TWA Flight 159 departed the ramp at Cincinnati at 18:33. As the Boeing 707 was taxiing to runway 27L, Delta Airlines DC-9 N3317L was landing. After completing the landing the crew requested permission to carry out a 180 degree turnaround on the runway in order to vacate the runway at the runway 18/36 intersection which they had just passed. Permission was granted, but halfway during the turn the nose wheel slipped off the paved surface and the aircraft moved straight ahead off the runway. The aircraft became stuck in the mud with the tail about 7 feet off the edge of the runway. The controller tried to ascertain that DL379 had cleared the runway and received the reply: Yeah, were in the dirt though. At 18:39 the controller cleared TW159 for takeoff on the same runway. The first officer, who was at the controls, heard a loud noise from the right side of the plane and experienced a yaw and movement of the flight controls as they passed the DC-9. Assuming that he was at or near V1, he aborted the takeoff. He closed the throttles, applied maximum braking and called for spoilers which the captain extended. Directional control was maintained, but the airplane overran the runway by 225 feet to the brow of a hill. The Boeing became airborne momentarily and contacted the ground approx. 67 feet further on, shearing the main undercarriage. The aircraft slid down the embankment and came to rest straddling a road 421 feet from the runway end. The fuselage upper structure ruptured forward of the wing root and the right wing failed inboard of the no. 4 engine. Investigation revealed that no. 4 engine sustained a compressor stall as it passed the DC-9 due to the jet blast from the idling engines of the Delta plane. The first officer assumed the speed was at or near V1 because the captain failed to announce the V1 speed. The maximum speed attained during the takeoff was 145 knots, which was between VR and V2. PROBABLE CAUSE: The inability of the TWA crew to abort successfully their takeoff at the speed attained prior to the attempted abort. The abort was understandably initiated because of the first officers belief that his plane had collided with a Delta aircraft stopped just off the runway. A contributing factor was the action of the Delta crew in advising the tower that their plane was clear of the runway without carefully ascertaining the facts, and when in fact their aircraft was not a safe distance under the circumstances of another aircraft taking off on that runway.NOV 1967 Was departing runway 27L when it passed behind a Delta DC-9 which had become stuck in the mud just to the right of the runway. The jetblast from the Delta jet caused a compressor stall in the 707s no. 4 engine. Hearing the bang, and believing that their plane had impacted the Delta DC-9, the TWA crew aborted the takeoff, but the plane overran the runway, climbed over an embankment, and came to rest 420 feet from the runway end.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 09:53:05 +0000
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