Investigators confirm that tail of cargo jet hit runway before crash
Steve Macleod
Canadian Press
October 16, 2004
HALIFAX -- A Boeing 747 was barely airborne when it rocketed off the end of a runway, broke its back on an earthen mound, then careened out of control into thick woods and brush.
Investigators working in scorched wreckage and driving rain began Friday to reconstruct the final, harrowing seconds of the doomed flight of the MK Airlines Ltd. cargo plane. What they've already learned is that the tail of the wide-body jet struck the runway twice during takeoff early Thursday, then broke off after hitting a mound, or berm, topped by an antenna.
All seven crewmen were killed in the crash at Halifax International Airport.
"The indication is there was prolonged contact of the aft fuselage on and off the runway," said Bill Fowler, a spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
"The aircraft was barely airborne. The scrape trail disappears just before the berm."
The preliminary finding supports an eyewitness account of the crash - the fourth by the Britain-and Ghana-based airline in 12 years.
An airport worker recounted seeing a rooster-tail of sparks trailing the wide-body plane as the pilot tried desperately to lift off.
Fowler said the tail struck the runway for the first time about 250 metres from the end of the 2,700-metre runway, then again with about 170 metres to go.
About 300 metres beyond the end of the strip, the tail struck the berm and sheered off, sealing the fate of everyone on board.
"That is what caused the tail to break away from the rest of the airplane," said Fowler, one of 25 TSB investigators on the scene.
The rest of the plane hurtled into the brush, carving a wide V-shaped swath before coming to rest in pieces about a kilometre from the tail.
"The main part of the fuselage continued . . . ballistically until the final impact point," he said.
Investigators are also examining whether or not the plane took off from the wrong spot.
An airport maintenance worker said the plane taxied on to the runway about 700 metres from its top and suggested it didn't have enough room to take off safely.
Fowler said it's too early to determine if "there was an early takeoff point - that is, substantially early."
Four British nationals, two Zimbabweans and a German died in the crash.
The dead Britons were Capt. Michael Thornycroft, a resident of South Africa; as well as Capt. David Lamb and flight engineers Peter Launder and Steve Hooper, all residents of Zimbabwe.
Also killed were ground engineer Mario Zahn, a German who lived in South Africa; and loadmaster Chris Strydom and First Officer Gary Keogh, both of Zimbabwe.
"I knew all of them personally," said a sombre John Power, operations manager for MK Airlines.
The Boeing 747-200, which was loaded with fuel for a flight to Spain, crashed shortly before 4 a.m. local time near an industrial park and quarry about 30 kilometres north of Halifax.
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