Member's Life Stories
Remembering TWA
Categories: Trike Talk, Tech, Safety, ATC & Communication, Weather, Maintenance
You remember TWA (Trans World Airlines) don't you? Well I do, as one day at LAX everyone in the tower held their breath at the same time.
Someone sent me a picture today of a B747 rotating on takeoff about 400' from the end of the runway. It brought back this memory.
It was a beautiful day at LAX. The sea breeze was blowing 15-20 kts. from the West and it had cleared out the LA basin of smog. TWA Airlines had a daily flight originating out of LA nonstop to London, he had taxied out of terminal 2 and was about to depart on runway 24L.
The jet was very heavy as he was full of fuel for the trip of over 4,700 nm. They flew the great circle route which would take them over Resolution Island and Greenland, then down into England.
The pilot brought all engines up to power before releasing the brakes. At about 3/4 of the way down the runway the plane rotated and held it's attitude waiting for liftoff. It was at that time that we noticed vapor coming off both the aircraft's wings. The plane slowly left the runway and crossed the end of the runway. The plane was so low that the exhaust from the engines kicked up sand as it flew over the sand dunes at the runway's end. Note: We viewed this from the old control tower located in the middle of airport. The tower was at the top of 13 stories (approx 260'). After crossing the sand dunes the plane decended to the level of the ocean and we lost sight of him and he was not on our radar displays. We thought he had crashed into the ocean.
About 4-5 minutes later we got a radar "hit" on the plane as he continued Westbound. The vapor that we had seen was fuel being dumped as the plane had lost an engine at the point of no return on takeoff. The pilot had decended to the ocean level to use the water as a ground effect to try and stay airborne. TWA flew 60 nm straight ahead before he was able to attempt a turn back to the airport. The reason we lost him on radar was because he was "under" our radar coverage. We saw him again as he slowly was able to climb and return to the airport.
Comments
The great timing and angle just makes this shot, and the size of the 747, looks surreal.
The distance to the fence was 145 meters(475ft)... Yikes! I wonder if anyone computed the takeoff distance prior to the trip?This is an amazing picture of a disaster that didn't happen. From the smallest airplane to the largest, weight & balance calculations are a critical part of flight safety. From the looks of this 747, the weight was within the CG envelope, but if they'd have added one more 'marshmallow' to each snack tray, this BIRD might not have cleared - The fence !!!!
Harry Canary!!! It took me a while to realize the main gear is going to go through the gap in the fence. (posted for Hostman!!)
Holy Cow that's an incredible story!!! I spent the past several minutes looking for more about it on the web...
I looked too. I guess you need to actually "crash" to be listed... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_airliners_in_the_United_States
How low did your radar go back then?
How low does it go now? ;)
Gezz, that was scary!! Luck & good pilot skills saved the day in this incident. AND that is a good question XC Triker, how low does that radar go nowadays, Hostman?
That has to be the most stunning picture I have ever seen. Scary stuff.
That's a technical question and I don't have the answer. All I know is that the LAX radar antenna location was at the West end of the airport between the sand dunes and Vista del Mar road. In order to keep major ground interference (ground return) from showing on the radar, the antenna was pointed up. How much it was pointed up, I don't know.
What a huge pucker factor for you all AND the pilot!
Awesome! Takes a great storyteller to tell a great story well - Thanks for sharing, Hostman!!!!
Check YFT's post:
http://alltrikes.com/elgg/file/view/7677/eva-airlines-or-not
Can you just imagine the noise awsome ,just like my good old 582 lol