The Very First Boeing 747 Crash | The Crash Of Lufthansa Flight 540
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- čas přidán 29. 11. 2020
- Footage Credits: @mylosairplanefan
747 Image: Airportnuernberg
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This is the story of Lufthansa flight 540, The year is 1974 aviation fuel is cheap, the industry was booming, Just four years ago, the 747 had entered service and it had redefined aviation, on the 20th of november 1974, A Lufthansa 747-100 was to fly from nairobi jomo kenyatta international airport to Johannesburg south africa.
On the ground at niarobi the plane was fueled up with 61000 kilos or 134,000 pounds of fuel. This brought up the take off weight of the plane to about 254 tonnes or 508 thousand pounds. With this being well below the planes maximum take off weight they would be attempting a reduced thrust takeoff today.
At 4:42 am the pilots started up the engines on the 747. At 4:47 am they were requesting their taxi clearance. The controller that day gave the crew two options, runway 24 or runway 06, since they were well below their maximum takeoff weight, either runway would do. Their initial runway choice was runway 06 but runway 24 gave them a shorter path to intercept their flight path. Since they thought that the runway change was not that significant they did not recalculate the take off data. When they were on taxiway charlie the first officer selected flaps 10 and the flight engineer started reading off the take off checklist. At 4:52 am the take off clearance was given, it was a calm night and everyone expected a nominal takeoff.
The captain slightly opened up the throttles as the first officer manned the nose wheel tiller. The flight engineer set the throttles to 1.46 the correct power setting for this take off. They hit 80 knots as they raced down the runway. They hit 135 knots and they pulled the nose up, the 747s nose rose as it gained speed down the runway. At this point they were 2100 meters or 6900 feet down the runway. But as the plane lifted off it stopped accelerating, its speed started to stagnate. As the plane became airborne the whole plane began to vibrate or buffet, the captain asked the flight engineer if any of the engines were causing the vibrations. A quick scan of the gauges showed that all 4 engines were operating without issue. Thinking that the vibrations were caused by unbalanced wheels the pilots selected gear up.
The plane was not accelerating as usual, to stop the speed from bleeding off the pilots brought the nose down slightly, their 747 was in trouble. The plane clawed its way to 100 feet and with that the little upward momentum that it had ceased. The queen of the skies began a shallow descent as the plane was not able to keep itself airborne. The flight engineer confirmed that the engines were not to blame, The speed slipped below 140 knots and the control columns began to vibrate signalling an impending stall.
1100 meters or 3600 feet from the end of the runway the tail of the plane began scraping grass on the ground. The plane flew on dragging its tail on the ground for about 114 meters or 370 feet. With that their luck ran out right in front of them was an access road that was raised by 8 feet. The tail of the plane impacted this road, which caused the tail to disintegrate. The rest of the plane continued on for 340 meters or 1100 feet. The tail section was on fire and an explosion in the left wing set the forward section on fire. The pilots and the crew members helped people out of the stricken plane as long as they could before the explosions made that impossible. Of the 157 people onboard only 98 made it off the plane. - Věda a technologie
I used to be a flight attendant for Lufthansa at that time when we were informed about this accident during our preflight briefing in Beirut , Lebanon ..... and I was shocked to the core - looking at the list of the 4 crew member fatalities from that incident - to find a flight attendant from my training course (1973) !
Although I continued then flying for a few more years , I always remembered this accident and certainly never forget this wonderful person who died by far too young !
Sad. But thanks for sharing your story.
My sister was a bit later than you on the old 747 with the bar. i really enjoyed the voyage to australia and back, and some nice spots like Rawa island...
Thank you for being a flight attendant.. I mean this. You guys are very brave.
@@ZeranZeran They most definitely are!
Thank you for sharing - must have been so hard when this happened. May they all Rest In Peace
I could watch 747s land all day long. The slow landing speed makes them look very majestic and graceful. I didnt know that so many people survived this crash.
Airline to Boeing: this lack of a warning system is really dangerous. Boeing's reply: just don´t make any mistakes if you don't want to die.
Also you might want to get pilots that can tell the difference between amber and green.
