Air Safety – Portland DC-8 accident

On December 28, 1978 a United Airlines DC-8 jetliner encounters suspected undercarriage problems while preparing to land at Portland International Airport, Oregon, USA. While the crew attempted to rectify the problem the DC-8 was orbited at a low altitude with flaps and wheels down. This resulted in an abnormally high fuel burn rate which was partially underestimated by the crew due to a series of crucial misreadings of the fuel gages. The result was that the jet crash-landed several miles short of the Portland runway killing 10 persons and injuring a further 23. We thank the National Transportation & Safety Board for their editing translation of this, the official transcripts of the accident investigation.

Synopsis

At about 1815 Pacific Standard Time on December 28, 1978, United Airlines, Inc. Flight 173 crashed into a wooded, populated area of suburban Portland, Ore, during an approach to the Portland International Airport. The aircraft had delayed southeast of the airport at a low altitude for about 1 hour while the flight crew coped with a landing gear malfunction and prepared the passengers for a possible emergency landing. The plane crashed about 6 naut mi southeast of the airport. The aircraft was destroyed; there was no fire. Of the 181 passengers and eight crewmembers aboard, eight passengers. the flight engineer and a flight attendant were killed and 21 passengers and two crewmembers were injured seriously.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the captain to monitor properly the aircraft’s fuel state and to properly respond to the low fuel state and the crewmember’s advisories regarding fuel state. This resulted in fuel exhaustion for all engines. His inattention resulted from preoccupation with a landing gear malfunction and preparations for a possible landing emergency.

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