 |
The Rise and Fall of American Aviation Industry
Hello everone this work is under construction. Please come back as I build it for you too read. The subject,"The Rise and Fall of the American Aviation Industry". I learned long ago.
"Once you begin to cut corners, look the other way, ignore or give reasoning that it will be non-affected, the main goals, the very concepts of aviation safety are lost, you are a hack who will sell himself to a carnival if need be". "I would rather not work, than do that which is less-than, that is not an honest reflection of myself, my goals as an Aircraft Mechanic USAF, Assemblier, Inspector, Material Review Board Inspector, Cert. Mechanical Inspector, FAA Airframe & Power Plant Mechanic, Advance Quality Systems Technician."
In over twenty five years of Aviation Industry field, I have run in to several individuals in the Manufacturing side of aviation that were less than honest. They reminded me of used car salesmen, not to say all car saleman are dishonest, just as not all aviation manufactures are dishonest. But costs are high in the Manufacturing Industries of all fields, we are seeing more and more failures of products in all industries not just the Aviation Industry. But when flying an aircraft, mistakes or short comings of the smallest matter, either intentionally or accidentially, can cause and "has" caused an aircraft faliure.
FLIGHT 232
1989, July 19, Sioux City, Iowa: United Airlines DC-10 crashed during an emergency landing. Out of a total of 296 aboard, 111 were killed, 172 were injured, and 13 escaped unharmed.
Aircraft Manufacturer / Model: McDonnell-Douglas / DC-10-10
Aircraft Registration number: N1819U
Aircraft Operator: United Airlines
Accident Location: Sioux Gateway Airport, Iowa
Accident Report No. NTSB-AAR-90-06
Final Report Date: November 1, 1990. 126 pages
The Executive Summary:
On July 19, 1989, at 1516, a DC-10-10, N1819U, operated by United Airlines as flight 232, experienced a catastrophic failure of the #2 tail-mounted engine during cruise flight. The separation, fragmentation, and forceful discharge of stage 1
fan rotor assembly parts from the #2 engine led to the loss of the three hydraulic systems that powered the airplane's flight controls. The flightcrew experienced severe and soon, major difficulties controlling the aircraft, which subsequently crashed during an attempted emergency landing at Sioux Gateway Airport,Iowa. There were 285 passengers and 11 crewmembers onboard.
One flight attendant and 110 passengers were fatally wounded.The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of this accident was the inadequate consideration given to human factors limitations in the inspection and quality control procedures used by United Airlines' engine overhaul facility, which resulted in the failure to detect a fatigue crack originating from a "Previously Undetected" metallurgical defect located in a critical area of the stage 1 fan disk that was manufactured by "General Electric Aircraft Engines". Subsequent catastrophic disintegration of the disk resulted in the liberation of debris in a pattern of distribution and with energy levels that exceeded the level of protection provided by design features of the hydraulic systems that operate the DC-10's flight controls.
The safety issues raised in this report included:
1. General Electric Aircraft Engines' (GEAE) CF6-6 fan rotor assembly design, certification, manufacturing, and inspection.
2. United Airlines' maintenance and inspection of CF6-6 engine fan rotor assemblies.
3. DC-10 hydraulic flight control system design, certification and protection from uncontained engine debris.
Recommendations concerning these issues were addressed to the Federal Aviation Administration, the Secretary of the Air Force, the Air Transport Association and the Aerospace Industries Association.
A good question now would be, "Why would the Air Force be involved?" Thats a easy question, with two answers. The Air Force has several of these aircraft in service, KC-10's are the nation's backbone for the Air-Refuel and Cargo aircraft for the U. S. Air Force and serves as a major player in any operation where aircraft are needed to support our men and women in all the services.
I had heard (years later, through the Quality Assurance and Inspection fields) that the Air Force had sent back to General Electric several Fan Rotor assemblies that had failed inspection at the Air Force level, these assemblies had metallurgical defects in the metal of new rotor assemblies.
A large part of that rotor assembly that had failed on fight "232" was finally found weeks later in a farmers field. That peice of metal had on it a very important stamp. An "R" or "D" on the part itself. You see a "R" stamp on a aicraft part in general terms means "Rejected" and "D" means "Discrepant."
That rotor was found to be flawed, "Identified" as such, but was some how assembled in to an (Jet Engine) "Aircraft Power Plant." After that incident and the investigation, any aircraft manufacture of any "Component, Assembly and Sub-Assembly had to ensure the distruction and identification of rejected components with red spray paint, band saw, ax, even driving a forklift over it if need be, so no Rejected components could be accidently or intentionally used in a sub-assembly or assembly for an aircraft.