@@kevinwebster7868 yeah cause that definitely happened and the single point of failure for all green lights definitely did not happen, if you trust Boeing that is.
I don't.
MCAS = A secret little killer that is not told to aircraft buyers and pilots.
@@MR-ub6sq You do realize that the MAX is literally the only plane that has that right.
@@titan4110 Yes. I realized! The 747 Max is the only plane that literally has the right to kill people using a secret device that pilots has nothing about to know. Catch it.
I am a former Flight Engineer, and have a small anecdote about the Leading Edge Lights on the Flight Engineer Panel: Following this accident, many airlines adopted new procedures for the response to the Takeoff checklist "Flaps" Item by the Pilot stating "10-10, Green" and the FE checking the Leading edge lights and responding "All green". In many circles these lights became known as Nairobi Lights.
They were invented after that accident as did the Flight Control Surface position lights indicator which became a standard feature on all Boeings 747 including 727,737
254 tons and that wasn't even it's maximum take off weight! What an amazing machine. Cheers for the upload.
6:55. No. There was no extra drag, in fact there was less than normal drag as the slats were in. These guys were short of lift. The slats make the wing 'bigger' and greatly increase the lift for a given speed. The Boeing taxi checklist for the 747 has only one item. "Flaps". Ground effect is found from the surface, up to a height of about half the span of the aircraft. Sometimes a misconfigured aircraft can get airborne with the help of ground effect, but is unable to climb out. The MD series for example will get airborne flapless, but are in big trouble immediately they lose ground effect. Some aircraft will simply not take off at all, flapless. the BAe 146 is one such type.
👍👍👍 Not additional drag, but decreased lift.
How can you get increased lift without additional drag? You can get something for nothing? If you don’t get additional drag then what provides the additional lift?
@@bigbaddms It's true that when you generate lift it causes drag. But in the vid, he says it had too much drag to fly. Deploying the slats would have increased drag, but greatly increased lift, thus the thing would have flown. I know these things because I have 14,000 hours flying jets.
btw, I agree that your videos are really good. Very well done, so please forgive my nitpicking!
@@bigbaddms Thoughtful question. Doubling the velocity quadruples the lift and drag. It is not a f(x)=(y). Aerodynamic forces depend upon the square of velocity.
I’m not a pilot, but my immediate reaction to this scenario was to immediately shove the thrust levers all the way forward!
I am a pilot and I can say that you are right. It’s pretty much your only option and you may hurt the engines but you need all that power beeded
Yes but it was suggested the performance was limited by the elevation so it might not have worked. They did pitch down if they had given full power simultaneously it is not clear it would have been enough with a tail wind and the altitude.
When in doubt gas it..F check lists. Should be taught as standard operating procedure when the sticks starts shaking
@Jason Bowman weren’t the engines choked with ice though as the Captain had turned them on to try and back out of the gate? Or did I remember that wrong?
@@blackbirdxx928 yup
My aunt sue was on this very flight! She was a flight attendant!! She is still living as to now
Pogchamp
How old was she when the crash happened?
@@vibinqmxrlie8685 surely she is now is very old
Did she fly again?
@@mohamedibrahimabdulkaium9985 surely she will fly very soon...
6:54 Just a small correction: The Problem was not that misconfigured flaps produced more drag than desired. The problem was the leading edge high lift devices (Krüger flaps in case of the 747, comparable to Slats on other types) not being deployed. The slats are high lift devices that create a more laminar airflow at high angles of attack, hence increasing the angle of attack at which airflow separation (stall) occurs. It’s a simplified explanation, but hope it helps.
Adding something about that "floating above the ground"--there's a known aerodynamic term for that, "Ground Effect". The simplified explanation of this is that within about 1 wing length (1/2 wingspan) of the ground, any given airplane has extra lift. Once you get out of ground effect, if you don't have enough speed to generate the lift to climb, you'll settle back into the ground effect. Really useful for getting up, really bad if you aren't moving fast enough.
Slats (and flaps) add drag. But they add even more lift, allowing you to fly at lower speeds.
