DANGER in New York!! What went wrong on this passenger jet?

new york city march 5th 2015 a delta airlines md-88 is on final approach to runway 1-3 at laguardia international airport the city is being battered by a snowstorm and the pilots of this flight are cutting it close with their decision to land their aircraft is heavy the runway is short and when they break out of the clouds just seconds before landing they discovered that it's covered with snow there's now no margin for error if the pilots make any mistakes their aircraft could slide off the runway and into the freezing waters of flushing bay what neither pilot knows is that on this morning a combination of bad weather and psychological factors would conspire with the unique feature of the md-88's design to make a safe landing all but impossible this is the story of delta airlines flight 1086 now a few of you have told me that you like to fall asleep listening to my videos i don't know how to feel about that but i know that if you really want to fall asleep you should try an app from 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whatever's been stressing me out during the day the first 100 people to download endle at this link will get a free week of audio experiences so click on that link in the description quickly to be in that first hundred and enjoy a better night's sleep than even green dot can provide in the early morning of march 5th 2015 delta airlines flight 1086 prepared for departure from atlanta's hartsfield-jackson airport it was bound for laguardia airport in new york a two and a half hour journey on board were 127 passengers three flight attendants and two pilots they were not to know as they boarded the aircraft this morning this would be the last flight ever flown by this aircraft the aircraft was a 27 year old mcdonald douglas md-88 the md-88 is a safe and reliable short to medium haul aircraft which delta used extensively for its domestic routes at this time the aircraft had over 100 md-88s in service and employed over 2000 md-88 pilots while the aircraft had an excellent safety record a unique feature of its design the rear-mounted engines would prove fateful on this morning in the cockpit of this experienced aircraft was an experienced crew in command of the flight was 56 year old captain theodore lower he had been with delta since becoming an airline pilot in 1989 and before that he'd been an f-16 pilot with the us air force as well as an instructor pilot in this time he had accumulated over 15 000 hours of flying experience about eleven thousand of which were on md-80 series aircraft the first officer was 46 year old david phillips he had been with delta since 2007 where he had flown the 737 and md-88 and before that he'd been with another airline as a fight engineer on the 727. before starting his career as an airline pilot he had flown with the us navy over this time he had racked up about 11 000 hours of flying experience about 3000 of which were on md-80 series aircraft both pilots had spotless safety records and were variously described by colleagues as being highly skilled and professional team players at 25 minutes past 9 that morning flight 1086 took to the skies above atlanta the first officer was flying the aircraft for this leg of the journey in just two hours the plane would be in new york's busy airspace as the aircraft climbed to its cruising altitude of 33 000 ft the pilots discussed the weather conditions in new york given the snowstorms which were blanketing the east coast it was becoming increasingly likely in their minds that they might not be able to land at laguardia these discussions continued throughout the cruise with the pilots requesting weather updates from american airlines dispatch and from air traffic controllers on route the stress that this uncertainty provoked would go on to play a crucial role in the outcome of this flight around a quarter past 10 that morning the pilots began their descent into new york the weather conditions at laguardia were right on the edge of being safe for landing the captain decided to take over from the first officer as the pilot flying at this point given the difficult conditions and his greater experience flying the mb-88 the pilots consulted the landing distance charts which are used to calculate the aircraft's landing distance based on a variety of factors including its weight flap setting the wind speed and direction and the contamination status of the runway that is whether it's covered with snow or ice or water the captain discovered that even if he applied maximum braking on touchdown the aircraft would need the braking action on the runway to be categorized as good in order to stop before the end of the runway anything less and he would risk sliding off the end of the short runway and into the freezing cold waters of flushing bay thus the decision to attempt a landing hinged entirely on one factor the braking action on the runway braking action refers to the aircraft's ability to slow down once it lands it depends on whether the runway is contaminated with snow ice or water an interesting and in this case relevant point is that breaking action isn't determined in an objective way rather pilots touching down on the runways give subjective reports of the breaking action for following aircraft categorizing it as either good medium or poor the captain relayed this information to the american airlines dispatcher and asked him if he had any breaking action reports inconveniently the dispatcher did not because the runway at laguardia was at that moment being cleared of snow these runway clearing operations went on for half an hour and during that time all inbound flights including flight 1086 were instructed to enter holding patterns above new york the stress in the cockpit was now starting to ratchet up the captain expressed his frustration to the first officer that the dispatcher had not advised them of the possibility of holding for as long as the runway was being swept there would be no reports about its breaking action because there were no aircraft landing the captain was concerned that they would end up holding for an extended period of time only to then find out when some aircraft landed ahead of them that the braking action was medium or poor which would mean