Boing Boing:
Allec Joshua Ibay’s flight sim recreation of United Airlines Flight 232’s loss of all flight controls doesn’t skip a second. The unadorned, tick-tock quality of the video makes it surprisingly gripping, not least because of the incredible solution the crew found to their predicament: controlling the plane entirely by raising and lowering thrust from the engines. Even then, they couldn’t turn left at all, meaning the slightest overturn right would require an entire 360-degree swoop to get back on target.
Then they had to land it.
I’d seen the crash footage of this before but I’d never heard the story behind it. Ignoring the spelling mistakes, the flight sim recreation is very gripping.
I was young, but I remember this crash. While it’s sad that 105 people lost their lives, given the circumstances, it’s a credit to the pilots that they saved the lives of 185.
NASA conducted additional research on how the plane had been steered and developed software that could serve as backup flight controls using engine thrust only.
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19950016969
The major aircraft manufacturers determined that the risk of adding a complex mode to flight controls systems was not justified given the low number of events in which it would be useful.
I suspect this idea may return as the focus on airplane design turns to extreme fuel efficiency.
I’m a pilot. Not of a DC-10, but what DC-10 pilots refer to as, “bug smashers:” a Cessna 182. A four-seat aircraft that flies at 1/4 the speed of a DC-10… with a good tail wind.
Al Haines is a certified friggin’ hero. He did something that took years for the simulator folks to recreate: they couldn’t figure out the physics. It’s sad that 111 souls died, but 185 lived and that is nothing short of a miracle. And a testament to Al’s pilot skills and crew resource management skills.
I was a student pilot when this happened. As a pilot we see every day when another pilot practices darwinism by taking themselves out of the gene pool through their stupid behavior. But Al Haines should stay in the pool. We aviators could learn a lot from his actions.
<<o. ★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★::::::!fn499m:….,….