Usairways A/c Skids Off Rwy In Pit

[PSA1979]

Ok, how about a Greyhound bus driver, driving across country for 12-14 hours with a full load of passengers. Maybe they have a duty day maximum. I'm not even sure about that.

How about a FAM, they are on duty as long as the flight is. Could be a 10 hour flight. They could have the whole world in their hands.

And as for the Police officers, they don't necessarily have to go on a shooting spree to take out hundreds of people, they can just be over tired and miss that one bad guy going into the stadium with a back pack of explosives.

All I am saying is there are other professions that work long hours and need to be alert and awake, it doesn't make it right to have any of them do so. I was actually just commenting on this because the conclusion jumped to in the beginning, was pilot fatigue. Just because the flight landed at 0320 doesn't necessarily mean the crew was fatigued. How about when you have an 0dark30 departure and you couldn't go to sleep the night before?

It is so easy to blame the company or the weather or the flock of emu's, when you need to find out all the facts before jumping to any conclusions!

 

[oldiebutgoody]

HUGE difference. Firefighters don't (generally) start the fires. A pilot making a mistake can cause a GIGANTIC one! It's not JUST the folks on the plane that might die!

 

[Walmartgreeter]

Ok, how about a Greyhound bus driver, driving across country for 12-14 hours with a full load of passengers. Maybe they have a duty day maximum. I'm not even sure about that.

How about a FAM, they are on duty as long as the flight is. Could be a 10 hour flight. They could have the whole world in their hands.

And as for the Police officers, they don't necessarily have to go on a shooting spree to take out hundreds of people, they can just be over tired and miss that one bad guy going into the stadium with a back pack of explosives.

Good examples and food for thought PSA, thanks. Greeter.

 

[767jetz]

What I'd like to know is, why couldn't they keep it on the pavement with differential brakes? Some airplanes can actually be dispatched with the nose wheel steering inop. Sounds like the damage effected the steering, but to what degree? Does anyone know wht the epuipment type was?

I'm willing to bet that fatigue was at least partially a factor. (No blame on the crew. The fatigue factor is a result of FAA/Company rules. Sometimes what's legal is not always safe, and what's safe is not always legal.) There is no doubt that a pilot (doctor, nurse, firefighter, policeman, whatever) is not as sharp on the 12th hour as the first hour.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

737-300. Hootie owl apparently struck the steering cable -- as the mechanic guy said on TV last night, a one in a billion shot. 767jetz keep in mind there were some pretty treacherous thunderstorms in the area at the time. I believe PIT Int'l received almost two inches of rain that night...slick runway for sure.

 

[local 12 proud]

how in the hell did a hoot owl strike the steering cable? im not familiar with the 737 nose steering mechanism, but correct me if im wrong! is'nt the cable located in the nose wheel well and with gear down and locked the nose gear doors would be in the stowed position? this would mean a large bird would have to enter the NLG at a 90 degree angle at precisely the moment the landing gear was placed in gear down position and before the gear doors were stowed! this chain of events happens in just a few seconds. :huh:

 

[BoeingBoy]

The nose gear doors are open when the gear is down - just look at any 737 sitting at the gate. Also keep in mind that on approach the airplane is in a slightly nose high attitude while descending on the glide slope - depending on the situation there could be as much as a 10 degree difference between a/c attitude and flight path.

Jim

 

[local 12 proud]

thanks jim, was'nt quite sure about the nose gear doors on the 737. i do know they are stowed on many a/c types once the gear is placed in gear down and lock. that is truly a one in a billion shot to say the least!

 

[3green]

Just wondering if the pilots could have used differential braking/thrust to keep the bird on the runway? is this possible on this aircraft?

 

[mweiss]

It's possible, but the pilots would have to have recognized what happened.

Based on what I heard in the early news reports, the flight had been delayed a couple of hours. Understandable, since there were some good-sized t-storms passing through a couple of hours before the flight came in.

I certainly wouldn't be surprised to find that mental fatigue (as opposed to metal fatigue ) had an effect here.

 

[BoeingBoy]

FWIW, differential braking is possible. With hydraulic pressure for the nose wheel steering (as in the flight in question), it could be used to offset some small amount of nose wheel steering effect, assuming that the crew had time to recognize what was going on and react. Very much nose wheel offset could have left very little time for reaction.

Much would depend on when the problem was noticed (lack of nose wheel steering) which would depend on when the damage occured. If the bird strike happened on approach or just after touchdown (but before the nose wheels touched down), the steering problem would have manifested itself at nose wheel touchdown. At that point there would have been something between a gentle and abrupt swerve toward the grass. Presumably, that would have been followed by rudder input (controls nose wheel steering also) followed by (or at the same time if the f/o was flying) by the tiller (steering wheel, if you will). At least that would probably been my reaction.

Depending on the severity of the swerve, a split second may have been all the time available to make any correction (differential braking) before it was too late.

Jim

 

[tadjr]

The crew was only on duty for 12+ hours. Looks like they were supposed to go PIT-TPA-CLT-PIT, but ended up doing PIT-PBI-MCO-TPA-CLT. Kind of a round about way. Was the weather bad in Florida last night? Anyway, it took 7 and a half hours to just do that. Then they did the last leg back to PIT. Looks like they were ony 3 and a half hours late. Not bad for a marathon flight.

Yes it was that bad in Tampa. We were closed for lightning most of the afternoon from 515pm until after 9pm. During that time frame we had at least 2 storms at the airport that caused diversions for several airlines. 3 of our flights diverted. 2 to MCO and this one to PBI FIRST, then again later in the evening to MCO once it had taken off and was back enroute to TPA. The storms passed over the airport and things cleared up and then they came back again later in the evening from the other direction (from the seabreeze effect). There were many reports of hail and a possible tornado in the area as well.
The flight (725pm) to CLT actually left TPA about 1210am.

Today (Tues) was the 6th day since last Monday that TPA has been closed for part of the afternoon with lightning and storms and its only the first week of June. For anyone planning a trip to TPA, plan on leaving before 3pm or you might get a nice light show (and a misconnect) while you are waiting.

 

[local 12 proud]

all this bad weather with hail and rain and lightining and tornadoes, and low and behold a"owl " just happens to be out searching for a meal and finds a 737 nose gear steering mechanism instead?....hmmmmmm

 

[tadjr]

The hail and tornado and bad weather in TPA shouldnt have any effect on a plane leaving the runway in PIT. :unsure: It would have had to have been another reason.... not sure why you would think the weather would have been a factor?

 

[local 12 proud]

OOOPS my bad, read to fast and thought the weather played a role in the "landing" in PIT!