doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (03/17/86)
[Yes, even *more* junk about AOPA Pilot articles!!]
This month's "Safety Corner" emphasizes the importance of check lists.
One of the example they give is,
Both engines flamed out as a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82 was cruising
at FL350. The flight crew said they had become distracted from the
climb check list and missed an item calling for the fuel boost pumps
to be turned on. The captain was able to restart both engines at
12,000 feet by turning the pumps on.
Anyone know if this is the official NTSB finding on this incident? It
involved a Republic jet over northern Arizona. The reason I ask is that
a friend-of-a-friend claims to have been riding in the cockpit jumpseat
on that flight, and here is the story he told at the time:
This was one of the first flights of the DC-9 Super 80 (now called
the MD-80) and the flight crew screwed up interpreting the new
digital fuel gauges. As a result, they forgot to switch fuel tanks
(this sounds like a different net.aviation discussion :-) and ran a
tank dry. Both engines quit, and the crew found themselves in a
Catch-22 situation.
In order to restart fuel flow, they needed to turn on the electric
boost pumps. But with both engines out, they had no alternators.
The MD-80 has the left boost pump wired to the right-side buss, and
the right boost pump wired to the left-side buss, so that if either
engine was running they would have been in good shape. But neither
boost pump was connected to the battery-powered essential buss, so no
juice. The Auxiliary Power Unit isn't supercharged, and the crew had
to wait until the plane dropped below 12,000 feet before the APU
would start, which then provided electricity for the boost pumps, and
the engines could be restarted.
The scary part is that the terrain in that area is about 6,000 feet.
--
Doug Pardee -- CalComp -- {elrond,savax,seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!terak!doug