UPS Flight 1354 equipment, engines worked normally until flight data recording ended (photos, video)

updated August 17, 2013 at 6:05 PM

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- A flight data recorder recovered from the wreckage of UPS Flight 1354 showed that the plane's engines and controls appeared to have been working normally in the final seconds before the Airbus 300-600 crashed, National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said Saturday.

The autopilot and auto-throttle remained engaged until the flight data recorder ceased recording, Sumwalt said in the latest NTSB press conference Saturday afternoon at the Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport.


NTSB updates public on UPS Flight 1354 Saturday August 17 BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Robert Sumwalt, NTSB member on scene of UPS cargo plane crash, updates public on UPS Flight 1354 Saturday afternoon, August 17, 2013.
However, Sumwalt cautioned that the flight data recorder ceased recording a few seconds before the cockpit voice recorder. Both recorders indicated that there were two descent warnings about five seconds before the cockpit recorder captured sounds of impact.

"These are two separate pieces of equipment," he said. "One quit recording a few seconds before the other."

The flight's recorded airspeed was about 140 knots, which is consistent with the expected approach speed.

The NTSB will use the flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder, airport radar data and other sources of information to recreate the flights' final moments, Sumwalt said.

"We will be pulling all of these sources of data to create a composite and accurate picture of what happened," he said.

NTSB investigators have scoured the plane's maintenance history, but have not found anything that might explain the crash.

"So far they are reporting that all service bulletins and airworthiness directives have been complied with," Sumwalt said. "And so far, they have identified no mechanical anomalies with the aircraft."

The FAA has not yet completed all flight tests of the airports' navigational aids because of the weather, but precision approach path indicator lights were tested and found to be one one-hundredth of a degree out of alignment, he said.

Flight checks of the airport's navigational aids could be completed this week if the weather cooperates.

Tomorrow, the NTSB will bring a UPS A300-600 to the Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport to test the approach risks and procedures for landing on the airport's north-south runway.

"In the coming weeks, we anticipate that we will do a flight test in a UPS A300 to see how this approach would have been flown in that type of an aircraft and to learn more about UPS's instrument approach procedures," he said.

Already NTSB investigators have conducted interviews of UPS employees and others who interacted with the Flight 1354 crew in the three days before the crash. Those interviews will be used for an assessment of their physical and mental condition before the accident, Sumwalt said.

According to Sumwalt, the flight crew checked out keys for UPS sleep rooms in Louisville, but the NTSB has not determined yet whether the crew used those rooms.

Two surveillance systems captured video of the plane exploding, but it is not yet clear whether those videos show much more than the flames after impact.

"We're just on day four of the investigation," he said. "There is a lot of work that remains to be done. This is just the beginning of the investigation."