National 747 crash in Afghanistan

[Daniel M]

From AvHerald:

Crash: National Air Cargo B744 at Bagram on Apr 29th 2013, lost height shortly after takeoff

By Simon Hradecky, created Monday, Apr 29th 2013 14:02Z, last updated Tuesday, Apr 30th 2013 16:28Z
A National Air Cargo Boeing 747-400 freighter on behalf of US Mobility Command, registration N949CA performing cargo flight N8-102 from Bagram (Afghanistan) to Dubai Al Maktoum (United Arab Emirates) with 7 crew and cargo consisting of 5 military vehicles, has crashed shortly after takeoff from Bagram Air Base's runway 03 at 15:30L (11:00Z) and erupted into flames near the end of the runway within the perimeter of the Air Base. All 7 crew are reported perished in the crash.

Afghan Authorities immediately denied claims that the crash of a large civilian cargo aircraft was the result of enemy activities. A large fire erupted after the aircraft impacted ground, it appears all crew have been killed.

Coalition Forces reported a civilian large cargo plane crashed shortly after takeoff, at the time of the accident there was no enemy activity around the aerodrome. Rescue and Recovery efforts are under way, the Air Base is currently locked down and the aerodrome is closed.

National Air Cargo confirmed their aircraft N949CA with 7 crew, 4 pilots, 2 mechanics and a load master - initial information had been 8 crew - crashed at Bagram.

The NTSB reported the Boeing 747-400 was operated by National Air Cargo and destined for Dubai Al Maktoum when it crashed just after takeoff from Bagram and came to rest within the boundaries of the Air Base. All 7 occupants, all American citizens, were killed. Afghanistan's Ministry of Transportation and Commercial Aviation is leading the investigation into the crash, the NTSB have assigned accredited representatives joining the investigation.

Several observers on the ground reported the National Air Cargo Boeing 747-400 had just lifted off and was climbing through approximately 1200 feet when it's nose sharply rose, the aircraft appeared to have stalled and came down erupting in a blaze.

According to a listener on frequency the crew reported the aircraft stalled due to a possible load shift.

A car driver caught the aircraft climbing out and coming down on his car camera, see below.

The aircraft was carrying 5 military vehicles.

National Air Cargo operates three Boeing 747-400s with the registrations N952CA, N919CA and N949CA. N949CA operated into Afghanistan on Apr 28th.

Insane video of the crash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vo51Be2jL8c

[Sarah C]

Wow, speechless after seeing that video

RIP to all onboard :(

[Ian Gains]

ex F-GISE Air France. If it is a load shift, that is a tragic mistake. Thoughts to all of the families of the crew.

[Joel D]

Well it appears to be a classic case of a massive stall, could see it going nose to the sky at the very start of the video.

About the only thing that would cause that would be a load shifting and ending up in the tail. And not talking about small things either, there would have had to be something very heavy and dense to throw out the CoG that far and to a point of non-recoverability. 5 military vehicles/trucks would do it.

Also note that in general, Ops in places like Afghanistan will usually call for maximum climb on takeoff in order to gain altitude due to danger from small arms and RPGs on the ground. Of course this puts much more stress on the airframe and also the load, making a failure of the load securing equipment more likely.

Doesn't seem to be that big a fireball either, doubt that it had a full tank of fuel onboard.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Just speechless .... very sad

[Thomas Collins]

May not have accounted for tail fuel. Out of trim... Big time.

Had the gear been up, would have made a difference - all that extra drag. Very close to recovery...

[Todd Hendry]

Thomas.

I doubt it was set out of trim with tail tank fuel as it was going to Dubai. So no fuel in the tail tank.

Gear would not have helped in this situation as putting the gear from down to up increases drag due to the doors opening. But the drag with the gear down may have helped with a nose down moment around the centre of pressure.

I'll wait it see the the report.

So for now it's a very tragic accident that no one has facts on.

RIP guys/girls.

[Tony G]

Agreed, very sad. Makes you appreciated every clean departure and arrival you see. Amazing to see how quick the queen of the sky a 747-400 can be there one second and then vanish into a ball of flames so quickly. Just seems so surreal.

[Jim M]

I'm with Todd on this one. There could be a number of factors in this accident which nobody is aware of at this time. We all need to wait for the report.

