Posted on 11/13/2001 4:53:22 PM PST by dogbyte12
Edited on 04/29/2004 1:59:35 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Federal investigators said they are considering whether "wake turbulence" from another airplane may have played a role in the crash of a commercial jet that crashed Monday, scattering debris over a Queens neighborhood and claiming more than 260 lives.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
The pucker factor for us watching on the ground was pretty high. I can only imagine what it was like on the plane.
On another note...For years, alot of people on this site blamed the Clinton administration for all the cover-ups. Clinton is gone and our man Bush is in charge. Does this mean that he is no different than Clinton in allowing things like this to be covered up? After the posts of the last 2 days, I think some people here believe EVERY airplane that has ever crashed was sabatoged, shot down or covered up. No wonder the freaks at D.U. have such a good time at our expense. When you shout cover-up, you are blaming the current administration of the same things that happened in the last. Let's wait and see what happens in the investigation before we start blaming everybody.
What's the matter with the NTSB thoroughly checking into all possibilities? The pilot mentioned wake turbulence, so they will look into it. This isn't their final report, just another factor to consider. As someone else pointed out, this isn't the NTSB's conclusion, but rather CNN, et. al. jumping all over one little thing and blowing it all out of proportion(I would think experienced Freepers would be well aware of their propensity to such scurrilous "journalism" and not suckered in, like some knee-jerk emotional Democrat constituents). Geez, you'd think this was Hillary carting away Vince Foster's boxes, rather than a simple press conferences that offers no conclusions.
If taking off 20 seconds to 30 seconds later than takeoff is supposed to occur risked the plane's breaking apart how would any takeoff have been made successfully on the crowded schedules our airports have served?
Seems like everyone's scratching their heads and throwing stuff out there. Birds, reverse thrusters, etc.
The one thing that can safely be said at this point, is that this is either a totally new kind of accident, or a totally new kind of terrorism. Doesn't fit any models.
I don't see how anyone can be anywhere but right on the fence.
Thank you.
What the hell did he depart after, a freaking Star Destroyer?!?!?!?!
?????????
Yes, it can. There have been some spectacular cases where flying through even the wingtip vortices can upend a plane.
That's where I am. On the fence. We still don't have all of the facts. I think the gov. is terrified that this is an act of sabotage. I would feel better if they would actually say that. Instead of it is everything but sabotage.
My first flight on a B-52 was with friends who were excited for me to go along with them. They didn't explain the initiation. In the movie "Men of Honor" Master diver Brashear, (Cuba Gooding) was looking for a H-Bomb that was dropped into the Med by a B-52. The bombs were dropped due to a mid-air collision during an air refueling. The B-52 under ran the tanker and the aerodynamics were such that the two aircraft were "sucked together" and collided.
After that accident a maneuver was developed to prevent any such accidents in the future. If the boom operator observed an unsafe approach by the bomber he would call a "breakaway" The Tanker would initiate an immediate 1000' per minute climb and the B-52 would initiate an air brakes to six 1000' foot per minute dive
So a breakaway maneuver was scheduled for my first training flight and I wasn't "warned/briefed" as to what to expect. I was in the IP seat immediately behind the AC and Co-Pilot. I had my camera at the ready to take pics of the refueling. We had a minimum off load and then the boomer radioed "Breakaway". My seat belt was unsnapped and ..well does the term Vomit Comet" bring any pictures to mind. The crew snickered for the rest of the mission which was about 11 hours!
It's not the wake turbulence that breaks anything up. It's the rolling over inverted at low altitude, and the resulting overstress of the airframe caused by the attempt to correct the problem that breaks things up.
I've hit many a wake turbulence. Even flown a cessna 150 towing a banner through 757 wake. But that was at right angles. It's ANOTHER THING to ride the wake right down the middle.
It's hard to do, but we used to screw around with the banner airplanes, and deliberately ride in the wake. If you get half way in, you can fly straight with almost full aileron. If you get ALL the way in, it will roll you right over. And that was flying behind a Cessna 150.
I know what you mean. The CVR gives a pretty good indication that it was not a bomb, missile, or terrorist in the cockpit. No "boom". (Unless the NTSB has information and is deliberately concealing it -- Something I don't want to give credence to with this new administration but which I would believe Clinton would do in a heart beat.) I still remember GWB telling his staff after firing L. Chavez that he would never tolerate anyone lying to him. I do not think he would do that to us either.
That said, it looks like a losened vertical stablizer could have been broken by wake turbulence. Rattled first before finally breaking clean (what do the attaching surfaces of the stablizer look like under a microscope?) Who had the last chance to loosen the stablizer, (is it held with screws?) I have heard speculation that without a stablizer, and who knows what other controls were also lost, the crew might have been trying to control yaw with engine thrust. Maybe the plane could not take that loading and the engines were weakened?
You mean those things right there on the toe?
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