SWA off rwy at Nashville

[JanetFlight]

It seems without bad injuries, but missing confirmation...

https://www.rt.com/usa/326056-southwest-airlines-plane-crash-nashville/

[peekay4]

Per Southwest, Flight 31 exited a taxiway (not runway) after landing, on the way to the gate.

Statement below:
At approximately 5:20pm local time, Southwest Airlines flight 31 from Houston Hobby Airport to Nashville International Airport exited the taxiway shortly after arriving into Nashville, as the airplane was approaching the arrival gate. The 133 passengers and five Crewmembers were safely evacuated from the plane and bussed into the airport, our Employees are currently working to support their needs. We are coordinating with local airport officials and responding agencies. The Safety of our Customers and Employees remains our primary focus.

[ZFT]

Umm. Maybe some PR spin on that? Flaps still seem to be fully extended and location looks quite remote. Maybe completely wrong of course!

[pattern_is_full]

The Tennessean newspaper reports the aicraft slid off taxiway T4, which connects the SW (irony?) corner of the ramp to the hold areas for 20C, and then parallels 20C/02C on the east side.

There is a drainage sump, and even a creek (or crik, as they say in Tennessee - Sims Branch) along that taxiway near the ramp. Check google satellite imagery.

[Edit - also a ditch/depression where the Murfreesboro Pike highway tunnels under T4, S, and runway 02C/20C, further south]

Plane skids into ditch at Nashville International Airport, 8 injured (http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2015/12/15/plane-skids-off-runway-nashville-international-airport/77389096/)


https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nashville+International+Airport/@36.1304523,-86.6751453,1191m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xaaf78a5d943ea27b!6m1!1e1 (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nashville+International+Airport/@36.1317608,-86.6733858,1191m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xaaf78a5d943ea27b!6m1!1e1)

[pattern_is_full]

Image that tends to confirm T4 taxiway (locator sign at far right under wing) with (unintelligible - <13? <2? <T3?) directional arrow.

Sunset in background, so aircraft facing NE or E.

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/aviation/sky-talk-blog/fxbw9g/picture49951455/ALTERNATES/FREE_640/southwest%20airlines%20nashvill

EDIT - another story mentions "near the C Concourse". Could be T4 between J and the ramp. Sign would then be <J|T4|

Sorry, I know it is a minor event, but my inner Sherlock is working overtime tonight.

[Airbubba]

Image that tends to confirm T4 taxiway (locator sign at far right under wing) with (unintelligible - <13? <2? <T3?) directional arrow.

From the signage in the picture it looks to me like they went off the right side of taxiway T4 inbound to the ramp just past the intersection with J.

Umm. Maybe some PR spin on that? Flaps still seem to be fully extended and location looks quite remote. Maybe completely wrong of course!

If it's where I think it is, the ramp is near and pax could walk to the terminal if allowed and able.

I would think that the flaps would normally be raised by the time you were that near the ramp unless it was a very short (or fast) taxi. One of the news accounts said they landed on runway 13, that would indeed be a short taxi, looks like plenty of runway to make the turnoff for a short flight from HOU.

In past incidents that I can remember loss of directional control taxiing in has been caused in some cases by shutting down an engine and losing hydraulics when some valve or relay sticks or a switch is out of position.

I've never flown the '73. Is this a -300 with CFM's from the shape of the engines?

[boeingboy737]

flaps down as part of the evac checklist wait till the report comes out please

[peekay4]

T4 and J it is... video:

https://twitter.com/arokestay/status/676915599155568645

N649SW, 737-3H4, MSN 27719:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/org.barkah.misc/ap_N649SW.jpg
(AP/ ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/US/injured-southwest-airlines-flight-rolls-off-taxiway/story?id=35790666))

[readywhenreaching]

dont know if this is accurate..
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CWVj4SuXAAAQecw.png
found on twitter (https://twitter.com/blackbo89761234/status/677057138741637120)

[Airbubba]

dont know if this is accurate..

It's the right area, the red circle should be nudged even closer to the ramp in that short segment between J and the ramp. I think they went off to the right in that little brown grass drainage ditch.

Here's the Southwest media statement from last night:

Statement Regarding Flight #31

Southwest Airlines continues to work with officials related to Flight 31 today from Houston Hobby Airport to Nashville International Airport.

December 15, 2015

Southwest Airlines continues to work with officials related to Flight 31 today from Houston Hobby Airport to Nashville International Airport.

