Did This Captain Lie About Causing A Near Fatal Crash? | TWA Flight 841
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- Опубликовано: 29 дек 2021
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Roland Arhelger
This is the story of TWA flight 841. On the 4th of april 1979, A TWA boeing 727 was on the ground at JFK international airport and it was headed to minneapolis st paul international airport in minnesota. The plane was delayed by about 45 minutes due to the traffic at JFK but at long last at 8:25 pm flight 841 took off with 82 passengers and 7 crew members on board.
The jet started its climb to its cruising altitude and within half an hour it was at 35,000 feet. Flight 841 found 35000 feet to be quite windy so they asked toronto control if other planes had reported any winds at either 31000 feet or 39000 feet. ATC said that those altitudes were clear and so the crew opted for 39000 feet. Once the 727 had reached 39000 feet the pilots put the plane into the altitude hold mode so that it would stay there. The crew then relaxed as the autopilot took care of most of the flying the captain was looking for a few charts in the cockpit when he felt a slight buzzing sensation, a slight vibration. The sensation didn't really go away and eventually it grew into a slight buffetting sensation. He looked up and saw that the autopilot was commanding a left turn but the plane was in a right turn. Since it was dark outside the only indication of the plane turning to the right was on their instruments. He immediately turned off the autopilot and commanded an aileron roll to the left. But the plane didnt respond; it was still in the right roll, with full left aileron doing nothing the captain applied full left rudder in an attempt to right the plane. But still the plane stayed in the right turn. The captain was concerned that the plane would roll inverted so he pulled back power on both engines and asked the first officer to extend the speed brakes. But the first officer was out of the loop at this point he wasn't really aware of what was happening as he had been calculating the plane's ground speed. So the captain extended the speed brakes himself. But the speed brakes did nothing. In the cockpit the pilots could see tiny lights from the towns below and their altimeter showed that they were descending fast. In a desperate attempt to pull the plane out of its harrowing dive the captain decided to extend the landing gear. The first officer extended the gear and the gears dropped. At this point the plane was rolling as it dived and the pilots were desperate for something anything to work. The pilots heard a huge explosion as the gears dropped,but as the gears came out the captain eased up on the control column and the ailerons just a bit. The landing gear trick seemed to have worked. The airspeed of the jet came down and the captain was able to bring the plane to wings level. But their fight was far from over, just as they thought they were winning the plane started climbing. The nose was up 30-50 degrees. The captain could clearly see the moon and used the moon as a visual reference to maneuver the plane. He eventually got the plane back under control and once they had leveled off at 13000 feet the pilots saw that their “A” hydraulic system had failed.The hydraulic system is quite important as it's what moves all of the control surfaces on the plane. Think of it as the lifeblood of a plane. They also got a warning saying that the lower yaw damper had failed. That's an actuator that controls the rudder. With all these failures the captain decided to land the plane as soon as possible. He decided to put the plane down at the metropolitan airport in detroit. As the crew worked through the emergency checklist. As the plane started its approach the crew extended the flaps using an alternate method but as soon as they did that the plane lurched to the left. So the captain retracted the flaps and decided to land without the flaps. But that wasn't all. In the cockpit two of the three landing gear indicators showed that they were in an unsafe state. This meant that there was a possibility that the gear wasnt down and landing without the landing gear out would be very dangerous. And so the captain made a pass over the airport so that people on the ground could see if the gear was down or not. It was and so the crew carefully brought the plane in and the 727 landed on runway 03 with no issues. Their harrowing flight was over and everyone onboard had survived. 7 crew members did suffer slight injuries though but they all recovered.
The most incredible thing about this flight is that the pilot successfully recovered from a 34000 foot per minute dive!!
For what it's worth...I was a TWA 727 pilot in the 1990s. The rumored story there was.. flight engineer leaves to use restroom.. captain tells FO that we can get better performance by pulling slat circuit breaker and extending flaps to 1. Engineer comes back from lav, not knowing what's going on, noticed a circuit breaker out...pushes it in, immediately extending slats.. and all hell breaks loose...
former 727 pilot here......erasing the CVR was pretty common back then but it was done after landing. The reason was that certain people would use whatever was on it to 'discipline' the crews, almost always over stupid stuff that had no effect on safety. It made us feel like we were about 6 years old.......
