{"id":183177,"date":"2015-02-04T21:48:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T02:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/02\/04\/bad-day-at-the-office-15\/"},"modified":"2015-02-04T21:48:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T02:48:00","slug":"bad-day-at-the-office-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/02\/04\/bad-day-at-the-office-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Day at the Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the world of “holy crap,” we have an amazing dashcam footage of the crash of TransAsia flight GE235<\/a>:<\/p>\n

At least 23 people have died after a TransAsia Airways plane crashed into the Keelung River in Taiwan earlier Wednesday. <\/span>

<\/span> Another 15 people were reportedly injured in the accident, and 20 are still missing.<\/span>

<\/span> Drivers on the road captured the moment the plane crashed into the river. Flying on its side, the aircraft hit a taxi and clipped the bridge with its wing before crashing into the river.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The footage is amazing, but I don’t see a cause here.<\/p>\n

It’s clear that the left wing dropped, probably from a stall. Note that the ATR-72 does not have counter-rotating props, so a wing drop is normal for a stall.<\/p>\n

Also, it appears to be descending before the wing drops, even though it was taking off, which is would correspond to the reports that the aircraft had issued a mayday call stating that an engine had flamed out<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The final communication from the pilots to air traffic control was “Mayday, mayday, engine flame out”, according to a recording played on local media. The recording was not immediately verified by aviation officials.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I would assume that it was the left engine that had flamed out, and then the aircraft departed.<\/p>\n

Here are some screen caps that appears to show that the left engine prop was feathered (pitch altered for minimum drag):<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In any case, here is the video:<\/p>\n