that they would have to divert if they could only get information on what the braking action had been like before the runway had been swept they would be able to know whether it was even worthwhile to be holding or whether they should simply divert now the flight crew also discussed the braking they would be using when they touch down given the conditions they would be using the highest auto brake setting max auto brake the auto brake is a system which automatically applies braking on the wheels when the aircraft has touched down on the runway normally a low or medium setting would be used but because of how short the runway was at laguardia and because it was likely to be slippery the captain would have to use maximum auto brake the pilots debated using maximum manual braking which was even more powerful than the auto brake but they decided against it as the captain said that he had never used it before not even in the simulator at a quarter to 11 that morning new york air traffic control radioed another flight telling them that breaking action at laguardia had been reported as poor the crew of flight 1086 overheard this and the captain commented to the first officer that they wouldn't be able to land however three minutes later another aircraft landing at laguardia reported that the breaking action was good the captain was still concerned however wonder who reported breaking action good that's another concern of mine it was united he said united did what kind of airplane was he the captain wanted to make sure that the reports of breaking action came from the crew of a similar aircraft to his own as this would be more predictive of his own breaking action as it happened the united airlines aircraft was an airbus a320 which has similar braking performance to the md-80 it was marginal but technically the conditions were within safe limits air traffic control began giving flight 1086 radar vectors to line it up with runway 1-3 at laguardia the captain made a pa to the passengers and then told the flight attendants to make sure everything in the galley was battened down as they would be using maximum auto brakes on landing within a few minutes the aircraft was established on the instrument landing system for runway one three and the first officer contacted tower control towers up 1086 joining you ils 1813 delta 1086 the body is tower uh winning 030 at niner runway one three clear to land breaking actually pretty good by an airbus and in a regional jet they'll be departure from only four private arrival only once the touchdown greater than six thousand rolled out three thousand five values hopefully all clear to land on runway one three double 1086. the crew now had the all clear the visibility on the runway was poor but it was within safe limits however the winds reported by the controller did not match what the captain was seeing on his instruments his instruments showed an 11 knot tailwind if the plane landed 11 knots fast its stopping distance would be increased the stopping distance figures calculated earlier in the flight did not include a tailwind he told the first officer to ask the controller for another wind check 02010 this was a crosswind and it was just within safe limits if it got stronger the crew wouldn't be able to land jeez yeah okay we're all counting on you alright the captain confirmed that everything was set for landing gear flaps 40 spoilers maximum motor brakes and armed this was going to be an aggressive attempt at deceleration the pilots were expecting the runway to come into view at any moment throughout the approach they had heard that arriving aircraft were being put into holding patterns while the runway was being cleared up as such they expected to see patches of snow on the runway when it finally came into view at about 300 feet above the ground the approached lights appeared through the snow and the captain announced that he was continuing the approach shortly thereafter the runway itself came into view and it was not what the pilots expected rather than being greeted with a paved surface with patches of snow they were met with a runway which was entirely blanketed by snow this would further increase the plane's stopping distance the captain pointed the nose down slightly in an effort to land the aircraft a bit earlier on the runway when the aircraft touched down all of the captain's attention turned to bringing it to a stop he deployed the engine's thrust reverses immediately which redirected the air coming out of the engines forward the spoilers deployed from the wings pressing the main gear onto the runway and allowing the wheel brakes to work however within seconds the aircraft started yawing to the left the captain stepped on the right rotor in an attempt to bring the aircraft back on course but it kept skidding left the air shooting out from the thruster versus had rendered the rudder completely ineffective recognizing this the first officer shouted out of reverse come out of reverse the captain stowed the reversers and stepped hard on the right rudder and right break but it was too late the aircraft careened off the side of the runway broke through the airport perimeter fence and the left wing collided with the embankment next to flushing bay the left fuel tank ruptured and fuel started spewing out the aircraft scraped along the wall for a few hundred meters and then finally came to a stop with its nose on top of the embankment hanging over the bay thanks to the embankment the aircraft and its occupants were spared from the icy waters of flushing bay however in the thick snow the air traffic controller had no idea that the plane had crashed he gave landing clearance to the next plane on approach while repeatedly making calls to flight 1086. however it was no use the aircraft's electrical systems had been cut off by the impact with the wall and this meant that neither the radios nor the passenger address system were working self energy safe jobs it wasn't until a snow removal vehicle came across the aircraft that the tower was made aware of the accident how are you copy call 100 runway 13 is closed that's a question uh call 100 you said runway 13 is closed properly is closed seem red sauce but it's close the airport is closed we got a three four call 100 say again sorry you have an aircraft