Catastrophic Test Flight Over Virginia - Airborne Express Flight 827
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- Опубликовано: 3 мар 2024
- Flight 827 was a functional evaluation flight (FEF) of an Airborne Express Douglas DC-8-63F (registration N827AX) that had undergone a major modification on December 22, 1996. Don't forget to sub for more videos!
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I came to a common conclusion as with the other comments that perhaps it seemed a rush test flight and my first thoughts was … why at night? So much extra sensual visual senses were eliminated right from the start. Excellent video presentation as usual. 👍
I knew Bruce, he was a good dude, thanks for the video.
I have done many commercial test flights but I have NEVER done one at night! AND stall tests you do from a much higher altitude and never at night! I am speechless. When I lived in Arizona my next door neighbour was actually a pilot for Airborne.
Isn’t 14,000 a little low for a stall test?
It depends on the aircraft manufacturers test procedures outlined as what the minimum and maximum height stall test should be performed.
@@peterresetz1960 I would think you’d want more cushion for any problem like what happened
You do know that flying a sim is different than the real thing..
Don’t ya? 😂
Wonder why the airspeed didn't increase after max power.
Very nice. I bet everyone tells you how to make your videos. I am the guy that suggested to The Flight Channel exactly what i will suggest here. Your style is PERFECT. No narration ever, PERFECT. People feel for some reason that they have to shove music in there, DON'T. Better than ANY of the others. But maybe something else to go in the music area. Also, a 'in sympathy to' or 'RIP to' the number of victims would be a nice touch. Now, this annoying person is going watch every one of your videos. If I had your desktop I would have most of a great aviation comedy in the EDL.
Testing at night with all these new systems makes no sense.
At the time of this accident, I was working for Airborne, and personally knew capt Avery and the F/E having worked on a DC8 recovered from a crash in South America. The video is good, but many things were missed or not shown from the FDR data I watched of the crash. As mentioned in comments below, doing this testing in darkness and over mountains and at such of low altitude, did not leave room for error. The airplane could have been recovered. RIP guys.
I love watching your videos they’re very well crafted and documented. It’s sad to see so many errors made by pilots that result in catastrophic loss of life
The NTSB investigators were surprised by the difference between the voice and data recorders. The aircraft in a full stall and descending, but only relaxed calm talk between the crew.
The NTSB notes that the NF PIC failed to take control (see below) as one of 3 probable causes of the accident. So on the face of it a CRM problem, but not between senior and junior officer as often, but between 2 captains.
I’ve read that the backstory is that the FE was an FAA DC8 examiner, and the 3 passengers were all airborne captains as well. So six experienced senior pilots all quietly watched a fully developed deep stall and just chatted politely between each other, not wishing to offend the others dignity.
I use the example often in training. I’ve seen it happen many times in corporate business, eyes wide open cruising into disaster.
“…probable causes of this accident were the inappropriate control inputs applied by the flying pilot during a stall recovery attempt, the failure of the nonflying pilot-in-command to recognize, address, and correct these inappropriate control inputs, and the failure of ABX to establish a formal functional evaluation flight program”
Excellent video. Your graphics are absolutely amazing. Please keep up the great work. I thank you for creating, uploading and sharing! ✈🛫🛬😃
Thank you
@@MPCFlights You are more than welcome!
I was a 73 CA for 24 years at a major US carrier. Whenever stall/recovery or upset training was in the syllabus, we were usually in the mid 20’s or higher and ALWAYS in the sim. Back in the 80’s when I was on the 72, the only instructional flying done in the prototype was for the benefit of landings (Bounces😅) as the 72 sims in our schoolhouse weren’t landing certified. It’s interesting to note that despite all engines at full thrust and a presumably light weight, that DC-8 was unable to recover. Sounds like they got into a really deep stall and underestimated the aggressive control inputs required to recover. To start that maneuver at 14000’ leaves little margin for error. RIP
Thanks for such in depth commentary. I am not a pilot, but it came to mind .. why perform such an apparently dangerous test at a relatively low altitude. And why at night ?
