Passenger Jet Crashes in Benin

FoxNews ^

[Rome2000]

727

[ab01]

The center engine inlet may have been somewhat oval. You can tell from the engine mounting strut that it is most likely a side-mounted engine. It is not a 747, 737, nor DC-10

[nightdriver]

"Wasn't the intake on a -100 oblong?"

You're right. I got the -100 and the -200 mixed up.

Besides that, I have to retract what I said because there's no way that the vertical stabilizer structure could have been wrenched off of the cowling without messing it up.

When I didn't see any turbine blades inside, I immediately and erroneously assumed it to be the center intake of a 727.

(staring at the floor, embarassed)

[leadpenny]

I agree it could be a 727 (not 100), but the mounts suggests it is the center engine. The mounts on side engines in pic above are too close to the fuselage.

[JimRed]

Are any of the Clintons' cronies vacationing over there?

That part of Africa as a vacation spot? Don't think so...

[Dog]

I looked up the Air carriers in Benin...

Click here..

[leadpenny]

Hey, we're all speculating. The more I think about the DC-10, the vertical fin would have been more visible on the cowling.

[TomGuy]

60 killed, per MSNBC, but there are many survivors (thank G_d).

[ab01]

Maybe the center engine, but I doubt it. My recollection is that the center intake was blended into the tail, Now, if you want to discuss the 747-400, I still have my manuals. Distressing whenever anyone from the aviation community goes west.

[Thinkin' Gal]

You can't fly a plane with the landing gear down?

Apparently not in Benin, no. I wonder why the gear woundn't retract. Intentional FOD? "Remove before flight" pins still in the landing gear, minus their red flags?

[rusty millet]

I like to keep an eye on that part of the world, since I travel there regularly. Things are heating up in Ivory Coast and Nigeria. Mali and Niger predominantly consist of peaceful muslims, but the islamists, of course, respect no borders.

My prayers to the survivors and families of those who are not. It will be interesting to know the cause. If a failed hijack, then that's nice to know for future reference. If poor maintenance or flight operations, great, get the mechanics and pilots a little sharper for my trip to the region next month.

[norton]

Tail pointing inland and nose up on dry sand, looks to me like they tried to come around dirty and didn't make it.
Could have lost lots of (limited) altitude turning with gear down.
It's a MDC aircraft, before Boeing.

[Moose4]

Between that cockpit window configuration and the picture of the engine, that's got to be a 727.

Horrible news, but the fact that there were apparently a good number of survivors is an upside.

}:-)4

[Darksheare]

The left pic there says "Man found dead in a wheel well of an American Air"
Any info on that one anywhere?

And this Benin crash, how many survivors known so far?

[csvset]

Re: Wheel well man.

The body of a dead man was discovered inside the wheel well of an American Airlines flight after it landed at Kennedy Airport Wednesday night.

Maintenance crews made the discovery aboard American Airlines flight 1190 around 11 p.m. Wednesday, hours after the plane arrived from Montego Bay, Jamaica.

The Port Authority has no information on the man's identity other than that he was 25 years old.

Officials are investigating whether the man as a stowaway.

[Darksheare]

Thanks.
He probably died from lack of oxygen, hypothermia, or both.

[COEXERJ145]

It was a Boeing 727. From what I can find, it was probably a 727-223, a former American Airlines machine.

[angkor]

Here's arrival info from the Beruit airport database:

http://www.beirutairport.gov.lb/home.html

2003-11-06 2004-03-28 23:00 GIH 141 Conackry COTONO

So this was GIH flight 141 originating at Conackry, Guinea.

GIH is Union Transports Africains de Guinee, an Indonesian company.

http://www.jetliners.net/airline_icao_codes-bycode.php

Or perhaps its a Guinean company:

ICAO Airline codes

Over on another forum, a fellow says of this company: "Resurecting the name of a french airline, which was once a prominent player between Europe and Africa until it was absorbed by AF in 1992 UTA/Union de Transports Aériens [actually Union Transports Africains/angkor] is a venture set up in Guinea Conackry with capital provided by Lebanese nationals. The airline was set to take up a couple of former American Airlines 727-223s. One of these was even rolled off from the paintshop at Sharjah in the basic colors of AA + UTA company logo and tls."

Now, I find three things exceedingly odd about all of this:

1) Benin's Conackry airport is where the "missing" 727-233 was last spotted. There are refs here and here.

2) Today's crash originated from that same airport, and in our current security environment this is suspect.

3) Is UTA Indonesian or Lebanese or Guinean?

So here we have an airline crash involving a company owned by Lebanese/Indonesians which was setup to purchase 727-233's from American Airlines, originating from the same airport where a missing plane (also a 727-233) was spotted on June 28th.

I don't want to go too tinfoil on this, but its .... interesting?

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

There also may have been some pilot error involved here as well. If they attempted to turn with the gear down, at departure speed, without extending their flaps and leading edge slats, which they would have retracted first at the moment of flight rotation, the drag would have been so dramatic that it would literally cause the aircraft to drop at a rate of 1000 feet per min. or more.

And to attempt turning an airctaft in this configuration or state of deterioration, would be suicide. All pilots are trained to never attempt returning to the runway during a departure emergency.

This aircraft is a Boeing. The center engine nacelle indicates that as well as the four small skylites above the main windshield. DC-10s have no such skylites as the comparison photo indicates. Here is a photo of a DC-10, compare the size of the two center nacelles and notice the cockpit windshield.