Air Canada Flight 797

Air Canada Flight 797 was a scheduled trans-border flight that flew on a Dallas/Fort Worth-Toronto-Montreal route. On 2 June 1983, the aircraft developed an in-flight fire behind the washroom that spread between the outer skin and the inner decor panels, filling the plane with noxious, toxic smoke. The spreading fire also burned through crucial electrical cables that knocked out most of the instrumentation in the cockpit, forcing the plane to divert to an alternate landing field. Ninety seconds after the plane landed and the doors were opened, enough oxygen was available for the fire to flashover, killing the 23 remaining passengers left on board. The tragedy of Flight 797 was a landmark moment in airline safety; many regulations were implemented around the world to make airplanes safer (smoke detectors, emergency lighting leading to exit doors) and to allow at least minimal fighting of fires in-flight if necessary.

[edit] Details

On that day, the Air Canada aircraft registered C-FTLU took off from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport; it was meant to make a stop at Toronto International Airport (now Toronto Pearson International Airport) in Mississauga, Ontario. The DC-9 was bound for Dorval Airport (now Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport) in Montreal, Quebec.

Donald Cameron was the captain and Claude Ouimet, first officer. While flying over Louisville, Kentucky, an in-flight fire began in or around the rear lavatory of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32. The pilots heard a popping sound and discovered that the lavatory's circuit breakers had tripped. On the cockpit voice recorder, NTSB investigators heard 8 sounds of electrical arcing--inaudible to the crew--preceding the initial circuit breaker trips; though a number of wires in the lavatory section were later found with insulation stripped away, investigators were unable to determine whether this insulation damage was the cause of the fire or was caused by the fire. Despite being unable to find the specific shorting wire that caused the arcing sounds and breaker trips nor the exact cause or origin point of the fire, investigators determined that the fire itself was likely an electrical fire that burned behind the wall of the lavatory, with the plane's outer skin serving as a conduit for smoke to seep in through the seams in the interior panels and collect near the apex of the cabin.

Shortly after passengers first reported smelling smoke in the cabin, the "Master Breaker" alarm went off in the cockpit, and electrical systems throughout the plane began to fail, including power for the elevator trim system, making controlling the plane's descent extremely difficult and requiring a great amount of physical exertion from the pilot and first officer. In addition, the PA system failed, leaving the flight attendants unable to communicate efficiently with the passengers; nevertheless, attendants were able to instruct passengers sitting in the exit rows on how to open the doors, a practice that was not standard on commercial airline flights at the time.^[1]

Cameron and Ouimet made an emergency landing at the Greater Cincinnati Airport (now Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport), located in Boone County, Kentucky near Cincinnati, Ohio. During the evacuation, the aircraft doors were opened, causing an influx of air that fueled the fire. Ouimet escaped through the co-pilot's emergency window shortly after the plane landed, but Cameron, who had exerted so much force to keep the plane under control, was unable to move. Firefighters doused Cameron in firefighting foam through Ouimet's window, shocking him back to consciousness; Cameron was then able to open the pilot's emergency escape window and drop to the ground, where he was rescued and dragged to safety by Ouimet.^[1] Less than 90 seconds after touchdown, the interior of the plane ignited, killing 23 of the 41 passengers. The passengers trapped inside the plane died from smoke inhalation and a flash fire. Of the surviving passengers, 3 received serious injuries, 13 received minor injuries, and 2 were uninjured. None of the 5 crew members sustained any injuries.^[2]. The 18 surviving passengers and 5 crew members left the aircraft before the interior burst into flames, killing the remaining passengers. Captain Cameron was the last person to leave the plane before the flash fire consumed the plane.^[1] Many of the passengers received smoke inhalation and minor injuries. Dianne Fadley, a survivor, stated that "it was almost like" passengers who escaped found "nothing wrong," with a typical injury being a sprained ankle or a broken arm.^[1]

21 Canadians and 2 Americans died. Many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition. Almost all of the victims were in the forward half of the aircraft between the wings and the cockpit. Some bodies were in the aisles, and some bodies were still in the seats. Two victims were in the back of the aircraft, even though the passengers were moved forward after the fire had been detected; the disoriented passengers moved beyond the overwing exits and succumbed. The blood samples from bodies revealed high levels of cyanide, fluoride, and carbon monoxide, chemicals produced by the burning plane. ^[1]