Is it possible to perform such tests remotely (or if not, may be in a near future), when a plane is probably still being tested and there seems to be more risk of losing the lives of experienced pilots ?. I guess that delay could be kept at a minimum to make the test possible. I am thinking of a simulator that can see (replicate) what would be seen at the actual real plane's empty cockpit. And at the same time be really useful if pilots at other given scenarios become incapacitated.
@@SinergiaAlUnisono
While I can’t speak as to why the crew chose 14000’ to do their air work, I can imagine that there may have been some subtle pilot-pushing going on. Remember, there were 6 people on board which suggests at least one of the 3 riding was there in a supervisory role. Comments that may have been made to the crew like “We just need to verify that the stick-shaker works” and/or “They REALLY need this plane later…” and/or “Yes, it’s getting dark but it’s very clear.” may have contributed. What about fatigue, previous rest or how long had they been on duty isn’t mentioned here though I’m sure the NTSB looked into that and many other contributory factors. The lower altitude selection suggests that they were expecting to do a little slow-flight to verify stick-shaker operation never expecting it to be inoperative. When the aircraft suddenly stalled for real with no warning, they were probably startled while precious seconds were spent recognizing and attempting to rectify the life or death situation they were suddenly faced with. I don’t doubt for a second that these were good pilots who unfortunately on that day, were unable to recognize the subtle and insidious steps that led to their deaths. To any pilot: Learn from this, let their lives be not lost in vain.
@@SinergiaAlUnisono
I'm not a pilot either (just an aviation enthusiast), but like you I also thought the altitude was low and don't get why they were doing this at night, especially over mountainous terrain.
Especially when ground level was close to 4000’ only leaving about 10,000’!
Thank you so very much for featuring these aviation stories as some of them I had never heard of and I do enjoy learning of them. I think there are valuable lessons that can be learned from them. The video was extremely well done in my opinion.
Glad you like them!
Great video Mauri! Looks like they hit a flat spin towards the end, RIP❤
We were still learning back in the nineties, as there were still quite a few plane crashes of the major carries and of both Boeing and Airbus. This being one of em. A test flight at night and practicing stall recoveries at low altitudes. Neither of which are done today. Sad for the families.
I remember this accident well. Happened near my hometown & so close to Christmas. Very sad.
It's seems to me that "testing" an aircraft at night only adds possible increased risk and peril if there's some kind of "problem" during the flight.....
The whole accident looks like they were a little over-confident and complacent. They did not expect any malfunction (the stick shaker), so they did just a routine test flight for determining performance data, and did never expect a real stall. Hence the flying too late in the dark and at low altitude.
A sad end to a test flight for a newly renovated DC-8.Stalling test at night doesnt sound ideal.RIP to those unfortunate crew members.
Great Vid, I just wanted to pint out that they were NOT flying a DC-8-63F, they were in fact flying a DC-8-73F. The plane HAD been a -63F, but it had just been converted to a -73F, and that is what this test flight was for. The most visible difference between the two types is that the -63 has long skinny engines and the -73 has the big fat CFM-56's that you see in the video. The conversion also includes some updated avionics and other equipment as well.
Check the NTSB report - The plane was actually a 63F... Airborne Express did not fly the 71's or 73's with CFM-56 engines (unfortunately). The plane featured here in this video does in fact have the CFM-56 engines with a hybrid CF/Airborne livery for illustrative purposes. Had the jet been retrofitted with the CFM-56 engines MAYBE the outcome would have been different and they somehow powered through the stall (can a DC-8 pilot can comment?)
Couple of points - stalls don't have a speed - they are about angle of attack, not speed. Yes, you can calculate the expected speed of a stall condition starting, but it's not to do with the speed. Similarly, when the nose was lowered, it wasn't to gain speed but to lower the angle of attack and get the wing flying again.
it not about speed how much drink u had today fool??
