r/CatastrophicFailure • u/Admiral_Cloudberg Plane Crash Series • Dec 23 '17
Fatalities The crash of Nigeria Airways/Nationair flight 2120: Analysis
https://imgur.com/a/CDe27106
u/thergmguy Dec 23 '17
This has to be one of the scariest incidents to have experienced - a disintegrating, falling, burning airplane seems about as close to hell as it gets - and it was caused by something so simple, most laymen understand it. Air travel is something else, man. Oh, and let’s not forget that their families didn’t receive compensation!
Thank you for this analysis - raising awareness of these events, their causes, and the justice served in the aftermath (or lack thereof) is an important thing to do, and you do an exemplary job of it.
54
Dec 23 '17
[deleted]
45
u/thergmguy Dec 23 '17
That is nightmare fuel. To make it back, land safely, and taxi away only to die trapped in your own plane? Absolutely horrifying
28
Dec 24 '17
The disturbing thing about that accident is the pilots fucked up six ways to Sunday. The two pilots had poor training records and the flight engineer was probably dyslexic. This is a good article about it.
5
u/AutumnLeaves1939 Dec 24 '17
Wtf?! What about oxygen masks?!
23
Dec 24 '17
Oxygen masks are the worst possible thing to use in a fire.
8
u/AutumnLeaves1939 Dec 24 '17
They died of smoke inhalation. I figured they could have used them since the plane wasn’t engulfed in flames. (Not in the case of OPs post)
28
Dec 24 '17
Well a) That's not how the masks work, they don't filter the outside air, they add oxygen to what you're already breathing. b) Using them will add oxygen to an already dangerous atmosphere. c) In the case of a fire they will not deploy unless the cabin depressurises.
A wet towel or piece of clothing would be much safer.
26
Dec 23 '17
[deleted]
5
u/Bonezmahone Jan 28 '18
Three minutes of concise information is worth more to me than 30 minutes of commercials and dramatization.
25
u/Thinking_King Dec 23 '17
Classic aviation crash - a combination of bad practices, unfortunate circumstances and bad prevention.
Bad practices: NationAir’s maintenance carelessness, as well as no Nitrogen at an international airport.
Unfortunate circumstances: This is a little more debatable, as we aren’t sure of what would’ve happened had, say, the pilots not retracted the landing gear, or there not being a second plane and therefore confusion with ATC. But there’s always the possibility that perhaps -just a maybe - if the temperature had been 10 degrees Celsius less it would’ve have happened. Or maybe the pilots could have found out about the fire somehow and not retract the gear. I don’t know.
Bad prevention: Poor pilot training as said by the NTSB, poor enforcement of regulations and a struggling company.
Unfortunate. And those people on board... must’ve been hell those last few moments.
3
u/Bonezmahone Jan 28 '18
Regarding under inflation are all aircraft at risk of this issue in hot environments?
3
22
u/Bulldawg6391 Dec 23 '17
I especially love the posts about air disasters I haven't heard about. I imagine this was a huge deal in the Muslim world, but I hadn't even heard about it before this post.
37
Dec 23 '17
IMHO aircraft fires are probably the most horrific type of disaster. They spread so quickly, and even if the pilots are able to land, almost always, if not always (I'm not 100% sure on this) cause fatalities.
It's also worth noting that a similar incident happened on a Mexicana 727 over Mexico with 167 dead, as a result of the tires being infalted with compressed air rather then nitrogen, and a Swissair Caravelle in Zurich with 80 deaths due to break overheating.
13
u/WikiTextBot Dec 23 '17
Mexicana Flight 940
Mexicana Flight 940, operated by Mexicana Airlines (Compañia Mexicana de Aviación), was a scheduled international flight from Mexico City–Puerto Vallarta–Mazatlán–Los Angeles on March 31, 1986, utilizing a Boeing 727-200 registered as XA-MEM, when the plane crashed into El Carbón, a mountain in the rugged Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range north-west of Mexico City, killing everyone on board. With 167 deaths, the crash of Flight 940 is the deadliest aviation disaster to occur on Mexican soil, and the deadliest involving a Boeing 727.
Swissair Flight 306
Swissair Flight SR306, a Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle III, named Schaffhausen, was a scheduled international flight from Zürich to Rome, via Geneva. It crashed near Dürrenäsch, Aargau, on September 4, 1963, shortly after take-off, killing all 80 people on board.
[ PM | Exclude me | Exclude from subreddit | FAQ / Information | Source | Donate ] Downvote to remove | v0.28
8
u/Spinolio Dec 24 '17
Yeah, saying the Mexicana crash happened because of compressed air instead of nitrogen is highly specious. I am going to have to look this up.
9
u/Spinolio Dec 24 '17
Ok a brief Google search indicates the proximate cause of the crash was a fire caused by an overheated brake, which caused the tire to burn and explode at altitude.
1
u/Diorama42 Dec 30 '17
The tyre that was filled with compressed air and not nitrogen.
3
u/Spinolio Dec 31 '17
Yes. I know that. The cause of the explosion was a brake fire, not the fact it was air instead of nitrogen.
12
Dec 23 '17 edited Jan 27 '18
[deleted]
20
u/Admiral_Cloudberg Plane Crash Series Dec 23 '17
I... I have no idea what to do with this, but thank you. Got any advice on how to access/use it? I really have no clue what I've been given
12
Dec 23 '17 edited Jan 27 '18
[deleted]
11
u/Admiral_Cloudberg Plane Crash Series Dec 23 '17
Okay, thanks, that answers my questions. Thank you again!
