http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/19/miami.crash/index.html Terrible tragedy. Thoughts and prayers to their loved ones.
I'm not really supposed to talk about this one but its obvious what happened. The video pretty much consolidated the efforts of investigation... the aircraft was nearly 60 years old as well. Open, shut.
60 yr old airframe, which was never intended to handle the stress of a modern turbine engine. My bet is metal fatigue.
Yea, a lot of the Carribean airlines are scary like that. I remember a few years back flying on BVI airlines from San Juan to Tortola. I was shocked, kind of excited and a little scared to see our DC-3 sitting at the gate.
I used to skydive quite a bit, and I've been in a few scary DC3's. The most terrifying time in those planes was the interval between takeoff and 2000 ft (minimum safe jump altitude). I swear one of them was held together with chicken wire and JB Weld.
Thats definately a simplistic way to look at it.. but your conclusion is one of the two items to look at. Spar failure leading to fuel leak leading to fire leading to wing separation - or engine fire leading to wing separation. Knowing the reliability of the PT6 I'm leaning towards the prior.
I ALWAYS wanted to try that, but now with kids, I will probably file it in the "should have done it while I was young, stupid and single." I'm thinking about flying again, though.
Given the choice between a Tristar, first generation A300, or DC-3... give me the DC-3 any day of the week.
I do consultation and contract work for the NTSB. Don't group me in with those guys who do it every single day. They're... an odd group
Sorry. My Dad used to be an accident investigator for ALPA. He may have just done TWA accidents. I can't remember.
The best way to tell if you need to service the oil on a DC-3? If there's no puddle of oil underneath the engine, you need to add some
Not that it was ever in doubt, but here's the smoking gun: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/21/miami.crash/index.html Chalk's is gonna be grounded for a while.
Their entire fleet is the same type and age as the one that went down, and it supposedly passed its annual last year. I would think the FAA will require a thorough inspection of the entire fleet, along with a review of Chalk's maintenance procedures and records.
So they'll do eddy current on the wing spars and be back flying in a day... 95% chance this is a Grumman or FAA failure, 4% chance its a failure of their subcontractor 145 repair station. I'd put the chances at 1% that you've got a systemic failure of the airline's QC, just from past experience.
This happens every day with every airline as mandated by their individual FAA PMIs. It would require a massive failure both of the government and the airline to have an issue here (like Alaska Airlines, etc.)
One man, Leonard Stuart of Bimini, said he lost 11 relatives in the accident. "I think I'm a little strong at this stage," he said. "I will probably break down later as we get nearer to the funeral time." ---- How terribly sad.