Air Disasters: Dramatic black box flight recordings

TOWER: USAir 797, company aircraft in front of you is going to sit and wait awhile, sir. Do you want to go in front of him?

US797: No, no, it wouldn’t sound like a good plan.

We’ll, uh…It didn’t look like a whole lot [of rain] to us on the radar taxiing out, so it shouldn’t be, uh, shouldn’t be too many minutes.

CAPTAIN: [USAir 1016]: Here comes the wipers.

FIRST OFFICER: All right.

[Start of sounds similar to rain and sounds similar to wind-shield wipers on CVR]

FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED FORTY-FOUR, SEAT 19-D

I felt the engines, brakes or whatever, and then I felt a spinning like turning the engines to go, like [the captain] was circling. I was sitting next to the engine. I heard slowing down of the engine, and then the gunning up on the engine.

FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED TWENTY (WITH A NINE-MONTH-OLD INFANT), SEAT 21-C

The flight attendant kept peeking around the corner and smiling and making my baby laugh. I was seated in an aisle seat in the last row in front of the flight attendant. There was a little boy on the left side of the aeroplane at the window in front of me, and no one else was to my right. We were the only occupants of the row.

I heard the pilot make an announcement for landing and say that it was ‘ninety-something’ degrees and sunny out.

COCKPIT VOICE RECORDER

FIRST OFFICER: There’s, oh, ten knots right there. CAPTAIN: Okay, you’re plus twenty. Take it around; go to the right.

At this point, the captain orders the first officer to abort the landing. On a missed approach they choose to go around to try to land again and, as such, they are ‘on the go’. The aircraft is about 200 feet off the ground.

US1016: USAir 1016’s on the go.

CAPTAIN: Max power.

FIRST OFFICER: Yeah, max power…

TOWER: USA 1016, understand you’re on the go, sir.

Fly runway heading. Climb and maintain three thousand.

FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED TWENTY-EIGHT (WITH HER NINE-MONTH-OLD DAUGHTER), SEAT 19-F

My seat belt was pulled so that it was fitting me. When I realized something was wrong, I leaned forward and pulled my daughter towards me. [She demonstrated to an NTSB Survival Factors Group interviewer a motion of leaning forward and wrapping her left arm over the child.] I thought I could use both arms to grasp my daughter as I leaned over.

MALE PASSENGER, AGED TWENTY, SEAT 21-D

Then suddenly we were in the middle of a dark rain cloud. As soon as we entered the dark cloud, the pilot goosed the gas and sped up. Then I felt the plane bouncing and then a jolt. In a split second everything opened up.

COCKPIT VOICE RECORDER

CAPTAIN: Down, push it down.

US1016: Up to three, we’re takin’ a right turn here.

TOWER: USAir 1016, understand you’re turning right?

The flight’s altitude begins decreasing below 350 feet. A second later, a ‘whoop, whoop, whoop, terrain’ warning sound begins and continues until the first sound of impact.

CAPTAIN: Power.

[Sound of impact]

FLIGHT ATTENDANT RICHARD DeMARY

(A copy of DeMary’s interview was published in the March 1995 issue of Cabin Crew Safety, a publication of the Flight Safety Foundation.)

Probably the first real sign of trouble…was the sinking sensation, knowing that this is just not right…hearing—knowing we were off the airport—and hearing ‘Terrain Terrain Terrain’ [recorded warning from the cockpit].

Hearing that, and then [followed] almost immediately [by] the impact and fortunately or unfortunately, you know, being conscious through the whole thing, the whole crashing process began. It happened so fast. Initially it was disbelief and then just the terrifying feeling that we’re crashing.

My recollection was that there were two impacts. You know, some people say there were three, but I remember two. The first impact with the ground, the sound of trees breaking, at that point knowing we were crashing—just the force of the impact was extremely violent, almost takes your breath away when you’re crashing like that. Then immediately after the first impact, the second [and] most violent impact, to me, is when I think we hit a tree. The aeroplane hit a tree, basically peeled back [that] one side of the aeroplane—broke the aeroplane apart into three sections. The nose section, with a few passenger seats, went off to the left.