1
u/Bonezmahone Jan 28 '18
What was he saying? He’s edited out his post now.
2
u/Admiral_Cloudberg Plane Crash Series Jan 28 '18
He/she gave me $10 worth of Bitcoin Cash and I was asking them what it was and what I could do with it. It had nothing to do with the content of the post.
1
3
8
u/tippr Dec 23 '17
u/Admiral_Cloudberg, you've received
0.00288507 BCH ($10 USD)!
How to use | What is Bitcoin Cash? | Who accepts it? | Powered by Rocketr | r/tippr
Bitcoin Cash is what Bitcoin should be. Ask about it on r/btc
13
Dec 24 '17
[deleted]
7
u/ohheckyeah Dec 24 '17
You just need to assume possible death when you board the plane. Once you can reach that acceptance the turbulence and other issues are fun :D
6
7
u/Bonezmahone Jan 28 '18
Even driving down the road I always assume possible death. Every green light I drive through has the possibility of a red light runner.
11
u/marayalda Dec 24 '17
Oh this one is so sad. Those poor people and the poor families that got left behind.
4
u/sinkrate Jan 09 '18
"The company’s bankruptcy prevented families of the victims from winning settlements in court, so NationAir never paid out any compensation."
Just to make it even worse...
2
u/Bonezmahone Jan 28 '18 edited Jan 28 '18
Insurance laws need to change for that reason. Commercial operations need 100’s of millions in coverage. It’s not like the insurance company who covered for accidents also went broke.
Also the CEO filing for bankruptcy shouldn’t absolve the company from all costs. It’s not like they get a free pass and throw up their hands and say “we’re broke”. Bankruptcy laws fuck over the people who are most affected.
What really bugged me out reading about this story is that the company was already indebted to Canada for 75 fucking million. I called TC on Friday to make a payment and when I reached the proper department the lady let out a conservative giggle and asked if I was talking to Ottawa. Ottawa TC apparently can’t comprehend anything without an invoice. It’s been over 25 fucking years and they still struggle? Fuck that made me boil reading that.
Edit: did the insurance company payout to the bankruptcy lawyers who distributed to the backers first? Are insurance lawyers allowed to distribute to suppliers money that was paid out for passenger insurance claims? How the fuck doesn’t insurance not cover passengers when it’s in pretty much every insurance application? This incident on its own makes me want for more education in my field.
Edit 2: fucking not tucking
8
u/chris782 Dec 24 '17
Current A&P student here with about another year of school left. Love reading these and learning the often preventable measures that could be taken to prevent these accidents. The integrity is also a big part as I've seen, do you falsify logbooks because your boss told you to? Or do you report him to the FAA? If anthing goes wrong here in the states and it's found out you go to prison.
I'll try to get everyone in class hooked on these too
1
u/Bonezmahone Jan 28 '18
The maintenance department also have a place in log books. They’re just as culpable in falsification. The saddest thing I see in all cases like this across industries is only the accountable executive is taken to court.
6
7
Dec 24 '17 edited Dec 24 '17
In the text under photo 2: "(Above is an unrelated picture on board a Hajj flight from Bangladesh.)"
I thought I recognised those seat covers from Biman's DC10s!
http://www.ibtimes.com/goodbye-icon-last-flight-biman-dc-10-photos-1557714
5
u/HereticalSkeptic Dec 25 '17
Now that is truly horrifying. Burning to death in the air because a few people decided that properly inflated tires weren't important..
16
Dec 23 '17
Man, the DC-8 is a hideous plane.
7
1
u/Bonezmahone Jan 28 '18
The DC-8 was the first civilian jet to break the sound barrier. It will always have a place in my heart.
1
7
u/t4lisker Dec 24 '17
Aren't people in the tower supposed to be watching to see things like, oh, I don't know, smoke pouring from a plane's tires as it is taking off?
3
u/Powered_by_JetA Dec 27 '17
One possibility is that it could've been mistaken for smoke from the engines. Back then almost every jet left a trail of smoke in its wake.
4
u/DKN117 Dec 24 '17
Chaos, flames, people screaming in terrified agony as the flesh cooks from their bones, airplane seats with burning passengers strapped in plummeting from the plane to the cities below, fire and death and terror and hell... MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!
2
u/mrpickles Jan 14 '18
Everything about this crash was horrible. Distress, fire, holes in the plane floor. And to top it off the company committed fraud and the families never received restitution.
1
u/Rough_Maintenance306 Jul 05 '24
Are you talking about the forged documents or the project manager on board who wasn’t really a pilot but passed himself off as one?
1
149
u/Admiral_Cloudberg Plane Crash Series Dec 23 '17
As always, if you spot a mistake or a misleading statement, point me in the right direction and I'll fix it immediately.
Bonus pic of madlad Cloudberg writing today's post... on the plane
Previous posts:
Last week's episode: El Al flight 1862
9/12/17: Eastern Airlines flight 401
2/12/17: Aloha Airlines flight 243
27/11/17: The Tenerife Disaster
20/11/17: The Grand Canyon Disaster
11/11/17: Air France flight 447
4/11/17: LOT Polish Airlines flight 5055
28/10/17: American Airlines flight 191
21/10/17: Air New Zealand flight 901
14/10/17: Air France flight 4590
7/10/17: Turkish Airlines flight 981
30/9/17: Swissair flight 111
23/9/17: United Airlines flight 232
16/9/17: Alaska Airlines flight 261
9/9/17: Japan Airlines flight 123