Kalitta cargo plane splits in half

[Student of the sport]

Kaleeeeeta is the correct Finnish pronunciation of the name. The letter "I" is pronounced as an "E" in most of Europe.

Thank you for the clarification, it just sounded funny to me.
And I echo the other posting, Connie has to be torn up right about now, that has to be a huge loss for his company!

Again, thankfully no one was seriously injured.

"D"

 

[sparky]

The whole company is going to be rocked by what happened. Connie is most likely going to take this real hard.
I echo the statements made here on this thread. Thank God nobody was seriously hurt or killed.
My best to the Kalittas.

 

[FABMAN]

The most important thing is that no one was seriously hurt. The pilot deserves a lot credit for handling a very large plane and bring it to a stop with no fire and no serious injuries. Now for the plane Boeing needs to get on this deal and find out why it broke where it did, definitely a structural issue, there is a lot of 747's out there and depending on how old this plane is they might looking at a major inspection of all of them. Very scary issue to say the least. I'm sure Connie will be professional about this and carry on his business and racing program as he has for many years.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Boeing needs to get on this deal and find out why it broke where it did, definitely a structural issue,

The aircraft cracked in two AFTER it crashed

I think it might depend on HOW it crashed. Maybe it was already in the air before coming back down? What kind of "crash" did the plane go through?

Does it look like any landing gear is extended at all? Looks like everything except one part of the fuselage is on the ground.

 

[Jim]

God was watching over these guys.

None of us should jump to conclusions (That's for politicians) and certainly not rely on early news reports for chronlogy or cause.

This will be a tough time for the company (esecially after all the attention given the American Airlines inspection crap a few months ago) dealing with the FAA - prolly customers will be OK.

 

[Nitrohelper]

why it broke where it did, definitely a structural issue,

It was a RTO ,with an over run, this has nothing to do with Boeing ,or a structural issue.
Loaded 747's are not designed to go "off-roading", the plane broke into three pieces after it went in the dirt.
If it was a structural failure on take-off , the plane would have broken up on the runway,and been spread over a larger area.

 

[Nick]

With all of the talking of how Connie Kalitta & Kalitta Air will take this hard, I have to ask one question. Aren't Airliners insured for these types of situations? So in theory, shouldn't his "loss" be relatively minimal?

Just curious.

 

[FABMAN]

It was a RTO ,with an over run, this has nothing to do with Boeing ,or a structural issue.
Loaded 747's are not designed to go "off-roading", the plane broke into three pieces after it went in the dirt.
If it was a structural failure on take-off , the plane would have broken up on the runway,and been spread over a larger area.

I don't think Boeing design the plane to break apart if it slides off runway. From what we are reading the pilot aborted take off after he heard a loud noise. The plane looks to actually separated from top to bottom following the structural integrity of the plane, which from my structural training is disturbing to me and hopefully others as well.

 

[None]

This thread really should be moved off the NHRA board. This is a huge blow for Connie's company. I hope nobody here has never been involved with any type of aircraft accident; no matter how big or small, commercial, military or civilian. During my previous tenure in the commercial airlines - I was, and I am here to tell you with all my heart....it's absolute hell on any level. I know right now and in the weeks to come he and his employees are going to go through a very tough time. If I may, my only peace with all this is, of course first and foremost that there were no serious injuries. But also, that this did not happen on a race weekend. Because it has happened before; I know Connie would be; and is, in absolute shambles - and all the great people on his race teams do not need to see him having to handle this kind of news at the race track, while doing what he loves.
This SUCKS, and tonight I pray for the old man and all the employees of Kalitta Air.

This is exactly the place for it.

With all of the talking of how Connie Kalitta & Kalitta Air will take this hard, I have to ask one question. Aren't Airliners insured for these types of situations? So in theory, shouldn't his "loss" be relatively minimal? Just curious.

