DC8 Accident Information sought

[EGBKFLYER]

Just come out of a Health & Safety course (not aviation-related). The speaker used an example concerning a DC8 (possibly Canadian) that crashed due to an in-flight spoiler? deployment. Apparently, the solution was to placard the lever 'do not pull in flight'. It didn't do much good - another 2 crashes (one in RussiaI think). Eventually, the lever was interlocked with the WOW switch.

I've read a lot of accident books but never heard of this one - anyone know where I can find out more?

[av8boy]

Yup. There's a number of them. The one you're probably thinking about was the "Sorry, Pete" accident in Toronto, July 7, 1970.

Unofficial recap (not my writing/spelling though): "Operating on flight AC 621 from Montreal, the DC-8 was on final approach to runway 32 at Toronto Int´l in good , clear weather when at around 60 ft., when the copilot inadvertently activated the ground spoilers. Immediately the aircraft lost height and hit the runway with an excessive rate of descend. Engine #4 seperated and #4 fuel tank was punktured. Bouncing off again, the pilots initiated a go-around and climbed back to 3.000 ft. Three minutes later, leaking fuel from tank #4 ignited on severed wires when engine #4 broke away ignited and the DC-8 was rocked by three explosions that caused seperation of engine #3 and more than half of the right outer wing. The aircraft became untronctrollable and crashed into a field 5 NM north of the airport. There were no survivors. Investigators blamed both the copilot and the design of the groud spoiler mechanism."

CVR transcript is at http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cvr700705.htm Beware. Every time I read it it just tears my heart out. Kind of reminds me of every foolish thing I've ever done becasue I was not paying attention or stupid or angry, and then immediately regretted, not having the power to undo it. Seems to me that this guy made an honest mistake and then knew that they were all going to die because of it. There but for the grace of God...

There are, of course, others... Loftleidir Icelandic Airlines DC8-61 JFK June 23, 1973 http://amelia.db.erau.edu/reports/ntsb/aar/AAR73-20.pdf, and JAL (Moscow to Tokyo-Haneda. It was reported that an engine on the left side of the aircraft failed before the crash. The cause was not officialy determined but it was presumed that either an inadvertent deployment of the ground spoiler or engine icing lead to the accident. ) come to mind...

I await 411A's input. I honestly do!

Dave

[EGBKFLYER]

Thanks very much for that. We were discussing the need to take human error into account when thinking about machine interlocking - this was obviously an excellent example... Amazing also that it took several accidents before they did anything more than placard the lever. May as well have put a 'do not crash this aircraft sign on it!' Always interested in these things - as you say there but for the grace of God...

[GlueBall]

EGBKFLYER: I don't know what a WOW switch is, but Douglas had made an interlock modification to preclude spoiler deployment in the air; however, if the airplane were to sense a "ground logic" mode in flight (nose strut groundshift failure) it would still be possible to defeat the interlock. The point is that airplanes can never be made "fullproof."

The AA 757 that had rashed at Buga, near Cali, Colombia, had a similar encounter: Speed brakes were left extended during a max power pull-up maneuver. If the speed brakes had been retracted, or somehow had been designed to retract automatically with full forward throttle movement, then the airplane would have cleared the mountain top. :{

[EGBKFLYER]

Sorry - WOW = Weight on Wheels (i.e. squat switch). You're right - I doubt things will ever be foolproof but we should certainly be aiming to reduce risks to an acceptable level in a reasonable timescale...

[av8boy]

Brains. Can't live with 'em. Can't live without 'em.

Not that it begins to reach the magnitude of the DC8 events here, but thinking about placards and interlocks and the like put me in mind of an old flight instructor friend of mine.

My friend was giving the new owner of a used BE58 some dual. They landed, and while rolling-out on the runway, the owner/student reached out to retract the flaps. Lori slapped his hand, said, essentially, "not yet. No need to add another task at this time if that task can wait. Let's get off the runway first." Then she left her hand out for a moment. The owner grabbed her hand and physically moved it. Then he reached out and, yup... raised the gear. The aircraft settled right on the centerline.

Although I was not onboard and therefore cannot vouch for the hand-slapping, I WAS the guy who cleared them to land and CAN vouch for the fact that the aircraft was removed by a crane. I have a picture somewhere of Lori sitting on the wing waiting for the FAA inspector and crane to arrive, her face in her hands.

Dave

[Shore Guy]

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20020219X00231&key=1

:eek: :eek: :eek:

[CD]

Here's a link to the accident report:

The Board of Inquiry into the accident at Malton, Ontario, to Air Canada DC8 CF-TIW (http://avsaf.org/reports/CANADA/1970.07.05_AirCanada_McDonnellDouglasDC-8-63.pdf)