When first introduced, pilots were very suspicious of management misusing the CVR to persecute them. As a result it was an unwritten SOP to erase the CVR upon shutdown. It may therefore have been an automatic but incorrect action from one of the crew. In modern airlines, this culture has gone away a little because airline management generally accept the unwritten rule of not listening to them for nefarious purposes although some poor engineer has to occasionally to confirm that recording equipment is functioning.
Something commenters are forgetting is the time frame of this incident. The Co-pilot was not 'permitted' to question the actions of the pilot for fear of being called out as a trouble maker by the pilot. Today it is encouraged to practice Crew Resource Manangement (CRM) where any member of the crew is permitted and encouraged to speak up if they feel something is not correct. But in 1979 speaking up would be an end to the career of any co-pilot.
I was told that the erase feature for the CVR was removed because of this incident. I worked as a mechanic on many 727s from the 100 series and 200 series and we never had a uncommanded slat deployment.
While the official theoretical sequence is possible, all of the crew involved steadfastly maintained they didn't try it. I have flown several sister ships to the one involved in the incident. They had identical autopilots and flight directors. On more than one occasion, I experience autopilot disconnect anomalies that caused temporary control issues. The 727 near it's service ceiling can be tricky to hand fly and is also prone to engine surge especially in the center engine. I consider it very possible that the events started just as reported by the pilots even if no one else believe them.
About the CVR. Pilots objected to their introduction in the 1970s. A negotiated agreement was that the recordings would only record the last 30 minutes. If an incident or accident occurred, the pilots were instructed to pull the CVR CB so as to preserve the 30 minute recording leading up to the incident. Modern airliners have digital CVRs and they record 90 or more minutes.
I certainly remember this incident way back then. The news media initially hailed them as heroes for recovery of the aircraft. And with the pilot's name being Hoot Gibson it made for a good story.
Any really good 727 pilot or engineer knows damn well that pulling the LEADING EDGE CTRL VALVE circuit breaker on the P61 panel will not, I repeat not disable the leading edge slats from extending hydraulically when the flap lever is moved from UP to 2 degrees.
I remember this case, as I recall, Hoot and the FO were both fired. None of the major airlines would hire them. I don't recall the exact details, but I think Hoot ended out his career as a charter or cargo pilot, and the FO got an airline job somewhere in South America.
If the dude was legit, he would have no need to always erase the CVR. Dodgy dude.
The safety department at the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) also investigated this incident (published report is available) and found that the #7 slat had been retracting and extending in a misaligned condition. Wear marks were evident on the incident aircraft. APLA's conclusion was that the #7 slat uplock failed to engage due to the misalignment, and a subsequent failure of the A hydraulic system allowed the slat to extend. Further, they found no evidence of ANY flight crew intentionally extending trailing edge flaps at altitude. It is preposterous to think extending trailing edge flaps would improve aerodynamics at the service ceiling of a B-727. Lastly, the TWA Shutdown Checklist at the time included "Cockpit Voice Recorder...Erase". Facts matter.
I am always hesitant to blame a person for an incident on base of 'suspicious actions' alone. The actions of the pilot were sketchy but I'm not going to place any measure of guilt on that. Especially not since the incident itself would not have been on the recording anymore but would only have contained the time before the landing.
Watching my favourite aviation RUclipsr! What an amazing topic to end the year with a bang!
Capt. Ron: I knew the pilot and the aircraft. I was a TWA Captain and Check Airman on the Boeing 727 when Capt. Gibson's event occured. My opinion of this YT Diatribe is the lowest possible.
I always love listening to your videos while I solve the Rubik's cube on my desk
Oh what a great story MACI. As a former B727 captain, I can attest as to the reliability and functionality of the B727 systems. The aircraft was very advanced for its era, and as far as the handling characteristics of the aircraft, it was a solid aircraft to fly. There was a saying in the aviation community that went like this; "Nothing flies like a 727" and it was true. It was a dream to fly. What went wrong with this particular aircraft only the crew and the airplane knows about it and neither of them will ever talk. As to the captain erasing the CVR, it is a common practice to do that after any flight, not because you did anything illegal or wrong, it's just done by some crewmembers, as to prevent any possible questioning from the feds for any reason. Think of it as leaving evidence for the police to find and be used against you if you were a criminal. By erasing the CVR after terminating a flight, the crew was pretty much clear to go on their way without leaving anything recorded that could be listened to by management or the feds.
I am torn between the fact that the pilots showed incredible airmanship in recovering the aircraft, but the captain caused the upset in the first place.
The erased CVR tape is a Red Herring.