PPRuNe Forums - US Air PHL

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I'm reading on Twitter than US Air plane crashed at PHL...

Witness Account:

Quote:

Sitting in the A-West lounge, just watched what I think was a US A319 bounce twice on takeoff from 27L, then have front gear collapse at high speed. Can't see where it stopped but smoke from the west end of 27L. Will update as I see more.

Update 6:28pm, listening to tower in LiveATC.net ... aircraft evacuating, emergency vehicles en route, people walking around near aircraft.

Update 6:30pm - emergency vehicles told to take care due to # of people walking around, probably thinking of the Asiana SFO incident where someone was run over. All PHL departures and arrivals halted airport at "alert 2" status per tower.

Update 6:40pm - no more smoke from the area of where the aircraft likely stopped. I'm still shaking and I was only watching from afar. Will type up my recollection shortly. No pics and can't see where it wound up from the west end of the A-West lounge. Hope everyone's getting out OK, would have been some pretty strong G-forces from what I saw.

Update 6:50pm - tower reports A320 aircraft involved.

Here's what I saw ... at approx 6:26 pm or so, I was in the US Airways Club in Terminal A-West over gate A15, able to see roughly the eastern half of runway 27L. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a plane get 30-50 ft in the air, then come down and bounce on the runway, then be airborne for another 2-3 seconds, then land with more weight towards the front landing gear. Front gear collapsed, sparks on the runway, it then skid out of my line of sight. Light white smoke visible for about 7-10 min afterwards. Winds are still pretty strong here, but I doubt that was the primary cause. Weather otherwise clear and sunny here.

Update 6:53pm - airport on alert 1 status, should reopen runways 27R and 35.

Update 6:56pm - steady number of ambulances still passing the terminals west towards the accident site. No idea on injuries.

Update 7:05pm - thanks to one of my coworkers via Twitter, this is report is encouraging: https://www.facebook.com/DennisFee/p...?stream_ref=10 I still do not know which flight # it was.

Source: Just Witnessed US Accident at PHL - FlyerTalk Forums

US airways see twitter people seen leaving the plane

"Dennis Fee from Philadelphia just posted this on Facebook. He was on a @USAirways flight." - @JimmyStyle twitter.

Note almost all have hand luggage :(

http://i.imgur.com/fqVJoYZ.jpg

Twitter says tyre (or rather 'tire') blown on take off/front landing gear issue. (Just search twitter for US Airways.)

That wouldn't tally with the account above? Result of or cause?

Front undercarriage collapsed on takeoff apparently.

Read elsewhere (unconfirmed) that the aircraft was briefly airborne before rejecting.

Good to see Pax got their belongings from overhead lockers before strolling off!

Fascinating account above; reads quite peculiarly. Imagine good lengths of pavement at the field, and can't help wondering how far down they'd got at the first bounce.

Slats extended, so there's one thing off the list..

Hope all are OK. I guess the armfuls of hand luggage are as reassuring as they are enraging.

any more information on this? How would a blown tire cause an airplane to bounce on the runway during takeoff?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BipP_unIUAIiKWh.jpg
Trent Brock ‏@TrentBrock US Airways jet did get airborne, but captain elected to abort takeoff. Nose gear collapsed on return. PIC: Will Jager pic.twitter.com/KbrcEkyG6v

There is a video on this page that shows smoke coming from the rear of the left engine. It looks to me like fuel is leaking into the shutdown engine. You can hear the familiar rattle of turbine blades windmilling from the high winds.

Philadelphia Airport Plane Crash: All Flights Grounded at Philly Airport (+Photos)

Flight seems to be US 1702 KPHL-KFLL. A320 149 pax aboard. Passengers evacuated after botched takeoff at PHL

Anyone break their neck doing the evac out of L2? Geez!

Quote:

Anyone break their neck doing the evac out of L2? Geez!

The cabin crew will assess the outside threats and open exits as required...

"Evacuate, Evacuate, Front and overwing exits only..." :cool:

Quote:

How would a blown tire cause an airplane to bounce on the runway during takeoff?

It wouldn't. I'll bet it blew when the "landing" occurred.

Windshear on takeoff? The wind was NASTY in Pittsburgh overnight and would match Philly's experience today. We dropped over 60 degrees in temperature in less than 12 hours and will be back up another 50 degrees tomorrow.

I've read that the aircraft was airborne momentarily. We're not talking inexperienced pilots at USAirways. So if they were airborne one would assume they reached the proper V2 at least, right?

Human Factors - we all know they shouldn't take their bags... I would "ass"ume that if it was dire consequences most wouldn't care about the bags. Maybe it wasn't overly violent that many PAX grabbed bags thinking it wasn't as serious?

Just pondering...:confused:

Is the gear collapsed or just buried in the dirt?

I would have imagined that if the aircraft was sitting 15(?) degrees nose down with smoke coming out of the engine that you'd leave your bags... Guess you can't model humans!

I randomly keep my passport on me until we are airborne as I live in a part of the world where I figure if you had a problem on departure and ended up back in the terminal with nothing that you'd be trapped forever without a passport. Guess I'm self-modelling and would really also grab my briefcase - and tear the slide as I went down it. Or just sat on it not moving if I'd gone out of L1 in this case...