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Last updated: 09/13/2010 Plane Crash Comparisons
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Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 near Paso Robles, CA - Dec 7, 1987 Speed: 700 mph
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Accident description Video: Black Box - Sky Crimes: Part 1 & Part 2 (Source of images below.)
"Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 was a commercial flight that crashed near Cayucos, California, United States, on December 7, 1987, after an incident of air piracy. All 43 people on board the aircraft died, including the man who caused the crash, an angry former employee of USAir, the parent company of PSA.
The plane then descended and crashed into
the hillside of a cattle ranch at 4:16 p.m. in the Santa Lucia Mountains
near Paso Robles and Cayucos. The plane was estimated to have crashed
nose first at a speed of around 700 miles per hour, disintegrating
instantly. The crash was witnessed by three different people on the
ground, all of whom were able to see the plane until a fraction of a second
before it hit the ground. Two men in a pickup driving East on Highway 46 saw
the plane against a clear blue sky. The third witness was an undocumented
worker who was very near the impact site who never publicly came forward,
who was said to have feared for his life. The plane was completely intact
until impact, and was traveling at approximately a 70 degree angle
toward the south. The plane impacted a rocky hillside, leaving a crater
less than 2 feet deep and 4 feet across, presumably where the landing
gear struck the ground. Unburnt paper was flying everywhere as small
aircraft fuel fires burned on the ground. The human remains were in very
small pieces, the largest of which were feet in shoes. The force of the
impact caused such extensive damage that 27 of the passengers were never
identified. All aboard, including Burke and Thomson, were killed.
► Special Report: Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 "Detective Bill Wammock is the first to arrive on the scene. He recalls "nothing that resembled an airliner... we went on for hours, before we heard the news reports of a missing airliner, believing that we were dealing with a small airplane full of newspapers that had crashed. We saw no pieces of the aircraft that were larger than, maybe, a human hand. It did not look like a passenger aircraft." - airdisaster.com |
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Lockerbie, Scotland - Dec. 21, 1988 Speed: over 500 mph
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Accident description "The forward fuselage and flight deck area separated when the aircraft was in a nose down and left roll attitude, peeling away to the right at Station 800. The nose section then knocked the no. 3 engine off its pylon. The remaining aircraft disintegrated while it was descending nearly vertically from 19000 feet to 9000 feet. A section of cabin floor and baggage hold (from approx. Station 1241-1920) fell onto housing at Rosebank Terrace, Lockerbie. The main wing structure struck the ground with a high yaw angle at Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie causing a massive fire." - Aviation Safety Network
"A minute later, the wing section containing 200,000 lb [29,200 gal] of fuel hit the ground at Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie. The British Geological Survey at Eskdalemuir, just outside Lockerbie, registered a seismic event measuring 1.6 on the Richter scale as all trace of two families, several houses, and the 196 ft (60 m) wing of the aircraft disappeared. A British Airways pilot, Captain Robin Chamberlain, flying the Glasgow–London shuttle near Carlisle called Scottish to report that he could see a massive fire on the ground. As it descended, the fuselage broke into smaller pieces, with the section attached to the wings landing first in Sherwood Crescent, where the aviation fuel inside the wings ignited, causing a fireball that destroyed several houses, and which was so intense that nothing remained of the left wing of the aircraft. Investigators were able to determine that both wings had landed in the crater only after counting the number of large steel flapjack screws that were found there (Cox and Foster 1992). On the ground, 11 Lockerbie residents were killed when the wings, still attached by a piece of fuselage, hit 13 Sherwood Crescent at more than 500 mph and exploded, creating a crater (155 ft) long and with a volume of (730 yd³), vaporizing several houses and their foundations, and damaging 21 others so badly they had to be demolished." - wikipedia
"Passing overhead Lockerbie, Scotland, the aircraft disintegrated when an explosion occurred in the forward baggage hold. The centre fuselage and wing sections fell into a residential district, digging a crater some 30ft deep and 150ft long. 20 houses were destroyed." - pilotfriend.com
(Photo source: Victims of Pan Am Flight 103. See also: airdisaster.com) |
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Preston, Lancashire UK - Mar. 25, 1952 Speed: 460-518 mph
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Accident description
(Notice the very visible fanning out of the explosion and debris after this plane crashed at an estimated 80 deg angle compared to no fanning effect at the Shanksville field even though Flight 93 supposedly crashed at a 40 deg angle going faster. Also notice most of the debris in this crash stayed above ground compared to the official claim that most of Flight 93 was buried underground.)
"WD991 had been inspected and certified fit for flight that morning and with fine weather conditions, the flight appeared routine, with all pre-take off procedures being carried out normally. Tommy Evans made no radio contact after take off, though this was normal procedure, and only four to five minutes later witnesses observed the aircraft flying level at approx. 1000 feet over the North of Preston. The aircraft was described as flying "low and fast" when suddenly it entered a steep dive, with no apparent attempt to pull out, striking the ground at an angle of approx. 80 degrees at an estimated speed of 400-450kts. WD991 instantly completely disintegrated, scattering wreckage for some 600 yards beyond the main impact crater and sending a column of black smoke into the sky. Fortunately the impact was in open farmland and the only nearby building - a bungalow on Valentine Lane - was peppered with debris, shattering all the windows facing the impact and tearing several holes in the roof. Fortunately no one was at home at the time.
