Word came down today (7/16/2021) that the FAA has ordered TransAir to stop flying. This doesn't really surprise me, as a former pilot who worked there from 2016 to 2018.

the shorts seem to still be flying. Probably because they are on the 135 certificate.

Here's an article about the grounding:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...xSnxt_GJY7W93k

-FAA says this is unrelated to the accident
-Rhoades has lost it's authority to conduct Mx inspections, that led to the grounding.

Wonder what the actual GW of the airplane was?

Considering the motor blew at about 400 and they managed to climb out of that - it wasn't excessive, and with a short island hop of a flight you'd basically need to be carrying gold bricks to bring the weight up enough to exceed the climb limits with the relatively light (round trip) fuel load.

The MLW is 116k, it's only a 3k burn to OGG, so that would limit the takeoff weight to 119 in order to burn back down to their MLW. Relatively light for an aircraft rated up to about a 139k MTW.

Are you sure that we are talking about the same aircraft type? Many, many years ago, when I last flew the 737-200, the MTOG was 103,000.

The number you are quoting sounds like a -300 or -400.

Joe

There was rumor that the plane was floating or barely submerged for a while. I run fishing charters every Saturday and observed no closure area the morning following the crash.

My guess is that it followed the tradewind swells and current to another location about 7 NM away where those photos were made.

This week we have had a closure area for 3nm surrounding the impact site, supposed to remain thru July 30....but the only enforced closure area is about 7nm to the West in about 500’ of water near Electric Beach / Campbell Industrial Park offshore. I know because this Saturday I was escorted out of the closed zone and informed that this is a “closure for dive operations.”

Also possibly corresponding is the Navy Research vessel Commando, and an unnamed submarine in the area with a DSRV on its back. Both are sitting off Electric Beach fully visible from shore in the daylight.

Just a guess but I think it floated for a while and found bottom off the West side of Oahu. Possibly not either - but nobody is guarding the waters off the crash site.

The navy is not using a nuclear attack sub and a DSRV to dive on cargo plane. That I can guarantee.

Can you though? The Navy still hold a line on their subs that they can submerge “greater than 500’” or something like that - so they likely will not jump on he news to talk about capabilities.

It’s a great opportunity for training and use of equipment - the news never identified who took those photos at 800’ depth - my guess if the locally based Navy Dive and Salvage Unit. That’s what they do, and it’s in their backyard.

You could be right...just saying.