National Airlines B747-400 Freighter (BCF) Down in Bagram, Afghanistan

I'm not a 747 pilot, but I'd imagine that it became clear rather rapidly that there was something extremely wrong. Maybe fiddling with the gear lever wasn't first on their list of stuff to do? Plus, if you think there's a chance you're going to be hitting the ground, why not have the gear between you and said ground?
 
Stomp16 said:
Just watched again and have a question for the 74 drivers. I noticed that the gear was still down. In normal ops, isn't it gear-up rather quickly after you leave the runway? I wonder why it was still hanging that far into the sequence (not that it would have probably made a difference but who knows)?
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It could be that the weight shift happened upon rotation and the crew was just trying to regain control and the gear was never brought up...
 
Boris Badenov said:
I'm not a 747 pilot, but I'd imagine that it became clear rather rapidly that there was something extremely wrong. Maybe fiddling with the gear lever wasn't first on their list of stuff to do? Plus, if you think there's a chance you're going to be hitting the ground, why not have the gear between you and said ground?
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Agree
 
I'm not sure at what point, if ever, in an accident sequence you would simply say "I'm totally screwed here and going to die". On most accidents I would think (hope) you never hit that point and simply stay extremely busy trying to solve the problem. I hope this is the case as far as this crash goes.. RIP
 
Stomp16 said:
Just watched again and have a question for the 74 drivers. I noticed that the gear was still down. In normal ops, isn't it gear-up rather quickly after you leave the runway? I wonder why it was still hanging that far into the sequence (not that it would have probably made a difference but who knows)?
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It takes a bit for it all to move once you throw the lever. Not a big hurry to pull the gear up.

I didn't watch the video, but if they rotated and felt something break loose......
 
Reminds me more of the 1900 accident at CLT - that was a scary CVR transcript - can't imagine hearing the audio (although I'm sure someone here has).
 
I feel like I've (unfortunately) become completely desensitized to war images and aircraft crash videos, but this one really made me cringe. That was awful to watch, and really unreal. I can't believe that really happened. :(
 
WacoFan said:
I'm not sure at what point, if ever, in an accident sequence you would simply say "I'm totally screwed here and going to die". On most accidents I would think (hope) you never hit that point and simply stay extremely busy trying to solve the problem. I hope this is the case as far as this crash goes.. RIP
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My thoughts as well.
 
SeanD said:
Is a check of the cargo being secure part of a pre-flight? Just curious
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Can't speak for these guys, obviously, but at UPS the F/O would usually stick his head over the last the can make sure it at least sort of looked like everything was in the right place, but that's about as much as they could usually do. No way to check the locks once it's loaded. Might be more possible with "loose" items like the MRAPs, though, not sure.
 
WacoFan said:
I'm not sure at what point, if ever, in an accident sequence you would simply say "I'm totally screwed here and going to die". On most accidents I would think (hope) you never hit that point and simply stay extremely busy trying to solve the problem. I hope this is the case as far as this crash goes.. RIP
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I would think if I were in that situation, by the time I realize something isn't right, there isn't a ton of time when your that close to the ground to start trying everything to fix the problem. Can't say for the 74, but I haven't been trained for uncommanded pitch up scenario. Mainly just pilot induced stalls in the training realm.
 
WacoFan said:
I'm not sure at what point, if ever, in an accident sequence you would simply say "I'm totally screwed here and going to die". On most accidents I would think (hope) you never hit that point and simply stay extremely busy trying to solve the problem. I hope this is the case as far as this crash goes.. RIP
Click to expand...

"If you're faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible."
Bob Hoover
 
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