At approximately 5:20pm local time, the plane exited the taxiway shortly after arriving into Nashville, as the airplane was approaching the arrival gate. The 133 passengers and five Crewmembers were safely evacuated from the plane and bussed into the airport.

Local EMS paramedics were on site to check Customers and reports indicate that eight passengers were transported to a local hospital; four have been evaluated and released. We do not have a status on passenger injuries but our Employees have remained onsite to support their needs. For the majority of the Customers onboard the flight, Nashville was their final destination.

The remaining passengers were accommodated in hotels or transported to their final destination on an alternate aircraft. We received the required clearance from authorities to remove both checked and carryon luggage from the aircraft, and are working diligently to reunite customers with their items tonight and tomorrow.

The necessary recovery crews are arriving onsite and we will work overnight to move the aircraft.

The Safety of our Customers and Employees remains our primary focus.

# # #

[EEngr]

At approximately 5:20pm local time, the plane exited the taxiwayCustomers and reports indicate that eight passengers were transported to a local hospital;Just wondering out loud here. How many of these were standing up to grab luggage out of the overhead bins when the plane hit the ditch? :hmm:

[hoss183]

Indeed, there's good reason to obey the seat-belt sign. It never fails to puzzle me folk do that to save no time at all in the end.

[peekay4]

Just wondering out loud here. How many of these were standing up to grab luggage out of the overhead bins when the plane hit the ditch?
Zero.

From what I heard a few (older) passengers got minor bumps and bruises during the incident, and others were injured during the emergency evacuation.

[tdracer]

Having flown on Southwest a few times, the flight attendants are pretty good about preventing people getting up before they are at the gate - usually some semi-joking instruction of 'no-no-no' or 'not yet' that. Good natured but gets the point across.

[Halfnut]

Taxiway diagram -

http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1513/00282AD.PDF

Rumor is they landed 20R and went B to T3 and wound up in the ditch at T4 & Juliet.

At the link below scroll down to "RAW: Surveillance video of plane" to see the accident (I wish they had not edited it) -

Southwest plane goes off taxiway after landing in Nashville | WKRN News 2 (http://wkrn.com/2015/12/15/southwest-plane-slides-off-runway-at-nashville-airport/)

[Semaphore Sam]

Overdue with this company's taxi history, no?

[Airbubba]

Rumor is they landed 20R and went B to T3 and wound up in the ditch at T4 & Juliet.

That makes more sense than the news report I mentioned earlier that they landed on 13. Also, the FlightAware plot looks like they are lined up on 20R.

Overdue with this company's taxi history, no?

Like all U.S. carriers these days, Southwest has a great safety record. And those folks probably make more landings in a month than I make in a year.

But, they often taxi a lot faster than I do. :eek:

Reminds me of the original Piedmont Airlines.

[Airbubba]

wait till the report comes out please

Might be a while...

NTSB takes over Nashville Southwest wreck investigation

Natalie Neysa Alund
9:47 a.m. CST December 18, 2015

The National Transportation Safety Board will now head the investigation into what caused a Southwest plane to wreck injuring nine passengers during taxi at the Nashville International Airport, a spokesman for the federal agency said Friday morning.

The NTSB on Thursday determined Southwest Flight 31, a Boeing 737 that carried 139 people and slid off the runway into a ditch during taxi this week, sustained enough damage for its investigators to determine what caused the accident, NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said.

The FAA, who initially led the investigation, will assist, Weiss said. Southwest will likely also be a party in the investigation which authorities said could take up to a year to complete.

A preliminary report into what caused the Tuesday evening wreck will likely not be released, he said.

NTSB takes over Nashville Southwest wreck investigation (http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2015/12/18/ntsb-takes-over-nashville-southwest-wreck-investigation/77550708/)

[costalpilot]

"emergency evacuation" really?
whats the emergency?

[JammedStab]

Slid off the runway? It is a bit difficult to tell with the video but does it look like they taxied off or slid off? Not sure if the video is in real time, so does it look like they were taxiing a bit fast?

It was a long time ago but once upon a time, I did head toward a dark area while aiming for a couple of further away taxi lights and only intervention from the instructor saved my ass. Of course most experienced guys know to follow the centerline of the taxiway but I'm sure the investigators will at least ask if that scenario was a possible cause among the many other possible causes.

[27/09]

So........did it slide off a taxiway or a runway, or did it just miss a turn and end up on the grass?

From the diagram in post 9 it doesn't look like it's slid off the runway at all.

