Jet survives plunge

Press, 7 April 1979, Page 6

Jet survives plunge

NZPA-Reuter Washington A Trans World Airlines Boeing 727 went into a 360 degree roll and then a nose dive that may have exceeded the speed of sound before the pilot regained control and landed safely yesterday. The barrel roll was believed to be unprecedented in modern civil aviation. The 80 pasengers aboard the flight from New York to Minneapolis had just eaten a snack when they felt the craft begin to vibrate. Suddenly, the plane swerved to the right, completed a 360-degree barrel roll and nose-dived from 11,900 m to 3660 m — eight kilometres — in seconds. “You could feel your face pressed back and the : blood rush to your head,” i said Chell Roberts, aged ! 22, a student. wa «eream«

ing. I thought it was over. “People started to scream and a flight attendant started to cry,” he said.

“It’s really a funny feeling to see what everybody does before they think they are going to die.” But nobody died. Only four persons suffered minor injuries. Mr Roberts’s wife, Louise, is five months and a half pregnant.

Federal Aviation Administration inspectors said it was “miraculous” and “unprecedented” that the jetliner survived such a midair trauma before being brought under control in a desperation manoeuvre. “I can’t think of any other incident where a (commercial passengercarrying) plane has done a complete 360-degree rollover and survived,” one said. “The miracle is that it haid together under «uch

extraordinary speed and circumstances,” he said. Propped up by jacks, the plane sat on an airport side runway as mechanics, F.A.A. officials and reporters examined the damage. Flaps on the right wing were ripped off during the descent. Pieces of metal hung from that wing and from the fuselage around the landing gear doors on both sides. Inside the airliner, newspapers and magazines were strewn on the floor.

A large sack of used airsickness bags stood in the aisle.

Two tapes, one recording cockpit conversations and one recording radio conversations with the ground, were sent for study to the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington. The cause of the incident was unknown. The pilot brought the jet under control by lowering the undwarriage.