ATR-72 crash in Taiwan - terrifying footage

[CCIP]

TransAsia's aircraft crashes on departure - same type of same airline crashed with 53 fatalities last year.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/vid...-crashes-river

Those poor people

Shockingly, the reports so far say that most on board have in fact survived the crash. Fingers crossed that this is really true!

[GoldenRivet]

Thats pretty intense. I have heard few good things about the ATR really. I very nearly bid the aircraft out of DFW several years ago but ultimately decided not to.

I miss flying for the airlines, sometimes i really want to go back, but then i see my paycheck compared to what it used to be and it makes me laugh

The aircraft suddenly rolled sharply to the left, in the video it looked to have plenty of speed but its hard to know exactly how fast the plane was traveling and if there was any ice accumulation on the wings.

Some of you will recall that the ATRs had to have their leading edge de-ice boots modified following the American Eagle Airlines Roselawn Crash years ago. The ice accumulation on the wings at specific airspeeds and flap configurations caused the aircraft to experience a sharp and sudden rolling motion, almost exactly like in the video... straight and level one moment, knife edge the next. Following the recommendation of the National Transportation Safety Board, American Eagle Airlines relocated its entire fleet of ATR aircraft to routes in the Caribbean where icing might be less frequently encountered.

I would be surprised to hear of survivors, striking the planet earth at such an attitude is rarely survivable, especially when the aircraft immediately makes its best impression of a submarine following impact.

EDIT: It would appear there are as many as 28 survivors who have been rescued from the aircraft at this point

[CCIP]

Actually, I found out what the roll to the left was. If you go to the other article linked at the bottom of that page, there is another video, from a car further back, and you can clearly see the plane hitting high-tension power lines that are not visible in this video. That's what caused that roll.

[GoldenRivet]

ohhhh that sucks... yeah i couldnt see power lines in that video.

[BossMark]

Just seen this on sky news and its a miracle that anybody as got out alive.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by BossMark

Just seen this on sky news and its a miracle that anybody as got out alive.

Rgr that

[Oberon]

That is quite horrifying. It looks like the taxi in front of the leading video car got hit as well. Trying to work out in Google Maps whereabouts the crash happened, looks like it might have been trying to turn back when it came down, apparently the pilots were signalling an engine flame-out before the crash.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@25.06...OpfxToWppw!2e0

Possibly the freeway seen in the video?

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by Oberon

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@25.06...OpfxToWppw!2e0

Possibly the freeway seen in the video?

It is - you can even see the power lines.

I've been looking at more videos and it's sort of hard to tell - it's looking more like the power lines didn't cause the sudden roll, but the pilot actually tried to turn at the last moment to avoid them.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by CCIP

It is - you can even see the power lines.

I've been looking at more videos and it's sort of hard to tell - it's looking more like the power lines didn't cause the sudden roll, but the pilot actually tried to turn at the last moment to avoid them.

The local news is reporting that the plane rolled to avoid buildings and presumably the power lines. There was a high school nearby there, so for the aircraft to come down in the river, all things considered, was probably the outcome with the least amount of fatalities. Sadly I doubt the pilot(s) survived.

[Onkel Neal]

Good lord. Not that I need anything else to put me off flying but, wow.

[Wolferz]

It looked like a definite engine failure on the port side.
One prop just doesn't cut it during takeoff. The portside prop also appears fully feathered, creating too much drag to recover from the roll.

At least the pilots put it in the river.

I bet those last few seconds were butt puckered exciting for all involved.

[GoldenRivet]

Failure of the left engine is possible... the aircraft was in its initial climbout after takeoff, its trajectory certainly appears to be more of an approach to landing which initially on my first view of the video what i thought it was doing, but this is apparently right after takeoff.

like i said - amazing anyone came out of this event alive.

I've done hundreds of V1 cuts in the Level D Simulators... but i often wondered just how comparable that would be to reality - in the hot August sunshine in Texas with a full loadout at high density altitude...

[Oberon]

A flight instructor I follow on Twitter (where I get my nice Hawk videos and photos from) said: "Looks like high alpha into a stall with wing-drop (engine failure)" and apparently some still images indicate that the port engine was feathered.

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by Oberon

and apparently some still images indicate that the port engine was feathered.

As it should be if the engine had failed. unfortunately depending on things like speed, weight, temperature, skill of the pilot etc. even if the prop was feathered it is possible the airplane would still experience uncontrollable roll and yaw

Immediately after takeoff is pretty much the end all be all of worst times to experience an engine failure, and fully laden, even a turbo-prop aircraft with shaft-horse-power-o-plenty might not have the push it needs to continue it's climb out to a reasonably safe altitude.

Jet engines pumping out thousands on thousands of pounds of thrust on the other hand is a different story as seen here in this thompsonfly video



often times the yawing and rolling motion in such aircraft is negligible.

[Jimbuna]

Thanks for the explanation and accompanying video John....made it easier for me to understand