Weird Crash

[Sytse]

Can somebody please tell me what happened here??
It looks really illogical...

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/oldplanecrash.html

[Hai Perso Coyone?]

Gust lock...keeps elevators from moving or something...

[Craig.]

Looks to me like the pilot decided to try the short take off procedure went with too high an angle and it didn't work.

[beaky]

Cripes, that was awful... wish I hadn't looked. :-/
The Caribou is a venerable old STOL plane; not being an expert, I'd guess runaway trim...
Forgetting to remove the gust lock usually results in an inability to pitch up (the ones i've seen set the elevator at a more or less neutral angle), so I don't think it was that.
 It looks like no attempt was made to pitch down and recover, or perhaps it was fitted with electric trim which "ran away" (continued dialing in 'up-trim')  and they didn't think to pull the breaker... so despite all their pushing, they couldn't get the nose down. Seems like they did eventually reduce power a little, but it's hard to tell. I think with all that runway ahead, chopping the throttle right away would've been a damn good idea, if one were to think of it.
Might've even been a case of elevator rigging being done backwards after maintenance (I think that plane has mechanical backup as well as hyraulics)... if so, that points out the importance of the pre-takeoff checklist "free and correct" item...
 :-/

[SilverFox441]

If it wasn't suicide it was a control failure of some sort. A Caribou couldn't have poulled out after that stall...but it could have come very close and pancaked in. There is no noticeable attempt to recover the plane so I have to assume that whatever the pilot was trying just wasn't working.

[RitterKreuz]

The following quote was taken from the accident investigation performed by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

[Sytse]

Wow! You like diggin' up stuff, ey?
Hmmmm... sad accident, but what happened to the crew? Big.boys.com has a policy of not posting videos of people dying...

[RitterKreuz]

not knowing for sure was bugging the hell out of me  ::)

[Sytse]

I didn't see anyone jump out and looks kind of impossible to survive. Maybe he/she/they got very lucky.

[Saitek]

I wish they didn't post videos of death on that site. No-one could survive that.

[Hagar]

First of all I wish I hadn't watched that. Having done so I searched round for more details but couldn't find anything. Thanks to RitterKruez for putting me out of my misery.

Hmmmm... sad accident, but what happened to the crew? Big.boys.com has a policy of not posting videos of people dying...

If this is true I think they slipped up on this occasion. I can't see anyone surviving that. I think the report from the link RitterKruez posted confirms it. You don't need an autopsy on survivors. http://www.asasi.org/papers/2001/Four%20Unrelated%20Accidents.pdf

During the post-accident autopsy, a knob from the gust lock handle was found embedded in the captain's right wrist. The TSB concluded that the captain was attempting to operate the gust lock handle when the aircraft hit the ground.

Our expectation was that the pilot flying would have had his hand on the power lever quadrant, which is located immediately aft of the gust lock handle. It is therefore conceivable that, during the impact sequence, his hand might have moved forward, and that this might account for the autopsy finding.

[beaky]

Didn't think that of course such a plane might have integral gust locks... what I can't figure is how it didn't occur to the pilot that they might be engaged. Maybe they wouldn't disengage or something.
Still surprised it went up and over like that with neutral elevator, but it's a plane designed for excellent short-field performance, and I guess the engine conversion added some power that helped this disaster unfold.
I agree with those who say no way anyone could have survived... not the way it hit and burned right away. Awful.  :-/

[Sytse]

It didn't burn right away. If you look closely you can see there's a piece of video missing. When the camera turns away there's no smoke at all and when it goes back up there suddenly is a big black cloud of smoke.
Curious, isn't it?

[Hagar]

It didn't burn right away. If you look closely you can see there's a piece of video missing. When the camera turns away there's no smoke at all and when it goes back up there suddenly is a big black cloud of smoke.

Even if that is the case I don't see how anyone would have survived the impact.

Curious, isn't it?

I don't like speculating but as this happened in 1992 I see no harm. From reading the report from RitterKruez's link I have my own theory. The Buffalo/Caribou has a remarkable STOL performance & a steep climb after take-off is normal procedure. Having watched them take off many times I see nothing unusual in the first part of that video. If the gust locks were not properly disengaged (or accidentally engaged during take-off) the elevators would have locked when the controls were returned past the neutral position during the climb out.

When I tell you that the photography revealed that the elevator control surfaces were observed to pitch trailing-edge-up for rotation, neutralize and then remain in the neutral position through the balance of that short flight, I expect most of you will come to the same conclusion as the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. The aircraft's control gust locks were at least partly engaged.

On the standard Caribou, the gust lock control handle is located forward of the power quadrant, and it has two positions - forward for Unlocked, and aft for Locked. If the control surfaces are not in the neutral position when the lock is engaged, any movement of the surfaces through the neutral position will cause the lock to engage.

This seems the most logical explanation to me.

[Sytse]

I don't like speculating either, I just thought it was weird.