AC.I (Air Crash Investigator)

[Esva]

O.K,

Not too long ago at the Sheffield/Hallam University a group of students were given the task of solving the mystery of an Air Crash. The experiment was run over a 5 day period where the students had to solve the mystery of what brought the plane down from a completely objective and scientific view. Each day new clues would be revealed and it was down to the students to look through the evidence and sort fact from fiction and come up with a final determination, and only after the 5 days was the actual solution was revealed.

Now the group numbered 20 students, and the surprising thing was only 2 students got it correct.

So, Im going to throw this out as a challenge to anyone in Ordo who wishes to try their luck at this, but please remember this is based on an actuall aircraft disaster, the information given is as factual as possible so please keep this in mind before doing stupid post's.

RULES

1: Read the description of day one, then post what your course of action is

2: To analyse wreackge or piece of equipment state "Sending xxxxxx to be analysed" at the end of your post, you will then receive you report in a Forum IM

3: You can only act on an analysis report on the next day, so be sure to get as many things anylised in one go as possible

4: Some names IE airline, region's, airports ect will be changed so external research like google will be tougher (this is for you cheaters) however everything else is factual.

5: You may converse with other people doing this test as much as you want

6: Your final Report must be posted no later that 11:30 PM on Thursday 27th Oct 2011, the actual report will be posted the next day

Successfully Solved the mystery ?

Who ever solves this gets a prize of 2000L$'s

Who ever has shown the best problem solving ability gets a prize of 1000L$

TIPS

Think Outside the box as much as possible, try considering every variable

Even the smallest thing can reveal a big clue

The obvious isnt always the actual cause

DAY 1

Your sitting in your office in the N.T.S.B building in Washington D.C when you get a call that a plane has gone down in a feild.

You are driven out to farmland about 5- 6 hours away along with your team after receiving the news that an aircraft a DC-9 has crashed landed. Once on the site of the air crash you study the debris field. The wreckage is still smouldering and emergency services are on the scene trying to fight the fires.

The aircraft has broken up into several large pieces and many thousand smaller pieces. The emergency medical services are tending to a small group of battered and broken people who are cut, bruised & burnt. As you study the debris field you notice that there is a large and deep skid pattern leading from a road to where the wreckage lays, and also you notice the wings are missing.

As the lead investigator your team now looks to you ........

Edited October 22, 2011 by Rykiana Ferina

[BlackSergal]

Step 1

Break into 3 groups...

Group1 interviews survivors, with luck the flight crew is among them.

Group2 focus on the Fight Data Recorders AKA "Black Boxes"

Group 3 plots a survey of the crash site using GPS and pictures.

Contact local FAA Branch about radar and weather reports, specificly to confirm this wasn't a mid-air or natural (wind sheer).

[Esva]

Step 1

Break into 3 groups...

Group1 interviews survivors, with luck the flight crew is among them.

Group2 focus on the Fight Data Recorders AKA "Black Boxes"

Group 3 plots a survey of the crash site using GPS and pictures.

Contact local FAA Branch about radar and weather reports, specificly to confirm this wasn't a mid-air or natural (wind sheer).

F.A.A Has sent the required information.

[George Reisman]

/me finds blackbox. Problem solved.

[Xoza]

FOD, that is all, it's always FOD

[Reinhardt]

1, have a team interview all survivors, cross-reference stories when completed

2, send all reckage of the plane for analysis for evidence of structural flaws that might have existed before the crash

3, send one team to find the black box and analyze it

4, send one team to scour the area for the missing wings, send these out for analysis when found

5, contact appropriate agencies and airports to find out all necessary reports of air traffic in that area, and a recording of all communications from that craft

6, have a team scout the area in the direction the plane had been comming from for anyhtign that might have caused electrical interference

7, contact weather stations for report on weather in the area for the past few hours

[Jayce Iredell]

Step 1

Break into 5 groups...

Group1 interviews survivors, with luck the flight crew is among them.

