Best of The History Guy: Aviation Disasters

we live in a technological age of complex machines and they have allowed us to do magnificent things but we've also found out from time to time that their complexity can be their downfall a flaw in a seemingly small part or seemingly a relevant subsystem can have dire consequences and that's particularly true say you're in an aircraft where even a small malfunction can have catastrophic effects and then it's up to the pilot to try to take a malfunctioning and stricken machine and get it safely back to the ground and that's what the pilots faced on american airlines fight 96 june 12 1972 it is history that deserves to be remembered it was nearly 7 20 in the evening on june 12 1972 an american airlines flight 96 had just lifted off from detroit metro airport the second leg on a regularly scheduled flight from los angeles international airport to new york laguardia with stops in detroit and buffalo many of the passengers departed in detroit and the plane was lightly loaded with 56 passengers and 11 crew the flight commander was 52 year old captain bryce mccormick who cydia smith the lead flight attendant described as the epitome of the perfect captain mccormick had flown the first leg of the flight from los angeles to detroit and so 34 year old co-pilot peter page whitney was at the controls clayton burke at the flight engineer station rounded out the flight crew both mccormick and paige whitney were experienced pilots mccormick had 24 000 hours of flying time in whitney 8 000 hours but neither had much experience flying the model that they were currently flying the mcdonnell douglas dc 10. combined the two had a total of just 176 flight hours in the dc-10 in fact no one had much experience flying dc-10s the model had only begun commercial operations less than a year earlier in august of 1971. this particular airplane registration number n103a was just the fifth dc-10 to come off the assembly line the weather was generally good although visibility was only one and a half miles in the still hazy conditions and the cloud base was 4 500 feet radar confirmed no bad weather between detroit and buffalo a flight that mostly went over canadian airspace conditions were so favorable that mccormick had turned off both the fast and seat belt and the no smoking signs in the cabin the plane was climbing towards flight level 230 or 23 000 feet as they broke cloud cover over the town of windsor ontario mccormick could see a 747 high above and remarked there goes a big one up there in the cabin cindy smith was on her way to the galley to make coffee as she later recalled that's when it happened the explosion which occurred just five minutes after takeoff was so powerful that it knocked smith off her feet in the cockpit the flight crew remembered that the first reaction was that somebody said oh the rudder pedals were thrown back so forcefully that paige whitney's head was banged against his seat the rudder had been thrown back in the full left position the thrust levers all snapped back to the flight idle position so hard that the throttle made a loud crack the fire warning bell went off for the number two engine the autopilot disengaged its red light blinking the cabin altitude warning horn sounded that the air pressure had been reduced to an altitude equivalent of over ten thousand feet the crew was hit with a rush of air dusting their eyes it smelled and burned like firework smoke the captain thought the windshield must have failed but it was intact the nose dropped sharply paige whitney uttered what they were all thinking at the moment we've hit something he said the plane speed was dropping and it was losing altitude in the cabin the galley doors burst open and smith could see that entire sections of laminated ceiling panels were falling into the passenger compartment which was filling with a dense grayish-white smoke another flight attendant beatrice copeland had been knocked unconscious and lay trapped in debris flight attendant sandy mcconnell felt the floor give way beneath her and the rushing air started to suck her out of the plane the plane appeared to be disintegrating from the inside out she managed to grab the laboratory door and pull herself inside still strapped in flight attendant carol mcgee saw the escape hatch from the downstairs galley shoot up from the floor and strike a passenger on the head the flight deck door burst open and out flew the crew's hats while the cabin was depressurized the plane was still below 14 000 feet so the oxygen mass did not drop smith ran to the cockpit door and yelled is everything okay in there mccormick killed back no he put his headset on and radioed to the detroit tower declaring an emergency one peculiarity of the mcdonnell douglas dc-10 was that the new design lacked a backup system to operate the airplane's flaps elevators and rudder by hand in case the hydraulic system failed in training mccormick had been concerned about a hydraulic's failure and so he had practiced on a simulator controlling the plane using its engines when control surfaces like the rudder or ailerons would not respond the dc-10 with its powerful engines proved exceptionally responsive in such circumstances the hydraulics had not failed on fight 96 but given the loss of so many controls mccormick's experience controlling the plane with its engine thrust turned out to be critical mccormick asked to take the stick and started to test out the airplane trying to determine the level of damage the wing engines engines one and three were responsive by increasing power he was able to counter the rapid descent engine two in the tail was still sitting idle and the throttle moved up and down freely clearly the engine was no longer responding to controls in response to his call for an emergency detroit asked him if he wanted to return to the detroit metro airport mccormick thought through the options and decided that detroit being the closest was the best choice he responded i've got no rudder control whatsoever so our turns are going to have to be very slow and cautious the crew had managed to restore some order in the cabin flight attendants mcconnell and copeland had freed themselves from the wreckage in the rear passengers seated near the damage in the back were moved forward lead attendant smith was able to report to the catherine that there were no serious injuries among the passengers and crew and there was a hole in the plane in the left aft-hand side of the fuselage the captain told her to prepare the passengers for an emergency landing he told the passengers over the intercom in his most reassuring voice that the plane was under control and they were returning to detroit the gear was lowered successfully and the tower had cleared an approach typically a flight making such a landing may try to dump their fuel but the captain decided not to since the damage to the plane was still unknown the immediate problem was slowing the aircraft for a landing as the rudder was stuck mccormick needed engine power to keep the jet pointed forward as the plane began a shallow descent it started dropping altitude too fast if mccormick wanted to slow the descent he had to increase the speed countering the rudder meant that the nose was pointed five to ten degrees right the plane hit the ground at 7 44 pm landed as mccormick described it flat and fast racing down the runway the plane immediately veered right into the grass co-pilot paige whitney grabbed the reverse thrust levers throwing the left engine engine number one on maximum reverse power while canceling reverse power on the number three engine right that straightened the plane which rolled in the grass parallel to the runway for a