AlaskaAV
GONE WEST
Mission, TX
Comments were made earlier about the big BBQ departure out of Anchorage so guess it is time to tell the rest of the story.
Ok, here we go. A foreign carrier (name not important) DC-8 stretch 63 loaded with live cattle headed for Japan. Normal flight crew including a captain who was a US citizen and I believe two cargo handlers to take care of the cattle. The flight crew checked in with the airline operations dispatch, received their flight paperwork and checked the weather enroute as normal. No problems were seen or reported. First officer ran the preflight inspection of the aircraft as usual. First officers are always overworked just as Intern Doctors are.
The load was live cattle in several stationary pens in the cabin. Personally I have never figured out how they could build such pens for live animals in jets back in the 70s to be secure enough. Now days they have fantastic safe equipment, both for the aircraft and the animals. I often wonder what we used when we flew an elephant to Nome in a 737. When we flew the Walt Disney Polar Bears to Barrow for a movie, they were all in very strong steel cages.
http://www.alaska.faa.gov/fai/images/COOKSU/ANC-a.jpg
As usual in Anchorage, lots of fog at times but within reason for departure minimums.
On departure the aircraft was assigned 24L but instead, due to fog, took 24 R by mistake which was a midway departure on that runway. A note of my own if I may. Back in those days the tower at the Anchorage International Airport (I will never get used to calling it Stevens) as well as Lake Hood and Merrill Field would do just about anything to help out a flight crew. The relationship between the towers and Elmendorf was beyond belief which made for really organized flight operations. Runway 24L was chosen, not requested, because it would save the flight crew from doing a lot of taxing for 24R in some very heavy fog. Note the link above. Pre approval was given for a straight out departure with an expected right turn shortly after liftoff so basically, it was a 24R departure anyway only very little taxing. Tremendous tower crews in those days. Ok, back to the story. Of course no ground radar at the tower at the time and they could not see the aircraft at departure. There was some question by the flight crew about the runway number on the CVR but since I don't have all of the conversation, best not say much other than that the captain overrode the first officer on runway numbers. It is my understanding the Captain did the taxi out and once rolling, turned the aircraft over to the first officer.
The aircraft did not really lift off due to shortage of runway length, went in and burned. Lots of fuel for a trip Anchorage to Japan. Tracks on the ground showed the nose gear was up trying to lift off though.
There was lots of talk but not proven on paper by the NTSB (I might have missed a report or two though) that the back pens of cattle broke loose and slid back in the tail and the aircraft was stalled on attempted lift off. I suspect that is true but of course I am not an expert.
As with every accident, all flight crew were run through medical tests including blood samples even though they were expired. Twelve hours after the accident, the blood alcohol content of the captain was still .48. It had been higher before (.52 was the sample taken at crash site but I could be wrong) but .48 was determined as fact on record. No one in the company dispatch office noted anything out of the ordinary prior to flight release. Shades of a US carrier in a way.
Granted the captain was not at the controls of the aircraft on take off, he was still the captain. Regardless, if it is true that two back pens of cattle broke loose, a sober pilot, no matter how good he/she was, could not have kept that aircraft flying. Moving 18,000 pounds of live cargo clear to the tail of a stretch DC-8 at liftoff within seconds with probably not enough flying speed to start with due to early rotation when they saw the end of the runway suddenly appear doomed the flight from the start. Strange to say but many of the cattle lived through the accident but none of the crew. Kind of bad to think of it this way but all the crew had seat and shoulder belts fastened but the cattle that lived had nothing.
Ok, here we go. A foreign carrier (name not important) DC-8 stretch 63 loaded with live cattle headed for Japan. Normal flight crew including a captain who was a US citizen and I believe two cargo handlers to take care of the cattle. The flight crew checked in with the airline operations dispatch, received their flight paperwork and checked the weather enroute as normal. No problems were seen or reported. First officer ran the preflight inspection of the aircraft as usual. First officers are always overworked just as Intern Doctors are.
The load was live cattle in several stationary pens in the cabin. Personally I have never figured out how they could build such pens for live animals in jets back in the 70s to be secure enough. Now days they have fantastic safe equipment, both for the aircraft and the animals. I often wonder what we used when we flew an elephant to Nome in a 737. When we flew the Walt Disney Polar Bears to Barrow for a movie, they were all in very strong steel cages.
http://www.alaska.faa.gov/fai/images/COOKSU/ANC-a.jpg
As usual in Anchorage, lots of fog at times but within reason for departure minimums.
On departure the aircraft was assigned 24L but instead, due to fog, took 24 R by mistake which was a midway departure on that runway. A note of my own if I may. Back in those days the tower at the Anchorage International Airport (I will never get used to calling it Stevens) as well as Lake Hood and Merrill Field would do just about anything to help out a flight crew. The relationship between the towers and Elmendorf was beyond belief which made for really organized flight operations. Runway 24L was chosen, not requested, because it would save the flight crew from doing a lot of taxing for 24R in some very heavy fog. Note the link above. Pre approval was given for a straight out departure with an expected right turn shortly after liftoff so basically, it was a 24R departure anyway only very little taxing. Tremendous tower crews in those days. Ok, back to the story. Of course no ground radar at the tower at the time and they could not see the aircraft at departure. There was some question by the flight crew about the runway number on the CVR but since I don't have all of the conversation, best not say much other than that the captain overrode the first officer on runway numbers. It is my understanding the Captain did the taxi out and once rolling, turned the aircraft over to the first officer.
The aircraft did not really lift off due to shortage of runway length, went in and burned. Lots of fuel for a trip Anchorage to Japan. Tracks on the ground showed the nose gear was up trying to lift off though.
There was lots of talk but not proven on paper by the NTSB (I might have missed a report or two though) that the back pens of cattle broke loose and slid back in the tail and the aircraft was stalled on attempted lift off. I suspect that is true but of course I am not an expert.
As with every accident, all flight crew were run through medical tests including blood samples even though they were expired. Twelve hours after the accident, the blood alcohol content of the captain was still .48. It had been higher before (.52 was the sample taken at crash site but I could be wrong) but .48 was determined as fact on record. No one in the company dispatch office noted anything out of the ordinary prior to flight release. Shades of a US carrier in a way.
Granted the captain was not at the controls of the aircraft on take off, he was still the captain. Regardless, if it is true that two back pens of cattle broke loose, a sober pilot, no matter how good he/she was, could not have kept that aircraft flying. Moving 18,000 pounds of live cargo clear to the tail of a stretch DC-8 at liftoff within seconds with probably not enough flying speed to start with due to early rotation when they saw the end of the runway suddenly appear doomed the flight from the start. Strange to say but many of the cattle lived through the accident but none of the crew. Kind of bad to think of it this way but all the crew had seat and shoulder belts fastened but the cattle that lived had nothing.
