The theory I saw was that a gust tipped one wing to the run way and that’s what snapped it
The wind on the backside of this storm is howling. I was driving across upstate NY today south of Toronto and saw a semi nearly tip over. All 9 wheels on the right side were off the ground.
You had to be careful in crosswind landings in the CRJ-700/900- you could easily drag a wingtip. Saw it in Salt Lake City once taxiing out to takeoff in ‘15.
I’m thinking they got a wing caught and cartwheeled, but obviously it’s speculation at this point.
I’m also relieved no one was killed or seriously injured.
Some of the videos of people filming their egress are nuts and prove how fucking stupid some people are.
Those Flight Attendants did a fantastic job.
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I expect if a big meteor hits, a large chunk of people in the direct impact zone will film it all the way into their lens.
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The other half will be covering their eyes denying that asteroids exist.
“Don’t Look Up” will turn out to be far too lenient in its verdict on people.
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So different than the Japan Airlines incident that hit the Coast Guard plane where almost 400 people were successfully evacuated in less than five minutes
Indeed.
This was absolutely my first reaction to seeing one of those videos.
Here’s how it got upside down.
The ground clearance of those wingtips is insanely low (see John S above). The landing looked a bit heavy to me, which could cause the tips to drop and clip the ground. It’s hard to see the threshold when it’s covered in snow.
Holy hell.
I promise I hadn’t seen this before making the above observation:
Pretty clear on the video that no flaps are deployed.
Flight training story (no, it wasn’t a bi-plane):
I was up with the school’s Chief Flying Instructor. It wasn’t stated as such, but this was basically him giving me the once-over before taking me out on my General Flying test, which was the last practical test for being awarded a license.
We took off and were climbing out directly in line with the runway when the CFI reached over and pulled the throttle all the way closed (push to open/pull to close - not like what Top Gun would have you believe). “You have an engine failure,” he told me. As we only had one engine, an engine failure was a problem.
I ran through the engine failure/restart procedures and was told that they had been unsuccessful. Literally powerless, my job now was to scout below and find a safe landing spot. Wait a minute! I have a perfectly serviceable runway directly behind me and, once I turn around, a tailwind to help get me there.
I made the turn and let the CFI know that I was heading back to base. I don’t know if he set up this exercise to see if I would make the call to head back or if that was just a happy accident (or maybe a moment of genius on my part). He shrugged and told me to carry on.
Gliding as we had been since he cut the engine, I made it back to the airport in good shape to make a landing. Usually in these engine failure tests - the instructors pulled this shit randomly because that’s how it happens and they loved fucking with us - at this point the instructor would call off the exercise and we’d power up and fly away.
The CFI clearly sensed my anticipation of his “embargo off” order and said something like “you wanted this…take us in.” Fuck! Hoist on my own petard, I now had to execute the glide approach and make a good landing - all while being judged by the former Red Arrows pilot in the other seat.
At the appropriate time, I went to deploy the first stage of flaps. I flipped the lever down one and the CFI immediately reached over and flipped it back up. “No power…remember?” Double fuck! I now had to execute the glide approach without the aid of flaps, which changes all the angles and airspeeds because I’d be coming in faster and flatter than normal. This meant going long on the downwind leg of the circuit and guesstimating the points at which to make the two turns to get on final approach.
Not only did I nail the turns, I dropped us right onto the runway threshold. From 3,500 ft to 0 ft all without anything but basic flight controls (and some experience of gliding), and I put it down right on the money. The CFI smirked and off we went again.
A couple of days later I passed the General Flying Test. The CFI waited until we were a long way away from base before pulling the engine failure test on me, and we probably would’ve hit the fence at the end of the field I’d elected to put down in, but hitting the fence at the end - not the beginning - was the preferred miss.
I didn’t see any better options and the CFI in the debrief never suggested there was one. I hope that I did about as well as could be expected with the options available, but I do wonder whether: (1) my success a few days earlier earned me some slack, and/or (b) my hubris of a few days earlier earned me a tougher test.
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Having had a no flaps landing in the CRJ before, I can tell you that it’s a much faster approach, but it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. It seems the leading edge devices on this -900 seem are extended though (the -200 did not have LE devices, the -700/900 do).
So many questions.
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Looks like they landed a little long. As you say, more speed and a flatter approach means that missing the threshold is going to be exaggerated. I have no idea how long that runway is, but they may have been concerned about getting it stopped in the snow, so “dropped” it just to get it on the ground rather than go another few hundred yards in the air. Wingtip digs in and Robert’s your father’s brother.
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Fannie’s your Aunt.
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Runway 33, 3390 meters, making it the longest runway in the joint.
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I see no flair. Just a straight 20-25º descent into the ground. No bounce so it looks like the landing gear snapped. Yikes.
So…nobody knows.
I noticed the right gear appearing to touch down first. Not being a pilot, is that normal? Would that have exacerbated the situation in any way?
Yes, if it’s a right crosswind.