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Darwin Awards
2006 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
Should I include it in the archive?
Vote to tell me what *you* think!

Flame-Out

2006 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

http://www.ntsb.gov/Pressrel/2006/060502a.htm

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060503/NEWS01/605030379

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=f7da58eb-5069-4f2b-bd82-56d5ab4185cd

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/14493498.htm

http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=4856261&nav=4CAL

http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/business/article/0,1426,MCA_440_4668159,00.html

http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=4855858&nav=4CAL

Anyone who happened to be at the World of Sports golf course in Florence, Ky on Friday, August 13, 2004 would have witnessed one of the most spectacular crashes anyone could ever hope to see. Because far from a golf cart tipping over or anything as run of the mill as that, what they saw was Air Tahoma flight 185 dropping out of the sky.

Air Tahoma 185 was a routine cargo flight from Memphis to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. The plane, a Corvair 580, was a seriously chunky two-engine turboprop. They can and are used as passenger jets, but this one was a cargo plane and was laden with packages being freighted for the courier firm DHL. This all adds up to a pretty ungainly beast. So it's only natural to try to keep her handling as smoothly as possible. And, about 50 minutes into the flight, that's exactly what veteren pilot Bruno Pichelli did when he noticed that there was signifigantly more fuel in the left fuel tank than in the right. This was causing minor dificulties with the plane's handling.

The Convair 580 is equipped with a fuel tank on the left and the right side of the plane. To correct the handling problems, Bruno set both engines to draw fuel from the left fuel tank in a procedure known as cross-feeding. Once the fuel levels were equal, the engines are returned to their normal settings, that is, the right engine drawing fuel from the right tank, and the left engine from the left tank. But Bruno and first officer Ray Gelwicks decided they couldn't wait. So they did the most dangerous thing they could possibly have done - in defiance of all the safety regulations, they opened up a shut-off valve, allowing fuel to flow from the left tank from the right one whilst cross-feeding was in progress.

Then they forgot all about it. No, I'm not joking, they forgot all about it. Bruno, instead of monitoring the fuel sitaution, proceded to work on lengthy weight and balance calculations that should have been completed before takeoff. Who knows what he would have done if the calculations had showed the cargo would have to be repositioned. His excuse? His handheld weight and balance calculator was broken and he had to make the calculations manually. If these calculations are incorrect or incomplete, you simply don't takeoff.

For the next 30 minutes, the fuel transfer from left to right continued unchecked at 10 gallons per minute, untill the right tank contained some 4,000 gallons of fuel. Astoundingly, even though they noticed the drastic handling problems this caused , nothing was done about it. In fact, Bruno was heard to remark that they would investigate after they landed! Meantime, goodness knows what Ray had found to do, but whatever was on his mind, it certainly wasn't his duty as first officer to be constantly checking the flight controls, which would have told him instantly about the disaster about to happen

2½ minutes after Bruno suggested they should investigate upon landing, the left tank was sucked dry. Instead of fuel, air was drawn into the fuel system from the empty tank, causing a twin-engine "flame-out", that is, failure of both engines, due to fuel starvation. The doomed aircraft contacted air traffic control to inform them of engine trouble. A few minutes later, the aircraft crashed just a mile from the safety of the runway, killing Ray and giving Bruno injuries the NTSB Report describes as "serious". But they were right about one thing. An investigation WAS launched upon landing - if you could call it landing - only it was performed by a team of people rather more adept with planes than they were.

PLEASE NOTE: Although the reports into this crash place almost all the blame on the pilot, Bruno, and almost none on his dead comrade, Ray. I feel that he is equaly to blame for the accident. He failed to check flight controls, failed to challenge Bruno's decision to perform crucial calculations mid-flight, AND he was just as keen to investigate the handling probelms after landing. And he too forgot that fuel was flowing freely from the left tank to the right.

You can see a picture of the downed aircraft here:

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060503/BIZ01/605030316/1076

Submitted on 05/05/2006

Submitted by: Iain Macdonald
Reference: NTSB Report & Other News

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

>> Moderator Scores <<

Sheryl said:
Definitely Toss: Bystanders Hurt
Thanks for the story, Iain but I'm going to vote to toss this one. In my view, there is one person and only one person responsible for the aircraft and that is the pilot. His failure to follow any shred of correct procedure cost the life of his FO and the destruction of an aircraft.


James said:
Maybe Toss: Lacks Excellence
This one falls under the "sh*t happens" category. I'm not entirely convinced DA grade stupidity was present here (as it was, for example, in the story of the two mooks who took the plane up to 41,000 feet and had a double flame-out). Sorry, I'll have to toss this one, but thanks for the submission and keep 'em coming!


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