Was it an accident, human error, or intentional that a flawed rotor was assembled in to the Power Plant destined for Fight 232?
We the public may never find out. I know through many connections in the Aviation Quality field talk of manufacturers and airlines cutting costs at any cost. But all most everything on a aircraft is critical! Even if not, it still could affect a critical component near it, or even a another aircraft!
"Catastrophic Chain of Events" FLIGHT NO.:AF4590
July 25, 2000, Gonesse, France: Air France Concorde jet en route to New York crashed into a hotel just after taking off from Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris; the first Concorde jet to crash since the plane went into commercial service in 1976.
A list of known technical malfunctions of Concordes was published by the Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine. Four fairly serious incidents have been reported between 1979 and 1981. Then for almost 17 years there were no reports of any serious problems with Concordes until October of 1998, when a British Airways Concorde experienced partial separation of the lower rudder. Concorde crash investigators say that it will take them some 18 months to determine the cause for the aircraft's crash.
As you know, the media's attention span is comparable to that of a 4-year-old child. In 18 months the crash of the Concorde will be ancient history.
Air France Concorde crash ATC transcript released.
"Concorde zero...4590, You have flames. You have flames behind you," the control tower warned Christian Marty, captain of the Concorde flight that plunged into a hotel on July 25, less than two minutes after taking off.
Seven seconds after the message from the control tower at Charles de Gaulle airport, the chief navigator confirmed, "Breakdown eng... breakdown engine two."
Four seconds later, he said, "Cut engine two." "Cut engine two." The aircraft tried to gain speed for a turn around emergency landing. Then came Marty's chilling words: "Too late." A preliminary report on the crash posted on the Internet by French investigators provides a graphic account of the final moments of Air France flight 4590.
It was the first crash in the Concorde's 24 years of commercial flying history. The Accident and Inquiry Office, said it believes a tire blowout was at the origin of a "catastrophic chain of events" that sent the Concorde diving to the ground, its left wing afire.
However, the cockpit conversation indicates that it was the control tower which first alerted the crew to real trouble."It's burning badly, and I'm not sure it's coming from the engine," someone in the control tower said. "Gong" sounds were periodically recorded inside the plane warning of engine failure and fire. At 4:43 and 31 seconds - 18 seconds after the announcement of flames - the control tower calmy advised: "So, at your convenience, you have priority to land."
The 75-page report by France's Accident and Inquiry Office, the BEA, underscores that the crew was unaware, then unable, to aright a trajectory towards disaster. The flaming plane slammed into a small hotel, decimating it, and was partially embedded in the ground. All 109 passengers and crew died when the Concorde, left wing engulfed with flames, crashed into a hotel near the airport. Four people were killed on the ground.
The probable cause of the crash has been determined to be a tire explosion caused by a foreign metal strip on the runway. The piece of metal seems to have came from the cowling of a fan reverser of a US Continental Airlines DC-10 jet that took off only a few minutes before the Concorde's takeoff. The preliminary report by the French Air Accident Investigation Bureau (BEA) indicates that the metal strip punctured the tires of the Concorde. With the resulting fragments of the tire damaging the aircraft's fuel tank, which in turn, caused the fire. The final report included the discovery of a missing sleve that was to keep one of the newly installed tires and wheel assembles turning straight, and not wobble. It had been accidently forgotten.
The foreign metal strip was sent to Corona, Califorina for further inspection which showed that the metal was not heat treated. Aluminum is a soft metal and if not properly heat treated to harden it, the fasteners securing it, with heat and vibration will wear it away like a file rubbing down the metal. Eventually expanding the holes through the metal and allowing this piece of metal to fall off the aircraft. Thus starting the chain of events that ensue flight AF4590, puncturing the tires of the Concorde that would fly apart when blown, pieces of the tire puncturing the fuel tanks and almost certainly fuel lines that sit next to the engines, thus starting a fire the flight crew had no possible way to stop.
This accident is a good explample of how a noncritical part can affect an aircraft. Aircraft engineers go over many components and systems of the aircraft's they design working out the details and the many parameters they beleive the aircraft may incounter in it's use, all the while depending on the production departments and mechanics to follow the perscribed requirements that ensure the aircraft will operate safely in those parameters. But it's costly and some manufactures and some airlines try to cut cost, sometimes anyway they can.
Send E-Mail to: jacksbag@aol.com
Copyright © 2004 Jack Latham. All Rights Reserved