couple of thousand feet before slowly easing back onto the runway the plane stopped some thousand feet from the edge of the runway its right wheel still on the grass there were no fatalities flight attendants mcconnell and copeland received minor injuries as did nine passengers it was amazing given the severity of the damage to the plane that the crew through level-headed decision-making and handling of the situation had managed to get the plane back on the ground with no loss of life captain mccormick was praised for his professionalism in handling the event he retired in 1980 died in 1997 in an automobile accident at the age of 77. the national transportation safety bar was able to quickly determine the cause of the accident flight 97 had not had a mid-air collision rather the latches on the aft bulk cargo compartment door had failed as the plane was pressurized the failure caused explosive decompression tearing off the cargo door which then struck and damaged the leading edge and upper surface of the left horizontal stabilizer the cabin was still pressurized and there was insufficient venting between the cabin and the cargo bay the pressure in the cabin put too much pressure on the floor which collapsed as it did it damaged or severed several wires and cables that rented control surfaces of the airplane locking the rudder and severing control to engine number two which automatically shut down the gaping hole and depressurization pulled a hurricane-force wind through the length of the aircraft the ontario police found the cargo door and a coffin carrying a body that was being transported in the cargo bay and had been sucked out during the explosive depressurization in a corn field flight 96 had been having trouble with that f cargo door throughout the flight and taken 18 minutes to get the door to close in los angeles in detroit it only took five minutes but the crewman had forced the latch down with his knee that had extinguished the warning light that was in the cockpit made it look as if the door was closed and latched but in fact what it had done was to bend the latching pins further investigation found that the dc-10 had been having recurring problems with the latches on that door had been identified when the airframe was being tested mcdonald douglas had issued a service bulletin indicating that the actuator on the latching mechanism be rewired with more robust wires but it wasn't required and it's not really clear if that would have solved the problem on fight 96 which in any case hadn't received that retrofit the ntsb issued recommendations to address the problem but in a gentleman's agreement between the faa and the manufacturer the recommendations were not made an air worthiness directive from the faa and so did not have the force of law thus the recommendations were applied slowly and haphazardly on march 3rd 1974 a dc tenant was being operated by turkish airlines flying between paris and london also suffered explosive decompression due to the failure of the latches on the aft bulk cargo compartment door maintenance records said that all the modifications that have been suggested by the ntsb had been performed on the plane but inspection of the record showed that most of those repairs had actually never been made in detroit the pilots had been able to land the plane but in the case of the turkish airlines airplane the collapse of the cabin floor had severed all connections to the rear control surfaces and the plane's hydraulics and it forced the plane to crash killing all 346 people on board it was at the time the deadliest air disaster in civil aviation history mcdonnell douglas ended up paying about 18 million dollars in lawsuits to relatives of the victims and the faa finally required changes not just to the cargo doors of the dc-10 but to all aircraft that used outward opening cargo doors in 1755 john mueller wrote in his work a treatise containing the practical part of fortification but notwithstanding all human precautions that can be taken yet accidents will happen that comment has since become axiomatic accidents will happen but the question is do we learn from those accidents one particularly spectacular airline accident in 1988 changed the entire way that we understand aircraft maintenance we learned more from that accident than perhaps almost any other the terrifying tale of aloha airlines flight 243 is history that deserves to be remembered at 1 25 in the afternoon on april 28 1988 aloha airlines flight 243 took off from hilo international airport on the island of hawaii on board the boeing 737 297 were 95 souls 89 passengers 5 crew and an faa air traffic controller hitching a ride in the cabin jump seat the flight was bound for honolulu international airport on the island of oahu a flight of around 211 miles with a flight time of just under an hour the flight was part of a series of inter-island flights flown by the aircraft which flew round-trip flights between honolulu and the airports at hilo kahului airport on the island of maui and lihu airport on the island of kawahi the plane had already flown three round trips one between honolulu and each of the islands that day the flight had then flown from honolulu to maui and then onto hilo and was returning to honolulu all the flights that day had been uneventful at the controls was the first officer 36-year-old madeline tompkins who went by mimi there have been a scheduled first officer change at 11 so she was finishing her first round trip of the day the captain was 44 year old robert schornsteimer both were experienced pilots with significant flight time on the boeing 737. the takeoff went normally and the plane leveled off at its scheduled flight level 240 or 24 000 feet the weather was clear 23 minutes after takeoff and approximately 23 miles south southeast of kahului airport on maui captain schoensteiner heard a sound that he described as like really heavy canvas ripping the aircraft registration number in 73711 and named the queen lily ukulani was a 19 year old plane on an airframe that had an expected service life of 20 years the plane had flown 89 690 cycles or takeoffs and landings the second highest of all 737s in operation at the time it was part of boeing's aging fleet program designed to keep an eye on the changes in aircraft as they reached the end of their design life and to support operators in maintenance and repairs to keep their older aircraft safe while the aircraft was towards the end of its design life loja airlines generally flew short flights which often did not reach the maximum pressure differential so the number of full pressurization cycles was considered to be significantly fewer than the 75 000 the aircraft should be able to handle boeing had recommended significant maintenance stripping and upgrading the structures of the older 737s and the airline was in the process of doing so but not urgently as the airline noted boeing had assured them that the airplanes were still safe to fly in the cabin what schwernsteiner had described as canvas ripping sounded more like an explosion one passenger eric beckland was quoted in the newspaper of the maui news is thinking this is it i'm done and then i don't have enough life insurance fortunately because the flight was short the passenger seat belt sign was still illuminated 58 year old flight attendant clarabelle c.b lansing a veteran flight attendant with 37 years experience had just informed passengers of last call as the flight was about to begin its descent she was handing a drink to passenger joy flanagan in seat 2c who was flying with her husband on a vacation to celebrate their 21st wedding anniversary lansing and flanagan's hands had just touched when they heard the