Speculation on cause of Boeing crash

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33450, 4 February 1974, Page 18

Speculation on cause of Boeing crash

(Neto Zealand Press .Association! AUCKLAND, February 3. Although the cause of the Pan American Boeing 707 crash in Pago Pago on Thursday night is still unknown, the president of the New Zealand Airline Pilots’ Association (Captain J. C. Priest) has speculated on possibilities.

“Pago Pago is difficult to approach,” he said. “There is a nasty hill on the approach to the runway, and once over the hill the angle of descent to the runway is quite steep.” Judging from photographs of the crash in which 92 persons died. Captain Priest said, it looked as though the aircraft had been right down the centre of the flight approach. LEFT WING OFF “For some reason, the pilot could have got a bit low and clipped the hill, and the aircraft rolled down the hill shedding its undercarriage and engines until it came to a stop, still pretty intact, then exploded.” Captain Priest said it looked as though the left wing was ripped off, making the fire on that side minimal because it had no fuel to feed on.

The right wing, which is shown by photographs to be still attached, would have concentrated the fire on that side, probably with spilt fuel. The skin would have melted in the intense heat. LIMITED RADAR The ground on the left side of the aircraft did not appear very burned, and Captain Priest thought anybody who could have got out the front door would have been all right. “I’m a little bit amazed! they didn’t get out through) that door,” he said. Captain Priest said there! could be bad weather at, Pago Pago at this time of the) year, and there was no) weather surveillance radar like that at Auckland, which could tell pilots if there were| bad thunderstorms around. But he said landing aids at Pago Pago had been recently upgraded with the installation of an instrument landing system on one runway. “There are some indications that the weather at the

time of the crash was particularly bad. There could have been fairly wild conditions and, without surveillance radar, the pilot could have commited himself to an approach path.” “BLACK BOX” With a difficult approach and bad weather, a small error by the pilot could well cause a terrible accident. The aircraft could have clipped the hill or it could have hit a downdraft in the bad weather, or there could well be some other cause. Captain Priest said that, because the “Black Box” flight recorder had been found intact, a cause would almost certainly be found.