Group2 focus on the Fight Data Recorders AKA "Black Boxes"

Group 3 plots a survey of the crash site using GPS and pictures.

Group 4 Contacts and interviews Air Traffic Controllers that handled communication with the Plane during its flight.

Group 5 Contact and interview first responders to the scene to collect statements and conduct interviews.

Contact local FAA Branch about radar and weather reports, specificly to confirm this wasn't a mid-air or natural (wind sheer).

[Esva]

/me finds blackbox. Problem solved.

As said before "No stupid Post's" >:(

1, have a team interview all survivors, cross-reference stories when completed

2, send all reckage of the plane for analysis for evidence of structural flaws that might have existed before the crash

3, send one team to find the black box and analyze it

4, send one team to scour the area for the missing wings, send these out for analysis when found

5, contact appropriate agencies and airports to find out all necessary reports of air traffic in that area, and a recording of all communications from that craft

6, have a team scout the area in the direction the plane had been comming from for anyhtign that might have caused electrical interference

7, contact weather stations for report on weather in the area for the past few hours

F.A.A Has sent the required information.

Step 1

Break into 5 groups...

Group1 interviews survivors, with luck the flight crew is among them.

Group2 focus on the Fight Data Recorders AKA "Black Boxes"

Group 3 plots a survey of the crash site using GPS and pictures.

Group 4 Contacts and interviews Air Traffic Controllers that handled communication with the Plane during its flight.

Group 5 Contact and interview first responders to the scene to collect statements and conduct interviews.

Contact local FAA Branch about radar and weather reports, specificly to confirm this wasn't a mid-air or natural (wind sheer).

F.A.A Has sent the required information.

[Esva]

DAY 2

After hours of searching through the debris field your team has sent many pieces of wreckage back for analysis along with request's for information about weather, the flight data recorder & the cockpit voice recorder.

Along the road your team has documented heavy black tire mark's, also many tree's, telephone posts have been toppled and your team comes to the conculsion this was caused by the wings of the DC-9 before the wings were sheared off.

One member of your team reports to you that as the engines were being lifted onto a truck to be taken to a near by airport hangar there was a rattling sound and also several small chunks of Ice were underneath the engine cowling's

[BlackSergal]

Black marks? So the landing gear was down? Was the plane on approach? Also Separate said engine.. We want that inspected right away for blade failure from FOD.

Since we're at it, lets get the plane's Maint. Logs from the Airliner.

Still a single engine loss would not have brought the DC-9 down so catastrophicly. How much fire damage was their along the wings and debris path?

[Jayce Iredell]

Day 2

Group1 Combine gathered interviews and reports with that from group 5, and begin sifting through them for consistencies/inconsistencies.

Group2 Go to nearby Hangar and examine engines, take pictures and look for any clues within other wreckage that may be there as well.

Group 3 Travel to Washington DC to look over the crash site reconstruction

Group 4 While waiting for information, stays on crash site to look for any clues left behind that are not related to the wreckage, IE Trajectory of plane during, tire marks, areas where fire has burned etc.

Group 5 Contact DC-9 Design engineers and manufacturer for structural documents of the plane.

[Ron Bleac]

The number of small shards suggests that the landing gear was down and was sheared off on impact, transforming the gears into missiles that ripped the plane's undercarriage appart, causing the plane to separate into several pieces on impact. The damage will be highest directly behind the gear carriage and most distinct on the tail section of the plane. Due to the gear being down it is to be assumed that the aircraft was either in landing or take-off procedure, as lowering the landing gear during ditching isn't standard procedure at all and highly counter productive.

I suspect that the critical failure resulted from human error. The crew had forgotten to engage the deicing procedure before takeoff and as they climbed into higher altitude, the ice began to form and slowly brought the engine RPS down. The flight crew’s failure to use engine anti-ice during ground operation and takeoff resulted in a critical loss of airspeed, stalling the aircraft mid-air and it came down amidst a forested area with gears down.

