Author Topic: Big Frt Dog down in Brussels  (Read 4188 times)

Offline Rooster Cruiser

  • Alpha Rooster
  • *****
  • Posts: 2005
  • Retired Chicken Hauler
Big Frt Dog down in Brussels
« on: May 25, 2008, 05:12:32 PM »
OK, my Euro friends.  What's the skinny on this aborted takeoff done by Kalitta?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,358041,00.html

Quote
BRUSSELS, Belgium —  A large cargo plane crashed and broke apart close to a row of houses while trying to abort a takeoff Sunday at Brussels airport, authorities said.

The Boeing 747-200 skidded to a halt in a field at the end of a runway around 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT). Four of the five crew members on board the plane, operated by U.S.-based cargo carrier Kalitta Air, were slightly injured and were hospitalized, said Jan Van der Cruysse, spokesman at Brussels Airport.

"The plane is very seriously damaged," he said.

The aircraft cracked near the tail and by the wings when it slid 325 yards past the end of runway 20. The plane, full of fuel, stopped just five and a half yards from a rail line and 550 yards from houses on the edge of the town of Zaventem.

"I just heard a boom, and then I saw the plane go by the cemetery and the plane seems to be going off, sliding off, and then I heard a second boom, that's all I saw," local resident Johan Schoelink told Associated Press Television.

Rail services to and from the airport were suspended as a safety precaution, but the crash did not affect other flights at the airport, Van der Cruysse said.

Francis Vermeiren, the mayor of the nearby town of Zaventem, said the plane did not catch fire. Vermeiren was coordinating rescue efforts at the airport.

Vermeiren said the pilot told rescue authorities he heard a loud noise while trying to take off, after which he tried to land the plane. Airport officials said it was not clear what had caused the crash. Local news organizations speculated that a tire could have blown during takeoff or the engines could have failed.

Experts planned to examine the aircraft and remove the plane's cockpit voice recorder, or "black box," to find out what caused the crash, officials said.

Firefighters coated the wings of the plane with fire retardant foam because the plane was still full of fuel, the mayor said.

Some of the fuel had leaked from the left wing, but the spill was being contained and cleaned up.

Vermeiren said the plane had been scheduled to fly to Bahrain.

Airport officials said the plane was carrying cargo weighing 76 tons, over half of which was diplomatic mail. Other cargo included a car and batteries.

The plane is owned by Kalitta Air, a cargo carrier based at Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti, Michigan, and it made regular flights from Brussels, officials said. A person who answered the telephone at Kalitta Air on Sunday morning said no one was available to comment.



"Me 'n Earl was haulin' chickens / On a flatbed outta Wiggins..."

Wolf Creek Pass, by CW McCall

Offline Fabo

  • Chicken Farmer
  • Alpha Rooster
  • *****
  • Posts: 967
  • If flying is a drug,then I am a first class addict
Re: Big Frt Dog down in Brussels
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2008, 08:08:25 PM »
Well I guess after V1, which could likely be the same, but maybe not on 747, as after rotation, you have to go by any means, whatever bangs somewhere unspecified?


Otherwise maybe I did not get your question ???




Two more pictures at JetPhotos

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6255648
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6255649
« Last Edit: May 25, 2008, 08:24:04 PM by Fabo »
"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."

Offline Rooster Cruiser

  • Alpha Rooster
  • *****
  • Posts: 2005
  • Retired Chicken Hauler
Re: Big Frt Dog down in Brussels
« Reply #2 on: May 25, 2008, 09:34:21 PM »
I am guessing an aborted takeoff after V1 also, but it could also have been an aborted takeoff before V1 and they had not correctly calculated their balanced field length for a wet runway.  That is a very real possibility.  Does anyone know if it was raining in Brussels or if they had a wet runway?

RC
"Me 'n Earl was haulin' chickens / On a flatbed outta Wiggins..."

Wolf Creek Pass, by CW McCall

Offline Franz

  • Cockerel
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
  • Glider Pilot
    • Sportfluggruppe Leck
Re: Big Frt Dog down in Brussels
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2008, 07:16:11 AM »
I just had a look at a couple of satelite pictures, and it looks as if the rain we've had here last night came straight from south-west, which means more or less drirectly over Brusseles.
I'd say it's quite likly it was wet over there . . .

Offline Rooster Cruiser

  • Alpha Rooster
  • *****
  • Posts: 2005
  • Retired Chicken Hauler
Re: Big Frt Dog down in Brussels
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2008, 04:56:59 AM »
I'm reading up on another forum where there are a lot of Kalitta pilots.  They all seem to be asking when the fuselage first broke apart.  They are speculating that maybe the loud bang reported second hand by the press may in fact have been a structural failure before the airplane became airborne.  Still remains to be seen how the facts shake out, but a massive structural failure on an RTO like what happened is pretty unusual it seems.

RC
"Me 'n Earl was haulin' chickens / On a flatbed outta Wiggins..."

Wolf Creek Pass, by CW McCall