Fergie's Tech Blog

747 Aircraft Freighter Crash Linked to Laptop Tool Miscalculation

Peter B. Ladkin writes in RISKS Digest:

The Canadian TSB have issued the report on the 14 October 2004 crash of a Boeing B747 freighter on takeoff at Halifax airport, Nova Scotia.

According to a Flight International report by David Kaminski-Morrow (4-10 July 2006, p4), the TSB "says that the crew's misunderstanding of a laptop computer tool for calculating take-off performance led to the accidents. It concludes that the crew unwittingly transferred and used weight data from the aircraft's previous flight while calculating performance criteria for the next take-off. The obsolete data misled the crew to derive incorrect thrust settings and critical speeds for take-off."

The aircraft failed to lift off after rotation and overran the end of the runway by 250 meters, briefly lifting off but then striking an earth berm, severing the tail section and bringing the aircraft to earth again. All seven crew were killed.

posted by Fergie @ 7/20/2006 07:53:00 AM