Originally Posted by
Concours77
Have you tried 'Failure Analysis' in Menlo Park, California? They might be of some help in (forensic) animation? PM me for contact info on a P-3 Navy Pilot.
Was whirl mode (investigation or AD) in play at the time of the crash?
PM sent.
Whirl mode was brought up in passing, but never seriously considered. The more curious question has to do with airspeed and height. The official reports say the plane was "somewhat low" or words to that effect, but when it passed the tower it was about half the normal height. It was only doing about 165 knots when it hit and should have been doing 225 if I recall right.
There was extensive investigator discussion of engine failure as a cause as reported in the papers, but then in the official reports there is not a word about the low and slow path. My simulation says that just a little more speed would have saved them, and the official report concludes that they were too low to effect recovery, but there's no hypothesis given to explain the flight path.