What i will say is this. When i was first made aware of the accident early this morning and then saw the footage,i was left speechless. For me,it is one of the worst i can remember,mainly because of the footage of the crash itself.What a tragedy by all accounts.

May God bless those who perished and all their families. R.I.P.

Jim

[Tom PER]

Factory B744F's don't come with a stab/tail tank, not sure if during the pax to freighter conversion they remove them out.

This was a 744BCF.

[Erik H. Bakke]

I think the only ones to have fuel tanks in the tail are the -ER models and the -8.

[Greg Hyde]

crew reported cargo shifted before crash.

[Andrew P]

If cargo had moved during the steep climb-out the centre of gravity would have shifted to somewhere near the horizontal stabilizer. The aircraft exhibited stable and friendly stall recovery tendencies, something that would not have happened if the CG had shifted aft.

[Justin L]

Multiple media sources here in the US, including CBS and USA Today have made strong points during their coverage that they cannot verify the authenticity of the video. While these comments are obviously covering themselves while showing the graphic footage, does anyone have the opinion that this video may not be of the crash in question? I did notice a date stamp on one video I saw as 02/01/2013, even though the crash happened on April 29 - but that could just mean the camera settings were wrong. Thoughts?

[Jason H]

If cargo had moved during the steep climb-out the centre of gravity would have shifted to somewhere near the horizontal stabilizer. The aircraft exhibited stable and friendly stall recovery tendencies, something that would not have happened if the CG had shifted aft.

Um what?? This is true but with such a shift it would be impossible to create a force on the tailplane to get the nose down to recover. If the rumours are correct about the load shift, then the CoG would be well outside the limit. Are you saying that the aeroplane did exhibit stable stall recovery, or that it would?

[Donesh I.]

The fact remains....seven souls lost ....Fathers? brothers? Sons? Sisters?Mothers? daughters. May they Rest in peace. I thought I had become hard skinned over the years, but this video has shocked me back into the real world.

[Matthew Chisholm]

Multiple media sources here in the US, including CBS and USA Today have made strong points during their coverage that they cannot verify the authenticity of the video. While these comments are obviously covering themselves while showing the graphic footage, does anyone have the opinion that this video may not be of the crash in question? I did notice a date stamp on one video I saw as 02/01/2013, even though the crash happened on April 29 - but that could just mean the camera settings were wrong. Thoughts?

It is interesting. Has the US military made any comment ? Thought they would have considering it occured on/near the base/airfield.

Also interesting the driver of that car started slowing down as soon as the stall kicked in whereas the van in front kept going.

[Greg Hyde]

Fact: B747-400F Crashed, All 7 onboard lost, Crew reported cargo shifted.

http://www.nationalaircargo.com/information_related_to_Flight_NCR102.aspx

RIP To all involved.

No media organisations have claimed the video was faked.

[Greg Hyde]

This might be of interest:

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/video-flightglobal-expert-analyses-bagram-747-crash-sequence-385338/

[Montague S]

Multiple media sources here in the US, including CBS and USA Today have made strong points during their coverage that they cannot verify the authenticity of the video. While these comments are obviously covering themselves while showing the graphic footage, does anyone have the opinion that this video may not be of the crash in question? I did notice a date stamp on one video I saw as 02/01/2013, even though the crash happened on April 29 - but that could just mean the camera settings were wrong. Thoughts?

I thought it was a large scale model to be perfectly honest...wouldn't a 747 crash of that nature send debris everywhere and make a bomb like noise?? and the plane was reportedly carrying mine clearing vehicles which there doesn't appear to be much evidence of.

amazingly there are bystanders so close to the crash and none of the debris injured anyone...it appears the video was shot by an Englishman?

[Ian Garton]

Because of the low vertical and also lateral speeds at the time of impact, I imagine this would reduce the spread of debris in this case.

[Greg Hyde]

This crash covered in the last episode of ACI s16

s16e10 - Afghan Nightmare

[Todd Hendry]

I think the only ones to have fuel tanks in the tail are the -ER models and the -8.
All 747-400's have a tail tank.
The ER's have an extra Tank in the FWD cargo.
I'm not sure about the -8.

[Martin Buzzell]

The 747-400F does not have a tail tank (Stab Tank).

[MarkR]

Neither does the 744BCF, they are removed as part of the conversion.