explosion flanagan's husband william told the washington post that his wife fell forward bleeding onto her tray table her head and face cut by flying metal and flailing wires he was terrified that she would be sucked out of the plane he grabbed her arms and told her that he loved her the original co-pilot that morning had done the required pre-flight visual check and had not noted any abnormalities but the check was done in pre-dawn darkness on a lighted apron a passenger gail yamamoto later reported that she had noticed a crack in the fuselage as she was boarding at hilo but had not mentioned it to the flight attendant in the cockpit the rapid depressurization was so powerful that tomkin's head was jerked backwards and she saw debris including gray pieces of insulation floating in the cockpit captain schoensteimer said that it happened almost instantaneously there was no warning he looked back and could see that the cockpit entry door was missing beyond he could see blue sky where the first class ceiling should have been the hole was much larger than should have been possible the boeing 737 had been designed with tear straps that ran both along the length and circumference of the fuselage these were designed to redirect any running cracks perpendicular to the original crack this would then cause a flap to open that would release internal pressure in a controlled manner without compromising the plane's structural integrity that is at least how it was supposed to happen captain schwernsteiner took the controls and because of the depressurization began a controlled descent he didn't know it but the passenger oxygen manifold had been severed so the passenger oxygen system was not working first officer tompkins turned the transponder to emergency code 7700. she tried to radio honolulu that the flight was diverting to maui but there was so much noise in the cockpit that she couldn't be sure they could hear her she and sean steiner couldn't even hear each other and had to communicate using hand signals they had no communication with the cabin had no idea the extent of any injuries among the passengers 18 feet of fuselage had been torn from the plane from just behind the main cabin entry door to just forward of the wings the skin had been torn off from floor level on the left side to the window level on the right the plane had in fact nearly broken in two being held together only by the floor beams several of which were broken or damaged flight attendant jane sato tomita had been standing towards the front of the plane she had been struck on the head by debris and was unconscious the third flight attendant michelle honda had been thrown to the ground and bruised but was conscious despite her injury she had pulled herself up and was moving down the aisle comforting the injured ensuring that passengers were strapped in and helping everyone don life vests she tried to contact the crew on the intercom but could not get through then she has something that no passenger ever wants to hear is there anyone here who can fly this plane in the cockpit captain schwernsteiner described the flight controls as loose in fact the debris had done damage to the leading edges of both wings both horizontal stabilizers and the vertical stabilizer in addition debris had gone into both engines damaging several fan blades honolulu air traffic control had not received tompkins transmission but had seen the emergency transponder code unable to make contact with the plane they notified kahului that the plane may be headed their direction as the plane descended tompkins switched to the maui tower frequency and was able to make contact reporting rapid depressurization and declaring an emergency as the plane started descending into kahului more problems started to arise due to the damage to the control surfaces the plane became harder to control under 170 knots requiring shortness timer to come in fast 170 knots just over 195 miles per hour which is 50 miles faster than normal as they lowered the landing gear the light for the ford gear failed to illuminate thompson switched to manual nosegear extension but neither the green locked down light nor the red landing gear unsafe light illuminated there is a way to manually look down on the gear but the download viewer was under a hatch under the jump seat which was occupied and captain schoensteiner thought it was more important to get the plane down tompkins told maui that they were landing without the nose gear and that they would need all the emergency equipment you've got as they approached sean steinberg felt a yaw the left engine had failed he attempted to restart but got no response in fact the thrust lever cable going through where the floor had been deformed had broken witnesses on the ground reported smoke pouring from the engine 30 seconds before landing the tower could finally visually see the front wheel advising the gear appears down the gear appears down less than 13 minutes after sean schweinsteimer first heard the ripping sound aloha airlines flight 243 sat down one passenger told the new york times i've had worse landings in a normal aircraft another said he brought that plane down so smoothly it was just like riding in a cadillac it was no small feat bringing down the plane so smoothly despite the yaw from losing an engine had the landing been rough the plane easily could have broken apart an aloha airlines employee at kahului airport said i can't believe it even stayed together it should not have been able to land the plane was so damaged that workers had to prop up the middle of the plane in order to just tow it off the runway the aloha employee described the plane as being held together by nothing but floor beams and the man upstairs an emergency evacuation was conducted on the runway eight people were seriously injured including flight attendant jane sado tomito and joy flanagan injuries included cuts and burns from the flailing wires and one person with a fractured skull 57 others had more minor injuries the ambulance service in maui was overwhelmed a tour company volunteered their vehicles to take people to the hospital it was only as they did a head count that they realized that cb lansing was no longer with the plane she had been swept out of the plane with the initial depressurization airline employees described her as the textbook model of a good stewardess the accident aboard aloha airlines flight 243 was one of the most significant in history in terms of the way that it transformed aviation the damage changed the way the entire industry understood and studied metal fatigue and caused the faa to focus much more clearly on the risks associated with older aircraft assumptions like the argument that because the short flights that aloha airlines flew meant that the planes never achieved full pressurization and should have put less stress on the airflames turned out to be completely erroneous in fact it's apparently cycles the number of takeoffs and landings that is most important in understanding stress on the fuselage and in addition the tropical climate in which aloha airlines operated was a contributing factor as that causes corrosion the airplane apparently suffered from something called widespread fatigue damage or wfd and that kept the tear straps from operating as they should the investigation by the national transportation safety board identified numerous flaws in the aloha airlines maintenance and inspection system but the accident went beyond aloha airlines as a result the faa established the national aging aircraft research program as a result of the program the faa has issued more than a hundred air worthiness directives regarding wfd boeing was also found to be at fault particularly