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Stratoliner had about 50 gallons of fuel as it crashed

Posted by bdk on Wed Feb 12, 2003 03:51:51 PM

Aerospace Notebook: Stratoliner had about 50 gallons of fuel as it crashed
Seattle Post-Intelligencer 02/12/03
author: James Wallace


The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to rule within days on the probable cause of last year's crash of The Boeing Co.'s one-of-a kind Stratoliner, the first commercial airplane with a pressurized cabin.


It's been clear since soon after the restored four-engine plane ditched into Seattle's Elliott Bay that it apparently ran out of gas.


But the board's final report may help answer why.


None of the four Boeing flight-crew members was injured in the March crash, but the historic plane was badly damaged. It is being restored -- for the second time.


Debra Eckrote, the Seattle-based NTSB investigator who headed the crash probe, submitted her factual report a couple weeks ago to the board's headquarters in Washington, D.C.


"I don't know how the board is going to rule as far as probable cause," she said yesterday.


The investigation showed the plane "essentially" ran out of gas, Eckrote said. She could not say what contributing factors the board will include in its probable-cause finding.


The board could issue that final report late this week, although it will more likely be next week.


Liz Verdier, Boeing's spokeswoman for commercial airplane safety issues, said Boeing has made procedural changes since the accident to improve safety and communications when the Stratoliner flies again.


That is expected to happen this summer. The Stratoliner is now being restored in a hangar across from Boeing Field.


The restoration is going well and the Stratoliner should make its public rollout at the Museum of Flight on June 14, said Boeing's Dave Knowlen, restoration manager.


After a short flight-test program, the Stratoliner will be flown back to Washington, D.C., in late July where it will become a star attraction at the National Air and Space Museum's new annex at Dulles International Airport. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is scheduled to open in December, for the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first powered flight.


When the Stratoliner does fly again, two of Boeing's best and most respected test pilots will be at the controls. Richard "Buzz" Nelson and Mike Carriker were also at the controls of the Stratoliner last March. With them was a flight engineer and the radio operator who served as navigator.


Eckrote said it's up to the safety board, in determining probable cause, to say whether the flight crew may have contributed to the accident.


Boeing has said before that it fully supports its pilots. Nelson has been Boeing's chief 767 test pilot. Carriker, his co-pilot on the Stratoliner's last flight, is a veteran of the 737 program and was to have been Boeing's chief test pilot for the sonic cruiser. That program was recently shelved in favor of an all-new super-efficient jet. Carriker is likely to be flying that plane if Boeing's board gives the OK late this year or early next year to go ahead with its development.


The Stratoliner took off from Boeing Field March 28 on what was to be a flight to check systems and to maintain crew proficiency as required by the FAA.


It flew to Paine Field in Everett where it made a full stop on the runway. On takeoff, the crew noticed a brief power surge in engine No. 3. They decided to head back to Boeing Field, but as the plane approached the airport the left gear did not fully extend. Nelson broke off his approach and the flight engineer left his station to manually hand-crank the gear down.


The Stratoliner was headed back to Boeing Field when engine No. 3 lost fuel pressure, followed by the loss of fuel pressure in the three other engines.


Nelson ditched the plane in Elliott Bay.


In her factual report of the accident, Eckrote said there was 45 gallons of fuel left in the plane's six tanks when the fuel was removed after the plane was recovered from the water. In addition, about 10 more gallons leaked from the fuel tanks into Elliott Bay, she said.


It was impossible to know whether the main fuel gauge was working properly, she said. Because of water in the instrument, the gauge shorted out during a test after the accident.


Before the accident, the Stratoliner had not flown since August 2001, when it returned from an air show in Oshkosh, Wis. On the way back to Boeing Field, the plane stopped in Great Falls, Mont., where 1,700 gallons of fuel were pumped into both the main and auxiliary tanks.


In the year since the accident, Boeing flight test has made several changes related to the Stratoliner, according to Boeing's Verdier.


One change involves the flight-release procedures for the Stratoliner.


Boeing also examined what's known as crew resource management.


"We wanted to know how we could improve communications" among the four flight crew members on the Stratoliner, Verdier said.


The fuel gauges on the Stratoliner are on an instrument panel monitored by the flight engineer, who was helping with the gear problem before the accident.


Boeing built just 10 of the planes. The one that splashed down in Elliott Bay is the only one left in the world. It was delivered to Pan Am in March 1940 and flew commercial routes in the Caribbean before being used as a military transport.


The Stratoliner could barely climb past 20,000 feet, and its cruising speed was only about 220 mph. But it was the world's first high-altitude commercial transport and it helped lay the foundation for Boeing's commercial future.


It is one of two history- making Boeing planes that will go back to the new Dulles museum this year. The Dash 80, prototype for Boeing's first commercial jetliner the 707, is scheduled to be flown back in September. That aircraft is kept in the same hangar where the Stratoliner is being restored.


"These two planes represent incredible pieces of history when you look at the impact they had on Seattle," Knowlen said.


. . . And the entire aviation industry.

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