a muddy field since it plunged out of the sky Wednesday one mile short of the runway could be moved Sunday evening.
A Turkish pilots' group claimed that turbulence from a large plane landing at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport shortly before the doomed flight, which was carrying 135 passengers and crew from Istanbul, may have caused the crash.
Turkey Airline Pilots' Association Secretary-General Savas Sen said late Friday that a large Boeing 757 had landed at Schiphol Airport two minutes earlier. Sen said that plane most likely created "wake turbulence" that hampered the Turkish aircraft's landing.
Wake turbulence forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air. "All possible causes are (being) investigated and turbulence is known to have caused problems in the past, so you never know," Sanders said.
The investigators on Saturday continued to analyze flight data and cockpit recordings retrieved from the Boeing 737-800's "black boxes" and hope to be able to give a preliminary cause of the crash next week.
In Istanbul, the head of Turkish Airlines' board of directors paid tribute to pilots Hasan Tahsin Arisan, Olgay Ozgur and Murat Sezer and flight attendant Ulvi Murat Eskin at their funerals.
Candan Karlitekin said that, of the 135 people on board, 126 survived due to the pilots' skills. "It was a miracle but a sad miracle," Karlitekin said in a teary address. "They saved the lives of 126 people and made their families happy, but they died themselves."
Dozens of survivors remained hospitalized Saturday and one was still in critical condition, said Heske Pohlmann, a spokeswoman for Haarlemmermeer municipality.
Boeing Co. said late Friday that three of the American victims were its employees and a fourth Boeing worker remained hospitalized.
Boeing on Friday identified the dead men as Ronald A. Richey of Duvall, Wash.; John Salman of Kent, Wash., and Ricky E. Wilson of Clinton, Wash. A fourth Boeing employee on the flight, Michael T. Hemmer, of Federal Way, Wash., was injured and remained hospitalized, a Boeing statement said.
Boeing Saturday issued a statement on behalf of Hemmer's family that said Hemmer "continues to respond well to treatment in the hospital."
Authorities did not release the identity of the other American and Turk killed.
Pieter van Vollenhoven, head of the Dutch agency investigating the crash, has said that the plane fell almost vertically from the sky, which pointed toward its engines having stopped. He said a reason for that had not yet been established.
Other possible causes under investigation include weather-related factors, insufficient fuel, loss of fuel, navigational errors, pilot fatigue or bird strikes.
Witnesses on the ground said the plane dropped from about 300 feet. It smashed into three pieces as it skidded to a halt in the mud but there was no fire.
The airline also denied reports that the plane, which was built in 2002, had had technical problems in the days before the accident. The plane underwent routine maintenance Feb. 19, and had to delay a flight Feb. 23 - the day before the crash - to replace a faulty caution light.
Fred Sanders, a spokesman for the Dutch Safety Authority investigation team, also said that the wreckage that has lain in a muddy field since it plunged out of the sky Wednesday one mile short of the runway could be moved Sunday evening.
A Turkish pilots' group claimed that turbulence from a large plane landing at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport shortly before the doomed flight, which was carrying 135 passengers and crew from Istanbul, may have caused the crash.
Turkey Airline Pilots' Association Secretary-General Savas Sen said late Friday that a large Boeing 757 had landed at Schiphol Airport two minutes earlier. Sen said that plane most likely created "wake turbulence" that hampered the Turkish aircraft's landing.
Wake turbulence forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air. "All possible causes are (being) investigated and turbulence is known to have caused problems in the past, so you never know," Sanders said.
The investigators on Saturday continued to analyze flight data and cockpit recordings retrieved from the Boeing 737-800's "black boxes" and hope to be able to give a preliminary cause of the crash next week.
In Istanbul, the head of Turkish Airlines' board of directors paid tribute to pilots Hasan Tahsin Arisan, Olgay Ozgur and Murat Sezer and flight attendant Ulvi Murat Eskin at their funerals.
Candan Karlitekin said that, of the 135 people on board, 126 survived due to the pilots' skills. "It was a miracle but a sad miracle," Karlitekin said in a teary address. "They saved the lives of 126 people and made their families happy, but they died themselves."
Dozens of survivors remained hospitalized Saturday and one was still in critical condition, said Heske Pohlmann, a spokeswoman for Haarlemmermeer municipality.
Boeing Co. said late Friday that three of the American victims were its employees and a fourth Boeing worker remained hospitalized.
Boeing on Friday identified the dead men as Ronald A. Richey of Duvall, Wash.; John Salman of Kent, Wash., and Ricky E. Wilson of Clinton, Wash. A fourth Boeing employee on the flight, Michael T. Hemmer, of Federal Way, Wash., was injured and remained hospitalized, a Boeing statement said.
Boeing Saturday issued a statement on behalf of Hemmer's family that said Hemmer "continues to respond well to treatment in the hospital."
Authorities did not release the identity of the other American and Turk killed.
Pieter van Vollenhoven, head of the Dutch agency investigating the crash, has said that the plane fell almost vertically from the sky, which pointed toward its engines having stopped. He said a reason for that had not yet been established.
Other possible causes under investigation include weather-related factors, insufficient fuel, loss of fuel, navigational errors, pilot fatigue or bird strikes.
Witnesses on the ground said the plane dropped from about 300 feet. It smashed into three pieces as it skidded to a halt in the mud but there was no fire.
The airline also denied reports that the plane, which was built in 2002, had had technical problems in the days before the accident. The plane underwent routine maintenance Feb. 19, and had to delay a flight Feb. 23 - the day before the crash - to replace a faulty caution light.
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