with a process called cold bonding which was used in the construction of some early 737s and which was found to be structurally deficient and to cause panel delamination schwensheimer sued boeing on a product liability claim and both he and tompkins received damage awards from the claim robert schoenheimer continued to fly as a captain with aloha airlines he credited his time in the air force trending other pilots as part of the reason that he was able to successfully manage the emergency and land flight 243. he retired in 2005. mimi tompkins went on to become a captain with aloha airlines and continued to fly with that airlines until that airline closed in 2008. because of her experience with flight 243 she was instrumental in creating a pilot assistance program through the airline pilots association to assist pilots who had faced emotional trauma in 2011 that association gave her their pilot's assistance award according to the organization pilots around the globe have benefited from her expertise a coast guard search for the missing pieces of flight 243 as well as the remains of flight attendant c.b lansing was unsuccessful last april the 30th anniversary of the accident the association of flight attendants recognized or sacrificed as well as the heroics of the other members of the crew they reminded us we are aviation's first responders we are on every flight ensuring safe passage on their journey when tragedy strikes we are there to save lives flying ace eddie rickenbacker is one of the most well known of america's world war one fighting heroes right up there with sergeant york his irrepressible smile and his 26 confirmed aerial victories made him a national hero in the great war but his heroics during the second world war are not nearly as well known it is a story of survival of perseverance of the true nature of heroism it is a story that deserves to be remembered born in ohio in 1890 eddie rickenbacker's rambunctious childhood included several notable accidents at near misses that might well explain his fearless nature that would serve him later in life certainly he learned to endure hardship rickenbacker's father passed away when eddie was just 13 making him leave school to seek work to support his family fascinated with machines and automobiles in particular he eventually was a car salesman for the columbus buggy company for the 1910s he'd become a nationally famous race car driver racing maxwells and peugeots and driving four times in the indianapolis 500 back in the day when the raceway was paved with bricks and the race was set for 500 miles because the raceway had no lights and the race had to finish before dark he joined the army in 1917 almost immediately after the u.s decided to join the allies in the great war he wanted to fly as that appealed to his mechanical nature and he was convinced that race car drivers would make excellent pilots as they were used to confined spaces and going fast his lack of a college degree made it difficult and then his mechanical skill which made him more valuable on the ground than in the air but eventually he earned a place in an air combat unit the famed 94th arrow squadron and proceeded to score 26 verified aerial victories the most of any american in the war he returned a bonafide war hero earning more decorations for valor than any other american in the war including the medal of honor in 1922 he married a divorcee named adelaide front durant a beautiful strong-willed woman five years his senior her personality was described as volcanic a trait that would serve rickenbacker in the future after the war he continued a larger-than-life existence he started a motorcar company that sold the first production cars equipped with a four-wheel braking system he purchased and operated the indianapolis motor speedway where he made many improvements to the facility and then the aviation pioneer that he was as a vice president of general motors he founded eastern airlines which he turned into a major carrier he bought the company from gm and was the airline's president for more than 30 years but there is a chapter of his extraordinary life that is often forgotten and it tells possibly more about his nature than all his other adventures in 1942 secretary of war henry stimson asked rickenbacker then 52 years old to travel to the pacific theater as an observer to report on the status of us army air force units stationed there always eager to serve his country rickenbacker obliged on october 21 1942 he and his aide colonel hans adamson took off from hawaii with an army aircrew in a boeing b17 headed to canton island 1800 miles to the southwest on the first leg of their tour introduced in 1938 the boeing b-17 flying fortress was one of the most iconic aircraft of the second world war and was the third most produced bomber aircraft of all time powered by four right supercharged turbo engines it had a loaded weight of over 54 000 pounds and a range of 2000 miles with a full load of bombs the b-17 used that day had been configured for transport and in addition to rickenbacker and adamson included five crewmen a pilot a copilot a navigator a radio operator and an engineer there was an additional servicemen on board an army staff sergeant returning to his unit after recovering from an illness an hour before the scheduled arrival at canton island pilot william cherry throttled the plane back and slowly descended looking for canton island they never saw it this represents one of the very real dangers of early air travel navigation is difficult especially over open water in the era before computers and global positioning satellites aircraft had to plot courses using celestial navigation just like early mariners the navigator lieutenant john deangelis used a device called a bubble octant that plots the aircraft's course based on its relationship to a celestial body the speculation is that a rough takeoff in hawaii had jarred the instrument even being a few degrees off could have made them miss their destination by many miles in fact navigational error was a common occurrence and a very real threat to any aircrew at the time the crew tried many means to locate their position they were in radio contact with canton island and asked them to fire off anti-aircraft guns that would show their position canton dispatched search planes another island was able to determine a compass heading based on their radio signal but was unable to determine a bearing desperately the air crew looked for a ship that might allow them to determine their location but none were on the horizon as the airplane ran low on fuel the eight men aboard were facing a harrowing prospect they were going to have to ditch the airplane in the open pacific with no idea of their location for rescue they did the best they could they threw out anything not needed for survival to lighten the plane they stalked emergency rations and water near the hatch where they would be easiest to get to they donned maywest life jackets and prepared the aircraft's three life rafts two of which would be dropped by lever in the cockpit as the aircraft near the water as the airplane descended it was clear that the ocean swells were high crashing into a swell would be like crashing into a brick wall and the more damage there was to the aircraft the faster would sink cherry put the heavy plane down about as well as he could belly flopping in the middle of a trough between swells but was still very rough all seven received various injuries perhaps the worst being rickenbacker's aide colonel adamson who badly sprained his back in the chaos of the crash it was much harder to retrieve the survival supplies than they hoped as water rushed through the broken