IN MEMORIAM WILLIAM ANDERS

Bill Anders lost his life in a tragic accident ending an exemplary career as an aviator an astronaut and a revered and loved husband and father.

As he did frequently, Bill took his T-34 ex-military trainer for a routine flight in the beautiful skies over the San Juan Islands in Washington State.

A video taken shows a meticulously flown flight path that he had flown countless times before around homes of friends he cared about so deeply.

But Bill was 90 years of age and although healthy enough to fly, flying is a jealous mistress and if something goes wrong, whether it’s the airplane or the pilot, even for the most skilled, the outcome  can be unpredictable.

As soon as the small piece of video of the last seconds of the flight was published, speculation on social media was rampant that Bill misjudged the bottom of a loop and crashed or he was not paying attention because his glasses fell off or he dropped his phone. Anyone who knew him and knew his discipline as a pilot would know that he would never allow something like that to happen and while it’s exciting to look at, a loop is one of the easiest of all aviation maneuvers to accomplish safely.

A look at the entire video reveals instead that about 8 seconds before the crash, it appears that something went terribly wrong. The airplane instead of completing a turn, all of a sudden went vertical in descent and in the last few seconds it appears an effort was made to recover which was too little too late.

Reconstructing aircraft accidents has been my life’s work and flying aerobatics in airshows was a past life.

This accident is a classic case of momentary incapacitation resulting in a loss of control and when consciousness was regained a recovery was initiated that was too late. This same kind of accident has occurred countless times in the past whether in a military aircraft duringACM or a civilian aircraft while performing maneuvers that pull G’s regardless of youth or physical condition.

Bill Anders was an awesome man who is honored for his unique contribution to aviation and remarkable aerospace achievements. He will be remembered fondly, lovingly and respectfully by all who knew him.

What better tribute for a man!

Arthur Alan Wolk

June 12, 2024

Photography by NASA & CelebJam

ALASKA AIRLINES’ DOOR DEPARTURE CAME WITHIN 5 MINUTES OF A CATASTROPHE

Two things by coincidence prevented loss of life. First no one was sitting in Row 24, and second the airplane was only at 16,000 feet. Five minutes more and the aircraft would have been at 24,000 feet or higher where “max diff” between cabin pressure and outside pressure would have occurred.

Loss of the door at that altitude or higher would have emptied the airplane of anything not strapped down and regardless row 24 would have left the airplane with any passengers seated there and maybe some other adjacent rows as well.

The NTSB is looking for the door but examination of the retaining features which are still on the airplane will reveal a lot. Examining the drawings and any production variations of that component may tell investigators if the problem is one of design, manufacture, or both.

The politics of this will be to blame it on a manufacturing error so the airplane does not stay grounded and the FAA lack of oversight gets off the hook.

The problem with this incessant stretching of a seventy-year-old design is that things like doors or emergency escape hatches keep getting relocated and its expensive to engineer structure to close the opening so a plug is used to build the airplane faster, cheaper and be able to change the configuration if required or desirable in the future. The problem is a plug is not a door. It is not as robust as a door and if it were in fact a plug it could never have left the airplane the way it did because cabin pressure would have increased its rigidity in place not blow it off the airplane.

Therefore, a serious investigation must be made of the “plug” design and it must be redesigned and certified if it turns out to be a patch instead.

The Boeing 737 went from being a 100 passenger 120,000 lb. little airplane variation of the Boeing 707, in 1963, to a behemoth carrying 225 people and weighing in at 200,000 lbs. There is a limit to stretching a design and it looks like the Max has exceeded it. Too many accidents, too many problems and the airplanes are still new. Similar capacity airliners weigh 100,000 lbs. more so where is the weight saving, structure and materials. The Max is cheap to buy and lightweight, relatively, so it is fuel efficient and airlines are falling all over themselves to buy it. They have forgotten there is no free lunch in aviation.

If nothing is found to explain the failure of the patch, then someone needs to look at how much flexing the fuselage of this extended length airplane, if any, may have contributed to this incident.

Today, it was revealed that a pressurization warning appeared several times before this flight and the airplane was restricted by Alaska Airlines from flying long flights over water. Rule Number One in aviation is that airplanes do not fix themselves. That airplane should have been grounded until the problem was found and it was fixed. Every flight exposed all those passengers to potential injury and death. That is just plain wrong. The question remaining is whether Alaska maintenance contacted Boeing technical support for a solution. I’m very concerned that restricting an airliner from flying part of its FAA certified flight envelope without FAA concurrence is even legal irrespective of how reckless it may have been.

Finally, it is reported that no data was able to be downloaded from the cockpit voice recorder. Really? That component retains the recordings for the last 2 hours of flight and maybe even more. There is a regulatory proposal to extend that to 24 hours like the rest of the world. This is odd because in years past the CVR recorded continuously the last 24 hours of cockpit discussions but for some reason the FAA allowed that to be reduced to only 2 hours.

Boeing, Alaska Airlines and the FAA should breathe a sigh of relief that no one was killed either in the air or on the ground but this lack of FAA enforcement of its own regulations and worse the NTSB’s lack of collective experience in aircraft accident investigation makes the likelihood of finding the right reason for this near catastrophe very unlikely in my experience.

