Ghost plane

Another one high on my list of most fascinating disasters in aviation history is Helios Air 522 from August 2005. I still remember reading about it in the newspapers and that the headlines alone fascinated me, sending shivers down my spine. "Ghost plane crashed over Athens"
The 737 took off from Cyprus towards Athens but once it arrived in Athenian airspace flight control found it unresponsive and circling over the city. After two F-16s were sent up to investigate the plane they found everyone on board was unconscious, with oxygen masks dangling throughout the cabin, except for one person in the cockpit. Soon after that Flight 522 crashed into the Athenian mountains - none of the passengers or crew survived. What sounds like it's straight out of an action movie actually has an utterly simple explanation to it.
The investigation revealed that soon after takeoff from Cyprus, the crew encountered the cabin altitude warning horn as a result of depressurization. The crew unfortunately mistook it for the takeoff-configuration warning and got rid of it by turning off a switch on the overhead panel.
When the plane reached 14,000 feet, oxygen masks automatically deployed from the cabin ceiling and a warning lamp went off in the cabin. At this time the crew called the HQ to speak to the engineering staff. During the course of the conversation, the ground staff even implied hypoxia as a reason for the pilots' confused train of thoughts and incoherent answers. Ground staff never got a response to their last questions and the plane remained unresponsive upon entering into Greek airspace. As a security precaution, two F-16s were sent up to investigate the renegade aircraft. They could see that both pilot and captain were slumped in their seats, appearing unconscious and that the plane seemed to be on autopilot. They also noticed a make flight attendant in the cockpit trying to regain control of the plane. Black box recordings later revealed that the flight attendant who turned out to be a pilot in training had tried to land the plane himself but eventually rain out of fuel. He apparently had stayed conscious longer than everyone else because he most likely had had access to emergency oxygen bottles set aside for the cabin crew.
The report later filed revealed that the maintenance crew who had performed a presurization check on the aircraft before takeoff had left the switch on manual instead of auto when handing over the plane. The crew had failed to notice the wrong switch position during their pre-flight check and therefore the cabin was never pressurized while ascending to its traveling altitutude resulting in hypoxia and eventually the crash.

An independent report by Discovery Channel and a private investigation later claimed that the crash might actually be the result of a design failure of the Boeing 737's wiring and noted similar incidents with the same model as well as prior pressurization problems on the plane that crashed.

A volcanic ash cloud and a 747 walk into a bar...

Not quite, but they did meet in airspace in 1982 and let's just say it didn't go too well for the 747. Given the recent chaos in European airspace due to the Icelandic volcano, the name of which I won't even try to spell here, I thought British Airways flight 009 might be a good topic.

The BA 747 was en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Perth, Australia - a nighttime flight taking them across Indonesia. What they weren't aware of: Mount Galunggung, a volcano near Jakarta, Indonesia, had thrown large amounts of volcanic ash into the atmosphere. Soon after their departure the crew noticed a phenomen similar to St. Elmo's fire forming on the aircraft's windscreen. The effect looks like a bight blue or violet glow on the aircraft's surfaces. The strange effect was soon followed by a thick smoke in the cabin and the smell of sulphur. Passengers also reported "fire" coming out of the engines. It didn't take long until one after another all engines flamed out, rendering the 747 not only a glider but also entirely silent. As air pressure on the plane dropped, oxygen masks fell for the passengers and crew. But the First Officer's mask was broken, so the crew decided to quickly descent to get to an altitude where the natural oxygen level would allow them to breathe without masks.

They had also turned the aircraft around, now flying back to Jakarta to try an emergency landing there. Trouble was, between them and Jakarta was a high mountain range and at the rate of their gliding descent, they knew they wouldn't make it acroos the range without engine power. So as they were frantically trying to restart the engines dozens of times, they calculated a point of no return at which, if they would not be able to regain any engine power, they would have to turn back towards the Indian Ocean and try to ditch the 747 on water - a maneuver that had never been tried before with a 747 and to this day hasn't. Their point of no return was 3700 meters - at 4100 meters, they regained engine number four, followed by number three, two and one shortly thereafter.

They were thus able to ascend high enough to clear the mountains but as soon as they hit a higher altitude the St. Elmo's fire effect started to form again on the aircraft and engine number two surged again and the crew had to shut it down. They quickly descended out of the ash cloud and approached Jakarta airport. That's when they realized they couldn't see jack out of their windscreen. Deciding to land on instruments only, they noticed the glidescope was inoperative, so they had to land by monitoring the airport's distance measuring equipment - with the first officer tracking how high they should be at each DME step along the way. After touchdown, they were not even able to taxi on the ground because there was only a small a few inch-wide clear strip on their windscreen, but the airport's lights caused too much of a glare.

When passengers and crew returned to the airport the next day, they found the BA 747 had been sandblasted to the point where most of the fuselage's British Airways logo paint had been scraped off. Engineers later described the plane as a flying ashtray.

BA 009 made it into the Guinness Book of Records as the longest glide in a non-purpose-built aircraft and was only replaced in 2001 by Air Transat 236, which I wrote about in my previous entry.

Some passengers and crew of the flight later formed the Galunggung gliding club and remain in touch until this day.

Dude, we're out of fuel....

When your car runs out of gas on the freeway, it sucks. When your aircraft runs out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean, you're doomed. That's precisely what happend to Air Transat 236 in 2001. Then flight of an A330 from Toronto was en route to Portugal and, while not crashing, it still made the Guiness Book as the longest gliding flight of a commercial airliner that was not built to glide. But before that lies a grueling timespan of dramatic flight maneuvers and a breathtaking landing.

Air Transat 236 had already crossed well over half the Atlantic. Flight Control had sent them on a more southern route than usual, due to high traffic on the route. This will play a pivotal role in avoiding the catastrophe the crew was facing. At some point during the overnight flight, the pilots suddenly got a confusing warning message from the computer - low oil temperature and high oil pressure. They had never encountered this error and after manual check yielded no results either, they suspected a computer error. Shortly after they received another message - fuel imbalance. The computer signaled that there was less fuel in the right tank than in the left. Since aircrafts have to have a certain balance, this was an error that they knew needed fixing. Their manual suggested opening the cross-feed valve to let fuel from the left to the right to restore balance. The manual also warned that this should not be done unless a fuel leak can be ruled out. The captain asked one of the flight attendants to check the wings and engines for any vapor or stream that would indicate a leak and let the first office look at the last fuel check. Since the latter had been inconspicuous, they opened the valve. Less than one hour later, both engines would fail due to fuel exhaustion and send the plane into a gliding descent over the Atlantic.

Upon losing both engines, the crew quickly calculated their possibile landing options and the only save place was a small military airport on the Azores, a small island group off of the coast of Portugal. They needed to reduce significant speed in order to land there so the captain performed a series of 360 degree turns but they were still far beyond regular landing speed when approaching the airstrip - even after deploying the landing gear and unlocking the slats. With no reverse thrust on the engines, they faced a hard landing but managed to get the plane on the A330 on the ground. Several burst tires later, the aircraft finally came to a halt on the runway.

The investigation later revealed that a replaced hydraulic tube which was originally designed for a different type of engine, just didn't fit quite perfectly and had rubbed against a fuel tube for several days, finally resulting in the leak. The crew's decision to open the cross-feed valve further implicated their distress as they now let the fuel from the intact left tank into the leaking right tank, resulting in even more fuel loss. Their next mistake was that they didn't bother closing the valve again even after they discovered the fuel loss. They were incredibly lucky because if they had been on the more common Northern route across the sea, they probably would've been faced to land on water....and we all know how that usually ends. The incident featured 18 minor injuries but no casualties and went down in history as the longest gliding flight.

New start and a crash

It's been ages since I've written anything in English. I have mostly been using my German blog and just started to write about something I am strangely passionate about ....dun dun dun dun...plane crashes. So I figured why not translate those entries into English bc a wise person once told me "sharing is caring." So here goes.

I have been fascinated by everything aviation for a long time now, have frequently relished in the idea of working in the industry but somehow ended up in videogames. My brief 14 month stint in LA brought me close to LAX, where I would, upon my daily drive to the office, pass LAX and get utterly excited about all those big babies landing right above me. I have recently discovered the National Geographic show Air Crash Investigation for myself and have been enjoying my strange hobby even more since.

So I will now frequently talk here about the worst, most fascinating or strange plane crashes in commercial aviation, starting now.

Tenerife 1977

To this date, the worst disaster in commercial aviation, and worst meaning the one with the most casualties, is the Tenerife disaster from 1977. The reason this particular one made top of the list is, because it involved two 747s (the ones with the big bump on top). The total casualty count is 583, while 61 people survived the crash.

What's particularly striking about this disaster is that it was all - it was a combination of technical failure, pilot error, bad weather and just plain bad luck.

In March 1977, several planes headed to Las Palmas on the Canary Islands had to be diverted to the smaller airport of Tenerife because of a terrorist bomb attack at Las Palmas, including the two 747s - one from PanAm and one from KLM, the Royal Dutch Airline.

After Las Palmas had been reopened, both planes got the green light from the tower to "get back on the road." However, the KLM captain inexplicably to experts decided to refuel again, despite the short trip to their destination. This delayed the take-off by approximately 30min, during which a thick layer of fog managed to cover the airport. With Tenerife being a one-runway-airport, both crews were ordered to taxi after each other down the runway - the KLM turning 180 degrees at the end, waiting for take-off clearance and the PanAm ordered to take an exit to the left to circumvent and get behind the KLM. And that's where the trouble started.