windows the plane weighed more than 25 tons and was sinking quickly the ocean swells were over six feet making the rafts difficult to enter two of the rats were supposed to hold five men each and the smallest would hold two but that rating was extremely generous rickenbacker later argued that the person who said it fit five should be forced to test his theory at sea the larger raft had a usable area of just five by nine feet three men could hardly tuck into them when they tried to find the water and supplies that had been carefully stacked they were gone washed out by the sea in the end the only food they had managed to salvage was four oranges the cherry had stuffed in his pockets they had few supplies the rafts came with hand pumps and repair kits they had a first aid kit they had a flare gun both of the pilots had kept their pistols they had a couple of fishing lines with fish hooks but nothing for bait perhaps most importantly rickenbacker had managed to save 60 feet of line from the airplane that allowed them to tether the rafts together on the open ocean companionship and teamwork was critical without the tether the three rafts certainly would have drifted apart the tight open wraps were terrible the heat blistered during the day but as they were constantly soaked by seawater it would be freezing at night they had no bait for the fishing lines they tried using orange peels but with no luck they hoped to shoot a seagull with one of the pistols but none came close the pistols rusted in the salt air and they threw them away for the first six days the eight men shared just four oranges for food a miracle came on the eighth day as rickenbacker rested with his hat on his head a seagull literally landed on his face he managed to grab its leg and throttle the bird not only did the meat provide sustenance but was also wet in quenched thirst they used the bird's intestines as bait for the fishing lines and immediately started catching fish a rain squall came and they were able to capture fresh water in the collapsible buckets that were included with the rafts but alexander kasmirchak the army sergeant who was returning to his unit was declining he had been recovering from an illness before the trip and was still weak the conditions had only exacerbated his condition he died on their 13th day at sea the shortage of food and water continued to plague them occasionally they got fish or got some water from a rain squall but their health was declining at some point they put the three strongest ones into one of the larger rafts to see if they could row against the current but it was just too strong they occasionally saw planes in the distance but they were unable to flag them down on the 20th day they finally split up sending the three rafts different directions in the hope of finding land rickenbacker wanted them to stay together but the crew become convinced that this was their best hope of survival rickenbacker was left on a raft with the two sickest man including his longtime friend adamson who was near death with no food and little water the situation was dire the next day rickenbacker himself growing weak tried to give both men water and they were too weak to even lift their heads the in for all three seemed near when suddenly two navy float planes flew over the raft the planes turned and flew close enough that it was clear that they had seen the raft one returned and landed they were rescued it turns out a patrol had spotted another of the rafts the small one with the pilot william cherry he had been able to point them in the direction of rickenbacker's raft then they got news on the radio that three downed airmen had been found on a desert island was the crew of the other life raft astoundingly despite their condition rickenbacker himself had lost 40 pounds they were all alive through it all the world war one ace was their leader he is the one that kept their spirits up he demanded that they bring the wrath together every night for a group prayer session and when encouragement didn't work he would browbeat and berate them for giving up he was apparently so forceful that the rest of them made a pact that they were going to survive if only to outlive him his strength kept them alive a type of heroism that's much different than and in many ways much more powerful than shooting down airplanes in the first world war the redoubtable rickenbacker continued on to complete his inspection of the pacific army air forces and provide his report as for his taste in women after two weeks the army had decided to give up on them and declare them dead it was adelaide rickenbacker and her volcanic personality that pressed them to continue searching a move that likely saved their lives the two traveled together extensively after eddie retired from eastern airlines in 1963. eddie rickenbacker passed away following a heart attack in 1973 at the age of 82. he and adelaide have been married 51 years the summer of 1945 represented hope for a war-wearing nation germany had surrendered in may in the pacific general douglas macarthur announced that the philippines had been liberated and in new mexico the united states tested the bomb that would finally put an end to the war there was plenty of reason in july 1945 for new yorkers to look forward to a period of peace but their peace was shattered with a spectacular accident involving a united states army air force plane and the tallest building in the world it is history that deserves to be remembered the morning of saturday july 18 1945 a united states army air force's b-25 mitchell was flying from bedford army airfield in massachusetts to new jersey's newark airport at the controls of the plane was lieutenant colonel william f smith jr the 27 year old smith was an experienced pilot a veteran of more than 30 missions and a thousand combat hours flying b-17 bombers over europe during the war the b-25 was a twin-engine bomber smaller than the b-17s that smith had flown over europe this plane using callsign 0577 and nicknamed old john feather merchant had been converted to five vips smith had piloted the plane from sioux falls army air base in south dakota and was scheduled to pick up his commanding officer in newark before continuing back to sioux falls he was accompanied by 30-year-old army air force staff sergeant christopher domitrovic and 19 year old navy machinist mate albert parana who was hitching a ride from massachusetts to see his family in brooklyn as the plane approached new york city it ran into heavy fog smith requested permission to land at new york's municipal airport laguardia field but was advised that the visibility was too low and told to go on to newark laguardia air traffic control signed off with a warning about visibility in the fog at the present time the controller said i cannot see the top of the empire state building the words turned out to be hauntingly cryptic smith responded thank you very much it's not exactly clear what happened next but it seems likely that smith mistook the east river for the hudson that was a fatal mistake had he turned left as he came by the chrysler building he would have been safe but disoriented he turned right taking his plane straight over the island of manhattan air traffic control had advised that he stayed above 1500 feet over the city but apparently disoriented and thinking himself clear the city he had dropped to 500 feet perhaps thinking that he was on approach to newark or perhaps trying to get a view of the ground to orient himself suddenly the fog cleared just enough for smith to realize that he was flying in the middle of skyscrapers stan lomax a radio sports announcer was driving to work when he heard the plane's engines as he looked