Spantax Flight 995

Spantax Flight 995 was a charter flight from Madrid-Barajas Airport to New York via Málaga Airport. When the aircraft was rolling for take-off, the pilot felt a strong and worsening vibration and aborted the take-off. The flight crew lost control of the aircraft and were unable to stop in the runway available and the aircraft overran the runway, hit an airfield aerial installation, losing an engine, then crossed the Malaga–Torremolinos Highway, hitting a number of vehicles before finally hitting a railway embankment and bursting into flames. An emergency evacuation of the aircraft was carried out but 50 on board died of both burns and other injuries. A further 110 persons were hospitalized.

Spantax Flight 995
The aircraft involved, 1981
Accident
Date13 September 1982
SummaryAborted take-off
SiteMálaga Airport
36°39′48″N 4°29′03″W
Total fatalities50
Total injuries111
Aircraft
Aircraft typeMcDonnell Douglas DC-10-30CF
OperatorSpantax
RegistrationEC-DEG
Occupants394
Passengers381
Crew13
Fatalities50
Injuries110
Survivors344[1]
Ground casualties
Ground injuries1

The cause of the accident was the detachment of fragments from a recapped tread on the right wheel of the nose gear, creating a strong vibration. Standard procedure calls for takeoff to continue after V1, and the pilots initially followed such; however, the vibration severely worsened upon rotation, and so, not knowing the cause of the vibration, the captain aborted the takeoff, despite having passed Vr. Later investigations determined that this was reasonable under the abnormal circumstances.[2] It was noted that pilot training only covered engine failures on take-off and there was a lack of training on wheel failures.[3]

Passenger Carlton Maloney, an audio-visual specialist at Pace University, was recording audiotape during the accident as part of a series of recordings of airplane takeoffs and landings. As it became clear that something was going wrong, he began to report on the incident and its immediate aftermath. Chicago DJ Steve Dahl played Maloney's tape on his 26 March 2010 podcast.[4][5]

References
  1. "Accident Report on Spantax Flight 995" (PDF). Ministerio de Fomento. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  2. "Accident Report on Spantax Flight 995" (PDF). Ministerio de Fomento. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  3. UK CAA Document CAA 429 World Airline Accident Summary (ICAO Summary 1985-5)
  4. "A Grisly Triptych of Disasters". Time Magazine. 27 September 1982. Retrieved 30 July 2008.
  5. "Steve Dahl on WJMK discusses the accident and the Carlton Maloney audio (hour 4, 2:20 and 28:08).". Steve Dahl Show. Chicago. 30 July 2008. WJMK. Transcript. Retrieved 30 July 2008.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.