@@rewolff2 sure they do, but they were retracted in this case. Hence, the added drag of extended Slats was not the issue. Besides, the amount of drag they add, compared to the influence on lift is negligible. For Flaps though, that’s a different matter.
B747s do not have leading edge Slats , they have Kurger Flaps
@@ogc90 true, the function/aerodynamic effect is the same though, just mechanical execution is different: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krueger_flap
How the hell did even 98 people survive this? Wow.
@Steve-0 I've been on a half dozen flights where that would be impossible. Especially considering people's panic.
yea, narrator said, "only." 2/3 of people surviving is amazing
@@ahoksbergen It's actually pretty common. Unless the plane hits the ground at close to the speed of sound after a 10 km dive, there usually are survivors. A 747 once hit the side of the mountain after the aft bulkhead ruptured and destroyed all hydraulics. Over half survived the impact but unfortunately the remote location led to rescue forces arriving very late and by then most perished. But you have something like a 65% chance of surviving a major crash if I remember the number correctly.
by nowhere near a 65% chance of surviving a major air crash
@@MrStr8den Look it up.
Am from Nairobi and my parents lived in that area of the crash site (i was not born yet)but i remember my father once told us about this crash,i could only imagine how horrible it was,now years later we have this full story with pictures how wonderful,and to those who lost their lives keep resting in peace.
I never even knew such a large plane once crashed in Nairobi. I was born in 1986 and worked as a flight attendant also.
RIP to those who died. Its a wonder anyone escaped a plane on fire.
I love your concise but informative videos without all the fluff and dramatic effects. I wish you continued success.
A few corrections - the tail section was destroyed by impacting the embanked road. It was not on fire at first. The left wing did not 'explode,' but was on fire when the aircraft came to rest having traversed 180 degrees so that it was facing back towards the runway that it had just taken off from. As for the aircrew assisting - no-one spoke to either the pilot, co-pilot or engineer assisting. One steward, Tom Scott was truly heroic - going back into the aircraft repeatedly to get people out. He left when he believed that he had everyone out, only to see a woman appear at the door. He could not leave her and climbed back into the aircraft, rescuing both her and her husband. The aircraft 'exploded' shortly after that. Takeoff was around 7:52 am, not 4:52. It was light.
Love your work sir! Always the next video to watch when the notification hits. Thank you.
NOT a pilot, but my instinctual reaction to that situation would have been to get the engines at full power ASAP !
YUP. If you are just taking off, the aircraft is flying straight, but not gaining air - ADD MORE POWER. Worry about a vibrating 'engine' when you have some altitude.
@@moseszero3281 Speed is life and altitude is life insurance.
You will never ever be in that scenario so don't worry
Another great video. Thank you for taking the time to make these awesome videos. I have been a long time subscriber now and i always look forward to your next video.
An great video. Most of these crashes you cover I've never heard of including this one, which makes more interesting to watch. keep them coming!
Call me "Lazy" and I'll usually answer, so even though I can convert English to metric, I'm still using my fingers and then kick off a shoe as the content continues. So, I appreciate you converting some of the measurements and stating both English and metric while explaining a particular incident. It makes it much easier for me to stay with the content. You're more than welcome to convert kilometers and knots per hour to miles per hour as well. For those of us who still think in an antiquated system alleged by some to have been based on a long-dead king's foot, the conversions are very much appreciated.
OK *lazy*
In the usa we use inches...feet....yards...miles...quart...gallon... and 100 cents equals one dollar...$$$ the s...was US with slashes... but now....!!!!!!!
Thx for the videos. I share your passion for aviation safety. Good work!
Very interesting as always. Thanks for your great videos and investigations.
The correct forward slab and flap configuration during take off is a sacred rule that must be followed. Many tragic accidents could've been averted due to this crucial detail.
The solution? To quote Jeremy Clarkson, “More power!”
POWER AND SPEED
Sometimes his genius is airborne
Surely you mean "MOAR POWEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
@@dodolurker You have to stay AHEAD of the aircraft. Simply applying more power after you are behind the power curve, unless you have altitude is not going to save you butt.. It takes time for the turbines to spin up providing you the extra thrust, plus the time it takes for the added thrust to translate into inertia (Airspeed.). The only thing that is going to save your butt is to lower the nose to gain airspeed while maintaining obstacle clearance.