Find the flight #, airport that the plane took off from, flight time and ATC2plane recordings.

[Reinhardt]

Reading the posts of others, who clearly have more knowledge about the Air industry than I, I am backing out of this exercise. Thinking of things I wouldnt, is one thing. But knowing the procedures for landing, or that they have a deicing procedure, well I didnt know that stuff!

Good luck to all remaining in this exercise.

[Esva]

Black marks? So the landing gear was down? Was the plane on approach? Also Separate said engine.. We want that inspected right away for blade failure from FOD.

Since we're at it, lets get the plane's Maint. Logs from the Airliner.

Still a single engine loss would not have brought the DC-9 down so catastrophicly. How much fire damage was their along the wings and debris path?

F.A.A & N.T.S.B Has sent the required information.

Day 2

Group1 Combine gathered interviews and reports with that from group 5, and begin sifting through them for consistencies/inconsistencies.

Group2 Go to nearby Hangar and examine engines, take pictures and look for any clues within other wreckage that may be there as well.

Group 3 Travel to Washington DC to look over the crash site reconstruction

Group 4 While waiting for information, stays on crash site to look for any clues left behind that are not related to the wreckage, IE Trajectory of plane during, tire marks, areas where fire has burned etc.

Group 5 Contact DC-9 Design engineers and manufacturer for structural documents of the plane.

F.A.A & N.T.S.B Has sent the required information.

Edited October 23, 2011 by Rykiana Ferina

[Esva]

Reading the posts of others, who clearly have more knowledge about the Air industry than I, I am backing out of this exercise. Thinking of things I wouldnt, is one thing. But knowing the procedures for landing, or that they have a deicing procedure, well I didnt know that stuff!

Good luck to all remaining in this exercise.

Dont give up yet Rein, explicit knowledge of procedures isnt a must, it just helps...but even not knowing all the proceduers doesnt mean you can solve this ^_^

[George Reisman]

Oh sorry. I guess my post was just too awesome, as it solved the case in one fell swoop.

[Esva]

Day 3 will be posted tomorrow as i had a ton of stuff to do today, sorry guys

[Xoza]

Oh sorry. I guess my post was just too awesome, as it solved the case in one fell swoop.

Black box only picks up the more general stuff, FOD would be one thing it probably wouldn't pick up, as it would only read as an engine fail.

[Esva]

DAY 3

On the third day of your investigation you recieved the transcript from the aircrafts Cockpit Voice Recorder (C.V.R) and the Air Traffic Control tapes, both have been synced into one transcript.

Conversation Transcript

(( Taken from Cockpit Voice Recorder (C.V.R) and Air Traffic Control tapes))

ATC: Ordo Airways flight 010, Im painting a line of weather which appears to be moderate to possibly heavy percipitation, starting about 5 miles ahead

AC: O.k we are in the rain right now, uhh It doesnt look much heavier than what we are in right now does it ?

ATC: It's not a solid mass but it appears to be a little bit heavier than what your in right now.

AC: Roger that air traffic control, thanks for the heads up

CoP: I cant read that, just looks like rain huh bill, what do you think ?

Cap: theres a hole

CoP: yeah theres a hole there

CaP: Comming over we had pretty good radar over head, look to the right over there, thats the way

ATC: Attention all aircraft, SigMet , *static* Mississipi

CaP: O.k here we go, ride em cowboy

*sound of clattering*

CoP: Damn we got Hail, see that bill ?

CaP: yeah its massive

*sound of cracking or smashing*

CoP: Which way do we cross here to get out ? I dont know how we get through here bill

CaP: I know, were just gonna have to fly Out

CoP: Yeah right accross that bay

CaP: all clear left approx rifght now, I think we can get out there

**Warning alarms sound within the cockpit**

**FDR reports, key displays powerd down**

** FDR & CVR Stops recording due to loss of power**

((Taken from ATC Recording))

ATC: Ordo Airways flight 010 whats your speed ?

