Contrados 3142: Tales from the Sky

Route: Yellowknife — Toronto — Halifax

The Fatal Crack On a December morning in 1974, an almost new Air Canada Boeing 727 was operating a domestic flight across the country. There were 129 people on board. The commander, 54-year-old Dennis Mckirk, and the co-pilot, 41-year-old Mark Saigato, were preparing to descend when a siren blared in the cockpit: "Engine Two Fire, Engine Three Fire."

The three-engine liner had two power plants fail at the same time. Fragments of the collapsed central engine disrupted the fuel lines of a neighbor. Mckirk decided to land immediately in Winnipeg, but 10 kilometers from the runway, the last, left engine stalled.

Landing "blindly" The huge plane turned into a glider at an altitude of 4,100 meters. Realizing that they couldn't reach the airport, the pilots began frantically searching for the field. At an altitude of only 30 meters, the left wing of the Boeing crashed into a hill, tearing off part of the plane. At a speed of 390 km/h, the liner crashed onto the snow-covered ground, plowed about 100 meters on its belly and fell apart into three parts.

As soon as the last passenger left the wreckage, the tail section burst into flames. Firefighters from the town of Petersfield had to extinguish only the charred skeleton of the plane. Incredibly, none of the 129 people died, although 73 were injured.

TSBC Investigation: "Let it Fly" Canadian Safety Board investigators were shocked when they reconstructed the events leading up to takeoff. The truth turned out to be worse than any technical malfunction.

Warning: The day before departure, mechanic Henry Malure discovered a crack in the central engine blade. He demanded to cancel the flight and replace the part immediately.

Criminal negligence: Chief Technician Carl Hawkes ignored the warning. His phrase was included in the case file.: "Let him fly, and we'll fix it when we get back."

The final: The defective blade broke off in flight, turning the engine into shrapnel, which destroyed the rest of the control systems.

Ahtung!!! All plane crashes are completely fictional or based on real cases but have been changed.All the names were also made up.

Air Canada Flight 1598 (1974) — "Cost savings" It all started with the phrase: "Let it fly, then we'll fix it." A crack in the engine blade turned the new Boeing 727 into a pile of metal. The detached part destroyed two power plants at once. The pilots accomplished the impossible by landing an engine-less giant on a field near Winnipeg. 129 survivors and 10 years in prison for the chief technician.

Air China Flight 1634 (1998) — "Locked Door" When the commander got out of the cockpit, co-pilot Gao Yongtao locked the door and steered the Boeing 737 into a dive. He had depression and a series of personal tragedies behind him. 140 dead. This case has forced the world to reconsider the rules of psychological control of those to whom we entrust our lives.

KLM Flight 1400 (2016) — "Double Whammy" The rarest coincidence: simultaneous engine failure due to air turbulence and a fire in the toilet due to old wiring. The crew made the only right decision — to get on the water. The airliner broke up, 16 people died, but most escaped from the sinking fuselage.

The tragedy over the Alps (1983) — "Fatal crossing" The Boeing 707 (Lufthansa) and Airbus A300 (Air France) converged at one point at an altitude of 9100 meters. The dispatcher in Zurich simply did not notice that he had crossed their courses. A second scream in the cockpit and 336 lives were cut short in the sky over Switzerland. After that, the introduction of TCAS systems became a matter of life and death.

Qantas Flight 1289 (2016) — "Hole in the clouds" A piece of the fuselage was literally torn out of the Jumbo Jet over Papua New Guinea. Two rows of chairs flew into the abyss. For an hour, the pilots held the depressurized liner in the air before landing it in Port Moresby. 6 dead, 300 lives saved.

FedEx Flight 1561 (2018) — "Ice captivity" The rush in freezing Memphis cost the co-pilot his life. Ground services have only partially doused the wings of the ATR-72. A thin crust of ice deprived the aircraft of lift immediately after takeoff. Impact on the field two minutes after lifting off the ground.

American Airlines Flight 419 (2012) — "Extra tons" Everything was clean in the documents, but in reality the Boeing 419 weighed 3 tons more than the norm. The plane just couldn't get off the runway at Charlotte, flew into the woods and burst into flames. 47 people died due to an error in the loading records.

Delta Flight 1790 (2008) — "Echo of the Past" 6 years before the accident, this plane hit its tail on landing. Instead of a full-fledged replacement of the part, a patch was applied. After thousands of flights, she couldn't stand the pressure. A severed keel and 45 seconds of free fall. The pilots performed a miracle by landing the car on two landing gear struts.

Turkish Airlines Flight 248 (2008) — "Cruise attack" A flock of seagulls over Bulgaria has disabled 3 of the 4 BAe-146 engines. The crew decided to board the belly in Varna, as the landing gear was jammed. A perfect landing without a single casualty.

United Flight 1204 (1987) — "Sleepy Fog" The pilots were on their feet for 18 hours. Due to an electrical outage and fog in San Francisco, they miscalculated their speed and "flew over" the middle of the lane. The liner rolled out into the bay. Only one dead flight attendant, but hundreds of questions to airlines about crew rest standards.

Each of these stories is not just a statistic. This is the memory of those who did not return, and gratitude to those who managed to escape.