I was in that section, the nose section. One part of the aeroplane—and I believe it was the centre part of the aeroplane—from the first class seats back to just past the emergency exit rows, I believe—I don’t know if this is proper to say—but it basically wrapped around a tree because that’s what happened. We hit a tree and [the aircraft broke into separate sections] and then the tail section proceeded to go into [the carport of a house].

FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED TWENTY-EIGHT (WITH HER NINE-MONTH-OLD DAUGHTER), SEAT 19-F

After the crash, I remember pulling on my baby’s leg to get to her. I was in and out of consciousness and did not remember how I got out of the aeroplane. It was difficult for me to open my eyes fully. When I came to, I saw blood on my daughter’s face. I had dreamlike memories of hearing a woman asking, ‘Where is my baby? Where is my baby?’

FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED FORTY-FOUR, SEAT 19-D

I recall a violent shaking and a big burst of fire made me think that I was going to die. There may have been up to five jolts. I was thrown up, back, over, back, and then the aeroplane came to a stop. Immediately after the impacts, flames blew up into my face and singed my hair and the parts of my body that were not covered by my clothing. There was a fire in the aeroplane when it came to a dead stop. Then the fire receded.

I looked around and saw that I was the only one in that part of the cabin. It was empty, dark and totally quiet. Then I began to hear people saying, ‘Please help me. Please help me. Please help me out. I can’t find my baby. I can’t find my baby.’

FLIGHT ATTENDANT RICHARD DeMARY

I remember just after we hit the tree, the feeling of the rain hitting us, the wind, the noise, because we were in a darkened, enclosed cabin as we were coming in to land and then all of a sudden we were opened up to all of the elements and I remember feeling the rain hit me and the noise—screeching of metal, hearing the rain hitting the aeroplane, feeling it hit me—and it happened so fast that I guess I’ve never really had the opportunity to sit down and think about all the different sounds, but just noise. Probably the loudness came from the scratching of the aeroplane on the ground and on the pavement because the section I was in slid down a street.

I don’t remember hearing people. I don’t remember that now. Whether or not I ever will, I don’t know.

I don’t remember the wind, but I do remember the rain and I remember having jet fuel on me. Where it came from I don’t know, maybe from puddles of jet fuel around or a spray of jet fuel or something. I’m not sure. But, really, nothing came to mind immediately other than [that] I couldn’t open my door and there was no reason to open my door. I was in the open.

There was no cabin there. There was no more aeroplane. There were a few rows of seats on the nose section of the aeroplane that I was in, but the aeroplane had actually broken apart and bent.

I remember…sitting in my jump seat, not seeing anything once the aeroplane came to a stop, and at that point knowing we were in a crash, knowing that it’s time to get out, it’s time to evacuate, and I immediately went for my seat belt [and] started yelling, ‘Release seat belts and get out! Release seat belts and get out!’ which is the first command that we would yell upon coming to a stop, and at that point Shelly [Markwith, a flight attendant sitting in the jump seat beside DeMary]…was yelling her commands, ‘Release seat belts and get out!’ and trying to get her seat belt unbuckled. Shelly told me, ‘I can’t get out. My legs are broken. I can’t get out.’

I was actually leaning on Shelly. I stood up and I had to kick my feet free from the debris. As I stood up, I believe I saw the captain crawl out of the cockpit, through the cockpit door. Because of Shelly’s injury she couldn’tdo anything. She had shattered her kneecap and I think she had a cut to her bone on her thigh, and she had some burns and she—she couldn’t even crawl.

Shelly was having some difficulty getting herself unbuckled, so I unbuckled her seat belt, bearhugged her, grabbed her and picked her up. She couldn’t stand because her leg was severely injured and she really couldn’tdo anything to evacuate herself. So I grabbed her and just carried her and stepped off to the street. Five feet away from the aeroplane she fell again, and then I grabbed her wrists and just dragged her away, just trying to get her to a safe distance away from the aeroplane.

FEMALE PASSENGER, AGED TWENTY (WITH NINE-MONTH-OLD INFANT), SEAT 21-C