Turbine Caribou Crash (1992)

[petitfromage]

Do any of you wise gents/ladies know the background to this crash? Circa 1992

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/oldplanecrash.html

[PaperTiger]

August 1992, Gimli Manitoba Canada.

The Caribou had been converted from piston to turboprop power and was taking off for a test flight.

In its synopsis of the accident, the Transportation Safety Board concluded that the control gust lock system had not been fully disengaged prior to flight and that one or more of the locking pins had become re-engaged after lift-off.

[VP8]

Try This link

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=187747

[ansonmk1]

Greetings:

One of the pilots was a fellow named Mike Quirk, either he or Perry Niforos was the command pilot. Perry's father owned the outfit.
The sad part of the story is that both pilots at least where highly experienced on the type. I for one find it difficult to accept that they messed up on the release action of the gust lock mounted in the overhead throttle quadrant area. It wasnt that easy,but there was a positive indication that it was disengaged, since it took positive action to release it.
Mike for one had hundreds and hundreds of hours on CV-7A's (Caribou's) from Vietnam and after that affair again in the Marshall Islands for a US quasi military logistical operation to flying Inter Ocean's Caribou's in Mozambique. There are obvious heavy differences between the P&W R2000 engine controls and the turbines, and its very possible that some of the new installed "suitable system of levers" may have encrouched upon, or been routed to within the gust lock assembly.
The new turbo Caribou is now available, and a fine looking piece of equipment it is.
Mike wore a neck chain with a near perfect polished 12.7 bullet hung on it. Said piece of metal with some cousins having taken out his left engine, main wheel tyre (left outer) and the fire warning system on his first flight with IOA out of Beira, a good few years ago, with four tons of maize seed on board. The resulting dead straight line of green maize after some three months, ran for five or so miles as the blokes on board had heaved everything overboard in record time and eventually made it back to Beira and a successful landing.