Excellent point.
You could see that one coming already. I was thinking the stick shaker wasn’t gonna activate, and they were going to actually stall the jet! If they had started this at 20,000 feet, they probably would’ve recovered. I was thinking 14,000 was a little low.
Excelente trabajo capi mauri. Mejor reconstrucción aérea en RUclips 🎉✈️💥🙌🙏Bendiciones
Murphy's Law was made for this, What can go Wrong will go Wrong.
Which software are you using for these dramatic recreation?
MAURICIO U ARE GENIAL AND GRAZIAS POR EL TRABAJO YOU HAVE DONE 👍👍👏👏👏👏👏👏👏♥️ how was your trip in ROMA 👍
Hey I'm just wondering why would any responsible pilot start a stall test at FL140 Is that SOP for flights like that ..I'm just saying altitude is your best friend with stall tests so say starting the stall test at say FL300 wouldn't that leave them with plenty of recovery time just in case of some mishap but to start the run at 14,000 doesn't sound to me like they left themselves with enough recovery altitude . but then what do I know ...
As others have said - doing this at NIGHT was dumb. And you'd better be 5 mistakes high...looks like they did not lower the nose immediately at the onset of the stall.
great video , but i wonder if the DC-8-70 Have that digital ADI at 4:00
I worked for Airborne Freight Airborne Express for 32 year's.
Sad to see an airline you work for go. 670828TW..
Night test flight? A little unusual.
Agreed, but it was apparently scheduled for 3:40 PM and was delayed two hours for maintenance. A decison must have been made to go ahead and do it as opposed to rescheduling.
@@kevinfoley8105 low altitude apparently there d check test flight did not include emergency decent.
It also seems a bit dangerous!
@@usmale49 Well the test flight proved that. Test flights are routine but only for specific maintenance like "D" check(Overhaul) or modification like this one had.
They are well planned and usually safe.. This flight had the "Gotta Fly No Matter What"
I'm not a pilot but why doing tests at night? That doesn't seem to be the best conditions for testing something.
Stacking the odds against themselves.. Night.. the test should have been conducted at a higher altitude.. anything up to 20,000 ft... instinctive reaction to the stall should have been to lower the nose.. simply attempting to increase speed with power was a rooky error, not something we expect from a highly experienced crew. For those just getting into flying.. a stall can be experienced at any speed.. stalls are a function of Attitude NOT speed !
That's just crazy!!
Why at nighttime??
Seems odd doing all this at night? A bit reckless surely? RIP
Worked for Airborne as a truck driver
RIP TO THEM😱😓
"O 2nd chances !"
😮💥💀
To bad, an experienced crew and a good aircraft lost.
Seems to me they in general did the proper thing.
When they could not regain speed the thing to do right away of course would be dropping the nose.
It seems to me they ended up in a spin, not something you want on a DC-8
Test flight at night is a no no.
The airline was never transferred to DHL as the federal government prohibits a foreign entity to operate a wholly owned airline in this country.
They got around it by spinning it off into a new company that operated servicing DHL
I notice that the RUclips gods unsubscribed me from this channel. I doubt I’m the only one.
It should be hard enough as it is to prosper on RUclips in a crowded market without subscribers being arbitrarily taken away. Just too bad.
This video is a great work of art! I will subscribe and be inspired!
Yea it’s awful I can make videos of beautiful landscapes or recreations or simply just trying to teach things…and yet some moron who annoys people in shopping malls gets millions of views it’s terrible…honestly magnifies society I guess…sad
I wish people would stop making innacurate videos on youtube. First, it’s flight simulator with an Emery DC871 NOT an Airborne DC863! Leave accident theories and such to the experts!
I am so incredibly grateful to your channel.
Just one request.
Can you maybe take a look at your white text and see how it blends in to the background so much?
It makes it very hard to read at times without pausing and adjusting position.
Otherwise, you are doing a spectacular job!! Love the channel. ❤
Noted, thanks for watching