Some of it depends on what his customers think. Loss of a plane, loss of future revenue from that plane, months, maybe years before the insurance settles, government agencies crawling all through your businesss regardless of your safety record. Probably lots more stuff also. I think it's more than minimal.

 

[Nick]

Interesting perspective William. Certainly some things I hadn't thought of, however, I believe if anyone can pull the company through this is Connie!

 

[XPilot]

I don't think Boeing design the plane to break apart if it slides off runway. From what we are reading the pilot aborted take off after he heard a loud noise. The plane looks to actually separated from top to bottom following the structural integrity of the plane, which from my structural training is disturbing to me and hopefully others as well.

Of course the airplane wasn't designed to break up during an RTO. It wasn't designed to run off the end of a runway either. Not every airport has nice, flat stopways at the end of the runways. If you go off roading in a jet, you can expect it to react badly.

Good job to the guys for getting it stopped without making it any worse.

 

[Nitrohelper]

which from my structural training is disturbing to me

Load into your FEA program 700,000 pounds going 100 mph down a 20 foot embankment to an almost instant stop. There are some close-up photos on Airliners.net that show the ground conditions for the over run. The tail appears to have broken at the pressure bulkhead, the cabin separation took place in front of the wing box, & along the floor beams, this would be a weaker point,then look at the wrinkles in the nose section from the front gear digging into the ground.

 

[.]

There are some close-up photos on Airliners.net that show the ground conditions for the over run.

This one really shows how much of a drop it went off of.

Photos: Boeing 747-209F/SCD Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

 

[cstarns]

This thread really should be moved off the NHRA board. This is a huge blow for Connie's company. I hope nobody here has never been involved with any type of aircraft accident; no matter how big or small, commercial, military or civilian.

Crashing planes sucks.
I know that my incident was NOTHING compared to crashing a 747 heavy. I had the left gear collapse landing a Piper PA-161 Warrior single engine 4 seater while landing at Montgomery Field in San Diego. It tore most of the wing off the left side but I was lucky enough not to have any fire. The FAA showed up and saw that there was rusted/broken hardware attaching the top of the landing strut to the top of the wing and they shut down the airtfield until they got a ton of pictures. The FAA determined that it was a failure of the rental company to properly maintain the plane so I wasn't to blame. Waiting to hear from them was a pretty scary time. I cannot imagine what a rough ride that 747 went through. Happy to hear everyone is OK.

 

[Mr. Fix It]

These planes get quite a work out. See: Photos: Boeing 747-146(SF) Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

No doubt the pilot was very skilled in the jet that crashed since no one was seriously hurt, there was no fire nor was there any significant damage to things on the ground. Despite the loss of the aircraft, it was a good day.

 

[fatcat]

I think this story has a ways to go.

 

[FABMAN]

Load into your FEA program 700,000 pounds going 100 mph down a 20 foot embankment to an almost instant stop. There are some close-up photos on Airliners.net that show the ground conditions for the over run. The tail appears to have broken at the pressure bulkhead, the cabin separation took place in front of the wing box, & along the floor beams, this would be a weaker point,then look at the wrinkles in the nose section from the front gear digging into the ground.

Jerry, i will have to retract my earlier statement now that i see what they went through. thanks for setting me straight. Sometimes i get a few steps ahead of myself.

 

[Nitrohelper]

No problem ,the first news reports were not very accurate.
I use the saying," It's the news paper,not the truth paper".
I agree with Bob, a long way to go before everything is studied.
Normally a year before an official report is filed.
If the plane did have a maintenance problem, then some inspection orders for the fleet could be in the future.

 

[BaldyLochs]

There's so many things to look at & so many people to interview. But they'll figger it out eventually. On a side note, a day or 2 after that happened, C-Rad took another scheduled delivery of one of the new freighters.

 

[Alan]

This one really shows how much of a drop it went off of.

Photos: Boeing 747-209F/SCD Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

That gives a whole new perspective on the over run for that airport, and that looks like a pretty good drop to slide a 747 off of.