Accident | |
---|---|
Date | July 11, 1961 |
Summary | Mechanical failure combined with pilot error |
Site | Denver, Colorado |
Total fatalities | 18 |
Total injuries | 84 |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Douglas DC-8-12 |
Operator | United Airlines |
Registration | N8040U |
Flight origin | Omaha-Eppley Airfield, Nebraska |
Destination | Denver-Stapleton International Airport, Colorado |
Passengers | 115 |
Crew | 7 |
Fatalities | 17 |
Injuries | 84 |
Survivors | 105 |
Ground casualties | |
Ground fatalities | 1 |
United Airlines Flight 859 was a Douglas DC-8, registration N8040U [1] , on a scheduled passenger flight that crashed on landing at Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado after departing from Omaha, Nebraska's Eppley Airfield on July 11, 1961. Eighteen people were killed, and 84 were injured.
The crash was caused by the failure of the two port engines to generate reverse thrust, which sent the aircraft off the runway. One of the plane's fuel tanks subsequently ruptured and ignited.
The aircraft had suffered a hydraulic failure while en route from Omaha. The failure was not thought serious, however; the crew followed the checklists for hydraulic failure, and preparation was made for an expected routine landing. The plane touched down normally, but when the engines' thrust levers were moved to the reverse position, the reverser buckets for the engines on the port side failed to deploy correctly. [2] That failure caused the left-side engines to continue generating forward thrust, while the right-side engines generated reverse thrust.
The plane immediately began to veer to the right as a result of the asymmetrical thrust. All tires blew out on the right main landing gear, after which the plane left the runway and hit a taxiway still under construction. The nose gear collapsed, and the airplane then slammed into several airport vehicles, including construction equipment. This ruptured a fuel tank on the right wing and caught fire, killing 18 (including one on the ground) and injuring 84 out of a total of 122 people aboard.
Carbon monoxide poisoning was the cause of death for 16 of the passengers, who were unable to evacuate. One elderly woman broke both ankles during the evacuation, and later died from shock. [3]
The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) report stated that a contributing factor to the accident was the failure of the first officer to monitor the reverse thrust indicator lights when he applied reverse thrust. [4]
The airport fire department was found to be deficient in its emergency equipment, but the fire crews were praised for their efforts.
United Airlines Flight 232 was a regularly scheduled United Airlines flight from Stapleton International Airport in Denver to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, continuing to Philadelphia International Airport. On July 19, 1989, the DC-10 serving the flight crash-landed at Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City, Iowa, after suffering a catastrophic failure of its tail-mounted engine due to an unnoticed manufacturing defect in the engine's fan disk, which resulted in the loss of all flight controls. Of the 296 passengers and crew on board, 112 died during the accident, while 184 people survived. Thirteen of the passengers were uninjured. It was the deadliest single-aircraft accident in the history of United Airlines.
In aeronautics, a spoiler is a device which intentionally reduces the lift component of an airfoil in a controlled way. Most often, spoilers are plates on the top surface of a wing that can be extended upward into the airflow to spoil the streamline flow. By so doing, the spoiler creates a controlled stall over the portion of the wing behind it, greatly reducing the lift of that wing section. Spoilers differ from airbrakes in that airbrakes are designed to increase drag without disrupting the lift distribution across the wing span, while spoilers disrupt the lift distribution as well as increasing drag.
Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 was a scheduled passenger flight from Baltimore, Maryland, to Chicago, Illinois, continuing on to Salt Lake City, Utah, and then to Las Vegas, Nevada. On December 8, 2005, the airplane slid off a runway at Midway Airport in Chicago while landing in a snowstorm and crashed into automobile traffic, killing a six-year-old boy.
United Airlines Flight 227 (N7030U), a scheduled passenger flight from LaGuardia Airport New York City to San Francisco International Airport, California, crashed short of the runway while attempting a scheduled landing at Salt Lake City International Airport, Utah, on Thursday, November 11, 1965.
Jackson County Airport, also known as Reynolds Field, is a county-owned, public-use airport located two nautical miles (3.7 km) west of the central business district of Jackson, in Jackson County, Michigan, United States. It is a class D airport with operating control tower. It is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a regional general aviation facility.
S7 Airlines Flight 778(S7778/SBI778) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Moscow to Irkutsk, Russia. On 9 July 2006, at 06:44 local time, the Airbus A310-324 aircraft operating the route overran the runway during its landing in Irkutsk. The aircraft failed to stop and crashed through the airport's concrete perimeter fence, struck rows of private garages and burst into flames, killing 125 people.
TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402 was a scheduled domestic flight from Caxias do Sul, Brazil, to Recife International Airport in Recife, via São Paulo–Congonhas International Airport and Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro. On 31 October 1996, at 8:27 (UTC-2), the starboard engine of the Fokker 100 operating the route reversed thrust while the aircraft was climbing away from the runway at Congonhas. The aircraft stalled and rolled beyond control to the right, then struck two buildings and crashed into several houses in a heavily populated area only 25 seconds after takeoff. All 95 people on board were killed, as well as another 4 on the ground. It is the fourth deadliest accident in Brazilian aviation history, the second at the time. It is also the deadliest aviation accident involving a Fokker 100.
TAM Airlines Flight 3054 (JJ3054/TAM3054) was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by TAM Airlines from Porto Alegre to São Paulo, Brazil. On the evening of July 17, 2007, the Airbus A320-233 serving the flight overran runway 35L at São Paulo after touching down during moderate rain and crashed into a nearby TAM Express warehouse adjacent to a Shell gas station. The plane exploded on impact, killing all 187 passengers and crew on board, as well as 12 people on the ground. An additional 27 people in the warehouse were injured. The accident surpassed Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 as the deadliest aviation accident in Brazilian territory and in South American history and was the deadliest involving the Airbus A320 series until the bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268 in 2015, which killed 224.
FedEx Express Flight 14 was a scheduled cargo flight from Singapore to Newark, New Jersey, via Malaysia, Taiwan, and Alaska. On July 31, 1997, the aircraft flying this route crashed during landing on its final segment at Newark International Airport (EWR), inverting and catching fire, injuring all five people on board.
On 11 February 1978, Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314, a Boeing 737-200, crashed at Cranbrook/Canadian Rockies International Airport, near Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada, killing 43 of the 49 people on board.
Trans World Airlines Flight 800 was an international scheduled passenger service from Kansas City, Missouri to Cairo, Egypt via Chicago, New York City, Paris, Milan, Rome, and Athens. The Boeing 707 caught fire following a rejected take off on runway 25 at Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport, Rome at 13:09 GMT on a flight to Athens International Airport, Greece on November 23, 1964.
Throughout a normal flight, a pilot controls an aircraft through the use of flight controls including maintaining straight and level flight, as well as turns, climbing, and descending. Some controls, such as a "yoke" or "stick" move and adjust the control surfaces which affects the aircraft's attitude in the three axes of pitch, roll, and yaw. Other controls include those for adjusting wing characteristics and those that control the power or thrust of the propulsion systems. The loss of primary control systems in any phase of flight is an emergency. Aircraft are not designed to be flown under such circumstances; however, some pilots faced with such an emergency have had limited success flying and landing aircraft with disabled controls.
On April 4, 1955, a United Airlines Douglas DC-6 named Mainliner Idaho crashed shortly after taking off from Long Island MacArthur Airport, in Ronkonkoma, Islip, New York, United States.
In aeronautics, loss of control (LOC) is the unintended departure of an aircraft from controlled flight and is a significant factor in several aviation accidents worldwide. In 2015 it was the leading cause of general aviation accidents. Loss of control may be the result of mechanical failure, external disturbances, aircraft upset conditions, or inappropriate crew actions or responses.
Air Vanuatu Flight 241 was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight between Whitegrass Airport, Tanna and Bauerfield International Airport, Port Vila, Vanuatu. The aircraft primarily involved was an Air Vanuatu ART-72-500, registered with the call sign YJ-AV71.
Fly Jamaica Airways Flight 256 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Guyana to Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada. On 9 November 2018, the Boeing 757 aircraft serving the flight suffered a hydraulic failure, forcing its return and resulting in a runway excursion on landing. This caused significant damage to the aircraft and one passenger fatality.
On 13 November 2020, Volga-Dnepr Airlines Flight 4066 suffered an uncontained engine failure on take-off from Tolmachevo Airport, Novosibirsk, Russia for Vienna International Airport, Vienna, Austria. The aircraft was severely damaged, and was further damaged when it overran the runway on landing at Tolmachevo airport. The investigation into the accident is currently ongoing.
Overseas National Airways (ONA) Flight 032 was a non-scheduled positioning flight operated by Overseas National Airways with a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30CF. On November 12, 1975, the flight crew initiated a rejected takeoff after accelerating through a large flock of gulls at John F. Kennedy International Airport, resulting in a runway excursion. Of the 139 aircraft occupants, all survived, while the aircraft was destroyed by an intense post-crash fire. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the probable cause of the accident was bird ingestion into the right-hand engine, causing an uncontained engine failure that ruptured several landing gear tires and disabled the engine's hydraulic system, in turn partially disabling the spoilers and the landing gear brakes. Contributing to the accident was the resultant failure of the affected engine's thrust reverser and the wet runway. The accident aircraft is claimed to be the largest commercial airliner ever destroyed due to a bird strike.
DHL de Guatemala Flight 7216 was an international cargo flight between Costa Rica's Juan Santamaría International Airport and Guatemala City's La Aurora International Airport. On 7 April 2022, the Boeing 757 operating the flight suffered a hydraulic failure, and crashed on landing at the Costa Rican airport. Neither of the two pilots were injured.