Hull loss - where do they go?
 

OK, so CNN is reporting now that the hull of Flight 214 in SFO is being removed and the runway will soon reopen.

I assume that it is not necessary for the NTSB to reconstruct the aircraft to determine the causes of this crash. So what happens to the remains of the 777?

Is it simply torn apart with big machinery and scrapped for aluminum, copper, etc? Can any of the parts be reused?

...just wondering....

I suspect that one will be bought off the insurance company by Boeing and then it will be given to the engineers and everything tested to destruction to get data on fatigue life and crash loads.

Then once of the samples have been taken the rest scrapped. It might be that some parts are contaminated and have to be sent to land fill.

As it's the USA, the NTSB have charge of it for the moment. Most likely they'll have relocated it to a secure empty hangar, possibly on a nearby Air Force Base. They'll be doing a certain amount of investigation and analysis of the wreckage as it's just not good practice to assume you know what happened from the initial analysis. At the very least, anything with a memory will be removed and read, and accident witness marks checked.

Additionally, there will almost certainly be post-crash and survivability lessons that can be learned, and that will require substantial evaluation of the wreckage. For example, there were issues on the Heathrow 777 concerning failures of the emergency lights and bits of the in-flight entertainment flying off. So you can expect a large team going over every aspect of how the aeroplane withstood (or didn't) the wreckage.

It'll be kept secured at-least until the report is issued, then potentially it'll be kept longer if it's needed as evidence in any future legal actions. Only when it's absolutely clear that there's no ongoing legal action, and no residual questions about the crash (which may be about post crash survivability and nothing at-all to do with the cause) can the wreckage be disposed of.


It's unlikely that the manufacturer would then take it on, but they will have been involved with all of the ongoing investigation and had opportunity to learn anything they wanted or needed to know en-route.

Finally, everything will be destroyed, to make quite sure none of it ever ends back on a flight.


In the UK, it would be AAIB and their facility at Farnborough, but otherwise all the same.

Coke, Pepsi, Anhauser Bush etc. Once the cause of the crash has been determined, the aircraft would be released back to the owner, the prelim sounds like it is out, sounds like the Korean CAA wants this wrapped up quickly, the NTSB has already blabbed all over the news some pretty solid results. I would not be surprised if they recover rotable components not damaged in the crash.

It is important that parts from accident damaged aircraft do not return to the active aircraft supply chain. However not all parts are destroyed every time. I recall that parts of the fuselage of the B747 that ended up in Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong in the 1980s were used as maintenance training aids for engineers at colleges in China.

The engines however were buried in the footings of a new engine overhaul facility in Tseung Kwan O that was being built at the time. A fitting end I would say.

Ghengis,

Thank you for an authorative answer.

Happybiker,

Do you know if they threw in a few cows and pigs too? Or maybe the sky gods only respond to exotic alloys?

Crashed airplane parts follow the money foremost and often/not always follow the regulations.

The BA 747 engines in Kuwait had their good looking parts illegally returned to service by a salvager.... and for small helicopters ??

It is not unknown for parts from crashed aircraft to be reused.

The following text is taken from a Wikipedia thread concerning part from the L1011 that crashed in the Everglades.

On the other hand, the Egyptair 777 that suffered the oxygen fire with heat damage 2 years ago is just parked at the end of Cairo Airport Runway 23C, after apparently most mechanical components and the engines had been removed.

ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 777-266ER SU-GBP Cairo International Airport (CAI)

Currently visible on Google Maps as well

A to B
Not cows as I didn't see many of these in the Territories when I was there. Probably chickens to keep the pigs company. Should give future Archaeologists a puzzle to understand such a local concentration of pigs trotters chickens feet and engine fan blades!!

It has since been dismantled. I saw in an article somewhere that this was carried out by ASI, based at Kemble, with many components being recovered for future use.

My guess would be Moffett Field just down the bay.

After dismantling the technical components and movable surfaces, guess they are trying to figure out what to do with the airframe itself. It was still parked on its gear there 2 months ago. Looks like they may have some type of facility at the airport that could do do that last bit of teardown in time though.

Well let's hope they salvage the Auto throttle and Ground Prox.

The Eastern L1011 that crashed in the Everglades in 1972 had some of it's parts reused in other L1011s with 'interesting' consequences. :eek:

Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was about to say that the throttles definitely have some collector value to them....

Why? Because they're unused......? ;)

For those hulls with a need for accident investigation, they would go to the investigators first.

For those hulls where somebody drove a truck into the side of it - i.e. with no accident investigation required - they would get 'nibbled' and then turned into coke-cans

Safe Flying,

N1

Breezy DC,

Great links to the overhead views, thanks. In your second link, is that a VC-10 next to the hangar facility? Can't quite make out the reg on the port wing.

The saw tooth in the wing leading edge would seem to make this an Il-62. Likely the former ALIM bird that has been there for a while already.