yes, its a guess, say again GUESS:

non precision approach, night or semi night conditions , wondering if they had the runway in sight and lost it in low scud, or somehow decieved by low hanging cloud or a sudden spurt of rain/drizzle without wipers on, a bit of a duck under mda and contact with terrain.

At least they appear not to have driven over and kill any survivors, as happened in the Asiana accident at SFO.

IF memory serves, birmingham is a special airport (among 16 others) in the US that have special concerns mainly due to terrain.

invite others to double check...don't have my jepps with me

special airports require certain additional study/mainly due to terrain features like TVL etc.

Twelve years ago, I lost a good friend in a terrain-related approach accident a few miles from KBHM. Good briefings are a must! :uhoh:

The plane left Louisville, an air hub for UPS, at 5:04 a.m. New York time and was northeast of the Birmingham airport at 5:47 a.m. when industry data tracker FlightAware.com received its last report on the jet. At that point, it was descending from about 850 feet above the ground, FlightAware data show.

Planes at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport were under instrument flight rules at the time of the crash, according to FlightAware. That means pilots would use cockpit instruments, not visual observations, in takeoffs and landings. FlightAware said visibility was about 6 miles amid mist and a layer of broken clouds at 700 feet above the ground.

“We will immediately engage with the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation, and we will work exhaustively on response efforts,” UPS Airlines President Mitch Nichols said in a statement. Atlanta-based UPS is the world’s largest package-delivery company.

Airbus said it was assessing the situation, and Pratt & Whitney, the United Technologies Corp. unit that made the engines on the jet, said it would work with accident investigators.

UPS Cargo-Jet Crash Kills Two Near Airport in Alabama - Bloomberg

http://i.imgur.com/d2h3xRwl.jpg

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

Yes, it's a special airport, but no more special than any number of others. Not sure where you get the 16 figure from, but....

He clipped the trees it looks like.

From Flightaware it seems it descended between 4000/5500 ft/min on the last part of the leg, is it normal due to the terrain?
http://it.flightaware.com/live/fligh.../KBHM/tracklog

Thanks

flyboyike:

The only Birmingham airport that is a special quals airport is the one in New York state.

Latest news report from CBS, interviewing the Mayor of Birmingham, is that there is debris on a couple of houses along the flight path. Judging from photos and location of the wreckage, that would seem to indicate to me that debris was pre-crash, rather than a result of the post crash break up.

ATERPSTER

KBHM in my companies Jepp package is a special airport.

Fatigue?

Time will tell....

Many airlines in the US run their crews into the ground, dirtbag carriers such as Colgan and Jetblue come to mind. Hopefully UPS has something better.




Slag away.....

I used to work in the neighborhood right where the crash is (definitely weird for me). It is the more open and less populated side of the airport. Most trees are cleared out, but it is not flat by any means.
At night that area could look like the best place to ditch from far away (few lights and trees), but then not look so good once you get a closer view because of a few rolling hills.

Let's try this one again, ( ok MOD?)

It is just a guess and out of line. The bodies aren't even room temperature and we have to put up with the start of endless guesses from the PPrune crowd, many who aren't aircrew and should confine themselves to the spectators or enthusiast forum for their comments and questions.

Does that imply a package blew up on descent and a mid-air breakup?

They reported a couple of loud booms, but that could be the plane "landing"

Nothing to slag about, just comment on. When in doubt or a bit on the weary side, one should avail themselves of every asset the airport has to offer to make operations safer and easier. That said we can all agree that an ILS approach requires far less work than a NPA.

Jet Blue a dirtbag carrier? I wasn't aware they had that rep, but I was a freight dog all my 121 life.

Local news says witnesses said engines sounded like they were sputtering or cutting out.
The low approach comment seems off base right now... also I live about 2 miles south of the airport. There was rain earlier in the night, but it was gone by early morning.