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Roselawn, Indiana - Oct 31, 1994
Speed: 432 mph ► Accident description
Date: 31 OCT 1994
"The last recorded data on the FDR occurred at an altitude of 1,682 feet (vertical speed of approximately 500 feet per second), and indicated that the airplane was at an airspeed of 375 KIAS, a pitch attitude of 38 degrees nose down with 5 degrees of nose-up elevator, and was experiencing a vertical acceleration of 3.6 G. The airplane impacted a wet soybean field partially inverted, in a nose down, left-wing-low attitude." - aviation-safety.net
Photo sources: airdisaster.com |
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Niederhasli, Switzerland - Jan. 10, 2000
Speed: 357 mph ► Accident description
Date: 10 JAN 2000 While climbing through 2500 feet QNH the crew switched to Zurich Departure Control and were recleared to climb to FL110. By then the pitch had also decreased rapidly, accompanied by a marked speed increase and the Saab entered a high speed high-rate spiral descent. At 17:56:28 the aircraft crashed in an open field." - aviation-safety.net
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Final Report of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau
"- 1.12.1 Impact |
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Aliquippa, PA - Sept. 8, 1994
Speed: 300 mph ► Accident description Date: 08 SEP 1994
"The plane descended fast and impacted the ground nose first at 261 knots in an 80deg nose down, 60deg left bank attitude and with significant sideslip." - Aviation Safety Network
► UNCONTROLLED DESCENT AND COLLISION WITH TERRAIN USAIR FLIGHT 427 "Because some portions of the wreckage were not visible above the ground, investigative personnel used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to locate and recover additional pieces of the wreckage. Some pieces of wreckage were excavated from the hillside at depths of up to 8 feet. Most of the airplane wreckage, including all flight controls and major components, was located within a 350-foot radius of the main impact crater. The left wing and the No. 1 engine, which were located south of the access road and east of the main impact crater, exhibited severe impact and postimpact fire damage. The No. 1 engine was separated from the left wing and partially covered by burned left wing skin and spar materials. A ground scar, about 25 feet in length, extended in an easterly direction from the No. 1 engine and left wing wreckage on an up-sloping hill. The right wing, which was located along the northern edge of the access road about 40 feet west of the main impact crater, also exhibited severe impact damage. The No. 2 engine was separated from the right wing and located along the northern edge of the access road about 30 feet west of the main impact crater. The cockpit, which was found approximately 45 feet south of the main impact crater, was severely fragmented. The identified sections of the cockpit and the forward portion of the fuselage exhibited compression damage, deformation along the airplane's longitudinal axis, and some postimpact fire damage." - NTSB
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Colorado Springs, CO - March 3, 1991
Speed: over 230 mph
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Accident description "The aircraft then suddenly rolled to the right and started to pitch nose down. The crew tried to initiate a go-around by selecting 15-deg. flaps and an increase in thrust. The altitude decreased rapidly, acceleration increased to over 4G until the aircraft struck the ground of Widefield Park almost vertically." - Aviation Safety Network
► Special Report: United Airlines Flight 585
"The aircraft was turning from its 45°
intercept to the extended runway centerline, and the first officer
called "we're at 1,000 feet." The first officer said, "Oh, God," - the altitude decreased rapidly; the indicated airspeed increased to over 200 knots; and the normal acceleration increased to over 4g." - AirDisaster.Com
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Uncontrolled Descent and Collision With
Terrain, United Airlines Flight 585 The flightpath direction was about 020 degrees magnetic, and the flightpath angle was about 80 degrees down. An aerial search along the flightpath found no debris that had separated from the airplane before ground impact... The airplane's fuselage had severe accordion-like fore and aft crushing throughout its entire length with overstress breaks. Except for two aft fuselage sections of skin and small debris, the entire fuselage was contained within the impact crater. The left wing was partially in the crater at the crash site. The entire length was broken into pieces, and the portion of the wing in the crater was burned and partially consumed by fire. The right wing was partially in the crater. The entire wing, from the engine attach points outboard, was severely crushed. The outer 35 feet of the wing was located outside the crater and was embedded in the ground with the leading edge down and the chord of the wing perpendicular to the ground.
The vertical stabilizer and rudder were
in the impact crater, damaged severely by impact and fire. Remnants
of the vertical stabilizer and rudder were removed from the crater and
examined for preimpact abnormalities. The vertical stabilizer fin cap
was damaged but complete. The lower vertical stabilizer front spar
structure was in the crater and was severely damaged by impact. The forward portion of the right engine was buried about 7 feet in the ground under the right wing at an angle of about 50 degrees." - NTSB
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Airplane Simulation Chase View:
Video simulation |
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Lisa, Nigeria - Oct. 22, 2005 Speed: ?
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Accident description
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117 killed in Nigeria plane crash
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Nigeria: 117 Perish in Bellview Crash "The plane crashed soon after, leaving a smoking 70-foot crater, uprooting trees and blowing the roofs off nearby houses." - ocregister.com (10/24/05) |
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Cerritos, CA - Aug 31, 1986
Speed: ? ► Accident description
Date: 31 AUG 1986
Accident Investigation Report NTSB/AAR-87/07 (PDF)
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To preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic. |
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