Venezuela plane crash

[papageno]

From the BBC: Venezuela plane crash kills 160 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4156224.stm):A Colombian airliner has crashed in a remote area of Venezuela killing all 160 people on board, officials say.

[...]

Venezuelan Interior Minister Jesse Chacon said the pilot had asked for authorisation to enter Venezuelan air space and land at Maracaibo airport because of problems with one of the engines.

The pilot then reported that the second engine was also failing and the aircraft began to lose altitude at about 7,000ft (2,100m) a minute over Zulia state, Mr Chacon said.

A really bad week for commercial aviation. :(

[Melusine]

CNN article:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/08/16/venezuela.crash/index.html

The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series has been involved in 11 fatal crashes since it went into service in 1980 -- seven involved the MD-82 model.

The deadliest was the December 1, 1981, crash of an Inex-Adria Airways flight that went down in Ajaccio, France, killing all 180 people on board. Human error was found to be the cause of that crash.
Is that a reasonable record?

[Maksutov]

CNN article:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/08/16/venezuela.crash/index.html

The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series has been involved in 11 fatal crashes since it went into service in 1980 -- seven involved the MD-82 model.

The deadliest was the December 1, 1981, crash of an Inex-Adria Airways flight that went down in Ajaccio, France, killing all 180 people on board. Human error was found to be the cause of that crash.
Is that a reasonable record?
Probably is, based on the causes of the fatal accidents. Details on the accidents may be found in this link. (http://www.airsafe.com/events/models/douglas.htm)

As you can see, except for three instances, the primary causes of the accidents were bad weather and human error, not something being wrong with the airliner.

The engine failure could happen on any aircraft that uses the same P&W JT8D-200 power plants. Plus, engine failures are often due to maintenance issues. The Alaska Airlines accident was attributed to bad maintenance practices and intervals on the longitudinal trim control system for the horizontal stabilizer. This failure could reoccur since Boeing has not incorporated a fail-safe mechanism in the design of the trim control system as recommended by the NTSB. That leaves the 2002 China accident, about which little is known.

Therefore the record indicates that the MD-80 series is reliable from an aircraft performance perspective, disallowing the trim control system, which is still completely dependent on proper tribological maintenance.

[Laguna]

CNN article:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/08/16/venezuela.crash/index.html

The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series has been involved in 11 fatal crashes since it went into service in 1980 -- seven involved the MD-82 model.

The deadliest was the December 1, 1981, crash of an Inex-Adria Airways flight that went down in Ajaccio, France, killing all 180 people on board. Human error was found to be the cause of that crash.
Is that a reasonable record?
In this case the engines failed not the MD-80.

[jt-3d]

Then they most likely ran out of gas or got bad gas but it would have to be very bad gas. There's just no way two engines will fail on the same leg without FOD or something.

[Laguna]

No bad gas! A DHL Freight Flight from Panama to Miami used the same cerosine.
The Federal Aviation Administration of Panama reported, that the plane had enough cerosine to reach its destination.

[Melusine]

Then they most likely ran out of gas or got bad gas but it would have to be very bad gas. There's just no way two engines will fail on the same leg without FOD or something.
FOD? Fuel something...?

The Airbus A330 en route to Portugal from Canada that landed in the Azores in 2001 flew without both engines working for 113 or so miles. It was a fuel line leak, they determined, I believe.

[Richard of Chelmsford]

This seems to have been a bad week for Airbus, Boing and McDonald Douglas, as far as I can see.

[Eta C]

Then they most likely ran out of gas or got bad gas but it would have to be very bad gas. There's just no way two engines will fail on the same leg without FOD or something.
FOD? Fuel something...?

The Airbus A330 en route to Portugal from Canada that landed in the Azores in 2001 flew without both engines working for 113 or so miles. It was a fuel line leak, they determined, I believe.

FOD: Foreign Object Damage, and by extension any piece of debris that can be sucked up into an engine. One of the more interesting rituals on an aircraft carrier is the "FOD walkdown" where everyone not on duty gathers at the bow, line up from beam to beam, and walk slowly to the stern examining the deck and picking up any FOD. The term has also come into the aviator language to indicate anything useless as in "So and so is just a piece of FOD."