Paul Mantz "Flight of the Phoenix" accident

[wifesaysno]

Found this video on a a facebook page called 'fly better'
Read the description for info.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n82nN_lq ... ture=share

See, there is a use to facebook! Screw 'talking to friends and family'. That is what a phone or transportation is for. HOWEVER, I come across all kinds of interesting tid bits on my news feed there....like this.

[Strategic Retreat]

The surely copied/pasted text below says:

On the second pass of one of the final shots of the film, one of the landings skids of the improvised aircraft caught a hard patch of ground, and started to lose control. Mantz kicked the engine's throttle to full, and broke free of the dirt, but the plane was already stressed to breaking point. At over 90 MPH, the plane snapped apart and, momentarily, the two crewmembers flipped forward and hung out of the cockpit. As the break apart continued, the wings turned under the plane's main body, and toppled on top of the two men, throwing Rose clear of the crash, but pinning Mantz.

...yet if you start looking at the 36th second of the clip, when the plane is on the ground with all three wheels, it looks like a structural failure of the fuselage right behind the wings suddenly developing with no apparent cause. The plane does not skid, or lean, or shakes laterally, like it would have had one of the front wheels really found a bump or whatever like written above. Simply the fuselage suddenly cracks open, and due to said crack finding itself in the middle of a lever between the weights of the engine and of the long tail, the plane opens up bridge style making the front hit the dirt and begin cartwheeling.

More than that, hearing the record, it doesn't sound at all like the engine was firewalled at any moment, like they say in the writ above... thus my innate Italian blood makes me strongly suspect a "biscotto" in the workings to protect someone from being persecuted from the law for shoddy workmanship on that sort-of plane, or worse, for having approved of its building and actual usage.


PS
"Biscotto", translated "Biscuit", it's an Italian slang term to indicate foul play.
It is taken from old (and not so old) times horse racing. When a racing horse had to be drugged to doctor a race, it was customary to cover the act giving said horse an innocent looking biscuit that contained the illegal substance mixed with its dough.
Of course, after a while this practice became SO customary and at the same time SO NOT innocent looking that nowadays the act itself has taken off as a proverb. In modern Italian language, "Fare il biscotto", "To do the biscuit", means literally: "To cheat".

[wifesaysno]

I have to agree with the structural failure, he touched down hard and you can instantly see the tail snap.

[Scatterbrain Kid]

Who designed the thing anyway, it looks like somebody sketched it out on the back of an envelope!
And did the aviation authorities test it and give it a certificate of airworthiness?

[wifesaysno]

Who designed the thing anyway, it looks like somebody sketched it out on the back of an envelope!
And did the aviation authorities test it and give it a certificate of airworthiness?

I think this uh...thing....may have been one of those aircraft that got buried in FAA paper work and was forgotten about.
Nothing about this airplane looks remotely safe!

[Hagar]

Who designed the thing anyway, it looks like somebody sketched it out on the back of an envelope!
And did the aviation authorities test it and give it a certificate of airworthiness?

I think this uh...thing....may have been one of those aircraft that got buried in FAA paper work and was forgotten about.
Nothing about this airplane looks remotely safe!

I presume you haven't seen the film. Flight of the Phoenix