Plane crash in Afghanistan.

[W5BRM]

Been a while since I've been on the Island. Kinda got busy and forgot about it :(

Anyway, I found via Youtube. Plane crash at Bagram Airfield apparantly today or yesterday. Apparantly a cargo plane had a bad takeoff and stalled.

not sure how to make the YT link post as an embedded post

Wonder is it will make mainstream media or not

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icfVsql38oc

[NQ6U]

There was a mention of this crash on NPR yesterday afternoon.

[W5BRM]

I don't listen to NPR much. Didn't see it on any of the other major news networks. Guess only 7 deaths wasn't enough for them to bother :(

[NQ6U]

A Google search shows hits from CNN, NBC, CBS, al Jazeera, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Radio Free Europe (I didn't know that was still operating) as well as NPR. So, yeah, it wasn't as huge a story as the Boston Marathon bombing or anything but it wasn't exactly ignored either.

[W5BRM]

i meant the live Television broadcasts. A mouse farts and it makes internet news...lol.

[N2NH]

That's impressive. Why would any pilot take off at that steep an angle. A plane that big stalling so low to the ground? Guess they didn't have any chance to recover.

[kb2vxa]

Yeah, it's on mainstream media and the video looks weird. The '47 is climbing normally, dead stops mid-air like it hit a wall and pancakes into the ground. I always thought in the given interpretation mass, acceleration, momentum, and (most importantly) force are assumed to be externally defined quantities but the video at least seems to be mocking Newton.

DAYUM! Internet warriors attack during the video! (;->) "Why would any pilot take off at that steep an angle." Nah, 7 years at EWR and almost under the glide path you see the entire plane in profile from underneath. It's an optical illusion making it look like it's standing on it's tail when the nose points 40 degrees up, normal climb angle not to be confused with rate of climb. Don't forget big planes like that don't climb at the angle the nose is pointed until they gain sufficient altitude and airspeed. When you see one climbing on takeoff from the side it looks like it's shooting for the stars (that 40 degree up angle) but moving belly first along the ground.

[W5BRM]

It looked to me like the climb was too steep and it stalled but that may have just been the angle of the camera. Some of the comments on the video suggest maybe freight broke loose and slid to the back of the craft, upsetting aircraft balance. That in turn would upset the angle of ascent and cause a stall.

[NQ6U]

It seemed to me to be climbing very slowly, I wonder if it had been overloaded, or maybe experienced an engine failure? Bagram Air Base is at high altitude, around 5000', and the weather was warm so any airplane would be very vulnerable to a density altitude (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Density_altitude) situation. A sudden loss of even one engine could be disastrous.

[N8YX]

Word on the ground theorizes a load shift upon rotation. Plane was in a dead stall at the time that video was taken.

[kb2vxa]

"It seemed to me to be climbing very slowly..."
While takeoff speed varies by the feel of the aircraft it comes out to be around 160kts, 300km/h, 180mph. They look like they're almost hanging in midair barely moving because they're so large.

"Word on the ground theorizes a load shift upon rotation."
Word on the ground has no idea what they're talking about. Rotation defines the condition in which the aircraft assumes attack angle for takeoff. Note on the ground the tail section sloping upward, it's designed to avoid crashing into the runway when the plane rotates, nose wheel off the ground, main gear still on the runway for a few seconds as the craft becomes airborne. Then notice once the craft is airborne you can see why, that "upward" slope is parallel with the ground BUT the craft isn't climbing on it's axis, rather pancaking along the ground more or less parallel to it.

Had cargo containers broken loose and shifted aft during rotation the tail would have slammed into the ground. I never did weights and balance but was in the aft pit when loading a 747 behind some L&B jockey who screwed up. Without warning the tail went down WHAM, I was stunned and thank goodness nobody was standing on the rails when a few tons of container rolled back. I'll concede the possibility someone, make that two neglected to dog down a container and it rolled back during the climb out. Two because the one who puts the one in place dogs it down, then the whole crew does final inspection before the plane is sealed and released. That means IF that were the case at least two, possibly more sets of eyes and hands failed.

"Plane was in a dead stall at the time that video was taken."
That's a way too broad time frame, let's look again and narrow it down. At 0:11 it suddenly yaws left (right wing down in this perspective) obviously out of control. The pilot over-corrects throwing the plane into a violent right yaw with the wings vertical. In this position there is zero lift and the plane plummets downward.

[N2NH]

They interviewed Sully Sullenberger who crash landed the jet in the Hudson River a few years back. Based on what he said the plane was taking off at too steep an angle and stalled. Being so close to the ground it had no chance for recovery. (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57582266/shocking-video-expected-to-be-assessed-in-afghanistan-plane-crash-investigation-company-says/) Apparently until this vid was on YouTube, they didn't seem to even know it happened. Wasn't someone supposed to report this accident?

CBS NEWS link here. (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57582266/shocking-video-expected-to-be-assessed-in-afghanistan-plane-crash-investigation-company-says/)



http://youtu.be/BN3waJIc574