Posted on 07/15/2010 6:25:18 AM PDT by pabianice
The captain of a Continental 737 that ran off a Denver runway in December 2008 as winds gusted up to 45 knots probably could have kept it on the runway if he had applied enough rudder at the right time, the NTSB said in its final report on the accident on Tuesday. However, the board also said that if the crew had been given better wind information before trying to take off on Runway 34R, they might have delayed departure or requested a different runway. Air traffic controllers provided all the weather data that was required, telling the crew winds were from 270 degrees at 27 knots, but information from sensors located in the center of the airfield showed gusts as high as 40 knots. If the crew had been better trained in crosswind techniques, that also might have helped, the board said. Nobody was killed in the accident, but the captain and five of the 110 passengers were hurt. The board also said better seats in the cockpit would help to reduce crew injuries.
(Excerpt) Read more at avweb.com ...
Since rearview mirrors are impractical on large aircraft, I’m glad to see they’re using 20-20 hindsight.
maybe if the captain had 18 months (instead of 18 seconds) to react to the conditions like NTSB had to investigate he would given sufficient rudder to correct for the gusts
I thought all pilots were taught to “crab”?
Wow. Maybe, possibly, probably the Captain could have done something different, especially if he had been given correct data about the wind conditions, instead of the erroneous data he was given instead. Perhaps then, he might not have “wasted” 4 seconds trying something that didn’t work. Oh, and some better training from the airline would have helped too; perhaps better training about what to do when incorrect wind data was given that didn’t match actual conditions on the ground. Yeah, that would have helped.
What a bunch of nimrods.
I understand the “Duh!” responses, but every accident has to be analyzed. I don’t know if they applied fault to the pilots in this, but they certainly have to make assessments to the cause of the crash and recommendations as to the solutions.
When they say that there was a need for better and more timely information, and that the information might or should’ve led to different decisions, it’s not an assessment of blame as much as it’s a roadmap for improvements.
Crabbing is generally not advisable during a take-off roll.
The NTSB needs to take a closer look at the data. With wind gusts of up to 45 knots, that's pretty hard to anticipate and apply the correct amount of rudder at the right time. This alone sounds like it was written by Jeff Foxworthy's 5th graders whose knowledge of aeronautics is probably a bit sketchy, at best.
But, the NTSB goes on to negate it's initial conclusion by acknowledging that the crew didn't receive good weather data before choosing the runway they would use.
Shades of DFW and the Delta crash of 1982(?) when the aircraft was on final approach and flew into a microburst at the end of the runway and crashed due to the severity of the downdraft. Everyone died. The NTSB discovered that 2 of the 3 ground approach radar operators who were supposed to be monitoring weather conditions were at lunch as the aircraft was on final approach, and the 3rd didn't follow up with the aircraft in front of the Delta flight that reported that the weather conditions were severe and deteriorating at the end of the runway.
Has the FAA learned NOTHING after all this time?? This was NOT a pilot error, this, again, was lack of proper information provided by controllers on the ground. PERIOD!!
I don’t think the conclusion of the NTSB was pilot error through a conclusion that they could have or should have avoided the crash.
Their conclusion was that is was a weather related incident, but the NTSB always looks to see what might be done differently in the future, so they concluded if enough rudder was used at the right time or if the pilots were told of the weather conditions to include significant wind gusts, the pilots might have aborted the takeoff or held the plane on the runway.
This was by far not a statement that the pilots could have or should have avoided the crash given the conditions and information at the time. The pilots will not suffer any consequences nor should they.
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