Ismael De Campos

The Miracle

The plane had been in the air for a mere 25 seconds when the pilots noticed weird noises and bizarre vibrations they tried several ways to improve the situation but nothing worked the engine surges continued and just over a minute into the fly when the plane reached 3000 feet both engines failed first the right one two seconds later the left one the pilots decided to return to the airport they had just left at the same time they tried to restart the engines nothing seemed to work the flight crew made a decision to pitch the plane down and then level it off perhaps it could help them gain some speed for the Glide but soon they realized they wouldn't make it to the airport was the plane going to crash that's when the Miracle at gotura occurred the morning before the flight started as usual regular pre-flight procedures good weather the members of the flight crew were experienced Pilots a 44 year old Danish Captain with over 8.000 flight hours under his belt and a 34 year old first officer from Sweden with 3.000 hours so what could go wrong the plane itself was almost brand new it was a McDonald Douglas md-81 nicknamed Dana Viking it made its first flight on March 16 1991 by that fateful day the aircraft had been in service for a mere nine months there were 122 passengers and seven crew members on board flight 751 Scandinavian Airlines was a scheduled flight from Stockholm Sweden to Warsaw Poland on the way the plane was supposed to make a stop in Copenhagen Denmark the aircraft took off from Stockholm according to its schedule at 8:47 a.m local time but by that point the people inside had already been doomed all because of a terrible sequence of events before the departure it started the night before the plane arrived at Stockholm Airport after a flight from Zurich it was 10:09 PM the aircraft spent the night at the gate outside it was cold the temperatures dropped to 34 degrees Fahrenheit just above freezing what made the situation even worse was that almost 6.000 pounds of freezing cold fuel chilled during the night still remained in the tanks located in the wings the fuel was so cold because the plane had been flying at the cruising altitude where the air temperature outside the cabin varied from -61 to -80 degrees the flight from Zurich lasted around 1 hour and 40 minutes foreign a flight technician came to check on the aircraft the man had to remove some slush from the landing gear otherwise he wouldn't be able to examine it at around 2 am when he was leaving he noticed some eyes covering the upper part of the Wings by the morning the situation had become even dire a layer of clear almost invisible eyes had formed on the tops of the Wings the plane had to leave the gate at around 8:30 a.m an hour before the departure the mechanic responsible for the plane noticed that some eyes covered the underside of the Wings he decided to make sure there was no ice on the tops of the Wings he climbed a ladder and put one knee on the wing then he bent forward to touch the front part of the wing there was no ice just some slush the mechanic decided to make sure everything was fine with the air Inlet of one of the engines he didn't find anything abnormal soon after that the Personnel used more than 220 gallons of de-icing fuel to remove ice from the plane the mechanic consulted with the captain of the aircraft and ordered the staff to de-ice the underside of the Wings as well after all he had seen some ice there but no one thought to double check if there was clear eyes on the tops of the Wings after they had finished the procedure the mechanic reported to the captain uh we're done here de-icing finished there was a lot of snow and ice but everything's clear now the captain thanked the mechanic and carried on with the pre-flight procedures playing taxi to the runway its engines anti-i systems were switched on and didn't show any malfunction but several passengers later claimed they had seen ice sliding off the upper side of the wings while the plane had been taking off and still the plane left the ground and headed for Stockholm as usual but shortly after the takeoff several pieces of the overlooked Ice broke off at full speed they slammed into the fans of the engines near the Tail on both sides of the plane ruining the blades it led to a series of surges and the rest is history meanwhile somewhere in the cabin Scandinavian Airlines flight Captain Pearl Holmberg who was on board as a passenger noticed something was amiss at first informed the flight attendant sitting in the rear jump scene that the right engine was surging she tried to contact the flight crew unsuccessfully then the uniformed Captain rushed to the cockpit and asked if he could help the pilots the first officer gave him the emergency checklist and the captain asked him to start the auxiliary power unit a small gas turbine in the tail of the plane holmberg's advice and help were invaluable but was it enough to save the plane and the people inside when the plane emerged from the cloud cover at an altitude of 890 feet the pilots realized they wouldn't have enough time to make it back to the airport an immediate emergency landing was unavoidable the assisting Captain passed the order to the cabin crew and they started preparing the passengers there was a large field to the north of the plane but the captain realized they didn't have enough time to reach it so he chose a much smaller field in a forested area in the direction of flight it was not far from the village of gotura in Upland Sweden the plane was just 1300 feet above the ground when the assisting Captain started extending the flaps at a height of 183 feet the captain reported a Stockholm control were crashing to the ground seven seconds later the plane hit several trees and lost a huge chunk of its right wing by that time the landing gear had already been extended and the speed had decreased to 1.139 miles per hour moments later the plane's tail struck the ground and broke off the aircraft kept sliding across the field still at high speed it traveled 360 feet with its main landing gear leaving marks on the field at one point the plane lost the main and nose landing gear its fuselage broke into three parts miraculously there was no fire look at the pictures from the crash site the plane torn into pieces with its parts scattered across the field it's hard to believe that all 129 people on board the plane survived it seems like a miracle but it was also thanks to the flight attendant's quick reaction and the correct instructions they gave the passengers they didn't panic and told the people to adopt the brace position just in time to avoid fatalities even more surprising almost all passengers except for four people made their way out of the plane on their own no wonder this accident was nicknamed the miracle the aircraft though wasn't as lucky the nine-month-old plane was damaged so badly that it was an immediate write-off everyone praised the actions of the flight crew The Landing was incredibly skilled especially in such a fast developing very dangerous situation off admitted that few Pilots were ever forced to put to the test the skills they got during training at least not to this degree he said he was proud of his crew and relieved that everyone had survived and he never returned to piloting commercial planes.