The PanAm missed the first exit in the fog and had to taxi to the one furthest down towards the KLM. Meanwhile the KLM captain got anxious to take off and mistook the route clearance he was assigned (I am using my own language here) for take-off clearance and decided it's time to get off the island (LOST pun intended). The PanAm was still on the runway in front of them but couldn't be seen due to fog and heard the "take-off" claim through radio communication and immediately responded that the runway was not cleared. At the same time the tower tried to communicated to the KLM that they had not been given take-off clearance. When two parties hit the "send" button on the radio at the same time, it sometimes creates an interference resulting in white noise, or a crackling sound. Neither party heard the words that could've prevented the disaster.

The KLM 747 took off and upon lifting up the nose came into viewing distance. The captain tried to pull up the nose further but it was too late and the KLM crashed its landing gear halfway through the PanAm 747 that was in process of a left-turn onto the exit. With that much fuel on board, both planes went up in a fireball immediately and only the people in the front of the PanAm jet had a chance of survival. There you go - bad weather, technical failure and pilot error - bundle it up and you have a recipe for disaster.

This is an attempt to write down songs I like and why. A lot of times, music creates images or sensations that are probably unique to everybody experiencing them, so this is me trying to capture that and categorize them.

Songs to listen to while driving down a lonely road in the middle of nowhere, windows open, sun up, sound on 10.

Led Zeppelin "Going to California" because there is no better band than the Zep anyways, and it doesn't get better than driving through California with this song on. (Live version from "How the West was won" recommended)

Led Zeppelin "Over the Hills and Far Away" because we were 20, it was 105 degrees outside, we were riding the old jeep through Athens, Georgia in nothing but hot pants and bikini tops and two dogs in the back.

Creedence Clearwater Revival "Fortunate Son" because this is another one of those "ridin' through the South in a jeep" songs I love so much. It smells like wind in my hair, sunscreen on my skin and tastes like a hangover.

Blue Öyster Cult "Don't fear the reaper" because it makes me feel like I'm flying

The Doors "Riders on the Storm" because it's a riding in my car during a rainy night song.


Songs to listen to while jumping around your apartment trying on clothes and singing out loud.

Placebo "Every you every me" because it was 1998 and it made me feel like I could conquer the world.

Mando Diao "Down in the past" because this is summer 2005, Rock im Park, great concert, great festival

The Killers "Sam's Town" because it can make me both cry or ecstatically jump around my apartment at the same time, depending on whether I am playing the regular or the acoustic version from "Sawdust".

The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army" because I reminds me of the fact that two people can make a rock band and create a music video that makes you dizzy.

Muse "Hysteria" because the guitar solo makes me wish I was a rockstar.

The White Stripes "I just don't know what to do with myself" because I love songs that start out slow and then burst into fire. The video also reminds that I need to start to learn how to pole-dance.


Songs for various men-related incidents and general depression.

Led Zeppelin "Baby, I'm gonna leave you" because there is no better song to listen to when you are leaving on a jetplane and saying goodbye.

Dave Matthews Band "Crash Into Me" because it is still a great song.

Ani Difranco "32 flavors" because I am a poster girl with no poster.

Ani Difranco "Untouchable face" because it's the perfect rejected love song.

Dixie Chicks "Goodbye Earl" because Earl had to die

Fiona Apple "Shadowboxer" because it was my break-up song 2001.


Songs that belong to someone else

Johnny Cash's "Solitary Man" because I heart Johnny C. and it's a man's song.

Johnny Cash's "Hurt" because who would've though Johnny could pull off a Nine Inch Nails cover that would cut into your heart like a knife.

Dixie Chicks "Landslide" with Stevie Nicks because it's a great cover.

Dead Space Credits for Christian

I kissed a girl and, hell yeah, it was awesome

So, tonight I got to see Ms. Katy Perry live. She played a tiny-tiny location called "Werkstatt", as in body shop, in Cologne, just a 5 min walk from my apartment in Ehrenfeld. I have to admit I hadn't really noticed her that much until last week. I had heard the name a couple of times on celebrity blogs and MTV but never really knew the songs or anything about her. About a week ago I drove home from my parents' house, which brought me to the rare occasion where I am listening to the radio, and there was this feature on her album. I liked her hit single "I kissed a girl" but didn't really care for the other songs because they seemed too electronic or poppish for me. Overall, I didn't really expect more than a pop sensation for tonight's concert.
So, I went to the smallest concert ever with nothing but the best intentions and no expectations whatsoever. I have to admit, I was wrong. Katy Perry not only is a really really good singer, she is also a good musician and rocked the tiny club in Cologne. All the songs that have a really electronic pop touch on the album actually resonate really well in a live arrangement. Her voice is very clear and strong, and she nailed almost every note. OK, there was free beer involved but that's a whole different story.
Her best line was this one:
"I know y'all know Tokio Hotel. Well, the singer, I think, uhm, he kissed a girl and he didn't like it."

If you do not know Tokio Hotel by now, please drop me a note, so I can send you earplugs, put you in exile and save your musical virginity.