Air Disasters: Dramatic black box flight recordings. Malcolm MacPherson

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       CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, USA 2 July 1994

      With fifty-two passengers, two cockpit crew and three flight attendants aboard, US Air Flight 1016 was executing a ‘missed approach’ while attempting to land on runway 18R at 6.42 p.m. in ‘meteorological conditions’.Itwas raining hard. ‘Convective activity that was conducive to a microburst [wind shear]’, according to the NTSB, punched the Douglas DC-9-31 to the ground, where it collided with trees, breaking up, skidding like a toboggan down a residential lane and smashed into a private residence, catching fire. The captain and one flight attendant suffered minor injuries. The first officer, two flight attendants and fifteen passengers sustained serious injuries. The remaining thirty-seven passengers died. Impact forces and a post-crash fire destroyed the aeroplane. No one on the ground was injured or killed.

      Despite a thunderstorm ‘cell’ advancing on the area, the cockpit crew had every reason to believe that a smooth approach and landing were possible.

       COCKPIT VOICE RECORDER

      APPROACH: Tell you what, USAir 1016, [you] may get some rain just south of the field. Might be a little bit just coming off the north. Just expect the ILS [instrument landing system] now. Amend your altitude…maintain three thousand.

      CAPTAIN: If we have to bail out [go around for a missed approach], it looks like we bail out to the right.

      FIRST OFFICER: Amen.

      CAPTAIN: Ten miles to the VOR [navigational aid] which is off the end of the runway. ‘Bout a mile off the end of the runway.

      FIRST OFFICER: Yeah.

      CAPTAIN: So I think we’ll be all right.

      CAPTAIN: Chance of [wind] shear.

       FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED TWENTY-EIGHT, WHO WAS TRAVELLING WITH HER NINE-MONTH-OLD DAUGHTER, SITTING IN SEAT 19-F

      During the flight my daughter moved back and forth between her seat and my lap. She wanted to play with the people in the row behind her. She got tired and laid down next to me. Her head was in my lap. After the flight attendant collected the lemonade cups, I felt a little bump and then a big bump, and the aeroplane just dropped. I could not understand what happened. The weather had been sunny, and I had seen thick white clouds. I heard an announcement, ‘I’ll have us on the ground in about ten minutes’, and, ‘Flight attendants, please prepare for landing’. I recall entering rainy weather, and I leaned forward in my seat to look out the window. The rain was coming on the wing slanted.

       Other traffic in the sky near the airport and on the field’s taxiways was aware of the storm, talking about it with the ground controllers and the tower.

       COCKPIT VOICE RECORDER

      TOWER: And [USAir] 806, looks like we’ve gotten a storm right on top of the field here.

      US806: [On the ground waiting to depart] USAir 806, affirmative. We’ll just delay for a while.

      TOWER: [TO USAir 1016]: Charlotte Tower, runway 18 right, cleared to land. Following FK [Fokker] 100 on short final. Previous arrival reported a smooth ride all the way down final.

      US 1016: USAir 1016, I’d appreciate a pirep [pilot flight report] from the guy in front of us.

      FIRST OFFICER: Yep, [the storm is] laying right there this side of the airport, isn’t it?

      CAPTAIN: Well.

      FIRST OFFICER: The edge of the rain is, I’d say…

      CAPTAIN: Yeah.

      TOWER: USAir 1016, company FK100 just exited the runway, sir; he said smooth ride.

      TOWER: USAir 1016, wind is showing 100 at 19.

      FIRST OFFICER: One hundred at 19, eh?

      TOWER: USAir 1016, wind now 110 at 21.

      CAPTAIN: Stay heads up.

      TOWER: Wind-shear alert, north-east boundary winds 190 at 13. Carolina 5211, Charlotte Tower, runway 18R, cleared to land, wind 100 at 20. Wind-shear alert, north-east boundary wind 190 at 17. USAir 806, you want to just sit tight for a minute, sir?

      US806: СКАЧАТЬ