| NEXT |  |
|
|
|
An interesting image of an Air Canada Boeing 747 landing is some apparent disarray. I found the very large image here and had to reduce it in size to fit the page. The photographer, date and circumstances are unknown to the Webmaster. If anybody has any info, please drop me a line and I'll add it in. There are aircraft accident sites on the WWW but I could see no reference to this incident in any of them.
For very good reason, in fact. The image is a hoax, but surely a very good one! See lower on this page.
In early July 2004, the webmaster received a little information about the matter, from a visitor to the site, Mr. Fred Swain. He advised as follows:
'I don't have much info on your Air Canada picture other than to tell you how it happened. The only site that had the info about it no longer exists. That 747 was on approach into Montreal, Canada. What happened in that picture was ruled as pilot error. Unfortunately I don't know about any fatalities or injuries. There must have been some though. The pilot on approach didn't flare out in time. When a plane is on descent, they flare out when just above the ground. This is basically the period where they are leveling off to get a smooth landing. In this case, he didn't level off and ended up slamming into the ground at a much higher rate of speed than intended. This caused the structural failure that we see in that picture and the subsequent apparent explosion of the fuselage. You can see the spot immediately aft of the wings is where the failure occurred. At this point the plane tried to fold itself in half. Since the material on the bottom was trying to decrease in size vs the top of the plane, it had nowhere to go but out. I wonder what that pilot does for a living now? I hope this was of some use to you.'
But Fred a little later did some more research into the 'incident', and has now invited me to visit this site where you can read the 'evidence'. The proof that it is indeed a hoax is at the bottom of that page. A very good hoax indeed! Fred, I thank you!That leaves me with the decision as to whether I should cut this page or leave it on site with this explanation. I conclude that the image, even though false, is most interesting, as is the story, so I have decided to leave the page on site.