A Mystery at 39,000 Feet
Forty years ago today Boeing was at the center of another mystery. It was on this day April 4, 1979, that a Boeing 727 unexpectedly rolled over while in cruise and plummeted nearly 39,000 feet before the crew was able to pull out of the dive. What happened? Did the crew do something to cause the dive, or was there a problem with the plane?
The consequences for Boeing were grave. If investigators could not find an answer, there was the very real possibility that they might have to ground the entire Boeing 727 fleet, which, at over 1,400 aircraft, was the most popular aircraft in the world. The consequences of that action would have been devastating to not only Boeing but the entire global airline industry.
One month into the investigation into TWA 841 there was a tragic accident involving a DC-10 at Chicago Ohare. It was one of a string of accidents involving the DC-10. The FAA grounded the aircraft a month later. The pressure was mounting on Boeing to solve the TWA 841 mystery.
The NTSB and the FAA looked to Boeing for answers. It was their plane. They had the expertise and resources to conduct tests and help determine the cause of the near-fatal dive. But Boeing also had an incentive to shift the focus away from the plane. A theory soon emerged that the crew was somehow involved in causing the incident through improper manipulation of the flight controls. The theory was bolstered by the discovery that the cockpit voice recorder had only nine minutes of audio on the thirty-minute tape, indicating an erasure.
All efforts from that point on focused on the crew and away from the aircraft. After a two year investigation, the crew was ultimately blamed for the upset. That, however, was not the end of the story. A new investigation was mounted seven years later that pointed to a different probable cause, one that found fault with the aircraft. You can read more about that story in the book Scapegoat: A Flight Crew’s Journey From Heroes to Villians to Redemption.
As Boeing now finds itself embroiled in another controversy involving one of its planes, let’s not forget the lessons of the past. Human error is a factor in most aircraft accidents, but that doesn’t always mean the flight crew. Mistakes can happen anywhere, anytime, even by an aircraft manufacturer.
Thanks Emilio! Hoot, Scott and Gary SAVED that flight. It was not human error in the cockpit that night; instead our flight crew exhibited dauntless human courage backed up by years of training and thousands of hours of flight experience. The very nite prior (Apr 3, 1979), Scott and Gary were talking about stalls and military procedures for recovering from stalls — the need to create more drag in the event of a stall, in order to regain control. That’s exactly why Scott put his hand on the landing gear during the downward spiral, and Hoot nodded yes to the gear (Scott also told me that he toyed briefly with the idea of dropping the tail door stairs on that 727, but that presented other major issues). The additional drag created by the gear did the trick. Thank the Lord for Hoot, Scott and Gary and the courage they exhibited in the midst of someone else’s human error (several other split rudder 727s have had issues). Every time I fly I remember that JFK to MSP Apr 4, 1979 flight — and thank the Lord for His protection! (I flew again today on the 40th anniversary, from MCO to CLT — and especially thankful today for my additional 40 years of life!)
Roger (TWA 841 passenger)
I was a close friend of Hoot’s since we flew together during the 70s, flying the Ford Tri-Motor out of Las Vegas and some contract work in Central America later. I called him immediately after Flight 841 nearly crashed and congratulated him on saving the passengers and crew, at which point he informed me what was going on. “They want me to change my story,” Hoot told me. “Boeing, TWA, the FAA, and the NTSB don’t want to have to tell the public that an airliner just suddenly rolled and fell out of the sky, so they’re telling me that if I don’t play along, they can ruin me. I told them to go fu#k themselves.” He wasn’t kidding.
I knew Hoot and he was an outstanding man with great respect for human life! He would have Never risked anybody’s life! I wasn’t on that flight but I would have flown with him at any time before or after that incident as I don’t believe for a second that he or any of the crew had anything malicious to do with flight #841.