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ASA flight 529

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chperplt

Registered User
Joined
Nov 25, 2001
Posts
4,123
Just read an outstanding book about the crash of ASA flight 529. The book was called 9 minutes and 20 seconds. It seemed very detailed about the accident and gives a nice background story on every person on the flight.

It mentions that the FO, Matt Warmerdam was back at ASA flying the RJ after being burned over a good majority of his body. WOW.. What an inspirational story.

If any of the ASA pilots on this board know him, tell him his story is a great one, and I wish him all the best!
 
I read that story in Reader's Digest a few months ago.

The entire flight crew did a great job.
 
Delta3 said:
The entire flight crew did a great job.

I agree.

There's been a lot of talk in flight attendant ground schools about how the captain and F/O fell down on the job as far as keeping the F/A informed. Baloney! That airplane was basically out-of-control the moment the left engine uncorked. They didn't have time to do the checklist right, let alone have a chat with the F/A. That they got the airplane near the ground in something like a level attitude is impressive enough!

I'll tell you, it's very sobering to see your airplane in your company's colors mangled and burned that way. And my wife's name is Amy...just like Mrs. Warmerdam...gives me chills just thinking about it.
 
Patmack18 said:
Which incident was this? Ran a search on the NTSB's website and couldn't come up with anything.
Pat

This was the ASA Brasilia at Carrolton, GA. One of the left prop blades disintegrated due to faulty construction and overhaul techniques (Hamilton Standard's fault, not ASA'a). The blade separated, and what was left of the prop tore the engine off it's mount and crammed it sideways against the leading edge of the wing.

They lost something like 10,000 feet before they started really getting it under control. The forced landing wasn't bad, bu they hit trees and rough terrain and the airplne burned. The captain burned up in an oxygen-fed fire. The same fire almost got Warmerdam, but the F/A, fire crews, and passengers everntually got him out.

I forget how many total fatalities there were.
 
The AJC (that's the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for all you non-Atlantites) ran a series last year about the victims and survivirs of the crash, kind of a "where are they now" thing. They interviewed the survivors and asked them what it was like. It was scary, but interesting. It might still be up on their website if you search for "ASA 529".

Matt is indeed back and flying the line on the RJ. I am told he finished IOE in May. The Captain of 529 didn't die from the fire... but blunt head trauma. They say he hit his head on the handle that releases the DV side window. For those of you not aquainted with the Brasilia, it is a 2 inch metal handle that hangs down 4 inches from the top window track and is 3 inches from the window surface. Basically, it's right next to your head when you fly.
 
Matt was 2 classes ahead of me back in 1995, but I didn't know him. I was flying a Brasilia that day. Take it from me - if something like that happens, call your wife and your parents quickly. Got my wife in time, but not my mother.

Robin Fech the F/A is my hero. After crawling out from under the galley, and with a broken collarbone, she helped the passengers get away from the fire, then returned and helped chop a hole in the f/o's DV window. I met her later - she's about 5 foot nothing and weighs like 90 pounds.

And the FDR showed that the captain was making aileron inputs even after the plane was in the tops of the pines. That field was about 1500' long, and he clipped the pines on the approach end to slow down more. The crew on that flight did their absolute best.
 
Unfortunately, the early brassilia had to kill a lot of people, hence the name Brakillya. The early props had disimilar metal cores which caused fatigue cracks resulting in a blade failure. I think there was also a problem with the trasfer tube which routes oil to the prop hub but not in that ASA aircraft. Now the prop system has several protective features to prevent prop overspeed. Tragic story about ASA 529.
 
Cornelius said:
Unfortunately, the early brassilia had to kill a lot of people, hence the name Brakillya. The early props had disimilar metal cores which caused fatigue cracks resulting in a blade failure. I think there was also a problem with the trasfer tube which routes oil to the prop hub but not in that ASA aircraft. Now the prop system has several protective features to prevent prop overspeed. Tragic story about ASA 529.

You're confusing this incident with the prop overspeeds that occured on the E120. In the prop overspeeds, it was determined that the prop governing system failed due to uneven wear between the shuttle valve and the transfer tube spindle. They were made of different metals of different hardnesses, and the stronger metal wore away the weak metal. This stripped the threads off the transfer tube, rendering it motionless and unable to control prop RPM. Supposedly Embraer fixed this, but then we just had another catastrophic prop overspeed last winter that was only survivable because of the heroics of the Captain. The cause still remains a mystery.

In the 529 incident, the titanium spar in the composite prop failed due to corosion. Hamilton-Standard was reconditioning the blades using steel wool and chlorine to clean the hollow interior of the spar. They were also using a metal hook to pull out the cork counterweights. Thes processes scored the interior of the spar, and the chlorine led to corosion and undetected cracks on the interior of the spar. This spar failed about 3" from the blade tip on the accident flight, creating a prop imbalance that literally ripped the engine off the wing (and half the wing itself) in a matter of seconds.
 
Ifly4food, what overspeed incident happened last year, I don't think I heard of that one? My bad about the other post, I thought there were disimilar metals in the prop core too.
 

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