The Forgotten Crash Of TWA 800

Описание: RyanBomar:    / ryanbomar  
Reverse Thrust Animation: FAA
707 Image: Michel Gilliand
707 Diagram : NASA
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This is the story of TWA 800, No not the TWA 800 you're familiar with but the 1964 crash of a TWA 707. On the 23rd of november 1964 a twa 707 was flying from romes fumincino airport to Ellinikon international airport in Greece. Captain Lovell went over the pre flight briefing, the weather was good, there was some choppy weather over northern italy but other than that all of europe was great. After having lunch with a friend Captain Lovell decided to perform the visual inspection of the airplane, everything seemed to be in order. They decided that the first officer would be the one flying out of Rome that day. As they studied their departure, and did their pre flight checks,ATC came on and gave them permission to start their engines. As they taxied they got their take off clearance, which meant that they wouldn't have to hold short or pause at the runway, they could just turn onto the runway, open up the throttles and go. Even though the first officer would be flying, Captain Lovell was the one who had access to nose wheel steering, so he would hand the plane off to the first officer when they were at 80 knots.

They got on the runway and started their take off roll, as they reached 80 knots. The data coming in from engine number 4 showed an issue. 2 seconds later a reverse thrust light came on for engine number 2. Something was wrong with engine number 2 as well.
Instantly Captain Lovell decided to reject the take off, it would not be safe, and since they were well below their V1 speed, it was the right call. Captain Lovell now in control of the plane, he first pulled the engines back to idle and then used the speed brakes and the brakes to start slowing the plane down. Then he engaged the reverse thrusters. Reverse thrust is a mechanism by which planes can use the thrust from their engines to slow down. The concept is really simple. The thrust from an engine pushes a plane forward, now if you were to redirect that thrust forward, it would help the plane slow down. That's basically what reverse thrusters do re-direct thrust in the opposite direction of motion so that the plane slows down. On the 707 this was done using clamshells or buckets. When the reverse thrust is activated buckets move into the jet exhaust and they redirect it forwards.

As the crew rejected the take off the plane yawed violently to the right. Something was wrong the plane was to slow down and come to a stop on the runway. A crew member let the capatin know that tires on the right side of the plane had blown. But there was a problem the last 2000 feet of the runway was closed today for maintenance and as Captain Lovell struggled to keep his plane under control he saw a steam roller traverse the runway. Captain Lovell tried to turn to the left in order to avoid hitting the steam roller. But he failed, engine number 4 slammed into the steam roller tipping it over. 800 feet beyond that the plane came to a halt, minus engine number 4. The crew flew through the checklist for an rejected takeoff, the first officer now altered Captain Lovell to the fact that there was a fire on the right side of the plane. Immediately Captain Lovell shuts the engines down, he cuts the fuel and hydraulic lines to the engine and activated the fire suppressors. As he did this a violent explosion rocked the plane. Quote “ As of that instant, and from then on, we-my passengers, my crew and I-descended into the deepest pit of hell” end quote, their ordeal was far from over.

As Captain Lovell made his way out of the cockpit he went into the cabin to help in any way that he could. He found that the flight attendants were having a hard time with the emergency chutes in addition to all of this the aisles of the cabin were full of people. Captain Lovell made his way