IT’S TOGA TIME
I love this guy's presentation style
He's sounds kinda cute. Has he ever done a face reveal?
Listening carefully, the pronunciation of some of his words leads me to speculate that when he learned to speak English, he was in either the Philippines or is a first generation child of immigrants from a country where Spanish or Portuguese is the primary language.
THAT livery - on a 747. Epic.
RIP.
Love the work you do man
Thanks 4 the video, clearly explained and straight to the facts, keep on going u doing great! Kind regards from BC.
Still love the content, Keep it up! Love to see some more social media accounts!
Excellent job on this. Surely the plane could have been saved by using full power when they got the stall warning. But the crew was averse to doing so by a strict prohibition from the airline, to save money. It cost them dearly.
who cares about safety as long as you save that fuel. Bet the insurance company had a differnt opinion!!
That was an amazing story mate ,I like your work I look forward to each new video you put out
Andrew
Hey andrew! I got your email about the RAAF crash I tried to email you a reply but the email didnt go through for some reason
I enjoy your clips. Well presented and informative. Thank you.
Thank you!
Thanks for pointing that out :)
A close friend of mine (now long retired of course) was the crew who handed over the aircraft to Capt. Krack and his crew after the inbound flight from Frankfurt. I will be filming an interviewing with him about his life and career and talking to him about this accident and many more experiences from flying the F104G Starfighter and the F105 ThunderChief to flying the first polar flight in the A340 500 and much more.
Nairobi is home and I know of the accident. Great video
Gr8 informative work!
I still find it baffling in these stories of low airspeed that highly experienced pilots fail to do the most basic of actions - push the throttles to full power. There are numerous examples of this not occurring in stall crashes.
The problem is #1 it takes time for the the action of pushing the throttles forward in a jet for the engines to spool up to provide the additional thrust, plus the mass and inertia of a large aircraft to gain the necessary speed. So you release back pressure on the stick to drop the nose to gain airspeed, and at 100ft AGL you just do not have the altitude to recover, plus obstacle clearance. My question is, unless this changed in subsequent models of the 747. The LE Kruger flaps and TE flaps are primarily driven by the 4 hydraulic systems, and driven as a backup by the bleed air / Pnuematic system. At least on the -400 and -8.
@@brenthendricks8182 Well engine spool isn't a problem these pilots faced ... because they didn't open the throttles
@@CaptVirtual Not the point I was making. The point was, that simple action alone would not have avoided this accident.
@@brenthendricks8182 how much more power was available?
Boeing not adding a vital step in takeoff prep to the automated safety check was a massive mistake on their behalf. Relying on the flightcrew not making a mistake during their own checklist is always a problem. I also wonder if this crash highlights a slight flaw in training too, as the crew did not immediately throttle up to try and increase airspeed to combat a somewhat clear stall, or is this just something a lot more obvious in hindsight?
Not really Boeing’s fault
If their flaps and "leading edge lift devices" (not technically slats, apparently) had been correctly configured, a stall would have been a near impossibility. This may be why it didn't occur to them.
Love your vids sir! Keep em coming.
You are a very good communicator. Excellent work, no gimmicks. Thank you.
YOUNG MAN YOU DO GREAT WORK.
Still love your channel. It is nice to see your subscriber numbers are climbing. Keep up the good work.
I must admit I wondered why the pilots in this incident didn't push the throttles to max. I really would have thought it was a no brainer but they are the pilots and I am just a nerd who creates 3D graphics who flies the occasional Flight Sim. What do I know? Even so I still am surprised they didn't.
Thanks . I click the like, watch the commercials and leave a comment in return....
Such a well produced, technically sophisticated channel for any plane buffs.
Love your work bro. Great content.
Thanks for the love man
Always the best.
