It was supposed to be a routine morning flight from Stockholm to Copenhagen. The captain and his first officer was flying their first leg this morning on a state-of-the-art aircraft delivered April 10th, 1991.
OY-KHO
On the morning on the December 27th (1991), SK751 was cleared for takeoff on runway 08 at Stockholm Arlanda airport. Right after takeoff the flight crew got aware of engine problems. At the moment the aircraft lifted off the runway the wing flex caused the clear ice on the wings to come loose.
Both of the engines ingested the clear ice coming off the wings which in a few moments would result in a double engine failure.
Clear ice
SK571 reached a maximum of around 3200 feet, well into the clouds, before they had to lower the nose to maintain speed. Another captain sitting in the passenger cabin rushed forward to assist the pilots in the emergency.
At around 1000 feet the aircraft broke out of the clouds and the pilots promptly selected a landing spot on a nearby field ahead.
3 seconds before hitting ground the captain called air traffic control and said: Er… stockholm, 751, we`re going to hit the ground.
The Md-81 contacted trees at 121 knots and a major portion of the right wing broke off. The plane struck sloping ground tail first and slid along the ground for 110 metres. The fuselage was broken into three pieces but there were no fire.
OY-KHO resting in the field
Everyone survived the ordeal. Thanks to those in front who coped with the worst emergency you can face in an aircraft in the best possible way.
It was four minutes which changed the lives for all 129 souls aboard. It is known as The christmas miracle in Gottrora, but it is also airmanship at its best.
Thanks to this the whole aviation community learned a valuable lesson about the dangers around clear ice issues from the accident report released two years later.
After I had arrived with SAS Scandinavian Airlines SK4137 at 07.30 (on time) local time in Bergen I jumped on the airport bus to the city. While we were driving towards the city centre I decided to stop by Bryggen to take some photos of the sunrise and Statsraad Lehmkuhl. Statsraad Lehmkuhl is a 3-masted barqued rigged sail training vessel built in 1914.
It just set a new record for The Boston Teapot Trophy again as it sailed in to Bergen the other day (link in norwegian). The trophy is awarded to the ship which can sail the longest distance during a period of 124 hours (5 days and 4 hours). They sailed a distance of 1450 nautical miles, which is impressive! Here is a photo of the ship sitting at the harbour in Bergen.
Statsraad Lehmkuhl
And here is the full view the oppostie direction as the sun rises up around 08:30 local time, the 27th december 2009 in Bergen.
Arrived in Bergen 07.30 local time where there is scattered clouds and currently minus 7 degrees celsius. Reason for visting Bergen is christmas holidays with my father and brother. Took some nice photos of the sunrise which will be uploaded during the day. Weather forecast for Bergen here.
I was reading for my last exam which I had yesterday when my brother sent me a message on my mobile phone. He asked me what the song was called which is played in the Czech movie ‘Three Wishes for Cinderella (1973) – Vaclav Vorlicek’. I knew what song he referred to, and who is singing it. It is Karel Gott, the golden voice of Prague. The movie is an old classic in Norway and as a tradition NRK broadcasts it every christmas. The name of the song I could not remember. So then I turned to Youtube.
Karel Gott
I am always logged on to everything on my computer, gmail, facebook and youtube. It is my portable, personal computer so no one is going to make it with my different accounts if they do not have the master password! Anyway, I went on youtube. Instantly my subscriptions and recommendations are there to tease and lure me. One of my favourite subs must be sxephil, and one videolink from the subscription category was there with the title:
Off course, I clicked on it *like you are doing right now, and watched what Philip DeFranco had to say about Lindsay Lohan – cause I gotta know! Weell, she had been to a photo shoot which did not help her image any more lets just leave it at that. Then I got lost because I had to see the pictures to really find out what Philip meant. And so I did.
Lindsay Lohan WWTDD Gallery
I clicked more info next to the video and ended up in the gallery. The image above is linked to that gallery. Then I became aware of the title to that website – WWTDD.com. Its funny I thought, where have I heard the name Tyler Durden before. Because that is implisit the name of the website – whatwouldtylerdurdendo or WWTDD.
Of course, Tyler Durden is one of the characters from Fight Club! Great site, I started to explore it a bit. Then I saw a report on Alessandra Ambrosio and I lost it. I startedgoogling Alesandra, and then it struck me – how the hell did I end up with googling Alessandra Ambrosio when I really should be studying. And how did I really end up here? How crazy is that? I had to go back and find what caused me out on this expedition in the first place.
Oh yes, Karel Gott and the song from Three wishes for cindarella. I found it then, like a fairy tale I heard it. Hear it, you can experience it too, maybe you have heard it before. Thank you for tuning in!
Boeing just released their new airplane, 787, for the first flight. As you would expect the event was widely covered by the worlds media. CNN has a full story on it which you can read all about here.
Today I read about a security-guy who where teaching some employees, from a gas station in the northern town of Alta in Norway, about safety and what to do if they ever were held up by anyone.
They had agreed that he would come back to the gas station and the security-guy would stage a robbery while they were at work, so that they could see what it would look and feel like if they ever would come up in a situation like it in the future. I guess a scenario like this would let them know how to react if the real deal was on.
