767 Down in Texas

[Shadrach]

Trinity Bay East of Houston. Cargo flight. Initial reports read like an airframe failure. RIP. Thankful it was over water.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/23/us/texas-atlas-air-cargo-jet-crash/index.html

[Hank]

The article said they have found human remains. Also said the water runs up to 5' deep, before becoming mud. It's duck hunting territory. 

Sad . . . .  

[RLCarter]

Atlas Air leased to Amazon, was coming from Miami 

[carusoam]

CNBC: Boeing 767 cargo jet crashes near Houston airport with 3 people on board

-a-

[Yetti]

There was a front line coming through.  Other planes in the area were diverting around weather.

[N201MKTurbo]

FYI

[Scott Dennstaedt, PhD]

Here's the radar depiction just as Flightaware was showing a 7000 ft drop about 1238 CST.

[ArtVandelay]

Here's the radar depiction just as Flightaware was showing a 7000 ft drop about 1238 CST.

I guess trying to go through the gap, but from radar looks like a northern jog would have avoided all of it instead of going around the edge. You got the next one?


Tom

[Mcstealth]

It was less than 30 minutes out of Bush.

[flyboy0681]

Cargo shift due to turbulence?

[N201MKTurbo]

What if it didn’t have anything to do with the weather?

What if it was like Value Jet and some product caught fire or exploded? 

[wiguy]

 They said no ‘Haz-Mat’ onboard.

[N201MKTurbo]

Just now, wiguy said:

 They said no ‘Haz-Mat’ onboard.

Maybe they screwed up with that.

But thanks for the info.

[Scott Dennstaedt, PhD]

Upon closer examination of an unfiltered NEXRAD loop, you can see what is a secondary line of weak returns (marked by the yellow dashed line) that moves through and ahead of the line of convection.  This looks like the radar picked up the cold front as it pushed east-southeast.  Could be a coincidence, but this line of "frontal" returns likely reached the aircraft about the time it was in that steep descent.  The convective line falls apart pretty quickly once that passes through.  

Here is the loop...notice how that secondary line moves through the other returns.

 

[carusoam]

Interesting video, Scott...

Thanks for sharing the details...

Best regards,

-a-

[Scott Dennstaedt, PhD]

Just spoke with the Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Houston/Galveston.  As I suspected, there wasn't a microburst signature evident - the accident and timing were too far away from the location where the plane went down. The only other weather-related explanation would be some significant turbulence during descent as the frontal boundary moved through the aircraft's flight path and caused the freight to shift.  

[flyboy0681]

1 minute ago, scottd said:

The only other weather-related explanation would be some significant turbulence during descent as the frontal boundary moved through the aircraft's flight path and caused the freight to shift.  

Exactly what I said, but only time will tell.

[Scott Dennstaedt, PhD]

More info here:  https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/DCA19MA086.aspx

Specifically it says, "Also, about this time, the FDR data indicated that some small vertical accelerations consistent with the airplane entering turbulence. Shortly after, when the airplane’s indicated airspeed was steady about 230 knots, the engines increased to maximum thrust, and the airplane pitch increased to about 4° nose up. The airplane then pitched nose down over the next 18 seconds to about 49° in response to nose-down elevator deflection. The stall warning (stick shaker) did not activate."

[ragedracer1977]

Interestingly, the first draft this morning said "pitched nose down in response to control column input"

[EricJ]

9 minutes ago, ragedracer1977 said:

Interestingly, the first draft this morning said "pitched nose down in response to control column input"

When I was reading it I was thinking it was starting to look like an intentional act.

 

[jaylw314]

On ‎2‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 3:21 PM, scottd said:

Upon closer examination of an unfiltered NEXRAD loop, you can see what is a secondary line of weak returns (marked by the yellow dashed line) that moves through and ahead of the line of convection.  This looks like the radar picked up the cold front as it pushed east-southeast.  Could be a coincidence, but this line of "frontal" returns likely reached the aircraft about the time it was in that steep descent.  The convective line falls apart pretty quickly once that passes through.  

Here is the loop...notice how that secondary line moves through the other returns.

 

I can see a similar formation going through the line of clouds to the southeast.  In fact, it looks almost identical.  Could there be two frontal margins like that?

[ragedracer1977]

43 minutes ago, EricJ said:

When I was reading it I was thinking it was starting to look like an intentional act.

 

I'm hoping they changed it because they realized the same thing would be thought by a lot of people. 280kts everything stable.  Suddenly add full power, pitch up 4 degrees then immediately pitch down 50 degrees.  I'm not sure what to make of that

[Scott Dennstaedt, PhD]

2 hours ago, jaylw314 said:

I can see a similar formation going through the line of clouds to the southeast.  In fact, it looks almost identical.  Could there be two frontal margins like that?

They are identical.  It's the same feature.