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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-01-07-denvercrash_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
The captain of a Continental Airlines jet that skidded off a Denver runway and burst into flames last month attempted to steer the jet using a method linked to runway accidents in the past, federal accident investigators reported Wednesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board has not said what caused Flight 1404, a Boeing 737-500 headed for Houston, to skid off the runway on Dec. 20 while attempting to take off in a brisk crosswind. But a preliminary report released by investigators offers the first glimpse of what might have triggered the crash.
All 115 people aboard escaped as jet fuel burned through the right side of the jet. The crash injured 38 people, five of whom were hospitalized, the NTSB said.
As the jet accelerated toward takeoff, the captain attempted to keep it rolling straight by turning the small pair of wheels under the jet's nose, the NTSB said the pilot told investigators. The nose gear is turned with a device called a tiller. The captain is not named in the report.
Two former accident investigators, Kevin Darcy and John Cox, who are not connected to the government's probe, said that using the tiller could cause the front tires to lose traction and start to skid. Pilots typically use the tiller to turn while taxiing at slow speeds, but once a jet accelerates, they steer with rudder pedals, they said.
Nose-wheel steering is something investigators will likely focus on, said Darcy, a former Boeing accident investigator who now works as a safety consultant. Darcy said he investigated a 737 accident in Mumbai in the 1990s which was partly blamed on the pilots' attempt to steer with the tiller during takeoff.
The NTSB cited "excessive nose-wheel steering" as part of the reason for a 1995 accident at John F. Kennedy International Airport involving a 747.
"It is unusual to need a tiller in a 737 on a runway, regardless of wind," said Cox, a former US Airways pilot who is also a safety consultant. "In all my years, I never needed the tiller. The rudder steering was always sufficient."
The winds at Denver were gusting up to 37 mph from the west as the jet attempted to take off to the north. Jets naturally tend to turn into the wind, just as a weather vane does. The Continental jet turned into the wind.
The captain of a Continental Airlines jet that skidded off a Denver runway and burst into flames last month attempted to steer the jet using a method linked to runway accidents in the past, federal accident investigators reported Wednesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board has not said what caused Flight 1404, a Boeing 737-500 headed for Houston, to skid off the runway on Dec. 20 while attempting to take off in a brisk crosswind. But a preliminary report released by investigators offers the first glimpse of what might have triggered the crash.
All 115 people aboard escaped as jet fuel burned through the right side of the jet. The crash injured 38 people, five of whom were hospitalized, the NTSB said.
As the jet accelerated toward takeoff, the captain attempted to keep it rolling straight by turning the small pair of wheels under the jet's nose, the NTSB said the pilot told investigators. The nose gear is turned with a device called a tiller. The captain is not named in the report.
Two former accident investigators, Kevin Darcy and John Cox, who are not connected to the government's probe, said that using the tiller could cause the front tires to lose traction and start to skid. Pilots typically use the tiller to turn while taxiing at slow speeds, but once a jet accelerates, they steer with rudder pedals, they said.
Nose-wheel steering is something investigators will likely focus on, said Darcy, a former Boeing accident investigator who now works as a safety consultant. Darcy said he investigated a 737 accident in Mumbai in the 1990s which was partly blamed on the pilots' attempt to steer with the tiller during takeoff.
The NTSB cited "excessive nose-wheel steering" as part of the reason for a 1995 accident at John F. Kennedy International Airport involving a 747.
"It is unusual to need a tiller in a 737 on a runway, regardless of wind," said Cox, a former US Airways pilot who is also a safety consultant. "In all my years, I never needed the tiller. The rudder steering was always sufficient."
The winds at Denver were gusting up to 37 mph from the west as the jet attempted to take off to the north. Jets naturally tend to turn into the wind, just as a weather vane does. The Continental jet turned into the wind.