The security-guy came back the day they had agreed upon and rushed in to the gas station shouting with a ski-mask and gun. Trouble was – he had gone to the wrong gas station. After straighting things out with the employees at the other gas station, he then ran off and finished his work at the gas station he was supposed to mug!
This is still a mysterious crash – and causes are still being debated on the Internet and on aviation forums on what happened that night when the Airbus 330 hit that bad weather.
And today it is six month since the first message went out about the airplane that went missing somewhere over the Atlantic, 06.01.2009.
And now a new and interesting scenario which happened in a Citation raises new theories on the online aviation community – “Static electricity may cause pitot static probes to fail, according to a Cessna Citation X owner-pilot who survived a simultaneous failure of all three pitots during a flight earlier this year. Kirill Minovalov, a Russian entrepreneur and private pilot, was flying in stormy weather conditions when the incident happened; he managed to land safely at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport” – source.
This is something which is worth a look, I read today a very thorough analysis on the meteorological conditions in the area where the AF447 went missing. You should read at least the conclusion on the bottom of the page, where the author points out and rules out different weather situations which could be a contribution to the crash – source.
They are also thinking of resuming the search of the wreckage soon – source.
Toncontin international airport is situated in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The airport is operated by the military and the largest aircrafts which frequents it is Boeing 757`s. Toncontin is famous for its “dangerous” approach, where planes on arrival have to fly in from a 45 degree angle and correct the plane to the runway heading just before touchdown. I was lucky and found the approach charts for Toncontin, and you can see it here (pdf).
Here is what I consider a text-book example of a Boeing 757 from American Airlines landing there -
And here is a video I found where a Boeing 737 comes in too high and too fast -
If you watch the video closely, you can determine approximately how long he floats over the runway, by timing the aircraft from crossing the threshold until the main gears touches the tarmac. This takes 14 seconds.
Then we say that the speed over the threshold is around 135 knots (give or take 5 to 10 knots) which is 250 kph or 70 metres per second (230 feet per second). This is the normal landing speed for a Boeing 737. The available runway is 5462 feet or 1700 meters.
During these 14 seconds the 737 has used up 3216 feet/980 meters of runway which will then indicate that he has only 2300 feet/700 meters left for stopping the aircraft. So with autobrakes on max it will normally require 3180 feet / 970 meters distance to stop! I guess they used everything they had in the cockpit to stop the plane, reverers and spoilers off course, which will help some.
So this was indeed a landing the passengers will remember, including the crew! Please note the high speed the aircraft seems to have during the left turn on to the taxiway. Incredible.
This reminds me of a saying in aviation – who was flying the plane? Someone should take a moment and read up on some laws of physics and basic aviation – because this 737 could very have found itself off the runway, like this TACA Airbus A320.
And for a bonus, this video shows a view from the flight deck on approach to Toncontin. It is raining so I guess you really can`t see too much of the scenery, but the “sigh of relief” you can hear from the pilots (at 1:19) after landing is priceless!
Wow – how about Nickelback`s album, Dark Horse? It is an amazing piece which I came over by complete accident. Now, I don`t even look back.
Yeah, I know Nickelback often has one or two friendly and easy songs on each album which gets played constantly on the radios, so you have it up to here by them. But the other songs are mean, fast and feel-good songs with awesome lyrics.
The album, Dark Horse, opens tough with the song Something In Your Mouth and here`s the first lines. Fabulous!
Got to meet the hottie with the million dollar body
They say it`s over budget but you`d pay her just to touch it – come on!
The premise that our society is different from what it would have been without the computer revolution is generally accepted. Is our society better than it would have been without the revolution? Is our society worse? Would your answer differ if your position in society were different?
I assume if you read this that if you read this you are comfortable using computers and internet. Still today there are many among us who make a point out of not participating in areas where computers and technology are used. I have experienced that mostly among people in their 40+ when I am at work doing an introduction classes in computers and new technological applications. Even met those in my own age group which try to avoid new technology, and that is just ignorance. Most people are positive but some are negative. Are people negative because they have had a negative experience with IT or is it that they have never used it before and are sceptical? Most people I have dealt with are negative because they are sceptical to changes that may come – they instantly think what changes I have to do when this new technology enters my workplace. Others are positive because they see how this will improve their daily routines and how it can make them more effective and make things easier.
I think there is a lot of work to be done on how the new technology is presented to the future users. They must not get the feeling that this is something they have to do – or like this is something shoveled upon them. Users must be integrated in the intial processes and asked how they want their new technology to be. I see that this can be a very effective way of involving more people and making them more positive.
I think the question wether our society is better or worse because of the computer revolution is very hypthetical. I believe we have come better out of it, not worse. What is the substitute have the computers not been here – or to this extent? I can`t think of anything, and it seems as the computers were destined to be here. People certainly embraced the computeres and still do. I think we still are on the plus-side when it comes to better or worse.
But can you control the speed and direction of the technology – and why would someone want to do that. I think the research on important aspects and areas are going slow – think of how long it takes for engineers to think out how to make the first driverless cars. But how short period of time it takes for Sony to “develop” a wireless control to PS3? I think technology is at its best when it does something to improve our society like more efficient cars, high-speed trains and faster computers. People could get the wrong idea of the propulsion of our technological leaps because of the way the game industry unleashes “new” technology the way they do.
