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GIV Crash Mystery Focuses on Mechanical Systems
Accident investigators are focusing on two perplexing clues as they try to determine what caused the deadly crash of Gulfstream IV in Bedford, Massachusetts, on May 31 after the jet failed to lift off from the runway during what should have been a routine takeoff. (www.flyingmag.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Since this "gust lock" was installed on a hydraulic system could this be a metering valve problem?...Seems to me like there wasn't adequate pressure to move the elevator.
I was on duty in the NWA dispatch office around 1960 at MSP when one of our Boeing 377 stratocruisers ditched into Puget Sound right after takeoff. The flight engineer, who had come over from flying Lockheed constellations, had set the cowl flaps in the wrong position, wide open, and the ensuing vibrations caused the pilots to ditch. The FSA (flight service attendant) was in the lower level bar, drowned. He was the only fatality.
I'm also interested in the effect having that ditch just beyond the perimeter had on this accident. The wheels may have come off before the ditch, but did it create an impact that ruptured the fuel tanks.
Airport standards dictate having 1000 safety overruns off the end of most runways, which is sufficient in most cases. However there is always an extreme example, the aircraft in this case stopped 1,850 feet from the runway, and it is unpractical to require even longer long safety overruns.
Ripping the main gear out usually does in the tanks. Plowing through a localizer shack does it also. Plenty of fuel was available for any flame source. The burn path goes back to the localizer shack so fuel was left there or it may have already been on fire at that point. The ditch was incidental and could even have been a positive if it broke the plane in a way allowing escape. Unfortunately, there was no escape and forensics will have to tell us what most likely happened.
And what would that have to do with the crash? There are many things just beyond the perimeter of many airports, you cannot take hills down or fill ditches. No different than canyons next to roadways.