The Boeing 247D Crash, Essay Example

The Boeing model 247 was the earliest United States airliner; it was introduced in 1933 and was considered as modern commercial airliner by many people. It had incorporated all metals like anodized aluminum with semi monologue construction, retractable landing gear and fully cantilevered wing. Other features were like an autopilot, wings and tail plane deicing boots and trim tabs. It started flying in 1934 February 8, and it was later serviced after a year. The airliner later improved by having an additional four engines and airframes became even larger. Cabin pressurization was introduced together with high altitude flight in later Boeings. Boeing 247D was designed by McRobertson Race. It used Hamilton Standard variable pitch propellers which allowed a seven mph gain (Linden, 1991).

The Boeing 247-D accident occurred on December 27, 1936 at 8.04 p.m. at the Newhall California. It was in Oakland-San Francisco-Los Angeles route. It was being operated by United Air Lines Company. This Boeing was carrying a total of 12 people, 9 were passengers and 2 were crew members who all perished. As it approached Burbank Airport, it crashed into Rice Canyon in south of Newhall. At that moment, the rain was very heavy thus causing poor visibility. The Boeing flew to hills making it loose its wings and continued without the wings across the river Canyon where it struck into the rocky wall of the bluff and eventually dropped hundred feet to bottom of canyon. It was believed that the error resulted due to pilot flying through Newhall pass where altitude was lower than the mountains that were surrounding without determining the existing weather by the use of the radio (Robert, 1992).

Of the 9 passengers who had boarded United Airliners Boeing B-247D airliner (NC13355) at San Francisco to go after Christmas to Burbank’s Union Air Terminal which was formerly known as United Airport, was a 28 years old cartoonist at the Walt Disney Studios, H.S. Teague and Edward T. Ford who was an employee at Standard Oil Company and Grace Line Steamship Company president’s son Edward T. Ford. Those who witnessed the accident among them an area rancher said that the plane snapped its wings off after striking the ridge. The fuselage continued on soaring over the ravine before it struck the rock wall and fall about 100 feet into Rice Canyon. Searchers looking for survivors of the plane were directed to place of the accident by a local area rancher who was rounding up for his strayed cows. All the people in that aircraft had perished; they included 9 passengers and 3 crew members according to rescuers (Seely, 1968).

Investigators believed that the pilot of that plane may have lost his bearing, and thus he was not in a position to contact the radio stations that were on the ground through his radio while he was flying through or in the stormy weather.

It has been argued that it was the pilot’s mistake or error that actually caused the accident to happen, the investigators who were on the site did really try to prove that the pilot of that plane caused the accident. On the other hand, those who rescued the victims said that it was due to bad weather conditions that did cause the accident, this was very much supported by many as for sure the weather situation was very bad for the plane to fly, especially through the mountains as it was invisible for the pilot to fly due to heavy rains that were falling. Other said that the plane developed some mechanical hitch that made it to hit the mountain with its propeller wings thus making it to crash on the Hardy range on Lone peak (Bryan, 1979).

NTBS classifies its finding to various categories in that a plane crash of Boeing 247 D. It could have made a forced landing hence penetrating the ground or an craft crashing to ground after hitting a hard place hence breaking fragile parts due to the impact. But this depends upon the speed, weight, and angle of impact and construction of the aircraft including its parts, engines and type of the ground. The investigators were very much interested in looking on the cause of the accident, either as a result of pilot error which was a high probability of the accident cause; bad weather condition which was also very probable as the weather by then was very rainy thus making the area invisible. Other causes that were probable according to the report were equipment failure like the engine or any other part of the plane like propellers. All those were the causes that were in evaluation and on the NTBS report.

There was a lot of controversy due to disagreements on the cause of the plane crash. It was not becoming clear between whether it was pilots error or the weather condition. One major reason that made it possible to conclude that it was pilot’s error was because of him flying very low and especially near the mountains or peaks during the weather conditions that were making it invisible.

The weather condition was very much being taken to be also another cause of that plane crash to some extent. But this did not bring a lot of argument as it was clear of the weather situation that was there at that moment; hence many did agree that to some extent this could have caused the crash.

It was argued that the pilot would have evaded the crash by moving or flying in higher altitudes than he was if he would have taken into the consideration the weather condition and the fact that the area terrain and low attitudes in the mountain areas which was not very much recommended for flying especially during the bad weather condition like the one that was there when he was flying.

It was concluded that although weather conditions caused or contributed to the cause of the accident, the pilot error also made a great contribution since it would have been possible to evade the accident by the pilot, if he would have considered those factors like the terrain of the place i.e. being mountainous areas where he was flying through and the weather conditions (heavy rains) when he was flying, hence all the blame was lying upon the pilot due to his ignorance.

References

Bryan, C. (1979). The National Air and Space Museum. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

Linden, V. (1991). The Boeing 247: The First Modern Airliner. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Robert, J. (1992). The Story of Boeing and its People. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Seely, V. (1968). Boeing’s Grand Old Lady. New York: Air Classics, Inc.