Shifting Cargo Loads

[GAHorn]

Since most CVF/FDRs are located in the tail...if that section was separated from the aircraft it would stand to reason they'd stop recording....but what doesn't make sense at this point is...the aircraft was seen climbing with the tail still attached.

[Green Bean]

the source said in the email,

"on rotation; engine/fuselage/tail parts were located on the runway", which probably indicates a tail strike..and yes the horizontal stab (the tail section) did not separate, and with the tail cone, were the only items left at crash site after the accident. The engine parts could have been from the APU. (Auxiliary Power Unit), as well as the tail parts (parts of the Elevator Stab), that could have cost a loss of pitch control.

[canav8]

the source said in the email,

"on rotation; engine/fuselage/tail parts were located on the runway", which probably indicates a tail strike..and yes the horizontal stab (the tail section) did not separate, and with the tail cone, were the only items left at crash site after the accident. The engine parts could have been from the APU. (Auxiliary Power Unit), as well as the tail parts (parts of the Elevator Stab), that could have cost a loss of pitch control.

Folks IMO, we will never know what really happened. A number of things could have occurred. With my experience flying DOD logistics, Due to the sensitive nature of the cargo I used to haul, we will never find out the truth about this accident. They will cover this up. They say this is a civil aviation event but when DOD contractors bid these contracts, they agree that the equipment being contracted becomes the property of the US government until released.
The flight data recorder(FDR)and the cockpit Voice Recorder(CVR) is located high in the fuselage aft bulkhead.It is right next to the middle of the tail or the front spar of the vertical stab. The FDR, if it was not Minimum Equipment List (MEL)deferred, will stay running till battery power loss. In this case it was intact. From the video, the flight trajectory shows a significant incorrect load schedule. It is not for certain whether it was a load shift or a fuel load schedule issue but since the aircraft had already flown with the current payload according to the email it is possible that the aircraft was mis loaded on the fuel schedule. This aircraft has tail fuel tanks. It is conceivable that there was a human error on the closeout paperwork not helping the crew identify the out of CG scenario but that would be speculative at this point although I have seen it happen many times. On long haul flights the tail fuel is burned later in the flight to keep the CG aft for best aircraft performance and speed The only downside of these load schedules is it decreases aircraft stability, but then again that's why the pilots are professionals. I am not aware of where the aircraft was destined, I have an idea, but it may not have needed the fuel in the tail. If the fuel was loaded in the tail that could give you the trajectory that you saw without having a load shift. The email is correct that the crew knew something was wrong on takeoff. You will see that the gear is down. On the rotation both crew members realized the un commanded pitch up as the aircraft nose will generally come off the ground uncommanded as much as 5 knots prior to Vr. and the pilot began gently pushing the yoke forward to keep the nose down to accelerate. The force growing stronger and stronger to keep the nose down the flying pilot begins an immediate pitch down trim till it hits the stops and then both crew members are pushing till pinning the yoke to the instrument panel. It is quite possible that the gear was forgotten to be retracted in this event since both crew members were forced to focus their attention on flying the plane. In this case leaving the gear out helped this crew in this case. It created more drag to cause a pitching down effect. It still was not enough for the flight condition they were in.

You see the aircraft stall. It looks like the crew noticed the stall and tried several maneuvers before the aircraft came down. Also if you listen carefully to the engines reaccelerate, the crew pulled the engines to flight idle to help create more drag and to help break the loading on the elevator thereby try to pitch it over. When that didn't work and the nose still kept coming up,they tried something else. In a swept wing aircraft stall, usually one wing will drop and then the roll will be opposite the direction of the wing drop. It appears the crew recognized the stall and did the correct recovery for uncommanded pitch up recovery. In this situation of un commanded pitchup, pilots are taught to roll off the lateral access and get the nose to drop through the horizon with the assistance of rudder to get the aircraft flying again. keeping in mind that the nose will still continue to pitch up They just did not have enough altitude to recover. We can learn a lot from this video but my condolences to the crew. No one deserves to experience this first hand.
I have experienced load shift and also uncommanded pitch up flight. In both cases I was extremely lucky that it was pilot controllable. I have had nightmare flashbacks of my scenarios after watching this video. By the Grace of God I survived. These men doing these DOD logistics are in harms way in so many ways. Doug

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Doug, thanks, for your analysis of the video and sharing from first hand experience.