Remember the ditching of the vintage B-307 in
May? Here's "the rest of the story."
"D'oh!"
NTSB Summary
The Accident occurred Thursday, March 28, 2002 at
Seattle, WA
Aircraft: Boeing S-307, registration:
N19903
Injuries: 4 Uninjured.
On March 28,2002,
approximately 1305 Pacific standard time, a Boeing S-307
Stratoliner, N19903, registered to the National Air & Space
Museum, operated by The Boeing Company, as a 14 CFR Part 91
maintenance and proficiency flight, ditched in the waters of Elliott
Bay, Seattle, Washington, following a loss of engine power. Visual
meteorological conditions prevailed at the time and no flight plan
was filed. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The two airline
transport pilots and two flight engineers were not
injured.
The flight departed from Everett, Washington, and
was destined for Seattle, Washington. During an interview, the
flight crew reported that the purpose of the flight was for
maintenance/systems checks and crew proficiency. The flight departed
from Boeing Field (BFI), Seattle, approximately 1230 en route to
Everett, Paine Field (PAE). The Captain reported that he made a full
stop landing at PAE without incident.
The aircraft was
taxied back to the runway and the takeoff was initiated. Shortly
after lift-off, the number three engine experienced a momentary
surge, then normalized. Due to this anomaly, the flight crew decided
to discontinue the flight activities and return to BFI.
In
preparation for landing at BFI, the landing gear was lowered,
however, the left main gear did not fully extend. The approach was
aborted to orbit the area to try and remedy the situation.
The Captain reported that the flight engineer at the radio
station, left his station to try and manually hand-crank the left
gear down. After a few minutes, the flight crew reported a green
(fully extended) light for the left main. The flight then headed
back to BFI when a low fuel pressure light was noted for the number
three engine followed by a loss of power.
The flight crew
feathered the engine when low fuel pressure was noted to the
remaining three engines which all subsequently began to lose power.
The Captain reported that he did not believe that the aircraft could
make it safely to BFI and opted to ditch the aircraft in Elliott Bay
near the shoreline.
The aircraft impacted the water in a
slightly right wing low, level attitude and remained upright. The
aircraft remained afloat and all four flight crew members safely
exited the aircraft and were rescue within minutes of the accident.
==================================
"Now, the REST of
the story...
"According to [deleted], who himself just
finished talking to his "mole" at Boeing... Someone in the
maintenance department, who was in on the Boeing interview of the
pilots afterwards... The story is that these highly trained Boeing
test pilots decided they'd take this airplane out for a flight, to
do some circuits. They were paying for it themselves, out of their
own pockets, so elected to only put *300 gallons* of gas in it when
they were on the ground at Boeing Field. They were hoping to avoid
Galvin Flying's extra $0.04/gallon by putting more in when they got
to Paine Field (where gas was cheaper) to do circuits.
"Somewhere enroute to Paine Field, the fuel situation was
driven from their mind, probably because they were having so much
fun flying.....so they did circuits at Paine until the #3 engine
coughed, then died. They feathered the prop, and decided they should
probably land to investigate.
"They selected gear down, to
find that the gear leg under the #3 engine wouldn't lower, because
the hydraulic pump needed to do that was powered by the #3 engine
(now feathered). So they lowered the gear manually, but decided (get
this) to fly *back to Boeing Field* to park the plane, rather than
land at Paine Field.
"Shortly after making that bright
decision, the other engines started failing. No engines were running
by the time it ditched, and three of the four props weren't
feathered.
"The kicker here: The Stratoliner's maintenance
base is apparently *at Paine Field*. Any maintenance to be done
would require that it be brought back to Paine Field anyway (or a
bunch of equipment moved to Boeing Field). When asked why they
wanted to bring it back to Boeing Field, the response was
> > READY?
> > 'Well, our cars were at
Boeing Field'.
"Someone should have asked where their
*boats* were.
"A detail that may be useful, if you're
keeping track in your head: According to [source], these engines, at
30" manifold and 2000 rpm, would burn about 50 gal/hr each in
cruise, and would average more like 70-80 gal/hr each if you were
doing circuits. Some things that weren't reported in the article
below: When they peeled back the interior linings, they found that
"it's all twisted at the bulkhead where the spar attaches to the
fuselage." I didn't think to ask whether that meant the spar is
twisted, the bulkhead is twisted, or what. [Source] said that both
main gear legs were both ripped off by the ditching, and were found
floating next to the aircraft... I thought I saw one hanging from
the engine in the photos sent, but I could be wrong.
"The
official explanation to date is that the engines failed due to "air
in the fuel lines". I guess that's one way of putting it. My take is
that the dipsticks were in the cockpit, and not in the fuel
tanks."
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