UPS A300 down at Birmingham AL

Such a hard impact short of the runway, not very forgiving terrain though I suppose.

RIP, and thoughts for the families and friends
 
Sure hate to hear this. Prayers to the pilots families, and to all of you here that knew these pilots and the rest of you who work in the industry.

I know this is a tight bunch within the flying community and my thoughts go out to each of you.

Stay safe always, y'all!
 
There is quite a bit of wide open land north of that runway, almost a mile. As sucky as this is, the outcome would probably have been much worse if this happened coming in to any other runway or any other airport for that matter.
RIP
 
I know five pilots with UPS so am still waiting to hear they are ok.

One report I saw said they appeared to be heading for the short runway instead of the longer one usually used by them. Could be an indication there was a problem they were dealing with.
 
cnn said:
Witness Peter Torres, a Civil Air Patrol member who said he is a former airline mechanic, said he thought he heard what sounded like a backfire from the jet's engines as the plane passed overhead. He rushed to his window.
"I saw the flash," of an apparent explosion, he said, followed by a "boom" that shook his home.
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I bet he threw on the onesie for the interview.
 
Any rumors floating around on this one yet? Have been surprised to find no speculation at this point, but am curious how things went so badly so quick.
 
escapepilot said:
One report I saw said they appeared to be heading for the short runway instead of the longer one usually used by them. Could be an indication there was a problem they were dealing with.
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I went back about a month of flying and couldn't find another single flight that appeared to use 18 instead of 6/24 which has a precision on both ends, just interesting. A few years back I remember the place being kind of tight and they've been doing lots of land clearing and buying up homes around those encroachment areas.
 
Had a chance to briefly talk to the FedEx crew that was flying in at the same time. They said everything seemed fine and then tower told them the ups flight was down and to go around. They said there was no warning or sound of distress on the radio. They said that UPS overtook them but I'm not really sure what he meant by that, as I didn't really ask him to clarify (my guess is they were #1 and UPS then become #1)
 
Pulled from a Chicago Tribune article...This is the first I have seen of anything mentioning this....Could be something, could be nothing....

....PREVIOUS INCIDENTS

UPS declined immediate comment on reports that the A300 involved in the crash had a record of previous mechanical and structural issues, some of which caused emergencies to be declared during flight.

An FAA database showed that the "service difficulty" issues, which date back to 2006, included a problem with an air data computer and a malfunction of the plane's flap system.

The Airbus A300 is a wide-body jet widely used as a regional freighter by UPS, FedEx Corp and others.
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JEP said:
Pulled from a Chicago Tribune article...This is the first I have seen of anything mentioning this....Could be something, could be nothing....
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I don't have much experience with aircraft this size, but I would figure that anyone of them probably have a record of previous issues of this sort somewhere in their logs, and probably and emergency or two - correct?
 
Seems unlikely (although not impossible, I suppose) that if the tower was operating (as per the FedEx crew), they wouldn't have transmitted anything to anyone if there were a mechanical problem. Although who knows. It's a riddle. And it sucks.
 
Sol Rosenburg said:
I went back about a month of flying and couldn't find another single flight that appeared to use 18 instead of 6/24 which has a precision on both ends, just interesting. A few years back I remember the place being kind of tight and they've been doing lots of land clearing and buying up homes around those encroachment areas.
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Was the accident aircraft cleared for an approach to 18? Do we know that yet?
 
JEP said:
Pulled from a Chicago Tribune article...This is the first I have seen of anything mentioning this....Could be something, could be nothing....
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Seems like a standard day for any airplane used in a working capacity. When you use them everyday, things will and do break. That's why there is MEL's. Go back in the history of just about any airplane used to transport stuff, and you'll be able to find multiple write ups. This is just media sensationalism.
 
Murdoughnut said:
I don't have much experience with aircraft this size, but I would figure that anyone of them probably have a record of previous issues of this sort somewhere in their logs, and probably and emergency or two - correct?
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Do airlines have a "bird book" -- a written record of the aircraft's previous performance, including emergencies, frequent writeups, etc -- so pilots can pass info to each other about a particular tail's idiosyncrasies and maintenance history?
 
Hacker15e said:
Do airlines have a "bird book" -- a written record of the aircraft's previous performance, including emergencies, frequent writeups, etc -- so pilots can pass info to each other about a particular tail's idiosyncrasies and maintenance history?
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Yeah, the mx log. You see everything, what was written up, when it was cleared, when the aircraft was removed from service for scheduled mx, etc. as long as your coworkers are doing their jobs and writing up things that are failing, it should be a reasonably complete record.
 
jtrain609 said:
Yeah, the mx log. You see everything, what was written up, when it was cleared, when the aircraft was removed from service for scheduled mx, etc. as long as your coworkers are doing their jobs and writing up things that are failing, it should be a reasonably complete record.
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For how many days though? Everywhere I have experience with has only been required to keep a certain number of days in the log, and with the frequency of routine inspections you'd almost never see more than a week. If something broke repeatedly and frequently, you'd definitely know from the can, but for the long-term history you'd have to trust mx control and your own memory/history with the aircraft.
 
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