Fine Air Flight 101

Fine Air Flight 101

Fine Air DC-8-61F N29UA, sister-ship to the accident aircraft
Accident
Date	7 August 1997 (1997-08-07)
Summary	Loss of control on take-off
Site	Miami International Airport, Florida, United States
Total fatalities	5
Aircraft
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61(F)
Operator	Fine Air
Registration	N27UA
Flight origin	Miami International Airport
Destination	Las Américas International Airport
Occupants	4
Passengers	1
Crew	3
Fatalities	4
Survivors	0
Ground casualties
Ground fatalities	1

Fine Air Flight 101 was a scheduled cargo flight from Miami International Airport to Las Américas International Airport, operated by McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61F N27UA, that crashed after take-off on 7 August 1997 at Miami Internationl Airport.^[1] All 4 people on board and one person the ground were killed.^[2][3]

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident was a 29 year-old McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61F, C/n / msn:45942/349, registration N27UA, operated by Fine Air, with a total airframe hours of 46,825 and 41,688 cycles.

Crew

The Captain, Dale Patrick "Pat" Thompson, aged 42, hired on 11 October 1993, had a total of 12,154 hours flying time, including 2,522 hours as a DC-8 captain at Fine Air.

The First Officer, Steven Petrosky, aged 26, hired on 15 August 1994, had a total of 2,641 hours flying time, of which 1,592 hours were with Fine Air in DC-8s and logged 614 hours as first officer and 978 hours as a flight engineer, all in the DC-8.

The Flight Engineer, Glen Millington, aged 35, hired by Fine Air on 17 September 1996, had logged a total of 1,570 flying hours, including 683 hours as a DC-8 flight engineer at Fine Air. A security guard was also on board.

Crash

The aircraft, bound for Santo Domingo, lost control shortly after V1. Upon rotation the cargo shifted aft on the main cargo deck because none of the pallet locks were engaged upright to the cargo pallets on the main deck. The plane was loaded with two empty pallet positions that allowed for a significant shifting of the center of gravity aft toward the empty spaces.

Ground crew interviews found that the flight was routinely full of pallets and the locks were rarely engaged in some opinions, and it was further stated this was because they were thought to be irrelevant if the pallets could not move. Pallets are held by rails at the sides from moving in an upward direction, but only the retractable end locks can stop forward and aft movement. The over-pitching on rotation at V1 pitched the aircraft nose up sharply to the point that air flow into the engines was significantly reduced (similar to blowing across the opening of a soda bottle to make it whistle from the drop in pressure) and causing the engines to stall. The plane then pitched back nose-down landing on its belly on the ground. In addition the aircraft was approximately 2700 kg overloaded, although given the pallet weighing process this was believed to be more common than thought beforehand. The pilots, departing from former Runway 27R (now 26L) attempted to recover but the stalled aircraft lacked any forward thrust rendering the control surfaces useless. The forward pitching aircraft rapidly lost forward momentum and lift with its wings cutting the airflow perpendicular to proper lift orientation. The DC-8 crashed on its belly on a field directly west of the end of the runway (about 300 yards) traveling in a straight line.

The DC-8 missed the auto transport loading facility at the south end of the Miami City Rail Yard just north of the end of the runway, and also busy cargo operations facilities along the very busy NW 25th Street feeder to the airport's cargo area just to the south of the end of the runway. The aircraft barely missed two factories, a commercial building, and the Budweiser Distribution Center in unincorporated Miami, Florida between the populated residential suburbs of Miami Springs and Doral. It skidded across the open field and onto NW 72nd Ave, a roadway that is typically full of traffic during the lunch hour but was surprisingly quiet at 12:36p EST when it came down. The plane's wreckage skidded quickly across the roadway and onto the parking lot of a commercial mini-mall across the street from the empty field; it took out 26 cars in the lot. At that time the mini-mall was a hub of computer parts distributors specializing in South American commerce.

The plane's wreckage fell four feet short of the entrances to three shops. It missed two occupied cars and a truck that were waiting for the traffic signal at the intersection of NW 31st Street and NW 72nd Avenue, less than 30 yards (27 m) away. Inside one of the cars in the parking lot sat a man who had just arrived back at his shop in the mini-mall after picking up lunch for his wife and himself. He was unable to make it out of the car and was caught up in the fireball that engulfed the multi-lane avenue, field, and parking lot.

Five people were killed in total: the three aircrew members, a company security guard on the flight, and the man in the parking lot.[5] In the minutes following the crash, police were alerted to a fire at NW 72nd Ave, only to discover it was a plane crash. For nearly 45 minutes, mixed reports claimed the plane was a passenger flight, but within the hour the control tower at MIA confirmed it was Fine Air Cargo Flight 101. FAA Security Special Agents working out of an office on airport property (at that time) responded to the scene and simultaneously to the Fine Air Cargo offices where they took possession of the flight documentation. Some relevant documentation were recovered from garbage receptacles causing a criminal investigation to be opened and ultimately leading to charges including destruction and covering up of evidence. Fine Air and their ground handling agent Aeromar Airlines plead guilty to several of the charges and were fined approximately $5 million.

References