ATC: Ordo Airways flight 010 whats your speed ?

** FDR & CVR resumes recording flight data and Cockpit conversation when engines have spooled back up**

(( Resumed from C.V.R))

ATC: Ordo Airways flight 010 if your recieving maintain one five thousand , if you understand maintain one five thousand ordo aiways flight 010.

*engine power increases*

CaP: We're tryin to get it up there!

*short sharp booming sounds are picked up by the C.V.R*

*Rattling sound continues*

* Engines spool back down*

* Engine reduction sound picked up by C.V.R*

CaP: O.k zero one zero, we just got out windshield busted, we will try to get it back up to fifteen, we are at fourteen

ATC: Zero one zero you say your at fourteen now ?

CoP: left engine wont spool

CaP: our left engine just cut out

ATC: You say you lost an engine and busted a windsheild ?

CaP: Yes Sir!

CoP: My god, the other engine is going to

CaP: we got the other engine going to

*F.D.R shows aircraft starting to loose alttitude at a rate of 56 feet per second*

*F.D.R shows crew try to restart the engines*

*F.D.R Detects A.P.U (Auxillary Power Unit) Turned on*

*F.D.R Detects instrument panels turn off due to lack of power*

*F.D.R & C.V.R Stop recording due to loss of power*

2 Minute gap in both recordings, due to time needed for A.P.U to power up

*F.D.R & C.V.R Now Recording due to A.P.U Power*

*F.D.R Detects A.P.U Now supplying emergency power*

*F.D.R Detects instrument displays turning back on*

CaP: There we go

CaP: we lost both engines, how about getting us a vector to the nearest airfield ?

ATC: Ordo flight zero one zero, roger, turn right heading one zero zero. Will be vecotrs for a straight in approach to airfield, urhh... runway one one

CoP: there's too much weather bill , I hope its close, How far is it ?

*No response from Captain*

CoP: Declare an emergency bill!, nd lets get those engine started.

CoP: Listen urhh we lost both engines, and urhh and i cant tell you the implications of this, we only have two engines, hrmmm how far is the airfield now ?

ATC: ordo zero one zero, nineteen miles, doy ou have one engine running now ?

CaP: hrmm thats a Negative, No engines!

*Rattling sound with in the cockpit ceases as F.D.R Detects the aircraft has fallen below report cloud cover*

CaP: just dont stall this thing out

CoP: I wont

CoP: Ask them if theres anything between here and the airfield

CaP: What ?

CoP: Ask them if there is a closer airfield!

*F.D.R Detects landing gear deployed*

CaP: Urhh is there an airport between our position and assigned airfield ?

ATC: Ordo Zero one zero, urhh no closest airport is the assigned one

CaP: I doubt we're going to make it, but we're trying everything to get things restarted

ATC: Umm roger, well there is gadina your about ten miles south of gadina. Fifteen miles weat of previously assigned airport

CoP: We will take a vector to that, yes...we will have to go there

CaP: Roger ATC, Can you give us a vector to Gadina ?

ATC: All right, turn left heading three six zero will be directly to urghh...direct vector to gadina

CaP: I'm picking out a clear field

CoP: Bill you have to find me a highway

CaP: what ?! lets get the next clear open field

CoP: No Bill!

CaP: I see a highway over there, No Cars

CoP: right there! is that straight ?

CaP: No

CoP: we will have to take it, No choice

*F.D.R Detects greater loss of alttitude and the aircraft banking to the left, presumable to line up with Highway*

CaP: ATC we are hrmm were...we are putting it on the highway, we are down to nothing

ATC: Roger that zerio one zero

*background sound from ATC feed* "Sweet jesus"

CoP: Flaps

CaP: their down to fifty

CoP: oh god bill I hope we can do it

*F.D.R Detects flaps set to fifty degrees*

CaP: there's a car ahead!

