Discovery Channel 727 Crash
 

Video: Boeing 727 intentionally crashed in Mexican desert - USATODAY.com


Just wondering - ex-Champion bird??

I'm curious if it was one of the NWA birds I flew 10 years ago (sigh).

Anyone see an N number anywhere?

Apparently its the same N # that flew Bob Dole a while back

Looks ex-Champion but can't find the reg. anywhere on the net...

N293AS

The Discovery Channel Crashes A 727 Intentionally (Video) | Gadling.com

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The 72 is a pretty strong bird. I wonder how a composite would have withstood the same test.

Phew... After all that talk about crashing an airplane and studying the effects and how to make crashes safer... I was, you know, worried they had forgotten to clean up the environment... :p

[QUOTE]Phew... After all that talk about crashing an airplane and studying the effects and how to make crashes safer... I was, you know, worried they had forgotten to clean up the environment... :p[/QUOT

Lol, I know I will sleep better

Dang...if that's what happens to a brick like a 727...
Looked like the cockpit snapped off from the nose gear hitting the ground, I wonder if that was remotely survivable.

Nothing terribly relevant to say.
Post #3, gotta get to 5 so I can go back to lurking...jeez

Survivable if not in 1st Class!
Full article and video here:
Discovery Channel's 'Curiosity' takes the viewer inside a jet crash

USMCFLYR

Nailed it. This has been true for a long time. What's interesting is that on some aircraft, 1st class has MUCH better access to emergency exits, so much so that your chances of exiting might be significantly less if you are not in 1st class, but on the other hand, if you don't survive to the point where you can exit, it doesn't really matter.

Yes, it's an old Champion bird.

and one of our favorites,a good flying ship,and blessed with an aux tank too.

Anyone watch??? Pretty awesome...and way to go Boeing! It held up pretty well...

N-293AS then XB-MNP... It Belonged to Alaska and several others before Champion.

JetPhotos.Net » Aircraft Census Database » CN 21348 Boeing 727-212(Adv) XB-MNP

I'm more impressed that the engines are still running! P&W JT8D!

Great show, but have to say, could have been planned a whole lot better.

For starters, after 4 years of planning and millions of dollars spent on a one-shot, no-fail test, this group of 15 or so pilots couldn't figure out that they'd need a chase plane in place that could actually keep up with the 727?!

AND have a ready spare on hand?!

C'mon.

My guess is that they did that for the TV show. Just like the narrator was putting all the drama in whether or not the remote system would work. The drama of crashing a jet in today's reality TV world isn't enough :rolleyes:

And how they kept saying it was the largest plane flown by remote control after they showed the NASA 707 crash. At least the pilot said it was the largest plane flown by a hand held remote control.

Or how how one of their experts said it would slow down 5 knots after the crew bailed. In a 727 ref moves 1 knot every 2000 pounds. Do the math.

Also right at the end I heard "Traffic, Traffic" which if you have a 337 on your wing tip you might expect. The subtitle said "Descending, Descending." I've never seen a GPWS that had a "Descending" call.

Very poorly written show full of inane commentary. Who were these guys? The chase plane was just one of the many ridiculous problems with there "plan". It's a shame such efforts were made with so little support to ensure a meaningful result.

The histrionics of the narration was laughable.

I didn't hear that.

The TCAS blaring "traffic traffic" and the associated subtitle was pretty funny...then again, for all they got wrong they did a better job than most shows when it comes to aviation.

Just saw this tonight. It's an amazing project, however wonky the commentary was.

Have a soft spot for the 27 as that's what I learned to dispatch on. Solid product from Boeing.

RIP "Big Flo". Thank you for your service.

Recorded it and finally watched it last night. There were a few creative liberties, but given that the shows demographic was probably -for the most part- unfamiliar with aircraft, it was not too bad.

As thurberm suggested, not having spares was sloppy. They got lucky there.

Just getting to watch the whole thing tonight. I saw the last 30 minutes earlier in the week. They knew the speed it would be flying at... I can't fathom not having aircraft able to fly along side it.

However- it seems they thought the remote system would be able to have a much wider area of functionality than it did once they got to air testing. If you notice they started out where they thought they would be able to control it from and then moved in. Of course, that is something that ground experimentation should have covered....

I thought they found a SM 260 to fly chase, then it disappeared, and the mixmaster showed up again. What happened?

AOG, Fuel Pump, no Spares.

Looked like a bunch of amateurs.

I keep forgetting to set my DVR to record this. It looked really interesting in the commercials... worth watching or just hype worthy of skipping?

