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American Morning

Investigation Into Deadly Plane Crash Focusing on Recent Maintenance

Aired January 10, 2003 - 07:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Some potential clues now emerging in the probe of that deadly plane crash in Charlotte Wednesday. US Airway's (ph) investigation focused on maintenance that was done on the plane two days before it crashed, and also how the luggage was loaded prior to the flight.
Twenty-one people on board were killed after it slammed into a hangar only seconds after takeoff early Wednesday morning.

Miles O'Brien is watching that investigation. He joins us now from the CNN Center.

What are you finding out -- Miles. Good morning.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Bill, there's a tremendous amount of focus right now on the horizontal stabilizer, the rear portion of the wing, which is on top of the -- I've got to pull this out for a second -- the stabilizers here in the back.

What has happened is, the focus is on these so-called elevators, which do not elevate on an aircraft. If we could look at some 3D animation here for just a moment, I'll point out exactly where those elevators are and what they do.

As you look toward the back, they are movable flaps right in this area here, which, depending on which direction they're in, send the nose of the aircraft up or down. Now, they don't elevate, they don't provide lift if the nose is up and there's a tremendous amount of power, and it can still cause the plane to drop like a stone.

Now, take a look at this for just a moment. This is what happens when the pilot pulls back on the control column, or the steering wheel for the lay person, it causes that elevator to go up, it causes the nose to go up.

Now, investigators are looking very closely at where that elevator was at the time of the takeoff roll, caused the plane to go up in a very high angle of attack. Just to show you what you would do to correct it, to put the nose down, the pilot would push on the control column, causing that elevator to go down.

Now, there are three possibilities here that would have caused that elevator to be in that unusual position. The first one would be, as we take a look back at the picture of the aircraft, was there a mechanical problem with the elevator? There is discussion of what happened in that maintenance right prior to this flight. There were some eight flights which occurred after the maintenance.

Was this the first flight where it was fully loaded? Which brings us to that issue of the loading. That rear cargo area can hold about 1,600 pounds of baggage. That should be more than ample, even for the 20 passengers on board, 20 passengers at 25 pounds per, roughly about 500 pounds.

The third area that they will look into is the pilot's reaction. Was there a problem with the load? Did it cause him to pull back too hard for some reason on the stick? Was there a mechanical issue? Or was it a combination of all three items?

So, basically the investigation is headed down the path of looking very closely at those control circuits to the elevators, as well as the loading of the aircraft. Was there too much weight in the rear of the aircraft -- Bill.

HEMMER: Miles, I don't know if you were watching earlier today here on CNN this question about the payload, whether or not it was overloaded. Do we know just yet as to whether or not investigators have conclusively linked an overloaded plane to this aircraft responding the way it did upon takeoff and veering to the left? Would a typical plane, a turboprop, respond that way if it indeed was too heavy?

O'BRIEN: Well, the short answer is, we know, according to the documentation so far that the NTSB has looked at, that the plane was not overloaded, at least according to the paperwork. The maximum gross weight on this particular airplane is about 17,000 pounds. It was supposedly 100 pounds below that weight.

The real question here, Bill, is how they loaded everything up. If there was too much weight in that aft compartment -- and as I say, the max is 1,600 pounds back there -- if there was too much weight back there, it would have put it in the situation where the pilot would have been fighting against too much weight in the rear -- as they call it aft-CG, center of gravity -- which might have put the plane in that very unusual attitude on takeoff.

HEMMER: All right, Miles, thanks -- Miles O'Brien at the CNN Center there.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.




Maintenance>


Aired January 10, 2003 - 07:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Some potential clues now emerging in the probe of that deadly plane crash in Charlotte Wednesday. US Airway's (ph) investigation focused on maintenance that was done on the plane two days before it crashed, and also how the luggage was loaded prior to the flight.
Twenty-one people on board were killed after it slammed into a hangar only seconds after takeoff early Wednesday morning.

Miles O'Brien is watching that investigation. He joins us now from the CNN Center.

What are you finding out -- Miles. Good morning.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Bill, there's a tremendous amount of focus right now on the horizontal stabilizer, the rear portion of the wing, which is on top of the -- I've got to pull this out for a second -- the stabilizers here in the back.

What has happened is, the focus is on these so-called elevators, which do not elevate on an aircraft. If we could look at some 3D animation here for just a moment, I'll point out exactly where those elevators are and what they do.

As you look toward the back, they are movable flaps right in this area here, which, depending on which direction they're in, send the nose of the aircraft up or down. Now, they don't elevate, they don't provide lift if the nose is up and there's a tremendous amount of power, and it can still cause the plane to drop like a stone.

Now, take a look at this for just a moment. This is what happens when the pilot pulls back on the control column, or the steering wheel for the lay person, it causes that elevator to go up, it causes the nose to go up.

Now, investigators are looking very closely at where that elevator was at the time of the takeoff roll, caused the plane to go up in a very high angle of attack. Just to show you what you would do to correct it, to put the nose down, the pilot would push on the control column, causing that elevator to go down.

Now, there are three possibilities here that would have caused that elevator to be in that unusual position. The first one would be, as we take a look back at the picture of the aircraft, was there a mechanical problem with the elevator? There is discussion of what happened in that maintenance right prior to this flight. There were some eight flights which occurred after the maintenance.

Was this the first flight where it was fully loaded? Which brings us to that issue of the loading. That rear cargo area can hold about 1,600 pounds of baggage. That should be more than ample, even for the 20 passengers on board, 20 passengers at 25 pounds per, roughly about 500 pounds.

The third area that they will look into is the pilot's reaction. Was there a problem with the load? Did it cause him to pull back too hard for some reason on the stick? Was there a mechanical issue? Or was it a combination of all three items?

So, basically the investigation is headed down the path of looking very closely at those control circuits to the elevators, as well as the loading of the aircraft. Was there too much weight in the rear of the aircraft -- Bill.

HEMMER: Miles, I don't know if you were watching earlier today here on CNN this question about the payload, whether or not it was overloaded. Do we know just yet as to whether or not investigators have conclusively linked an overloaded plane to this aircraft responding the way it did upon takeoff and veering to the left? Would a typical plane, a turboprop, respond that way if it indeed was too heavy?

O'BRIEN: Well, the short answer is, we know, according to the documentation so far that the NTSB has looked at, that the plane was not overloaded, at least according to the paperwork. The maximum gross weight on this particular airplane is about 17,000 pounds. It was supposedly 100 pounds below that weight.

The real question here, Bill, is how they loaded everything up. If there was too much weight in that aft compartment -- and as I say, the max is 1,600 pounds back there -- if there was too much weight back there, it would have put it in the situation where the pilot would have been fighting against too much weight in the rear -- as they call it aft-CG, center of gravity -- which might have put the plane in that very unusual attitude on takeoff.

HEMMER: All right, Miles, thanks -- Miles O'Brien at the CNN Center there.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.




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