Kegworth Air Disaster (1989): How did *anyone* survive this?

[Ichinisan]

Huge image warning.

 

[Attic]

Securefoam.

 

[andylawcc]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kegworth_air_disaster

 

[Rakehellion]

Looks like they didn't fall from very far up and there was no fire, so pretty survivable.

 

[Ichinisan]

Looks like they didn't fall from very far up and there was no fire, so pretty survivable.

Yes, going by the facts that they were attempting a crash landing, it's believable that there were survivors.

My astonishment comes from looking at the image. Just look what it did to the plane.

Imagine the same force that did that to the fuselage was also applied to the soft tissue of every passenger... That's what's hard to believe.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Maybe the fuselage is meant to break apart like that in a crash to help protect the passengers? I really don't know either way, there's gotta be a thousand or so aerospace engineers here on ATOT. Or at least those who claim to be one.

 

[Smoblikat]

Yes, going by the facts that they were attempting a crash landing, it's believable that there were survivors.

My astonishment comes from looking at the image. Just look what it did to the plane.

Imagine the same force that did that to the fuselage was also applied to the soft tissue of every passenger... That's what's hard to believe.

Luckily the fueslage was sturdy enough to absorb most of the initial shock.

 

[LTC8K6]

http://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/PA-18075001.jpg

There was a lot of luck in the way it touched down.

 

[Gunbuster]

Looks like people sitting along the fuselage shear lines got screwed.

 

[Fritzo]

Looks like they didn't fall from very far up and there was no fire, so pretty survivable.

Also a portion of the rear fuselage appears to be intact. If it's disintegrated you can assume that the passengers are disintegrated as well.

 

[Ichinisan]

Also a portion of the rear fuselage appears to be intact. If it's disintegrated you can assume that the passengers are disintegrated as well.

Flipped upside-down and fell over onto the right wing. A rough ride for anyone those that survived.

 

[SKORPI0]

 

[CZroe]

I remember being told that the rear was the safest. I guess that is only when the plane remains intact.

 

[clamum]

I remember being told that the rear was the safest. I guess that is only when the plane remains intact.

That's what my mom has always said. I don't know how true it actually is though.

 

[Captante]

There's a documentary about this disaster I watched awhile back on Youtube... scary/interesting stuff.

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei82DfiygeI

I remember being told that the rear was the safest. I guess that is only when the plane remains intact.

Based on the above-posted diagram I'd say the rear is safer!

 

[CZroe]

There's a documentary about this disaster I watched awhile back on Youtube... scary/interesting stuff.

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei82DfiygeI





Based on the above-posted diagram I'd say the rear is safer!

I was looking at it wrong. Thanks!

 

[LTC8K6]

The strongest area of the plane would be the wing box. The area where the wings attach to the fuselage.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

The strongest area of the plane would be the wing box. The area where the wings attach to the fuselage.

It's also the part of the plane that contains alot of fuel. Technically, they're designed to not put passengers in harms way by shearing away from the plane in event of a crash, but designs and real life don't always play nice.

 

[Demo24]

Based on the above-posted diagram I'd say the rear is safer!

Not really applicable here due to how it crash landed. The tail hit first which bounced it back up so that it went nose first into the next bank, but the angle of that made the plane separate before the wing. Basically anyone there were in the impact/destruction zone. Anyone in that area that survived got pretty damn lucky, and probably pretty injured.

If the plane had been able to make it past these banks the story probably would have been a lot different since it could have landed flatter.

 

[Fritzo]

That's what my mom has always said. I don't know how true it actually is though.

According to the chart posted, most of the survivors were in the back.

 

[touchstone]

The tail section is largely intact. Why wouldn't people survive that?