up he recalled he yelled climb you fool climb from his car window at 200 miles per hour the plane was on a collision course for the 850 foot rca building at 30 rockefeller center smith veered at the last moment avoiding averting disaster but the turn took him on a collision course with the tallest building on earth new york's iconic 102 story empire state building mort cooper a big league pitch who had helped the saint louis cardinals win two world series witnessed the crash from the 16th floor of the hotel commodore he said i heard the roar of a plane i picked it up as it roared between me and the rca building suddenly it flashed across my mind that it was flying very low and that it would hit the empire state building the streets of downtown manhattan were relatively empty on a foggy saturday but there were some witnesses along 5th avenue and 34th street who heard the roar of the engines they describe the plane climbing steeply william utley vice president of a public relations firm in the mercantile building at 10 east 40th street was quoted in the scranton pennsylvania times tribune the plane went past my window at eye level or just above it this office is on the 38th floor the engine was apparently going and it looked like the pilot was trying to gain altitude smith was apparently trying to climb out of the city but it was too late at 9 40 a.m old john feather merchant traveling some 200 miles an hour struck the 34th street facade of the empire state building at an altitude of 913 feet between the 78th and 79th floors nanette morrison at the same firm as mr utley said there was a terrific explosion when the plane hit it looked as though the flash and flame from the explosion spread over four floors albert fuller at the b altman department store across the street told the new york times that the floor moved i looked at the clerk and i said isn't that strange and i thought it couldn't be an earthquake harry weiskopf on the 63rd floor of the empire state building said there were two terrific explosions the whole building shook and looking up the windows facing down we could see flaming debris falling down charles harmer who had been on the 36th floor said the whole empire state building seemed to jump about six inches daniel norden on the 18th floor was thrown out of his chair under the glass from four windows that were blown out in his office 54 year old louis pattley a tour guide with a group of 35 tourists on the 86th floor observation tower said i never heard anything like it in my life i jumped three feet in the air gloria paul on the 56th floor said i was at the file cabinet and all of a sudden the building felt like it was just going to topple over it threw me across the room and i landed against the wall people were screaming and looking at each other we didn't know what to do 24 year old bookkeeper althea ledbridge was on the 72nd floor she said everything shook we ran to the window and looked down we saw flames below us we looked up and saw flames above us lethbridge walked down 70 flights of stairs in the dark an analysis of the fourth of the crash based on where the plane came to rest estimated it hit a force of some 4 400 kilonewtons or around 990 000 pounds of force over a quarter of a second the plane ripped a hole 18 feet by 20 feet in the limestone and granite facade of the building the knoxville journal of knoxville tennessee reported that so tremendous was the explosion that it ripped away the fog which had hidden the topmost stories of the skyscraper and for two minutes the pinnacle of the chromium gert empire state stood out sharp and clear in the drizzle while orange red flames looked around many new yorkers who had a feared attack as the war went on feared it was an enemy attack miss weiskopf said that the staff in the office feared it might have been a buzz bomb the name for the german b-1 rocket that had terrified england during the blitz others thought it may have been a japanese bomb balloon like the one that had killed a sunday school teacher and five children in oregon in the previous may the plane struck so hard that the wings were torn off one engine shot through the building landing on the roof of a building on 33rd street and starting a fire that destroyed a penthouse art studio the second engine and parts of the landing gear went down an elevator shaft were found in the basement the body of albert perna the young navy corpsman was also thrown down the shaft and wasn't found until two days after the accident he had been headed to brooklyn against all his family over the death of his brother who had been killed in combat the plane's fuel tanks ruptured exploded sending a sheet of flame into the building it was lucky it was a saturday otherwise the building would have been much more crowded on a normal day as many as 5 500 people worked in the building but that saturday only about 1500 were thought to be in the building the offices where the plane stock were occupied by the war relief services and the national catholic welfare council both catholic organizations dedicated to helping european refugees of the ongoing war some 20 people were working in the offices that saturday coordinating aid for war refugees throughout the world several of those were killed instantly by the flames others crowded in a room hoping to escape the flames in smoke one of those was teresa willig who told the new york times i don't think any of us had any idea what happened who'd have thought a plane crowded in the room with other catholic war relief employees she thought she was not going to make it she took off her rings a high school graduation ring and a friendship ring from her boyfriend and threw them out the window she said i thought i won't be around to have them someone else might as well have use out of them one of the workers a man named paul deering jumped to escape the fire and was killed twenty-year-old betty lou oliver was the elevator operator of elevator number six she was on the 80th floor when the plane struck the crash caused her to be thrown across the building as well suffering from severe burns two office workers rented first aid and placed her on an elevator to be taken to the ground floor where an ambulance was waiting but parts of the plane had flown through the elevator shaft and had sheared off cables when betty was placed inside the elevator on a stretcher the cable snapped with a sound like a shot betty plummeted 75 stories seventeen-year-old donald maloney was a coast guard hospital apprentice second class he was on 34th street when he saw the plane crash he rushed into a nearby pharmacy telling them he needed first aid supplies to go help the pharmacy gave him bandages burn ointment sterile water and a dozen syringes with morphine as he ran in someone shouted they needed help in the building's sub-basement maloney was small so it could fit easier into the ruined elevator shaft where a girl was screaming it was betty lou oliver miraculously after falling more than 70 stories she was still alive the elevator's landing was softened by the huge coils of cable that had piled up beneath it like a spring and some experts speculate that the rapid descent might have caused air pressure to build up under the shaft under the elevator the rest of the elevator was ruined full of steel shards and broken concrete all but the corner that held oliver maloney gave her some morphine for the pain and put burnt ointment on her face and stole bandages on her burns then he had to be cut from the wreckage of the elevator her fall some one thousand feet still according to the guinness book of world records holds a record for the longest survived elevator fall betty was one of more than two dozen injured