Crash of United Airlines Flight

Crash of United Airlines Flight 173

This report is a short investigative paper into the occurrences of United Airlines Flight 173 that crashed on December 28, 1978, into a heavily wooded but populated suburban area of Portland as it attempted to approach the Portland International Airport. In hindsight, crash reconstruction experts, on-flight recorders and eye witness accounts were used to help provide insights into why the tragic event occurred. "The aircraft had delayed southeast of the airport at a low altitude for about 1 hour while the flight crew coped with a landing gear malfunction and prepared the passengers for a possible emergency landing." (the Editors of AVweb, 1999)

When the plane crashed just a few miles from the airport, the aircraft itself was destroyed. Luckily for the survivors, there was no fire but still of the one hundred and ninety one passengers and crew, eight passengers and two crewmembers were killed and several others were seriously injured. "The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the captain to monitor properly the aircraft's fuel state and to properly respond to the low fuel state and the crewmember's advisories regarding fuel state." (the Editors of AVweb, 1999) in other words, they simply ran out of gas.

In the flight crew's defense, they were said to have been completely preoccupied with a landing gear malfunction and therefore overlooked the fact that they were in serious trouble due to the fuel shortage. The obvious question that comes to mind about this tragedy could be that weren't there other options such as a gear up landing? There have been successful gear up landings in the past and with foam technology today, the runway could literally have been made to resemble ice. Of course fuel combustion is a major concern for gear up landings. "A commuter jet, carrying 52 passengers was forced to circle Wichita's Mid-Continent airport for 1-1/2 hours Saturday morning. The plane circled the city, so that it could burn off fuel in order to come in under weight, according to city spokeswoman Latricia Harper. It was necessary to burn the fuel off, so that the situation would be less dangerous when the plane landed, according to a Sedgwick County 911 supervisor." (KAKE News, 2004) but, considering that Flight 173 eventually ran out of gas anyway, fuel burn-off should not have been an issue.

With a gear up landing as an option, was the captain at fault for not taking that option? Did the captain of the flight fail to maintain proper situational awareness of the aircraft's condition or properly delegate tasks to the other two crewmembers? Not knowing how much fuel was available is a basic rookie mistake. "Contributing to the accident was the failure of the other two flight crewmembers either to fully comprehend the criticality of the fuel state or to successfully communicate their concern to the captain." (the Editors of AVweb, 1999)

The captain did think he was fine. "According to the automatic flight plan and monitoring systems the total amount of fuel required for the flight to Portland was 31,900 lbs. There was 46,700 lbs of fuel on board the aircraft when it departed the gate at Denver. This fuel included the Federal Aviation Regulation requirement for fuel to destination plus 45 min and the company contingency fuel of about 20 min. During a post accident interview, the captain stated that he was very close to his predicted fuel for the entire flight to Portland."..or there would have been some discussion of it." The captain also explained that his flight from Denver to Portland was normal." (the Editors of AVweb, 1999) the captain was obviously responsible for this event because just like any captain at sea, he is, or at least should have been, the man

There was some thought after the fact that maybe fuel gauges were broken. But that has been disputed. "I, too, was surprised to read in the Oregonian article on the 20-year reunion of the crash of UA173 that faulty fuel gauges were attributed to the crash. That is the first time I had heard about that. I was one of the Portland International FAA Air Traffic Controllers on duty that fateful evening." (KingRey, 1999) According to one of the controllers on the scene, at some point the UA173 crew announced they had gear problems and the controller offered the flight's captain the option of holding or landing. "Captain McBroom declined and canceled IFR. He elected to proceed southeast of the airport 20 miles or so, and circled for a period of time." (KingRey, 1999)