This is a great channel! It helps me with my failing old eyes NOT having to read 5 line paragraphs in the 5 seconds they give you. It's worse when the white print is partially or mostly sitting in a goddamn white background. Your voice is clear and easy to understand!🤤
Thank You for a fine channel!!🛫🛩
@@patrickmollohan3082 Hear, HEAR. I just backed out of a video that I really wanted to watch. I am not reading white text on a video for 20 minutes. If I want to read, I'll go Google the accident. And I really, really appreciate that the narrator speaks slowly and clearly. Not everyone watching is a native speaker, or has great hearing.
@@patrickmollohan3082 Glad to know that you like it :)
Much love from Nairobi Kenya 🇰🇪
I agree with a lot of other I agree with a lot of other commenters, These presentations are balanced, even-handed, informative and pleasingly presented. Keep up the good work. I look forward to many more presentations.
Another well written and presented video, keep up the good work pal 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Your videos are getting better and better.
A fascinating story. Thanks for making this video. One suggestion: your explanation of the effect of slats and flaps leaves something to be desired. It’s not wrong but it’s shallow. If you research this topic, I think you’ll understand better and deeper their respective purposes and your future videos may be even more informative and interesting.
Great job!
Really good !!!
Great video, was I watching the retirement of Lufthansa 747’s.
Another great video! A few points- the 747 doesn't have slats. Slats are devices at the front and top of the leading edge that slide forward and down. The 747 has different LEDs (leading edge devices). Inboard of the inner engines are Krueger Flaps which fold down and forward from the lower surface of the leading edge, Boeing used them on the 707. They're equipped with a moveable bull-nose. The inner segments of the 727 and 737 have these too. Outboard of the inner engines are VCFs (variable camber flaps) which are almost the same as Kruegers but they actually flex and curve during extension and resemble slats once out. I believe the 747 is the only airliner to feature these. Finally, airlines including Delta realized how much engine limits were drummed into pilots' heads and emphasized that if the flight was in jeopardy "firewall" the engines! Use all you need and write up the exceedance. Don't lose the aircraft trying to save an engine. That lesson was learned from Air Florida flight 90. Cheers
I don't think they were trying to save the engine. The time from rotation to impact (unlike the video reconstruction) was 35 seconds. Initially the aircrew thought that there had been a bird strike as birds had been sighted by all three. The lack of engine vibration refuted this, which is why the pilot then thought that it was misaligned landing gear which was raised. By that time the plane was doomed. Had the audible warning system been fitted - which Boeing subsequently did, the crew would have known immediately what the cause was and probably had time to save the jet.
@@brendonmoorhouse5118 I should have been more precise in my comment. I was trying to make the point that many airlines, especially after AF#90 which crashed with about 70% power, made it clear to crews that if the flight path was in danger due to insufficient thrust firewall the engines, even if it means an engine overspeed or over boost. Whether it be a GPWS warning, windshear warning etc.
@@gerardmoran9560 Thanks. I think that the low speed take-off (which I understand was Lufthansa SOP at that time in 1974) was probably a bad idea at that altitude. I have read quite a bit around this crash as I was one of the people on board the flight. I don't think that there are answers to all the questions, but all contributions are food for thought.
@@brendonmoorhouse5118 Good grief! That must have been a harrowing experience. Glad you're here to talk about it. In '74 I was in high school and just learning the basics. I hope all of the wounds have healed.
@@gerardmoran9560 It was a bit of a shock. I'm not sure you ever get over it - you just have to adapt to the new way of viewing the world.
How did i know the flaps werent deployed
Kudos to the FAA for “doing the right thing” and issuing an AD to force Boeing to add the slats configuration error to the aural warning system. To the pilots, plane won’t climb? “Balls to the wall” and let Mr Pratt and Mr Whitney provide all the help they can to keep you in the air.
Somebody else in the comments put it quite well: "No use having a 3000 hour engine on a 30 second airframe." Treat the engines gently when your life *doesn't* depend on using every last ounce of thrust they can produce.
I was both a pilot and a A&P mechanic (and ultimately an inspector) working on all Boeing abd Douglas aircraft. Believe me, ifmy airplane is not accelerating - or flying - as I think it should be, those thrust levers are going to be severely bent as I shove them up to full power. Think Air Florida and this incident... if I'm going down in flames, it's going to be at max thrust. We'll worry about engine longevity after it's back on the ground... in one piece, thank you very much!
