C-17 crash blamed on errors shared by all

Anchorage Daily News ^ | December 11th, 2010 | RACHEL D'ORO

[skeptoid]

A pilot's overly aggressive aerial acrobatics and overconfidence were blamed in an investigative report for a C-17 plane crash at an Anchorage military base that killed all four airmen on board. Besides pilot error, the crew on board was also faulted for failing to notice the dangerous situation that culminated with the plane stalling and crashing into woods July 28 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson

[lowbuck]

IIRC, the PIC (of the B-52) was a show off and the poor guy who was on his “last flight” was just along for the ride. His family watched him ride it in!

Also, I believe the copilot was a squadron commander who listened to his troops and refused to allow any of them to fly with the PIC clown. So he flew instead. I think he “punched out” but he and his chute were caught in the fireball.

Hell of a way to go.

[jwparkerjr]

I love the poster I used to see with that as the caption. It shows a WW One era biplane tangled up in the in the top of a tree, the only tree for miles around. Wish I could find it again.

[lowbuck]

We had the same one in our ready room during primary training. I never realized it was stuck in the only tree for miles!! LOL

One of the other “bits of advise” given us was “if a crash is inevitable, try and fly the aircraft as far as possible into the crash”. I never figured that one out!

[Fast Moving Angel]

Ask and you shall receive: http://www.flickr.com/photos/meredithmac/3035334271/#/photos/meredithmac/3035334271/lightbox/

[skeptoid]

Looking for that poster, I came across . . . . . .

You are professionals trained to deal with three things that can kill you:
gravity, combustion, and inertia.
Keep them under control, and you'll die in bed.

— Sailor Davis, long-time TWA ground school instructor

[skeptoid]

I'm kinda fascinated with this one, too.

(Scroll down for the story and another view)

[Fast Moving Angel]

Aww ... he broke a perfectly good Cherokee. :-(

At least we think it was a perfectly good Cherokee ...

[CodeToad]

“Perhaps he was planning to buzz the tower ...inverted? “

lol. He damned near did! Oh, I am sure many people would love to pull a few Gs in a cargo aircraft in a controlled environment, but that sure wasn’t it.

[jwparkerjr]

From the story, “Pilot lost power while practicing landings and his attempt to restart the engine failed.” Well, there’s problem number one. NEVER attempt to restart an engine at pattern altitude and configuration! Divert your attention to flying the plane, period. A dead stick landing with a windmilling prop is tough enough, but to lose time trying to restart the engine just compounds the problem, IMHO.

Thanks for the link. Sad, but interesting!

[DoorGunner]

I was once at a safety class. They had just discussed forgetting to turn ON the gasoline; that there was just enough fuel in the carburator to climb out, engine die, attempt to return, stall, and crash inverted, just off the runway. Classic accident. Within five minutes crash sirens went off—some poor pilot had had exactly that crash.

DG

[jwparkerjr]

re: just enough fuel in the carburator to climb out, engine die, attempt to return, stall, and crash inverted,

I was taught that's why you take your time when you're about to go for flight! The plane I learned to fly in had a sparse panel. Tach, airspeed, oil pressure and temp, magnetic compass, turn and bank indicator and not much more. The first thing I learned was to shut the engine back to idle as soon as it started and let it stay there until the oil temp began to register something above the outside temp. I was told there's little oil circulating when the engine first starts and it's rough on it to rev it up without waiting for the oil to warm up a bit and make its way through the innards of the engine. That usually meant sitting there at idle for at least three minutes. Plenty of time to use up fuel in carburetor and for the engine to die if you had missed that part of the check list calling for ‘fuel to fullest’ tank, or just ‘on’ in the case of the Aeronca Champ.

You also shut the engine down immediately if there wasn't an indication of oil pressure within a few seconds. Of course usually I was out front of the airplane with it chocked in place while I propped it off. No starter in that machine. Spartan as it was I would sure love to have that plane now! I forget the exact sequence, but it was several steps to prop it off by yourself. Miss one or mess up one and you ran the real risk of being run over and killed by the prop.

Sorry for the rambling, but those sure are fond memories of what it was like to learn to fly in the 50’s. I wouldn't want to be starting out again in today's aviation world. I used to spend Sunday afternoon hanging around the airport hoping to get a ride in someone’s Ercoupe or Stinson Voyager or Navion.