Arthur Alan Wolk

January 7. 2024

Photo by Nybreaking.com

DALLAS AIRSHOW MID-AIR COLLISION A COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY ACCIDENT

The tragic accident that took the lives of so many skilled pilots and crew members at the airshow in Dallas was totally preventable and the video is disturbing because of the clarity it brings to the cause.

YOU NEVER GO BELLY UP TO THE LEADER  As a former airshow pilot myself that admonition was drilled into my head by some of the best airshow and military trained pilots led by John Ellis who strictly enforced that and other airshow rules so there were no accidents. The CAT Flight which flew formation with multiple aircraft types of which I was a member as CAT 5 never had an accident even though 6 different aircraft joined up several times during the shows.

The formation training of the P-63 fighter pilot is unknown to me at this hour but the video clearly shows that his aircraft was belly up to the B-17 with which it appears he was attempting to join.

The reason for the rule is you lose sight of your leader and thus cannot judge distance, location speed or anything else. The risk of collision is very high when you cannot see whom you are supposed to be in formation with and that kind of join up is not permitted.

I am not blaming anyone and to the greatest extent possible airshows, the pilots and the aircraft that fly in them are safe. Airshows are one of the largest spectator events in America and it is rare that a tragedy like this occurs.

What can we learn? Training, training, training, discipline, discipline and more training.

Formation flying is not easy but to do it safely you must do it frequently or practice extensively before doing it in an airshow setting. The other rule about airshow safety is to take your time, do nothing you haven’t practiced before and never violate the airshow briefing and do only what is briefed. That way expectations from all pilots are the same and no deviations are expected.

Be careful what these “putative” ex Government experts are saying because they have never flown airshows or a vintage military aircraft for that matter.

For the most part, the aircraft are well maintained, expertly flown and care is taken to make sure that our national heritage of military aviation is displayed safely.

May the memories of those lost be a blessing to their families.

Watch the video below.

Arthur Alan Wolk

arthurwolk@airlaw.com

November 13, 2022

Contact The Wolk Law Firm
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OHIO CRASH OF E-90 KING AIR LIKELY ANOTHER ENGINE LOSS OF POWER WITH FOUR-BLADED PROPELLER.

Two pilots are dead in the fiery crash of a Beech E-90 King Air. The aircraft was equipped with four bladed propellers. While giving a quieter ride, these four-bladed propellers are like barn doors in the event of engine failure.

The investigation is just beginning but there is just no reason for an aircraft like this to crash absent a loss of power on one side.

The original aircraft was equipped with 3 bladed propellers and VMCA, minimum control airspeed with the critical engine wind-milling was computed with the propeller not feathered. When equipped with four-bladed propellers, the VMCA goes through the roof, some 30 knots higher and landing speeds are below VMCA. Absent immediate feathering of the propeller on the affected engine, the airplane will slow down and stall. On takeoff the airplane will roll towards the inoperative engine until upside down.

I have no doubt these pilots were skilled and experienced but taken by surprise recovery from an engine failure is no easy task.

Typical reasons for engine loss of power are PY air leak, bleed valve failure or less likely a catastrophic failure of either the power section or gas generator. In some modes of failure there is no annunciation of that failure to the pilots.

The Wolk Law Firm has handled a dozen King Air crashes due to loss of power.

May their memories be a blessing.

Arthur Alan Wolk

October 18, 2

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VIRGINIA AIRPLANE CRASH KILLING 23 YEAR OLD FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR HAS EERIE SIMILARITY TO SO MANY OTHER SEAT SLIP ON TAKEOFF ACCIDENTS.

Witnesses describe the takeoff as a sudden pitch up, the airplane stalled and then crashed to the ground killing young flight instructor Viktoria Ljungman and injuring her student.

This has happened time after time in single engine Cessna’s when either the pilot’s or front passenger seat slides suddenly rearward while the pilot is holding onto the flight controls.

The grasping reflex causes the person in the pilot’s seat to hang on for dear life as the nose of the airplane pitches up too steeply to recover before stalling.

The surprise makes it impossible for even a flight instructor to wrest the controls away from the student  in time to save themselves.

The Wolk Law Firm obtained the largest aviation verdict of all time against Cessna for just such an accident. We are litigating another such crash that occurred in West Virginia under similar circumstances. In that accident the flight instructor’s seat slipped rearward on takeoff and the student was seriously injured though the flight instructor perished.

The Wolk Law Firm provided Cessna with a fix for this problem back in 1984 to no avail and again in the 1990’s again to no avail. There are still thousands of Cessna single engine airplanes out there with legacy seats that run the risk of similar accidents. The problem is the steel pins used to restrain the seats ride on aluminum rails which rapidly become worn such that the seat can slip. It happens on takeoff because the seat bends and ratchets out of the seat attachment hole as it is a flimsy design.

So long as Cessna makes no necessary changes these accidents will continue to happen and young pilots and student pilots will be killed and injured needlessly.

May the memory of  Viktoria Ljungman be a blessing to her family and hopefully her student will fully recover from his injuries.

Arthur Alan Wolk

October 10, 2022

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