Cheers,
jc
Would you do that if there had been a suspected bird strike on the engine?
Awesome.
Surprising to me that in so many videos of this kind that I have watched the pilots doesn't use full power when going around or in this case fail to take of.
If you set the flaps wrong it's one thing but thrust settings seems to be such a core element.
Thank you for being there on my bus rides and commute.
You guys are getting commutes? Were still stuck inside 🥺
@@MiniAirCrashInvestigation Yeah going to school and everything
@@MiniAirCrashInvestigation
What county are you in?
You produce very stronk videos!
Great videos. When you get animation to support your commentary, you will get tons more subscribers.
exactly - there is a technical element thats missing here
Full power would have been my first reaction.
Modern jets are so underpowered they need huge wing surface area just to heave themselves into the air. These are in essence giant gliders.
I never even knew such a large plane once crashed in Nairobi. I was born in 1986 and worked as a flight attendant also.
2021 February is when I learn this piece of 747 and Nairobi history.
It's ridiculous to think Boeing could've made a very small change to prevent this, but essentially said "not our problem"
Nice! Can you do some of the older incidents with the prop airliners? Some of the propeller over speed incidents and engine shut-downs over the Atlantic are pretty interesting.
Sure thing!
@@MiniAirCrashInvestigation Air Disaster: The Propeller Era - by Macarthur Job is a really exceptional book, free if you have Kindle, etc. The 1957 C-97 MATS flight is probably one of the most amazing airmanship stories I've ever heard (pilot was awarded his SECOND bar on top of his distinguished flying cross!) The Pan Am Boeing 377 incident (basically same plane) was very similar but resulted in ditching.
Definitely check out the book though!
Leading edge flaps and slats are different, the 747 had both.
This, and other details of aircraft crashes, makes me realize that despite airline safety being better per mile than automobiles, just how many things have to be within the myriad of parameters for the plane I’m a passenger in to fly safely. I’m thankful that in all my times flying I’ve never been aware of anything outside of nominal operations existing in those flights. It must be a truly terrifying experience to be a passenger or a crew member and have things going wrong that are outside your control, especially if you know that a crash is imminent.
We Germans are always first to ruin stuff for other people ;)
Good job with your Videos, keep it up!
Germany has great engineering. Italy is all about style, passion.
You Germans are fine people who have sometimes shown lack of judgement in your choice of leader
@Dieter Hoch touché
@Dieter Hoch You got that right Dieter!!😁
Not even close. Am a flight attendant for over four decades and the German people are gracious, the first to say hello, the first to admit an error, non confrontational, non arrogant and overall an absolute pleasure. Very open minded and I just love the country almost as much as home here in the U.s.
very good explanation of the events, the shortcomings of Boeing as of the LE flaps not being connected to the t/o warning syst. and the eventual confusion in the cockpit based on wrong assumptions of what might be wrong. unfortunately, mistakes happen and if given the chance the same crew would never have repeated that mistake
Nairobi is known to have air pressure issues. Captain Krack never flew commercially again. He was tainted by the crash.
Please show the wreckage if you can.
Well, I am a actual airline pilot. The T.O warning system has saved countless life's. Busy days with lots of fatigue, maybe little sleep and it's easy to not see something. The T.O config warning has saved thousands of life's. More than the general public would want to know of....pilots make these mistakes every day.
Your vidoes are great, But I wish you would show pictures or clips relating to the incident. I think it would be a lot more engaging.
Unfortunately most of the time, there just isn’t footage of the incident that I’m talking about :/
Guys, if the pilots were under the impression that the vibrations were coming from the engine, the last thing they would do is to put thrust to TOGA. Doing so will damage the engine more, if the problem is with the engine. And they didn't know the slats weren't extended so it didn't make sense to them that the aircraft was stalling at the pitch attitude, speed and power setting. Had they realize they were stalling, they would have react differently otherwise.
I like the fact you do weight and distance in Kg and Lbs, meters and feet.
Makes it easy to understand.
1,000Lbs? Not a clue. But 1,500Kg, that is the weight of a small car, I can understand it.