in the crash and aftermath to her own surprise teresa fortier willig survived when firemen rescued she and her friends from the room she said she was just happy to be alive she didn't suspect she'd ever see her rings again but they were discovered by rescue workers and returned to her she ended up marrying the man who had given her the friendship ring betty lou oliver before her 75-story plummet had only been scheduled to work in the empire state building another three days it took her eight months to recover from her injuries but she moved to arkansas with her husband she had three kids seven grandkids passed away in 1999 the age of 74. the accident did not compromise the building's structural integrity but repairs cost a million dollars the equivalent of about 14 million today hundreds of firemen were dispatched to fight the fire which was extinguished in 40 minutes it is the only significant fire at such a height to be brought under control in world history after an investigation the federal government offered families of the victims money many accepted but some refused and initiated a lawsuit and the lawsuit helped to spur the passage of the federal tort claims act of 1946 which had been stalled in congress for almost two decades for the first time u.s citizens were given the right to sue the federal government the act was specifically made retroactive to 1945 in order to allow victims of the crash to seek remedy you know 14 people died in the crash the three people on the plane nine catholic relief workers one janitor and one elevator operator almost certainly if the crash had occurred at any time other than a saturday in poor weather there would have been more casualties in a building that could have had far more workers in it as debris rained down on streets it could have been far more crowded if a commercial airliner crashes you're very likely to hear that on the news but if a light aircraft of the type that's used for say general aviation are those tiny airlines that call themselves charter or air taxi services if one of those crashes it's much less likely to be widely reported unless of course someone very famous was on that aircraft there really is a different prospect climbing on a light aircraft as to a commercial airliner and one of those differences is in safety it's it's almost axiomatic that flying is safer than driving you hear that all the time but actually statistically flying in light planes is safer per mile traveled but it's more deadly per hour traveled and it's not like mishaps with light aircraft can't be important can't be something that you know is is memorable it's just that because fewer people are involved they're more likely to be forgotten but there are some very interesting incidents that have occurred with light aircraft that are actually important and did impact the way that we do things and safety and our interesting stories for example the incident that happened outside of king's lynn in norfolk in the united kingdom in june of 1993 a very interesting incident history that deserves to be remembered at 6 31 pm on june 7th 1993 a piper pa-31 325 cr navajo twin twin-engine light aircraft took off from birmingham airport in the united kingdom headed for norwich it was a regularly scheduled flight operated by prosper air charter limited which operated a twice daily round-trip scheduled passenger service between the two cities the pilot was 45 year old edward wiry former raf pilot who had flown the panavia tornado wire was a veteran pilot with over 4 200 flight hours but had only 120 hours flying the piper pa-31 built by piper aircraft the pe-31 had been introduced in 1967 as a corporate and commuter transport aircraft the design was popular in the small-scale cargo and feeder line as well as corporate markets nearly 4 000 were produced the pa-31 is powered by two 6-cylinder air-cooled turbocharged lycoming engines the 325 cr version was introduced in 1974 and so-called because it is powered by 325 horsepower counter rotating engines that is the two propellers spin different directions while the plane had been a good seller there was a general drop off in demand for general aviation craft in the 1980s and piper ceased production of the pa-31 in 1984. the pa-31 325 cr that wire was flying had been manufactured in 1975. prosper owned two piper navajos but one had been engaged in survey work and the second was due for maintenance so the plane being flown that day was therefore leased that day was the first time that wire had flown that specific aircraft he'd flown the morning route and then taken a short break and then flown the afternoon flight to birmingham all without incident after a short turnaround he took off for the return trip to norwich the p831 carries a maximum of eight people and the flight that day was full with seven passengers and the pilot the plane was near its weight limit carrying an estimated 2859 kilograms of the maximum 2948 kilogram load for the aircraft because the craft was small no co-pilot or cabin crew were required and one of the passengers sat in the front next to wire he gave the passengers the normal pre-flight instructions including the proper position to brace in case of an emergency landing and then took off for the short flight which was just some 217 kilometers or about 135 miles as the plane climbed after takeoff there was a noticeable vibration that could be felt through the control column and that was unusual wire said he had never felt such a vibration when flying similar aircraft but the vibration was slight and ceased about 10 minutes into the flight and wire was not concerned by it the weather was good it was clear what pilots in the united kingdom call cav okay meaning clouds and visibility okay at 6 57 wire contacted the mora military traffic zone radar at nearby raf marum for a radar information check he informed moram that he would be reducing altitude to three thousand feet as he began his descent into norwich he was near the port town of king's land around 70 kilometers from norwich as a reduced throttle to start the descent suddenly there was a loud bang the plane immediately rolled uncontrollably to the right and went into a tight and steep spiral dive to oblivion after two spins wire was able to get control of the spin by turning the left full rudder but the plane was still in a steep dive that he was trying to pull out of at 701 he issued his first mayday call the marum zone radar controller responded with the heading for the raf marm field six nautical miles to the southwest wire made a second mayday call he had lost power in both engines and was not going to be able to make it tomorrow but the noise and vibration of the plane was so loud that he couldn't hear the tower's response he was trying to reduce the rate of descent to get the plane to a safe glider speed but when the speed reduced to around 120 knots the plane again started rolling uncontrollably right he had to dive steeper that he wanted to keep the plane at a speed that allowed him to keep control desperately he searched for a place to set down and started swinging left towards a green field there were power lines in the way but he had no time and there was not another choice the plane now was not just gliding without power was shaking terribly it was taking all of his strength to try to control the plane something had wildly thrown off the center of gravity of the aircraft a situation for which he had never been trained he was flying by instinct he looked out the window and was shocked to see that something had somehow ripped the entire right hand engine off of the plane and there was another problem without power he had no hydraulics he couldn't lower the flaps or extend