A-300 Safety or Security?

Initial analysis of A-300/600 crash in New York appears not to be connected with terrorism but doubts remain

At around 16.21 MSK on November 12th, New York’s public holiday was abruptly interrupted by another horrific plane crash as American Airlines flight 587 from JF Kennedy Airport to the Dominican Republic, crashed into a residential area in Queen’s. The 246 passengers and 9 crew are all feared dead, while the number of casualties on the ground is not yet clear.

The aircraft had taken off immediately before the incident and was around 8 km. from the airport when it crashed. What caused the crash is the subject of investigation at present. An eyewitness account that “pieces of the plane were falling all over the place” appears to confirm other reports that one of the aircraft’s two engines fell off the wing.

Examination of an engine, which fell some distance away from the rest of the aircraft, shows an absence of burning damage, which would indicate that it came away from the aircraft in flight. Such an incident would have made it extremely difficult for the pilot to make a controlled landing.

Other eyewitnesses speak of an explosion shortly before the engine dropped off. The Federation Aviation Authority claims that terrorism is not suspected to be a cause of the incident, but the FBI confirm that the reports of the explosion are being investigated.

In the history of aviation accidents, eyewitness reports are traditionally unreliable. What does appear strange is the apparent lack of communication with the pilots, who did not issue a Mayday distress signal, although a report on Sky News mentions a comment by the cockpit crew about smoke and another claim by an American reporter that the sentence “It’s mechanical” was heard.

The Airbus A-300 is considered in the aviation industry as one of the safest aircraft in the sky. There have been eight previous incidents, 4 crashes upon landing, 3 hijackings and the unfortunate incident in the Persian Gulf when a US missile shot down an Iran Airlines A-300 passenger plane in 1987.

A TAP (Portuguese Airlines) pilot, contacted by Pravda.Ru, said that the fact that one engine fell off the aircraft is very strange, since the Airbus had strictly followed American Airlines and the demanding United States FAA rulebook to the letter. Even so, he claimed, it is technically possible to fly an aircraft such as the Airbus A-300/600 on one engine. Regarding the reported explosion, he claimed that the engines are made to withstand reasonable explosive charges which might be caused by ignition. This source declared that “In this incident, two and two do not add up to four. Only when the black box has been examined will the authorities have any clear idea of what happened”.

The Dow Jones index plummeted 200 points upon receiving news of the crash, which will further affect the beleaguered aviation and tourism industries.

Leaders around the world have expressed their condolences to the families of the victims in New York, after yet another horrific incident within the space of 2 months. 150 of the passengers on board were from the Dominican Republic.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru