THE HUMAN ERROR
as I try to figure out what’s wrong. Maybe the power will come back. The manual says that the aircraft can climb at 220 fpm on one engine so I have nothing to worry about. The aircraft is turning left and I want to get this thing back on the ground so I’ll let her turn. I’ll sure have a story to tell the boys when I get back tonight. My right foot is on the floor and I have got full right aileron, but we’re still turning. What’s going on? I’ve got full power on the right engine but we’re losing airspeed. Now we’re descending but I’ve got the control column full back. This can’t be happening. Not to worry; there is the runway straight ahead. Why won’t the controls respond like they’re supposed to? This is not supposed to happen. My God — we are going to crash!
THE CRASH SEQUENCE The left wing tip is the first to strike the ground and throws everyone violently to the right as the aircraft swings around the wingtip. The propel- ler blades from the left engine strike the ground and fold under at the same time as the nose impacts the ground. The nose crushes in as the occupants are now flung forward. The pilot can feel the metal crushing his legs for a moment before the control column crushes the life out of his chest. The boy is flung to the left and out of the shoulder
harness. His head strikes the instrument panel above the throttles which are still both at maximum power and consciousness is instantly lost before he too is killed. The man sitting behind the pilot now feels the floor of
the aircraft crumpling and breaking both of his legs as the spar rotates and pins his broken legs to the floor. The wife is sitting further from the initial impact point and has twisted to face the back as baggage strikes her on its journey to the front of the aircraft. The husband and wife’s eyes lock briefly in bewilderment. The man sitting behind her is slumped forward with the outboard engine embedded deep into the back of his seat. His back is broken, and he can feel nothing below his waist.
At this time the propeller tips of the right engine begin to touch the ground. The first tip bends forward slightly as it leaves a mark in the ground. The next blade also slices the ground and bends as it pulls forward. The third blade strikes the ground and as it pulls forward it breaks the hub and separates from the hub as it swings around. The released blade swings back and through the side of the fuselage to strike the head of the wife. She is killed instantly as a red blood pattern from her wound sprays the white ceiling above her.
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DOMmagazine.com | nov 2019
The bent nose of the aircraft slides out of the impact hole and rotates another 170 degrees before coming to a stop.
THE AFTERMATH For a brief moment everything is absolutely quiet. Then30 the man with the broken legs begins to scream, “Someone help me. For God’s sake, please, someone help me.” The other survivors in the aircraft begin to moan and move. They are covered in baggage and have numerous injuries, but they are alive. Suddenly a small fire begins under the right engine. Someone yells fire and the survivors begin to untangle themselves and look for the exit. The husband sees it all and he does not move. It is only when someone from outside opens the door and pulls him out does he respond by saying. “I’m OK. Please get my family out.” The fire quickly intensifies and spreads until it silences the screaming of the man with the broken legs. The boy’s dog comes running up and the man holds him as he looks at the burning wreckage that now holds the bodies of his wife and his youngest son. They take the man with the broken back and the worse
injured to the medical clinic in the one ambulance the town has, but the husband refuses to go. What is he thinking as he sits there and looks at the still burning wreckage? He is thinking one word. A
word that will haunt him the rest of his life. One that he will recall every morning when he wakes
up. One of the first he will ask the investigators.
One very simple word.“WHY?” “Why am I still alive?” “Why me Lord?” “Why them?” “Why my son when he had so much more life to live?” “Why did this happen?” That one word deserves an answer.
FIVE MONTHS EARLIER The number one cylinder on the left engine was low on compression. As the DOM was unable to obtain a replace- ment cylinder, he removed the cylinder, as he had done hundreds of times in his career, and tediously lapped both valves. It really needed a valve grind and new rings, but this would have to do. What with the problems on the other aircraft that he had had to deal with, it was 3 am by the time he got everything back together. He knew it was booked on a scheduled run at 7 am that
morning, and if it wasn’t ready, there was a good chance they would lose the run to an operator with turbine equipment who wanted in on the territory.
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