Largest air loss of life in Canadian History page 3

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Trying to ditch an airliner is an act of complete and total desperation. In fact trying to ditch any aircraft is only done when there is simply nothing else left to do. The problem is that no matter how gently you set an aircraft down on a water surface, that surface off the coast of Nova Scotia, has normal seas at this time of the year of swells from two to three metres. Think about that, trying to land on a field covered with bumps six to nine feet with a separation of sixty to eighty feet and remember the touch down speed is right around 120 knots. Preferably a pilot would like to touch down under 100 knots but on a dark ocean surface you would keep up your speed rather then risk a stall well above the surface. So you would come down nose low to maintain airspeed until your instruments established you at 100 feet where you rotate to a slightly nose high attitude, at about 120 knots and the impact would ensnare the engine nacelles immediately pulling the nose down hard.

The odds of both engines contacting simultaneously is remote so the force would be one sided causing that wing to lower rapidly. The resulting whip action would snap roll the machine, the low wing would crumple and fuel left in it would explode, followed by rapid nose down of the fuselage, structural integrity could not be maintained and the aircraft should come apart. The nose section would immediately separate, the main pipe would rip laterally, the high wing would continue the rotation at impact snapping the fuselage at the fore and aft wing root, tail section should separate and proceed over the twisting wreckage.

The passengers not mauled in the initial impact would be plunged into ink inverted and strapped into their seats, those not killed outright would be unconscious and all injured in one way or another. Despite these horrifying conditions there will be seats and passengers wrenched from the disassembling aircraft but it is just simply to unlikely that anyone could be expected to survive the impact and perhaps even make it to the surface. The sea's surface will be covered with debris, because the airframe will have been completely shattered and the plastic and insulation parts will all float. Passengers however are all in their seats, which in turn are connected to the sturdiest part of the aircraft the floor of the main pipe.

But it is doubtful if anyone will be able to blame this aircraft for its demise. It is as safe an aircraft as is flying and better designed then most, but as we all know "most things break". The terrible DC10 crashes were almost all related to maintenance errors you will recall the Chicago one was caused by American Airlines removing the pylon when doing engine changes and a connection came off on take of,f the engine ripped off the pylon and the front of the wing where the control lines for the wing were located, the crew recognised a problem and immediately shut down the engine they thought had come off but in the confusion of the moment, shut down the right engine the aircraft rolled over and impacted inverted nose down. No survivors. The incidents that have occurred in the life of the MD11 are chronicled on an interesting web site.


Trying to ditch an airliner is an act of complete and total desperation. In fact trying to ditch any aircraft is only done when there is simply nothing else left to do. The problem is that no matter how gently you set an aircraft down on a water surface, that surface off the coast of Nova Scotia, has normal seas at this time of the year of swells from two to three metres. Think about that, trying to land on a field covered with bumps six to nine feet with a separation of sixty to eighty feet and remember the touch down speed is right around 120 knots. Preferably a pilot would like to touch down under 100 knots but on a dark ocean surface you would keep up your speed rather then risk a stall well above the surface. So you would come down nose low to maintain airspeed until your instruments established you at 100 feet where you rotate to a slightly nose high attitude, at about 120 knots and the impact would ensnare the engine nacelles immediately pulling the nose down hard. The odds of both engines contacting simultaneously is remote so the force would be one sided causing that wing to lower rapidly. The resulting whip action would snap roll the machine, the low wing would crumple and fuel left in it would explode, followed by rapid nose down of the fuselage, structural integrity could not be maintained and the aircraft should come apart. The nose section would immediately separate, the main pipe would rip laterally, the high wing would continue the rotation at impact snapping the fuselage at the fore and aft wing root, tail section should separate and proceed over the twisting wreckage. The passengers not mauled in the initial impact would be plunged into ink inverted and strapped into their seats, those not killed outright would be unconscious and all injured in one way or another. Despite these horrifying conditions there will be seats and passengers wrenched from the disassembling aircraft but it is just simply to unlikely that anyone could be expected to survive the impact and perhaps even make it to the surface. The sea's surface will be covered with debris, because the airframe will have been completely shattered and the plastic and insulation parts will all float. Passengers however are all in their seats, which in turn are connected to the sturdiest part of the aircraft the floor of the main pipe. But it is doubtful if anyone will be able to blame this aircraft for its demise. It is as safe an aircraft as is flying and better designed then most, but as we all know "most things break". The terrible DC10 crashes were almost all related to maintenance errors you will recall the Chicago one was caused by American Airlines removing the pylon when doing engine changes and a connection came off on take of,f the engine ripped off the pylon and the front of the wing where the control lines for the wing were located, the crew recognised a problem and immediately shut down the engine they thought had come off but in the confusion of the moment, shut down the right engine the aircraft rolled over and impacted inverted nose down. No survivors. The incidents that have occurred in the life of the MD11 are chronicled on an interesting web site.