CoP: I got it , I got it now! I got it

*Sound of screaching picked up on C.V.R, F.D.R Detects impact collision of wheels*

*30 second pause in both C.V.R & F.D.R Recording*

*Sound of multiple impacts picked up on C.V.R*

*Sound of crunching metal picked up by C.V.R*

*Sound of Explosion picked up by C.V.R*

*C.V.R & F.D.R Stop recording*

Edited October 27, 2011 by Rykiana Ferina

[Jayce Iredell]

Day 3

Group1 Combine with Groups 3 and 4 at Crash Site, continue combing for clues in area that might not fit with the obvious, specifically any debris that may have been missed.

Group2 joining team 5 with blueprints in hand, get engineers to open the engines and examine the inside for damage and or foreign material.

Group 3 See Above

Group 4 See Above

Group 5 See Above

[BlackSergal]

I'm going to say Col. Mustard in the library with the wrench...

My theory for the crash:

The aircraft flew through the hailstorm which had larger than normal chunks of hail (as evidence by the still frozen block of ice in the engine upon its removal several hours after a crash.)

One of these said large chunks smashed the cockpit and allowed for water to ingress into the cabin, shorting out the DC-9's Panel and popping the circuit breakers al la Ocean Ranger.

W/O Engines the aircraft could not safely make any airport and the constant ingress of water resulted in continual intermittent power loss, as evident by the repeated starts and stops of the FDR.

The Captain attempted to land on the highway, but was unsuccessful: Factors against him was visibility, the weather and the lack of power supplying the hydraulic pumps.

[Jayce Iredell]

I am going to just go ahead and post what I consider to be the cause and such.

After diligent investigation and thoughtful deliberation, it is the belief of the investigative team that:

The cause of the crash was an attempted landing on a highway.

The airplane was forced to make a failed landing attempt on a highway after losing altitude and speed due to repeated engine and power failures. The data provided by the flight recorders and other on board devices corresponds with witness testimony collected during interviews. Examination of the crash site and data from the recording devices proves that the craft touched down on the highway with its gear down, however was unable to control its landing, what happened to cause this is unclear. What is clear however is that the Aircraft lost power and began to experience engine trouble after entering an intense sector of storm front which included heavy precipitation and hail, due to a broken wind shield it is believed the hail was sizable and destructive.

Engine damage exist to compressor blades and valves, but whether or not this is the result of a collision with an object or due to a malfunction is unclear due to lack of data. Witness testimony from interview and flight recording device data does however confirm engines subjected to repeated restarts, this series of rapid restarts may be responsible for some engine damage but evidence to support the theory is currently lacking.

[Jayce Iredell]

So like what happened to this?

[Esva]

EEP sorry, completely forgot about it due to allot of other things going on.

O.K

Jayce, you came closest with your review of what happened, and Burr showed the best problem solving ability.

I will do this part briefly as Im snowed under with work.

This particular flight attempted a landing on a interstate highway after loosing power to both engines, shortly after touchdown the plane broke up into several pieces due to hitting trees, telephone post's ect. The left fuel tank was punctured and the fuel inside combusted into flame. The cause of the engine failure was put down to hail being caught in the engines bleed valves, which meant the engines could not clear the pressure that had built up between the main and compressor blades forcing them to shatter inside the engine causing damage. However this one factor is not completely what cause the aircraft to meet the final moments that it did.

After exiting the storm the pilot changed course as he was instructed however, the mistake was with A.T.C. It was later determined that if the pilot had continued on a straight course to the runway he was assigned he could of landed the aircraft safely. However with this said two reports from aviators who were passengers on the aircraft couldnt understand why the plane didnt land at a near by airfield which they knew was there, it was later discoverd that this small military airfield didnt appear on the A.T.C radar because it was just out of range and they didnt even know it was there.

In summery the flight crashed due to:

Pilot error in miss reading the storm

A.T.C Error in feeding false information

SO the WINNER: Jayce

Best Thought / Problem solving: Burr