Completely speechless! The 474 and 707 were the best engineered Boeing of all!
Still some major issues with the 747 in its days...
Just seen the report of the 747 losing the cargo door mid-flight.
Could the aircraft have been saved by giving it the full throttle,it seems to me to be the right thing to do.
So may planes could have been saved by full power or toga
New standard procedure: when plane no go up, use moar power
In a pre-stall low airspeed situation you push the throttle in and decrease the angle of the climb to to a lesser angle of attack that won't result in a crash into anything around the airport.
@@Gaaaaaame Aviation version of „Moar Boosters“?
I really hate to play captain hindsight in this situation where people lost their lives but, it's just basic airmanship really....plane not climbing, apply full power, and always take off INTO THE WIND
Thing is, pushing the throttle full forward without knowing what exactly happened can sometimes put you in the ground faster than you can imagine. This is especially true for light twins but can also be a problem with the big birds. It’s specifically mentioned that the crew performed a reduced thrust takeoff. Combined with a light aircraft this results in lower speeds for V1/Vr/V2. Now, I’m not 747 rated, but on an A330 for example you can do a derated take off, meaning with less maximum engine thrust (note, this is not equal to a Flex takeoff). What this results in, is a lower Vmca speed. That’s relevant for controllability in case of thrust asymmetry (in case of an engine failure for example). And engine trouble was on this crews mind when they just rotated. I can therefore imagine that this consideration went though their heads as well. If you do a derated take off in an A330, loose an engine and punch the throttle on the remaining one to Toga the aircraft will become uncontrollable as you are below Vmca for Toga thrust. In simple terms, the aircraft won’t be able to fly straight anymore, but roll uncontrollably. There are a couple of recorded accidents on light twins where people went below Vmca with an engine failure. Not the place you want to find yourself in. You’ll find the videos here on CZcams.
As to taking off into the wind. That’s true for general aviation, however on major airports many other factors come into play. Traffic efficiency, terrain, noise abatement, etc. It’s not always feasible to depart into the wind, but that is considered in the Take-Off calculations as longs as it’s within limits for that aircraft type (typically 10 or 15 knots tailwind is the limit)
again I don't like to play captain hindsight but if the plane couldn't accelerate because of one engine struggling the asymmetric thrust should be immediately obvious before you even rotate. in other words clearly if it was engine trouble it was somehow both engines. a cunt hair away from controlled flight into terrain, it's worth the IMO distant hypothetical risk of maximum asymmetric thrust. also i forgot the 747 is four engine jet so the risks are even less IMO
tl;dr you're about to hit the damn ground try SOMETHING.
@@ArtietheArchon An impending engine failure is not always immediately obvious. The buffeting could have been mistaken for vibrations coming from one or two of the engines. If you loose one of the outer engines on a quad the yaw momentum as a result of thrust asymmetry is huge. I’m rated on a quad and I assure you it’s no fun. Let alone if you loose two engines on a wing. We train for those kind of failures and the only thing you can do is gain speed and work with the thrust that’s still available. What I’m saying is, I hope I’ll be never faced with having to make the decision between certainly becoming a smoking hole in the ground or maybe becoming one. God knows what was on that crews mind, things are happening fast during take off, it’s a tense situation anyways, you just briefed an engine out scenario and maybe they saw birds around the airport. I get why there would be confusion and hesitation about going Toga. It’s easy to judge in hindsight, but put yourself in their spot. And I’d really rather wonder why Boeing didn’t include the leading edge flap position in the Take-Off config warning. That would have definitely saved the day. But hey, seems to me that weird design philosophy was carried on until today....
NICE JOB.
Writing from ignorance so I apologize if this is stupid. 1:00 indicates no difference if you use runway 06 or 24. Wouldn’t going in the opposite direction make a difference. For example, turn right in one direction would mean turn left going the other way.
Man, it gets so confusing when you suddenly say 'spoiler alert' in an aviation video :-D
I hear that reduced thrust takeoffs for noise abatement reasons out of SNA are always fun to experience
The irony! Noise abatement out of John Wayne...