The plane being used for this flight had a troubled history. 76 maintenance reports had been filed in the plane's logs in the previous year, and four years earlier the plane had suffered an explosive decompression in the rear bulkhead that required rebuilding the tail section and replacing or splicing most of the wiring and hydraulic lines in the back of the plane. Investigators were unable to find signs of arcing in any of the wire splices from the repairs four years earlier, though much of the wiring in the rear of the plane was severely damaged or destroyed by the fire itself.^[1]

[edit] Notable passengers

• Stan Rogers was a Canadian folk singer, known for songs like "Northwest Passage", "The Mary Ellen Carter", "Song of the Candle", and "Barrett's Privateers". He was going home on Flight 797 after attending the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. He died in the fire at the age of only 33.
• Also on board was George Curtis Mathes Jr., founder of the electronics company that bears his name. He died in the fire.^[3]

A diagram of Air Canada Flight 797 from the NTSB; the diagram indicates locations of surviving passengers, deceased passengers, and flight attendants

[edit] Aftermath

As a result of this accident and other incidents of in flight fires on passenger aircraft, the National Transportation Safety Board issued several recommendations to the FAA, including Safety Recommendation A-83-70 which asked the FAA to expedite actions to require smoke detectors in lavatories ^[1]; Safety Recommendation A-83-71 which asked the FAA to require the installation of automatic fire extinguishers adjacent to and in lavatory waste receptacles and other related recommendations. In addition, air carriers were to review fire training procedures and amend those that did not take aggressive actions to determine the source and severity of suspected cabin fires, including emergency descents for landing or ditching. Also, passenger instruction in how to open emergency exits became standard practice within the airline industry, along with installation of track lighting and raised markings on overhead bins to indicate the location of exit rows.

This 1983 accident is, as of 2008, Air Canada's most recent fatal accident.

Newspapers and other media criticized the actions taken by the crew and said that they took too long to initiate an emergency descent; the initial NTSB report was especially critical of Cameron for not asking about the exact nature of the fire and not immediately initiating emergency descent when the fire was first reported. Cameron admitted in a press conference following the issuance of the NTSB report that he assumed the problem was a bin fire, a common cause of lavatory fires when smoking was still allowed on flights. Pilots and airline personnel throughout the industry petitioned the NTSB to revise its report, and Ouimet wrote a detailed defense of the crew's actions, including the decision to land in Cincinnati instead of Standiford Field Airport in Louisville, Kentucky, the airport closest to where the crew first notified Air Traffic Control in Indianapolis, Indiana that they needed to make an emergency landing; Louisville was too close to be able to descend from cruising altitude to an emergency landing safely, and even landing in Cincinnati was cutting it close given the difficulties Cameron was experiencing in controlling the plane. The NTSB issued a revised version of the report including Ouimet's explanation of the landing decision, though the report was still critical of Cameron's decision not to inquire about the fire itself.^[1] The crew of Flight 797 later received a number of citations from Canadian aviation organizations for their heroic actions in getting the plane down safely.^[1]

All of Air Canada's DC-9s have been retired. As of 2007, it uses the flight number on its Montréal-Los Angeles route.

On 20 December 1983, N994Z, operating as Ozark Air Lines Flight 650, hit a snow plow in Sioux Falls, separating the right wing from the aircraft. The wing from C-FTLU was used to replace the one separated on N994Z after the incident. The aircraft was later sold to Republic Airlines, and acquired by Northwest Airlines after the merger. As of 2006, N994Z has since been retired from the Northwest fleet.

[edit] Dramatization

The episode "Fire Fight" of Mayday (known as "Fiery Landing" of Air Emergency in the USA) portrays the disaster.

[edit] See also

• China Airlines Flight 120

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} "Fire Fight," Mayday
2. ^ NTSB report on Flight 797 crash
3. ^ "The Fire Within Flight 797". Time (13 June 1983). Retrieved on 2007-07-16.

• NTSB full accident report
• NTSB brief DCA83AA028

[edit] External links

• A photo of the burning airliner