AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 587
According to the National Transportation Safety Board (2004) the Safety Board requested NASA-Langley to conduct a wake vortex investigation to determine the airplane performance study on whether American Airlines Flight 587 had encountered the wake
Vortexes similar to Japan Air Lines flight 47. The investigation showed that the encounter will explain the two sets of load factor excursions, where the first occurred at 0915:35 where the aircraft reached the altitude of 1,750 feet, and the second occurred at 0915:51 where the aircraft reached the altitude of 2,430 feet based on the record of flight of 587 (National Transportation Safety Board, 2004).
The NASA-Langley gathered important data to conduct the wake vortex investigation by using the flight path and wind information for flight 587 provided by the Safety Board. Aside from such data, it is mandatory to obtain the atmospheric data during the actual day of the accident to be able to explain the four wake prediction models (National Transportation Safety Board, 2004).
The result of the investigation by the NASA-Langley showed that Flight 587 suffered the same wake vortex experienced by Japan Air Lines flight 47 since the two aircrafts took into account the atmospheric conditions and the rate of vortex decay. In comparison to the wake
vortex of Japan Air Lines flight 47 that had an age of 100 seconds, it can be concluded that flight 587 encountered the wake vortex by using vortex linking and rapid vortex decay (National Transportation Safety Board, 2004).
In the report of the National Transportation Safety Board (2004), the predicted circulation of the wake vortex based on the encounter experienced by flight 587 has been recorded to be between 63 and 80 percent in accordance to the strength of the vortex. Hence, all the passengers died due to the accident and no criminal activity took placed. A total of 260 people in that plane that include five infants died during the tragedy and six to nine other people were missing, After the crash, homeowners where the accident occurred grabbed their children and while they saw their houses burned to the ground (Becker and Siemazsco, 2015).
It was suspected that the plane had suffered mechanical failure that caused it to crash at 9:17 in the morning. The investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder from the crash site and after the careful examination of the events and circumstances, the investigators concluded that a serious mechanical theory was the main cause for the aircraft to crash. Thus, after the wake vortex investigation and taking in account the flight path and wind information of the aircraft, it can be concluded that flight 587 was bound to crash on the basis of the report of the Safety Board. In the future examination of similar incidents, it is important to obtain the atmospheric data of the day of the accident and to correlate the theory based on the four wake prediction models (Becker and Siemazsco, 2015).
References:
Becker, M. and Siemaszko, C. (2015). American Airlines Flight 587 crash in Queens sparks memories of 9/11 in 2001. New York Daily News.com. Web. Retrieved on January 29, 2016, from http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/plane-crash-queens-sparks-memories-9-11-2001-article-1.936696.
National Transportation Safety Board (2004). Aircraft Accident Report. In-Flight Separation of Vertical Stabilizer American Airlines Flight 587. Web. Retrieved on January 29, 2016,
http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/AAR0404.pdf.