off 3-1 on the north vehicle service road please advise crash rescue lugari airport is closed at this time perhaps the strangest thing about this whole incident is how long the evacuation took the captain didn't give the order to evacuate until six minutes after the plane had come to a stop and when he did give this order he did not convey a sense of urgency which meant that the evacuation did not begin for a further six minutes when it did begin it took five minutes to complete rather than the required 90 seconds luckily there was no post crash fire and all 127 passengers and five crew survived with some passengers receiving minor injuries the aircraft itself was damaged beyond repair and was written off investigators from the national transportation safety board arrived on scene shortly after the crash and tried to piece together what had happened in their final report on the accident they concluded that the captain's excessive use of reverse thrust had disrupted the airflow over the rudder in a phenomenon known as rudder blanking this had led to a loss of directional control which was not possible to recover from rudder blanking had been a known issue on md80 series aircraft for decades in fact all pilots flying the type had been explicitly trained not to use excessive reverse thrust on landing especially on wet or icy runways why had this captain failed to put this training to use investigators determined that the captain's uncertainty throughout the approach that he would be able to land on the runway had made him stressed and focused his mind on stopping the aircraft above all else this meant that as soon as the aircraft touched down he engaged the reverse thrust much more quickly than usual and at a power setting far greater than that recommended by delta airlines anything to avoid sliding off the end of the runway which he had just discovered seconds earlier was covered with snow on dry runways pilots are advised to use an epr setting of 1.6 for reverse thrust epr stands for engine pressure ratio and it can be thought of as the power setting for the engines on wet runways the recommended maximum epr is 1.3 this is what the captain of flight 1086 should have been using but because of the pressure he was under to stop the aircraft in time on the short and snowy runway he aggressively pulled the thrust reverse levers to an epr setting of 2.07 and 1.91 on the left and right engine respectively this had rendered the rudder totally ineffective on landing leading to the loss of directional control further as the left engine was put inadvertently to a more powerful reverse thrust setting 2.07 versus 1.91 on the right engine this led to a yawing motion to the left which combined with uneven runway surface conditions and fluctuating wind directions ultimately caused the aircraft to leave the runway off to the left-hand side over the course of their investigation the ntsb discovered something concerning the captain's use of excessive reverse thrust on this flight was not despite training at delta airlines and uncommon practice in fact in a study conducted by the ntsb they found that md-88 pilots regularly used higher than recommended epr settings on both contaminated runways and dry ones the reason this aircraft in particular crashed was simply due to how quickly the captain moved the engines into reverse thrust and how high an epr setting he reached as for why the captain failed to recognize this mistake immediately and stowed the thrust reversers investigators identified a psychological phenomenon known as intentional tunneling as the first officer was telling the captain to come out of reverse thrust due to the left yaw the captain was likely experiencing this phenomenon which refers to the tendency for humans when highly stressed to become preoccupied with salient or threatening primary cues and ignore potentially important peripheral information in interviews after the accident the captain stated that he was not able to monitor the epr gauges because he had to direct his attention to quote multiple distractions during the landing role the slide to the left immediately after the application of reverse thrust concerned that the auto brakes were not working which caused him to check the spoiler handle and the continuing slide to the left despite efforts to steer the aircraft away from the snow banks alongside the runway there was simply too much important information being thrown to the captain in a short space of time for him to recognize that he had exceeded the recommended reverse thrust epr values as a result of their findings the ntsb recommended that airlines operating md-80 series aircraft revise their operational procedures so that one pilot notifies the other when the reverse thrust power exceeds 1.3 epr during landings on a contaminated runway they also recommended that boeing the faa and the airlines conduct a study to examine reverse thrust epr data procedures and training and identify industry-wide best practices that have been shown to be effective in reliably preventing epr exceedances to reduce the risk of rudder blanking they even suggested that boeing explore the possibility of incorporating an alert in md-80 series aircraft to aid pilots in preventing ep or accedences on landing this type of accident known as a runway excursion remains the most common accident category in commercial aviation today but because of the lessons learned from this accident and it must be said the phasing out of md-80 series aircraft largely in favor of aircraft with wing-mounted engines similar accidents are becoming increasingly uncommon special thanks to the patreon and youtube members for supporting the channel i'd especially like to thank snowdoggo and joey for their very generous contributions if you'd like to support the channel and see more of these videos then you can sign up on patreon or youtube i've put the links here on screen finally i'd also like to thank endle again for sponsoring this video as always let me know if there are any incidents you'd like me to cover and i'll see you next week for another episode

Channel: Green Dot Aviation

Views: 356,257

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Id: P5pYcSJZFGQ

Length: 19min 9sec (1149 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 14 2022