Vintage airliner raised intact from Elliott Bay

SEATTLE, March 30) Engine failure forced the pilot of the Boeing Clipper Flying Cloud, the last airplane of its kind, to ditch the vintage airliner in Elliott Bay, investigators said yesterday.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigation is focusing on a mechanical cause, said senior air-safety investigator Debra Eckrote. The flight crew, which consisted of some of Boeing’s most experienced mechanics and test pilots, reported that one of the four 900-horsepower engines had surged unexplainably on takeoff just minutes before all four engines failed and the plane began rapidly losing altitude.

Capt. Richard “Buzz” Nelson called a mayday at 1:09 p.m. yesterday and six minutes later ditched the Stratoliner 307 — one of just 10 built — in the bay just off the West Seattle shoreline. Eckrote noted that each of the pilots, Nelson and Capt. Mike Carricker, had “several thousand hours” of flight time.

Besides the two pilots, a pair of longtime Boeing mechanics, Nathan Scott Andrews and Mark Kempton — the man who had overseen the plane’s restoration — were aboard the 33-seat, silver-bodied airplane. None of the men was seriously injured, and Eckrote said all were fully cooperating with her investigation.

“(Nelson) reported that he was in control of the plane the entire time,” Eckrote said, adding that the landing was “fantastic” considering the circumstances. “It’s fabulous that the plane is intact.”

Officials at the Smithsonian Institution, which owns the circa-1940 plane, were glad to hear that. The Stratoliner, the first pressurized-cabin, transcontinental commercial airplane built, is to be one of the showpieces of the Smithsonian’s new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Washington, D.C., an annex to the National Air and Space Museum to be opened next year near Dulles International Airport.

There, it will be displayed with more than 200 other historic airplanes, including the “Enola Gay,” the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and dozens of spacecraft and artifacts, including the space shuttle Enterprise.

Peter Golkin, a spokesman for the Smithsonian, said the museum may not expect Boeing to restore the plane to flying condition.

“We have no plans, once it gets here, for it to ever fly anywhere again,” Golkin said. While the museum likes its pieces to be as close to airworthy as possible, it may not be feasible to invest the time and money in the Stratoliner to put it in the air again.

Boeing spokesman Peter Conte said yesterday that the plane was insured and that the company had not decided whether it would mechanically restore the plane. If not, its interior and exterior will be restored and then hauled to the Smithsonian by truck.

Its flight Thursday, according to Eckrote, began with a routine takeoff from Boeing Field about 12:30 a.m. The plane was being taken up so the pilots could practice takeoffs and landings and shake out any mechanical problems. The plane had logged only 100 hours in the air since it was restored, the investigator said, and had undergone only routine maintenance.

The plan was for each of the pilots to do three takeoffs and landings, with the plane refueling between the sets. The first pair were uneventful, with the plane flying from Boeing to Paine Field in Everett. On takeoff there, however, the right-inboard No. 3 engine surged briefly, Eckrote said. It returned to normal, but Eckrote said the pilots decided to abort the rest of the practice and return to Boeing Field to check the plane out.

On approach, with Carricker at the controls, a warning light showed that the plane’s left-main landing gear had not locked into place. The approach was aborted and the plane circled Vashon and Bainbridge islands as the flight mechanic manually cranked the wheel into the locked position.

Eckrote said the plane had resumed its approach when the No. 3 engine sputtered and lost power. The other three engines followed.

Nelson, now at the controls, radioed his emergency and then took the plane into the water about 1:15 p.m. The right wing hit first and suffered some damage.

Salvage crews lifted the plane from the water yesterday afternoon.

The divers placed slings under the plane’s aluminum-covered wings and opened every available opening so the seawater could drain out of the 33,000-pound plane as it was gingerly lifted to the surface.

Tim Beaver, president and co-owner of Global Diving and Salvage, said one wing was buried in the silt and divers had to pressure-spray the debris from it before it could be moved.

About 700 gallons of fuel mixed with seawater were drained from the plane’s fuel tanks, which can hold 1,700 gallons of fuel. How much was fuel and how much water wasn’t immediately known. Eckrote said it is possible that the plane simply ran out of gas.

A small amount of fuel spilled into Elliot Bay in the crash. Coast Guard Petty Officer Robert Lanier said it was probably less than 10 gallons. Divers plugged the tanks and fuel rapidly evaporated.

When the plane was out of the water, damage could be seen near the cockpit and on one wing. Divers also were looking for one of the plane’s wheels, which came off in the crash.

The aircraft was placed on a barge that was expected to be towed to Terminal 105 on the Duwamish River where crews were to wash it to remove salt water.

By today, its wings were to be removed and the plane loaded onto a flatbed truck and returned to the hangar where it had been restored.

“The Boeing people have told us that this plane is a national treasure,” said Paul Gallagher of Foss Environmental. “They have hired us and other contractors to do what it takes to get it up in one piece (and) return it to Plant Two so they can restore it.”

Source: Seattle Times