I grew up in Orange County. The most unsettling part used to be immediately after takeoff, when the throttles were cut drastically. Newer engines are significantly less noisy though, so it's not as bad as it once was.
Especially in a 757, those were the best.
That picture you show right in the beginning of the video, and also in the thumbnail.
Is that NUE airport? I grew up in its landing approach zone, and never saw a single 747 land there.
Amazing
Thanks bro!
@@MiniAirCrashInvestigation congratulations on 40k subs
@@Democracyyy thanks mate!
Still one of the safest aircraft of all time
Insurance and related analysis stated they could expect three 747 crashes in the first 18 months of service...
98 souls survived a 747 inferno.
If you question most people , what is the most important to a plane is it altitude or speed . Most say altitude. But it's speed . It's a blessing that so many people survived . I don't understand with a check list how this happened. Looks like someone at the tower could have told the pilot he had no flaps .
Only the captain can reach the nose wheel tiller on any Boeing product. Since the 367-80, the tiller is next to the captain's left knee.
You used "flaps" and "slats" interchangeably. Slats are on the leading edge and flaps (double slotted Fowler flaps on a 747) are on the trailing edge.
WRONG!
It varies by customer. ALL the 747’s WHICH I FLEW had tillers both left and right.
just a question about the footage: where was this taken? the airport seems rather small to have 747 arriving regularly so was this some sort of special event? (you say that the "image" was courtesy of the airport in nuremberg but being from nuremberg to me this doesn't seem to be the airport, I've flown from there numerous times so I guess you're talking about the thumbnail there)... nice video by the way :-)
This would appear to be aircraft being put into storage, hence they stop on the runway and a tractor pushes them off to one side.
Hi there, it's Twente Airport in The Netherlands.
In the early 90's when leaving Luanda in Angola on a SABENA 747, I remember when we ' took off ' we didn't climb in the usual way, but just stayed about 400'above the buildings for around 10-15 minutes. The view I was getting was the one we're used to when coming in to land. It took me a while to realise " this ain't right..... ". But we eventually gained altitude and had a normal flight. The usual routine was the SABENA 747 would arrive in the morning from CDG and sit on the apron all day, door open, then depart in the evening. When the aircraft rotated a huge torrent of water poured out of the overhead lockers onto a row of passengers. I mean, it was like a wheelbarrow load ! And anyone who travels within Africa know the disregard the passengers care about hand luggage weights( bar fridges !). So, was the AC overloaded ? Was it almost a tragedy ?
My uncle was pilot in command of the plane behind this 747 which crashed out of nairobi airport. He watched it happen.
This is why the Reg “D-ABYB” was skipped over when Lufthansa acquired their 747-8s.
I don't get it......the whole narration is about a plane that failed to completely take off and which subsequently crashed and burned. The video is of an (apparently?) different airplane coming in for a landing, over and over. I don't think I have ever seen a video that had a less appropriate visual aspect to it.
Leading edge flaps are actually called slats btw.
I assume more recent 747 models, including the 747-400 and 747-8 have eliminated this potential problem via computerization of what was once a manual function.
Beautiful footage of the wrong Lufthansa 747. Why the crowd, though? Was this the first time several 747-400s landed here?
No increase in the thrust once they had performance problems? What were these idiots thinking? (They weren’t, obviously.)
Another experienced pilot screws up. Do they get burned out or just really complacent?
The solution came in the form of a placard:
*Operation from nairobi jomo kenyatta international airport prohibited.*
the pilots were clumsy
My dad had a Cardinal RG that did the same thing. Below 97 knots it simply would not climb. He would have to suck the gear up. drop the nose and let the plane accelerate before trying to climb out of ground effect.
It didn't matter if there were obstacles off the end of the runway. He had to take care not to try to take off when conditions didn't favor a safe takeoff.
Was there no t/o configuration warning on this aircraft ?
I wonder if the flight engineer has red-green colourblindness. It makes it extremely difficult to tell the difference between green and amber. When I worked as a network admin it was a considerable hindrance, as a lot of hardware used an amber light to indicate a fault.
What could have prevented this? Taking off normally and not fucking around when there are people’s lives on your plane.