NTSB: Plane touched down too late (Southwest Accident)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-051215midway,1,4681690.story?coll=chi-news-hed

After agreeing with a Southwest Airlines dispatcher that it was safe to land amid a blowing lake-effect snowstorm, the pilots of Flight 1248 that crashed at Midway Airport touched down long---more than 2,000 feet beyond the edge of the 6,522-foot runway, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.

The plane hit the runway forcefully, bouncing and becoming momentarily airborne again, during a 29-second landing attempt that needed at least another 800 feet of runway to avoid hitting anything or anyone.

There was also a longer delay than previously reported in deploying the aircraft's thrust reversers, which are designed to assist the braking system in stopping the plane.

<snip>

But data from the plane's flight data recorder now show that the thrust reversers did not activate until about 18 seconds after landing, the safety board said. The delay meant that the thrust reversers were working to redirect air from the jet engines in a forward-upwardly direction for only about 14 seconds before the plane hit the fence.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Soooooooooooo, who are they going to blame?

:shrug: Isn't that what it all comes down to?

[benburch]

3. The pilots...

As a death resulted, it is entirely possible that Illinois will charge them with manslaughter.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Wow!. Has that ever happened before?

[benburch]

5. Not sure! nt

[Colorado Blue]

8. Oh - I hope not. Midway is closed in on all four sides by

houses and Chicago weather can be violent.

This could have been SO much worse. It's very sad but stuff happens.

'Course I've had pilots in the family so...

[wakeme2008]

2. They should have the audio tape and

I wonder if the pilots talked about the thrusters now working.....

[rfkrfk]

7. data recorder, keeps record of thrust-reverser operation ??

my reaction to this when I heard about it, was -->

for whatever bonehead move the pilots make,
those guys have a well rehearsed pile of BS
to say to thw cockpit-voice-recorder

[anitar1]

6. I sure thought they would hang it on the pilots

as soon as they could. Insane to have planes landing there in that storm. The airport should be shut down except for small planes.

[recidivist]

9. Multiple causation is the norm, not the exception.

Pilot error is generally cited in investigations because it is ALWAYS the pilots' job to adjust to and correct the 1001 things than can go wrong. Equipment breaks. Weather is bad. Someone else in the loop does something wrong. The pilot is supposed to adjust. That's why he is getting paid the big bucks.

Unless there is a catastrophic mechanical failure (the tail falls off), an onboard explosion, or something similarly unrecoverable, the pilot is usually going to be culpable for a failure to react appropriately.