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TWA L1011 Image: Ted Quackenbush - www.airliners.n...
Stall Images: DLR, CC-BY 3.0 Interiot - Original source: wwwsam.brooks.a...
This is the story of TWA flight 843. On the 30th of july 1992 an L1011 was planning to fly from New yorks JFK airport to san francisco. The flight had 280 passengers and 12 crew members on board. At about 5:16 pm EDT ATC came on and cleared the plane to taxi to runway 13R.The runway was more than 14,000 feet long, more than enough for this L1011 tristar to get airborne.
By 5:40 pm the plane was at the runway and the first officer was at the controls ready to take his plane into the sky. The captain acknowledged their takeoff clearance. Power was advanced and flight 843 was on its way to san francisco.
As the plane picked up speed the captain called V1,, indicating that they couldnt reject the takeoff after this point. They went past the Vr speed and the plane started lifting off into the sky. At an altitude of about 16 feet the stick shakers activated and the first officer said, “getting a stall”. A stall is a situation in which your wings arent generating lift to keep the plane in the air. In the cockpits the control columns vibrate letting the pilots know that they were very close to a stall. Its designed to draw your attention to it because it's just that serious. The first officer felt that the plane wasnt performing as usual. He felt that the plane could not climb out and handed the plane over to the captain by saying “you got it”. The captain now had a split second to make a life or death decision, the fate of 292 people rested on his shoulders. In the background The flight engineer kept saying “ get it off get it off” and they got a transmission from the tower “TWA 843 heavy, numerous flames”. The captain saw runway the in front of him, but it was unlikely that theyd have enough runway to come to a stop. He checked the status of the plane, the plane had the right attitude for takeoff and the right air speed but he felt that the plane would not fly. Heres a quote from the report. “ He said he positively did not believe that the airplane would fly”. 1.7 seconds after the captain assumed control of the plane the plane touched back down on the runway. He applied full reverse thrust and maximum braking, but the plane was not slowing down fast enough. It was almost as if the brakes were losing their effectiveness. In front of him loomed a blast fence beyond the end of the runway. They just had 1500 feet of runway left and the plane was still travelling at 100 knots. The captain knew that they would run out of runway before they stopped. So he turned the plane left onto the grass. He was confident that he could stop the plane on the grass or the concrete beyond it. As the plane left the runway a thump signaled that the nose gear had collapsed. Soon the plane came to a stop on the grass. The captain immediately turned off the fuel and the ignition switches. He asked the first officer to pull the fire extinguishers in the engines. He immediately got on the PA system and said “"This is the captain, evacuate the aircraft." After that he went into the cabin to direct the evacuation. They were not out of trouble; they opened one of the hatches on the right side only to find flames and smoke outside. The captain walked through the plane one last time and making sure that no one was left behind. He was the last one to leave the plane.
In 90 seconds passengers and crew were beside the plane watching it burn, within minutes the firefighters showed up and it took them about 45 minutes to get the blaze in control. The burnt husk of the plane smouldered on the side of the runway. Looking at the plane youd think that it was a mass casualty event, but miraculously every one survived. That was due to the amazing work by the crew. It's even more incredible when you consider that the crew did not have access to a few of the exits due to the fire. Even with that they were able to evacuate almost 300 people in about 90 seconds. Hats off to them.