"This may be the world's greatest tricycle" [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

"This may be the world's greatest tricycle" [pdf]

aviation-safety.net

24 pointsclawrencewenham3 comments

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The wikipedia article gives the story:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232

The quotation I like comes from this page:

http://www.airdisaster.com/special/special-ua232.shtml

where they say:

    Subsequent simulator tests showed that other DC-10
    crews were unable to repeat the effort of the crew
    of 232. Investigators concluded that, in its damaged
    condition, it was not possible to land the aircraft
    on a runway. As a result, the crew was given much
    praise for managing to put the aircraft down just
    off the runway centerline and saving as many lives
    as they did.

I've heard that the simulator was run repeatedly with the scenario, and no crews hit the airport, let alone the runway, let alone landed the plane.

Outstanding flying by the original crew.

I've heard that the simulator was run repeatedly with the scenario, and no crews hit the airport, let alone the runway, let alone landed the plane.

I wonder about the accuracy of simulators in scenarios like. If the damage to the flight surfaces of the plane was significant, how could they even account for that?

http://www.airdisaster.com/download2/ual232.shtml

The above is an mp3 of the last 10 seconds on the cockpit voice recorder. Just before the noise of impact you can hear the ground proximity alarm go off with a vwoop-vwoop "pull up!" vwoop-vwoop "pull up!". This isn't noted on the transcript.

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