- HALIFAX (CP) - The tail
section
of a loaded cargo jet snapped off before it crashed into woods at the end
of a runway at Halifax International Airport early Thursday, killing all
seven crew members on board.
-
- "Our thoughts and our prayers go to the families
of those killed in this tragedy," said Pat Chapman, a spokesman for
the airport authority. The tail of the Boeing 747, owned by MK Airlines
Ltd. of Britain, lay in a field at the end of the runway, inside the fence
surrounding the airport property.
-
- "The aircraft basically didn't take off," said
Steve Anderson, an airline spokesman in Sussex, England. "She
continued
her (takeoff run) and ran off the runway and ran into woods."
-
- There didn't appear to be casualities on the ground as
there are no homes in the area.
-
- The fuselage and wings of the aircraft cut a wide,
V-shaped
swath through woods and came to rest in pieces about a kilometre
away.
-
- "We've recovered some remains at the scene,"
said RCMP Const. Joe Taplin.
-
- He said the RCMP were treating the crash as a potential
criminal investigation after reports of an explosion. He didn't
elaborate.
-
- The tops of several trees and power poles were sheered
off. The jet's severed wings lay in the brush, which was still burning
in places several hours later. A mangled engine and a charred portion of
fuselage lay nearby.
-
- "It's very devastating," said Mike LeRue, a
spokesman for Halifax firefighters, as he stood about 300 metres from the
smouldering fuselage. "It's surreal, is what it is. It's reality,
but it's surreal for sure."
-
- The Boeing 747-200, which was loaded with fuel for a
flight to Spain, crashed shortly before 4 a.m. local time near an
industrial
park and quarry about 30 kilometres north of Halifax.
-
- Pictures from the scene showed an orange glow in the
pre-dawn sky. It took about 60 firefighters and 20 trucks about three hours
to control a fire caused by burning jet fuel on the ground.
-
- Meanwhile, the crash forced the airport to close for
several hours, delaying or cancelling 17 flights. Power was temporarily
knocked out, but flights resumed on one runway later in the morning.
-
- The plane's crew are either from the United Kingdom,
South Africa or Zimbabwe, Anderson said.
-
- Aside from the usual three-person crew in the cockpit,
the plane was also carrying a loadmaster and a spare crew.
-
- The weather at the time of the crash was good with a
partly cloudy sky and light winds.
-
- The huge aircraft, which stopped in Halifax to refuel,
was loaded with lawn tractors and 53,000 kilograms of lobster and fish
bound for Zaragosa, Spain.
-
- Witness Peter Lewis was dropping off his wife at the
airport and saw two explosions.
-
- "As we were approaching we saw what I thought was
heat lightning," he told radio station CJCH. "That was only a
quick one followed by a second one that was bigger. And then we saw a very
bright orange light - and I mean bright. It took up the whole
sky."
-
- The MK Airlines spokesman said the company had never
had problems with this particular aircraft.
-
- "She's been an absolute gem," Anderson said,
noting the aircraft had been in service for about six years. He also said
the company has been flying out of Halifax for the past 18 months.
-
- The crash was the fourth for the cargo company in 12
years and the second involving fatalities. All three previous crashes were
in Nigeria.
-
- In 2001, one crew member was killed when a 747 went down
about 700 metres short of the runway.
-
- In 1996, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8F-55 struck trees during
approach. There were no fatalities.
-
- In 1992, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8 crashed and caught
fire, also during final approach.
-
- The information on the previous crashes is listed on
a website for the Aviation Safety Network, an independent aviation safety
watchdog.
-
- The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has assembled
a team of investigators in Ottawa. The board is an independent agency that
investigates transportation accidents and prepares incident reports.
-
- A TSB spokesman said the jet's flight date recorders
had yet to be recovered.
-
- The flight originated near Hartford, Conn., and the
flight
to Halifax was uneventful, Anderson said.
-
- A pilot familiar with large planes said the tails of
jets such as the 747 occasionally strike the ground during rotation - the
point in the takeoff sequence when the pilot pulls back on the control
stick, lifting the nose off the ground.
-
- Large aircraft have so-called strike bars that protect
the tail section when the pilot over-rotates and the tail strikes the
runway.
-
- "It doesn't happen that often," said the pilot,
who didn't want his name used. "You can encounter turbulence right
at rotation."
-
- While tail strikes are uncommon, pilots can recover from
them, he said.
-
- Anderson, the MK spokesman, confirmed the aircraft was
in the process of rotating when it crashed.
-
- In Ottawa, federal Transport Minister Jean Lapierre said
"my thoughts are with the families of the people involved in this
tragic accident."
-
- Bill Fowler, a TSB spokesman, said the downed jet was
likely equipped with depleted uranium, a radioactive material often used
as ballast in the rudders and wings of wide-body aircraft.
-
- Depleted uranium is the dense, heavy waste produced
during
the making of nuclear fuel and weapons.
-
- A 747 may contain as much as 1,500 kilograms of the
material,
which is denser than lead and 60 per cent as radioactive as natural
uranium.
-
- Fowler said "there is no threat or concern"
about exposure to those working on the wreckage.
- The Canadian Press, 2004
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- http://www.cjad.com/content/cp_article.asp?id
- =/global_feeds/canadianpress/nationalnews/n101441A.htm
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