[pattern_is_full]

Nothing to do with a runway - journos just think any pavement at an airport is "runway." :ugh:

From the surveillance video - even with bits edited out - it does look like they were fooled by the doubled-up parallel taxiways into turning too soon onto what they thought was ramp, but was a second strip of grass. That is also a 2-meter hole in the ground!

But nothing (yet) rules out a wind gust or sudden tiller problem.

In this picture: https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3071/2561700530_34e02b9686.jpg

...the accident occured lower right, where the medium-gray taxiway meets the lighter ramp pavement. The fact that the "ramp"-colored pavement extends down the taxiway a little way could have contributed to confusion as to where the edge was - at dusk, and with a brightly-lit terminal in the background to suppress night vision.

I'll be interested to see what the final report says.

[JammedStab]

Taxiway lighting problem at least in part. I suppose one could stop if they cant see where to go. And if you do decide to continue.....follow a yellow line, any yellow line religiously and fairly slowly. It probably won't go into the grass.

"Lights-Out Error Instigated Southwest Accident

WASHINGTON—Taxiway lights inadvertently turned off by an air traffic controller were a key factor in a December 2015 excursion of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300 at the Nashville International Airport.

The pilots, partially blinded by terminal lights and without the guidance of taxiway centerline and edge lights, exited the pavement during a turn toward the terminal, and came to rest in a drainage ditch, collapsing the nose wheel, and damaging the fuselage and engines.

Contributing to the accident was a screen saver function on the touch-screen lighting-control panels in the air traffic control tower, which timed out and went blank after approximately 5 min. of inactivity. The blank screen prevented “the tower controllers from having an immediate visual reference to the status of the airfield lighting,” the NTSB said in its final report on the accident.

Nine of 138 passengers and crew on board the flight from Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport were injured during the evacuation in Nashville using escape slides, a process that was complicated by the blaring of a “gear unsafe” alarm in the cockpit. The NTSB said the horn “could not be silenced without disabling a circuit breaker or running a checklist procedure for an unrelated scenario.”

Due to the distraction caused by the alarm, the pilots did not communicate with flight attendants in the minutes after the excursion. According to the NTSB, flight attendants saw passengers “getting out of their seats” and “moving around the cabin,” and were unable to contact the pilots through the flight deck through the interphone (it was not powered) or knocking on the door, before starting the evacuation.

The evacuation was relatively orderly. However, the flight attendants noted in their written post-incident statements that some passengers took their purses, laptops, backpacks—and, in one case, a hanging clothes bag—down the escape slide.
Investigators found that controllers at the airport routinely shut off the taxiway centerline lights in the areas where the excursion took place, due to complaints from pilots about the brightness of the quartz-halogen bulbs. Controllers shut down the lights on the night of the incident, even though there had been no requests from pilots to do so.

About 30 min. before the accident, the controller-in-charge turned off the centerline lights, but also mistakenly turned off the taxiway edge lights in the area. Due to the screen saver function, controllers were then not aware of the status of the lights when the Southwest flight was taxiing to the gate.

Controllers told the NTSB that complaints about the centerline lights were a “common occurrence.” However, the NTSB found that the airport operator was not aware of the problem, and a review of the FAA’s air traffic safety action program database (a voluntary, non-punitive safety reporting system for controllers) revealed only one complaint.

“Neither the (air traffic control) staff nor airport operations personnel were aware that the centerline taxiway lights were quartz-halogen,” the NTSB said in the final report. “The fact that quartz-halogen lights were installed on the taxiway centerlines was provided by the airfield electrician during the group’s visit to the airfield lighting vaults.”

The NTSB did not issue any recommendations with the report.

https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20151216X41606&ntsbno=DCA16LA032&akey=1

[Murexway]

OK... this is hindsight, but there's always something to learn from the misfortune of others.

#1: If you can't see, STOP. Don't plow on, swinging the nose to and fro trying to sniff out a dark taxiway. #2: If the taxi light isn't cutting it, turn those big, beautiful landing lights back on. #3: Taxiways are usually lit after dark. If yours isn't, refer to #1, and ask ground control why not. Doesn't matter how familiar you are with the airport.

It's so easy after the fact, isn't it ;)

[framer]

It is a good reminder of all the points you just made.
On a broader note, we are starting to see a fair few incidents where 'modern technology' plays a role. Ie this screen saver and many other cases of OPT input or output errors that wouldn't happen with a book, phone and tablet battery fires, JeppFD-Pro timing out while on approach and probably many more. I am pro change and pro technology but I think we have to be pretty careful we don't get too relaxed about this sort of stuff and realise there are now holes in the cheese that only programmers could foresee.