Large cargo plane crashes east of Houston

a reply to: roadgravel

That's the one, was left on the plane by mistake.

a reply to: Edumakated

Some kind of hazardous material being transported. Things explode that can do a lot of damage, but that doesn't mean they're bombs. There's some pretty nasty hazmat too.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

They were mislabled as empty, and packed incorrectly. They activated, and caught fire and burned through the floor.

This was taken today, shortly before the aircraft departed Miami. It's most likely the last picture taken of it.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
This was taken today, shortly before the aircraft departed Miami. It's most likely the last picture taken of it.

The right winglet looks off from the left. I know angles make things look different but one is vertical it seems.

a reply to: CosmicAwakening

Good eye, they do seem different.

Looking at the flight playback on flightradar24, it looks like they ditched in the swamp rather than a populated area. I know people who work for Atlas. My heart goes out to them.

originally posted by: Edumakated
I hate to think terrorism but if no distress call and sudden loss of altitude I'm thinking bomb.

Even if engines go out or some other mechanical failure, planes typically just dont fall out the sky nor do pilots not have time to get a distress call out.

Everyone is obsessing about a lack of a distress call. Taking the time talk to someone on the ground is the LAST thing to do. First, fly the damn airplane (aviate.) Second, figure out where you are and where to go (navigate.) Last, talk to someone so they can get everyone else out of your way while you fly the aircraft. After all, what is a non-pilot, non-mechanic air traffic controller going to do from miles away to help put out the cargo bay fire or deal with inadvertent reverser deployment or help with runaway elevator trim? A lack of a distress call is meaningless to the investigatory process. The important conversation will be the one on the CVR.

originally posted by: CosmicAwakening

originally posted by: Zaphod58
This was taken today, shortly before the aircraft departed Miami. It's most likely the last picture taken of it.

The right winglet looks off from the left. I know angles make things look different but one is vertical it seems.

That is crazy pic.

Definitely different angles. I do wonder if some here can tell us if the tips are static or not?

a reply to: Zaphod58

Total cabin decompression?

Thanks to all for info

Des

a reply to: CosmicAwakening

a reply to: LookingAtMars

a reply to: UncleTomahawk

The winglets are static, and are at the same angle to each other. The different look is just because of the angle of the camera to the wing. If you were to look at them straight on they'd be at identical angles.

a reply to: Destinyone

Possible but unlikely.

Looking at the granular data from the transponder. Everything seemed normal until they got down to around 6200 feet. They descended down to 6125 feet, before coming back up slightly to 6200 feet. At 6150 feet, they suddenly show a descent rate of over 4,000 fpm. It peaked at 4900 fpm, before dropping back down to 4100 fpm, then suddenly jumps to 8300 fpm and starts to increase. It reaches a peak of 18,944 fpm, before they leveled off slightly and it drops briefly to 10,752 fpm, before jumping to over 25,000 fpm increasing to the final rate of 29,504 fpm.

The water where they hit is very shallow. Witnesses said they heard what sounded like lightning, and the aircraft went into a nosedive into the water.

Looking at the flight tracker data it looks like they turned hard left towards the bay right before the rapid descent/crash. So the crew must have had some control but knew they wont make it.

a reply to: CosmicAwakening

I thought of the Payne Stewart Crash where

quickly lost cabin pressure and all six on board were incapacitated due to hypoxia

in that instance the plane was in auto pilot and crashed when it ran out of fuel. Perhaps with this the nose of plane got pushed down inadvertently as pilots loss consciousness. Link

a reply to: Observationalist

It almost certainly wasn't a depressurization. They reached 40,000 feet after departing Miami and were in a controlled descent until they were at 6000 feet, when they went out of control.

Everything is pure speculation at this time, will most likely take a very long time to get the NTSB report, although the report can be expedited by the ease of access to the debris field.

Could be shifted load, one of the aft straps and/or chain could have snapped or been forgotten during loading, or simply chafing enough during transit and if it was the aft straps it would not have had an effect before decending unlike with N949CA where the forward straps where improperly used and the shifted load thus resulted in a crash right after takeoff.

But yeah, could be hundreds of different causes, time will tell.

Poor souls and family to the lost ones.

originally posted by: UncleTomahawk

originally posted by: CosmicAwakening

originally posted by: Zaphod58
This was taken today, shortly before the aircraft departed Miami. It's most likely the last picture taken of it.

The right winglet looks off from the left. I know angles make things look different but one is vertical it seems.

That is crazy pic.

Definitely different angles. I do wonder if some here can tell us if the tips are static or not?

On that model the winglets are fixed. As an option on the 777X they can fold.

a reply to: F4guy

The wingtip can fold. The 777X won't have winglets. The original 777 design had that option too but none of the customers took it.