StrizzyChris
New member
A 747 plane from Korea just crashed while landing at SFO. It caught fire, the tail broke off, and looks pretty bad :grayno:
Looks like it may have landed just short or maybe landed without the gear down?
Friends at San Francisco hospital said they have over 8 patients there that range from children to 50yo and all of those are in critical condition. Don't know about other area hospitals yet. They have others that are minor injuries. Many others have been triaged and sent as far as to Alameda county. Disaster situations we always spread the people out to surrounding hospitals to not overwhelm a single facility. So not sure what the final death count will be.
The problem with trying to figure out what happen is the determining what the weather conditions are. In the SF area wind direction changes. Fox News was interviewing a pilot who stated if the wind shifted from a head wind to a tail wind they would loose lift. Loosing lift will create havoc no matter where you are on approach.
Most were able to evacuate the plane prior to the fire engulfing the cabin area.
This could have been a lot worse.
Tailwind has no effect on lift. But, it does increase the ground speed thus increases landing roll.
Looks like the pilot was low on the approach and landed short. Engine bird strike? Engine problems? Fuel issues? Smoke in the cockpit? Who knows... All I know it was horrible
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Tailwind will cause the approach speed to increase if its constant needing a reduction in power.
Very true, like you mentioned such as a micro-burst or severe thunderstorms. But, in the case at SFO it was clear & 10 with no convective activity.
Just a wind shift or shear wouldn't produce such a drastic change to indicated airspeed causing a stall. Unless, the crew were flying extremely below Vref (such as -20). A tailwind will not cause the approach speed to increase and a constant need to reduce power. A shift from a headwind to a tailwind would cause a decrease in indicated airspeed and a need for extra power. During gusty conditions its common to encounter low level wind shear of +/- 10 knots which can be easily corrected.
Sounds like they were high on the approach with a steep descent rate. I wouldn't be surprised if fatigue played a role. All in all, the FDR will have the answers.