Yesterday, I decided to watch the show because it was about a plane crash that I was familiar with. The Captain, although he flew for Continental, was a friend of mine. Back in 1987, his flight on a DC-9 took off in the snow from Denver. The plane never got airborne. The NTSB put the blame of the crash on the pilot who was flying, which was the First Officer (F/O). Twenty-eight of the eighty-four passengers were killed, including the Captain, F/O and one F/A.
In my opinion, although the main responsibility of the crash was put on the F/O’s mistakes, there were other mistakes as well. Poor plowing, absent-minded traffic controller and bad judgment on the part of the Captain were all part of the ingredients in this accident. I kept shaking my head as I watched this show and my wife noticed this and said she didn’t know why I watched these shows because I always get upset.
The one thing that I want people to understand is that every airplane accident has never been just one reason why the accident occurred. There is and always has been more than one reason for every accident. Pilot error may be part of an accident, but there has always been other reasons included as to why an accident occurs.
In this accident, the “main” reason this accident occurred was due to pilot error. The F/O had a less than a satisfactory flying record and should not have been piloting this plane under the circumstances. He over-rotated the nose. IOW, he took off at too steep of an angle. After being deiced, he had 20 minutes to takeoff. Instead, he waited 27 minutes to takeoff because the absent-minded traffic controller had forgotten about his plane being inline for takeoff. So, now because he waited so long to takeoff, the wings started to become contaminated with ice. Then, to complicate matters, the F/O takes off at a 6 degrees rate, instead of using only 3 degrees, so that he would have more airflow over the wings. Why the Captain, who had much more experience with flying didn’t catch this, I don’t know. But, these types of errors really upset and irritate me. They just shouldn’t happen and are 100% preventable. No one should have lost their life in this accident.
Most of you that read this post may not understand what I was saying, but I just had to get this out of my system.
In my opinion, although the main responsibility of the crash was put on the F/O’s mistakes, there were other mistakes as well. Poor plowing, absent-minded traffic controller and bad judgment on the part of the Captain were all part of the ingredients in this accident. I kept shaking my head as I watched this show and my wife noticed this and said she didn’t know why I watched these shows because I always get upset.
The one thing that I want people to understand is that every airplane accident has never been just one reason why the accident occurred. There is and always has been more than one reason for every accident. Pilot error may be part of an accident, but there has always been other reasons included as to why an accident occurs.
In this accident, the “main” reason this accident occurred was due to pilot error. The F/O had a less than a satisfactory flying record and should not have been piloting this plane under the circumstances. He over-rotated the nose. IOW, he took off at too steep of an angle. After being deiced, he had 20 minutes to takeoff. Instead, he waited 27 minutes to takeoff because the absent-minded traffic controller had forgotten about his plane being inline for takeoff. So, now because he waited so long to takeoff, the wings started to become contaminated with ice. Then, to complicate matters, the F/O takes off at a 6 degrees rate, instead of using only 3 degrees, so that he would have more airflow over the wings. Why the Captain, who had much more experience with flying didn’t catch this, I don’t know. But, these types of errors really upset and irritate me. They just shouldn’t happen and are 100% preventable. No one should have lost their life in this accident.
Most of you that read this post may not understand what I was saying, but I just had to get this out of my system.