I just finished reading that account of the Continental Airlines rescue flight, picking up the 24 US crew and bringing them back to Guam.
The part that interests me has always been the technical one, refering to the P3 itself, and the way it was operated, since I have a very long background in P3s.
The article says, in part, that the P3s #1 prop was initially hit by the vertical stab of the F8 and badly damaged, I assume that it was then feathered by the FE with no further problems, although nothing I have read has actually said that. (and, I notice, the #1 prop is unfeathered in the photo!)
Then the F8, or parts from it, struck the nose radome, tearing it from itīs latches and falling into the sea. I also noticed that there is a fairly deep external skin dent just forward of the LH pilots forward windshield.
Also, the Captain remembers in the article, parts of the radome hit the #4 prop, although thatīs a long way laterally from the nose, the P3 must have been in a fairly noticeable yaw at the time as a result of the #1 prop strike, but has not said that the #4 was shutdown, as a result.
The next part was interesting, he said that the aircraft depressurized at that time, which would have been no real problem in itself, but curious, since only the two inboard engines supply pressurized air for the aircon/press., from an EngineDrivenCompressor mounted on the reduction gearbox of each, and the system can run OK from either one. My only deduction from this is that one of the inboard leading edges, inbd. of either one of the inbd. engines, was also hit by flying debris, since that is the only place the pressure system is capable of being damaged without the FE being able to control it.
Both the EDC shutoff valves are in the outbd end of the inbd leading edge, right next to the the engine nacelle, so disconnecting or dumping the EDC involved wouldnīt solve the problem, and both the aircon packs are running all the time inflt., only way to stop them is to dump or discon. the relavent EDC, so reverse flow of the pressurized air in the cabin will happen in this case, although quite fast, not explosively!
Even though all his altitude and airspeed indications were rendered inoperative by the collision, and also his Angle of attack indication would have been made unusuable by
the turbulent airflow over the detector near the nose, adjacent to the APU exhaust door, he still had at least two INS aboard, and together with the GPS I know he would have had, he should have had speed and altitude indication.
Finally, I donīt agree at all that a ditching would have resulted in crew deaths.
The #2 prop is the only danger to a successfull ditching, it comes off and tries to get in the cabin, once itīs feathered on approach to the ditching, it,s totally suviveable.
He should never have even considered a landing in Chinese territory, and headed for the Phillipines, to ditch next to the first ship found on the way, or the extent of his fuel range, the P3 can fly quite acceptably on two engines, and does quite often in normal operations!
Cheers!