CNN
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When the Delta Flight 4819 from Minneapolis to Toronto landed in a fiery crash crash and rolled the plane upside down, panicked onlookers feared the worst.
But Michael McCormick saw decades of improvements in aircraft safety improvements improved behavior. All 80 people on board survived Monday’s crash at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
“It’s absolutely incredible, such aircraft can see the aircraft like that, and people are walking away from it,” says McCormick, an associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Ta.
“But my second thought is design. That’s engineering. It’s the year of civil aviation research…it’s that made it possible to make something like that happen.”
Fuel tanks are stored primarily in the wings
Past fiery aviation disasters have taught experts that jet fuel should be stored primarily on the wings, and not directly under passengers.
“In the early days of aviation, it was where it was stored in the belly of an aircraft,” McCormick said.
So when the Delta Bombardier CRJ900 crashed on Monday, when it flipped and slid down the runway, its fuel-containing right wing broke down, leaving behind a huge Inferno. The plane continued to slide and roll.
In the incident, the wing destruction avoided a fire from passenger sheds, according to Joe Jacobsen, an aerospace engineer who worked for the Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Things can break…but if it’s within the scope of the design requirements, you have to see how it broke and did it break depending on the design?” Jacobsen said.
Jacobsen said the wings could have been broken due to maintenance and design defects. The investigation could look into these possibilities, he added.
When the wings tear completely due to impact, throwing away potentially explosive fuel is just one advantage, McCormick said.
“We want to be able to separate the fuel from the passenger seat, and at the same time, we want to ensure that the fuselage can rest in a stable position,” McCormick said.
The plane was in a stable position, although upside down. But everyone survived thanks to their brave seating that could withstand extreme forces.
Most modern commercial aircraft need to have what is called 16G seats. That means it can withstand 16 times the gravity, McCormick said.
“Even if it’s upside down, I don’t want the seats to collapse or loosen in an aircraft accident,” he said.
“So it’s not specifically designed for comfort, it’s designed for durability,” McCormick said. “And you know that, if you’ve been a coach for more than a few hours.”
The seat includes a humble yet important safety feature: life-saving seat belt.
In this case, “without the seat belt, passengers would have been surely thrown in and suffered more injuries,” said Hassan Shahidi, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation. “That was a key element of this.”
And if the crash had happened decades ago, the outcome could have been much more severe, said CNN aviation analyst Peter Gertz.
“What has been changed is that all civil aircraft have seats trapped on the tracks as part of a fuselage that can withstand impacts of up to 16 g,” says the National Transportation Safety Board. said Goelz, former managing director.
“So in a collision landing like this, if you’re tied up correctly, you have the opportunity to survive the shock and get away,” he said.
“And when you combine that with the advancements in fire retardant materials, if you follow the direction, there’s a really good opportunity to make it.”
High-tech engineering has probably helped save lives, but “we can’t give enough credibility to the cabin crew for the safe evacuation of that aircraft,” McCormick said.
The two flight attendants on the flight never landed the plane upside down, said Sarah Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Crews. However, the duo trained for many scenarios, including evacuating passengers within 90 seconds.
Despite dozens of passengers being tied to their seats and hanging upside down like bats, the crew evacuated the entire plane within 90 seconds.
The flight attendants “done the job and they were heroic,” Nelson said.
And “Hopefully this is more conscious, more grateful and more grateful for the men and women who will serve as flight attendants,” McCormick said.
“They take more responsibility than picking up trash and providing soda. They are trained professionals who are responsible for the safety of their passengers. And they did an incredible job.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
