Hidden amidst the smoldering rubble, carnage and death, aircraft accident investigators will piece together the causes of the tragic mishap in Madrid. While family members demand immediate clarification, impartial canvassers must ignore their orders and sift through the debris to properly identify the causes for air travelers the world over.
History of the McDonnell Douglas MD-82
The MD-82 originally entered service in October 1979 as the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 Super 80 with PSA and Swiss Air. Designed as a replacement for the aging and fuel inefficient Boeing B-727, 1200 aircraft, over a 20 year production cycle, were sold.
History of Spanair
The company started flying in March 1988 as a scheduled passenger and charter operator. It is 94% owned by the SAS Group, carried 10 million passengers annually and mainly flew MD aircraft.
- Problems – the company has had financial difficulties. For the year ending June 19, 2008 SAS had tried, unsuccessfully, to sell the company. Management recently decided to reduce the labor force by nearly 1,000 workers in a cost saving measure.
- Labor – the morning of the Madrid accident, pilots threatened to strike over proposed job cuts. Jose Vazquez, the head of Spanair’s pilot union told Emma Ross-Thomas of Bloomberg, “The strike threat ‘had nothing to do with safety’.”
Airline accident investigations are highly technical, time consuming operations. After a point, families and the public desire to know the reasons for the loss of so many loved ones. Unfortunately, this is impossible and subsequently speculation abounds in the media. However, simple analytical understanding of aviation can quash some of the rumors and misrepresentations.
- Facts – Spanair flight JK5022 rolled down the runway, attempted to rotate, rose less than 150 feet, rolled to the right and plunged to earth. A fire ensued and 153 people died.
- Problem – The flight had a mechanical air intake fault that warranted the pilots to return to the gate. ABC News correspondent Emma Alberici reported Friday “…the gauge indicated that overheated air was entering the aircraft…the problem…was with the air conditioning.” But investigators will determine whether the indicator was a contributor to the accident.
- Engines – CCTV Security video from AENEAS contradicts reports that the engine was on fire; however, an engine fire by itself would not cause an accident. KSDK Channel 5 reporter Cordell Whitlock said on September 29th 2007, after an MD-80 had an engine fire and made an emergency landing in St Louis; “…MD-80 engines operate at temperatures in excess of 500 degrees Celsius.”
- Fire – Engine fires are routinely practiced by airline pilots that have fire fighting and extinguishing tools readily at their disposal. Engine fires cause little directional controllability problems until the engine is shut down and even with uncontained fires pilots can still fly and land the MD-80. On September 28th 2007, American Airlines Flight 1400, an MD-82 had an engine fire that forced the aircraft to a successful and safe landing.
- Failure – pilots are trained to handle all types of engine failures including severe failures, seizures and actual separations. Aviation safety lawyer, Arthur Wolk, told AP reporter Dave Demerjian on August 20th, “often times passengers end up walking off the plane after an engine failure.”
- Controllability – Early indications point to controllability problems. McDonald Douglas built the aircraft with physical cables connecting the pilot with the control surfaces. There are two types of controllability issues; one flight control surface stalls and secondly cross-over effects.
- Stall – Survivor Ligia Palomino told reporter Fiona Govan from the UK Telegraph, on 8/22/08, "Suddenly the plane started to shake; it was going from one side to the other until it fell.” Violent shaking, with the critical wing eventually dipping (falling), is a classic description of a stall.
- Cross-over – this is a newly discovered phenomenon for swept wing aircraft that occurs on rare occasions. When the aircraft is below a critical speed, the pilot has insufficient aileron control to manipulate the aircraft should the rudder have a hard over (or deflect fully in one direction.) While this requires multiple failures it has been the cause of several accidents.
As the investigation progresses, examiners will focus on these issues. No single issue, as expressed by the media and witnesses, should have produced such tragic results. Researchers will probably focus on a catastrophic engine failure/fire that disabled flight control surfaces or connections. They will examine whether those factors plus insufficient airspeed, negative cross-over effects, wing stalls, maintenance, corporate governance and operating procedures contributed in causing the aircraft to veer off its path and crashed.
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