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GIV Crash Mystery Focuses on Mechanical Systems
Accident investigators are focusing on two perplexing clues as they try to determine what caused the deadly crash of Gulfstream IV in Bedford, Massachusetts, on May 31 after the jet failed to lift off from the runway during what should have been a routine takeoff. (www.flyingmag.com) 기타...
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No mystery about the flap handle in a different position. You had a crew franticly trying to stop an aircraft, impact forces, and a crew member attempting egress all could have moved the handle in the cockpit. Bottom line, the flaps were in the position the crew wanted for takeoff. The next "mystery" is why Gulfstream would put a mechanical gust lock system on a hydraulic flight control aircraft. They were asking for trouble and now they've got it. A control problem discussion at Vr can only be an inability to move the control yoke or no corresponding action to yoke movement. If the NTSB verifies that trim was in the takeoff range, that would leave only the elevator as the cause. A linkage issue? Gust lock engaged or becoming engaged during takeoff? This one will be solved quickly. The CVR may already reveal the answer.
Do you suppose one of the pilots realized at the last second what the problem was (gust lock still in place) and released it just before the crash? He didn't have time to verbalize it, so the correction was not on the CDR.
All this is well and good but the mystery remains that if the Gust Lock was in place and functioning correctly, it should have held them to 6% power if I read it right. That said, they were way above that at V1 and ready to rotate. Something was sour.
I was on duty in the NWA dispatch office around 1960 at MSP when one of our Boeing 377 stratocruisers ditched into Puget Sound right after takeoff. The flight engineer, who had come over from flying Lockheed constellations, had set the cowl flaps in the wrong position, wide open, and the ensuing vibrations caused the pilots to ditch. The FSA (flight service attendant) was in the lower level bar, drowned. He was the only fatality.
Since this "gust lock" was installed on a hydraulic system could this be a metering valve problem?...Seems to me like there wasn't adequate pressure to move the elevator.
I'm also interested in the effect having that ditch just beyond the perimeter had on this accident. The wheels may have come off before the ditch, but did it create an impact that ruptured the fuel tanks.