I agree. It was as simple as what is the min. Landing speed and what is the max airspeed of the othe plane. It seemed like it was an after thought lol

5 minutes
 

Record it and fast-forward to the last 5 minutes. For all the money they must have spent on it, it was a little pathetic, especially the chase/remote-control plane (Cessna 337), which had to keep asking the 727 to either slow down or turn so they could catch-up. They missed their target crash-point by 2000 ft short (I heard them say "Idle;" I guess they couldn't push the power back up....). It seemed to hit in a flat area, but I think it went over a small earthen-berm about 2 seconds after touchdown. I think that, and the nose wheel going under the forward fuselage, made it buckle and snap.

Post-crash, they seemed surprised that one or more engines was running near full-power....that might happen when the cockpit is ripped off, and the throttle-cables go with it....

They keep showing the same 4 or 5 five good shots, and try to add dramatic-effect by having the "safety experts" narrate with such gems as "We hope to publish these results some day," or "We have a treasure-trove of data we hope the manufacturers will use to build safer aircraft." Pardon my skepticism, but I don't see Boeing building the 797 "Crashliner" in the future.

I don't think they really learned anything earth-shattering (Pun intended). Un-surprisingly, when the front of the plane bounces 12 feet in the air before buckling, the seats forward of the wing absorbed the heaviest g-loads.

I wondered how they would work the "D B Cooper" airstair mod. Yeah, you could take the little wind-vane off, but who would put the rear stairs back UP before the landing? Ans: they just removed the aft stairs!!

I'm surprised the rear engine in the 337 didn't overheat in the Mexican desert when the electric cowl flaps failed closed...

They downplayed the NASA experiment and the assumption here was no fire - which most likely would have erupted in a real crash. Aside from blunt force trauma most fatalities are fire related - burns and inhalation.

You can get the impact data on a human being in a lab without crashing an airliner.

Another ridiculous observation was the cargo hold. One of the guys says that the cargo hold was empty and if it had been full of luggage then surely the bags would have distorted the floor and injured many passengers. THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU FILL THE CARGO BAY WITH BAGS????

All in all it seemed like a huge waste of time, effort and money.

Oh, and one more thing. The said they used a 727 because it most closely approximated the 737, the most common air transport in use today. Oh really? I wonder how much more damage/fire etc would happen when the engines of a 737 slammed in the dirt and ripped off. Close approximation indeed.

DVR'd it, never watched
 

after reading the comments here, I just deleted it. From what I've read they had money and time issues to get it done. They only paid 450K for the 727 and the Mexican govt gave them a deadline.

I'm sure it'll be on youtube or discovery.com at some piont - if it's not already.

Anchorage Daily News - Google News Archive Search

Jim Slocum, the captain on this little stunt, is a famous name in the Smoke Jumper World. This not the first airplane Jim has "abandoned" in flight.

UAL T-38 Phyler,

spot on observation concerning the missed landing area and the small berm which caused to nose to buckle and break off. I thought the same thing too, but couldn't rewind the show to watch it over again. Also I missed the first 15 minutes of the show, did they intend to land nose-wheel first? if not, then they really did screw it up.

I think they intended to slam it into the ground at 2000fpm, which they did decently well. An airplane with a fuselage like that is going to buckle at some point most likely. It's pretty common with crashes (I study them). What was good was that it was strong enough near the wings to remain intact, and it "broke off" so far forward, leaving most of it intact.


Is the the best and most optimal crash recreation ever? No, probably not. Is it a good use of an airplane that will never fly again and pretty interesting? Yep. I think this should be done with more of those boneyard planes.

Hoss:

I tried to page-forward through the newspaper archive to read the rest of the article on Slocum, which was dated 1981. Around page 4 or 5 I found this headline:

"Europe Spurs Peace Initiative in Afghanistan."

I wonder how that worked out?

Long story short..

After the load masters jumped, Slocum went back and jettisoned/secured everything he could. Ed Dugan continued to fly the airplane and ordered Slocum to jump. They were unable to feather the engine and they were unable to start the jet pack on the roof as the fuel supply to the jet came off the engine that was on fire. By this time the fire was so severe that the tail boom was starting to separate on the fire side.

Jim Slocum got out at about 300' AGL. One of the load masters told me that he watched Jim jump and that his chute had barely inflated and he got about a half swing before he hit the ground. Ed had tried to tie off the yoke and depart the aircraft several times but even with full rudder trim and the yoke tied over every time he let go of the controls the airplane started to roll over.

Ed was able to land gear up on a sand bar in a river and survived with no or minor injuries.

I did not know Jim or Ed but I knew and worked with all three jumpers who were working as load masters that day. I remember Tony Pasco telling me that he knew it was time to jump when all the windows on the burning side melted out and the fire started coming inside the fuselage.

And that is the very shortened story of the infamous Ak Smokejumper C-119 in slow flight.

The river was either the Kuskokwim or the koukuk. I will find out. The airplane was owned and operated by Hawkins and Powers out of Greybull Wyoming.

Here is the whole story as told by the captain Ed Dugan

http://www.ruudleeuw.com/c119-dugan_story.htm