the landing gear to land there was a manual pump that he could use to produce enough hydraulic pressure to lower the gear but there was no time and he needed both hands free to control the plane trying to keep the nose up and forced to die faster than he preferred he was going to have to land the plane on its belly in an open field he narrowly avoided the power lines and tried to level off over the field to reduce speed he yelled brace bryce and the passengers assumed the brace position happy probably for the first time in their lives that they had taken time to get the pre-flight instructions he kept the nose up so the tail hit the ground first he had managed to level the plane pretty well but as the speed slowed it started to roll again the left wing hit the ground a deep gouge in the field that caused the plane to spin 90 degrees left but it kept sliding now sideways to the right for another 100 yards 300 feet when it stopped everybody exited the plane quickly for fear of a fire but there was no fire and wire looked around to see that astoundingly seven passengers were safe and uninjured he was able to crawl back into the plane in order to radio raf marham that he had crash landed in a field the plane was a mass the right engine was completely missing torn off at the firewall there was a gaping gash more than two feet long through the nose luggage compartment and the spinner on the left propeller was missing and the left propeller blades were mangled somehow both engines had come apart at the same time what had happened to them in flight the responsibility for figuring that out belonged to the air accidents investigation branch of the department of transport the first step was to recover the missing parts of the plane the right engine including its propeller missing one blade was found about six kilometers from the crash site items from the nose baggage bay were found nearby the missing blade of the propeller from the right-hand engine as well as the pitch change piston from the left engine were found later by a farmer the left-hand propeller blades were largely intact except for one that had broken off about a third of the way up and was part of the wreckage trail you'd think the blades were mangled during the crash but they showed evidence that they had encountered some hard object while they were rotating under power in a pitch set for flight that means that the propeller blades on the left engine were not merely twisted by the crash but had apparently been deformed by hitting something while the aircraft was in flight this allowed the air accidents investigation branch to piece together the dynamics of the accident in flight the propeller hub of the right engine had fractured causing one of its three blades to detached that caused what was described as a massive out-of-balance force that literally caused the right engine to be torn from the wing meanwhile the detached blade had thrown through the nose of the plane and struck the left propeller blade tearing off its spinner and pitch change piston which then flew through the left propeller blades twisting them and causing the loss of power in the left engine that all happened in an instant and resulted in what the air accidents investigation branch described as an immediate and critical loss of control and of course this all speaks very highly of the pilot mr wire who was able to regain control of the aircraft and successfully crash landed despite the fact that it had largely come apart in mid-air but it raised an important question why had the propeller hub failed and what could be done to prevent that in the future examination of the damaged engine and failed hubs showed that the failure had started with the deformation of the threads in the grease nipple hole a hole in the hub that allows grease for the hub's bearings the propeller manufactured by hartsell propeller incorporated have been hardened and formed using a process called shock peening a process somewhat similar to sand blasting where cold metal is bombarded with small pellets which compresses the metal essentially making it harder but the grease nipple holes were not covered during the process and the shot peening had not only deformed the threads on the nipple holes but also made it harder to detect cracks emanating from those holes since they were obscured by the peened metal the metal fatigue therefore had not been identified in the maintenance and inspection process even though prescribed procedures had been followed the vibrations that were felt as the plane was climbing were the result of the metal fatigue and cracks spreading at a rapid rate as they had not been felt by previous pilots of the craft that indicated that the crack spread quickly and occurred in between the regular maintenance schedule making it essentially undetectable the plane maintenance was normal and within specifications only the extraordinary skill of the pilot prevented the failure of the propeller hub from having a fatal result it has to be described as one of the most impressive crash landings in aviation history the most disturbing part of the incident is that the flaw in the propeller hub was a problem that had already been identified in fact other such hubs had already failed and the hartsell propeller company had redesigned the hub to move the nipple hole to a place where the metal was thicker and thus less subject to stress all such propellers built by hartsell after 1983 used the new design hearthstone provided guidance both for inspection procedures and a warning that unusual vibrations could be a sign of impending failure hartzel had strongly recommended that hubs manufacture before 1983 be replaced but the only faa directive regarding the service bulletin had stressed the increased inspection schedule it hadn't stressed that the manufacturer had recommended replacing the entire propeller hub and moreover while the service bolton did mention the importance of those strange vibrations that was sent to mechanics but not to pilots operators like wire who were flying the aircraft had not been told of the meaning of those strange vibrations the air accidents investigative branch came up with four major recommendations based on the experience from this particular incident number one if a service bolton was relevant to pilots as well as mechanics extra effort should be put into making sure that the pilots get the information number two if a manufacturer updates a service bulletin then the faa should also update the faa directive that was involved number three that the faa should consider making mandatory the replacement of parts where that is strongly recommended by a manufacturer and it might affect the safety of the aircraft and number four all operators of the pa-31 should do a detailed stress analysis of any pre-1983 propeller hubs despite not being manufactured since 1984 piper pa-31s are still popular among collectors and private pilots although if you are purchasing one i would certainly check to make sure the propeller hubs were the post 1983 design and in any case at crash landing outside of king's land in norfolk in june of 1993 represents an exceptional bit of piloting one of the more impressive crash landings in aviation history and for that reason alone it deserves to be remembered i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets have forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section i will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on facebook instagram twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 229,905

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy

Id: hrNr8LzzxnY

Length: 57min 26sec (3446 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 29 2022