You will recall that almost a year ago, Travis Barker and DJ AM were seriously injured while four others died when a Learjet 60 crashed during takeoff in South Carolina.
Now, the National Transportation Safety Board is instituting a new set of designs for the plane in order to protect others from future accidents.
Basically, it was determined that the cause of the accident was the thrust reversers – “devices on the back of jet engines that divert their thrust forward, helping to slow a plane or force it backward.” Apparently, they were not in the correct position to help slow the plane, so when the pilot attempted to abort the takeoff, the accident occurred.
The NTSB released a statement, saying:
“The only way to reduce forward thrust under these abnormal circumstances is to move the reverse levers to the stowed position…[it would] be counter intuitive to a pilot who was trying to abort a takeoff by applying maximum reverse thrust. Initially, flight crew members trying to slow the airplane would likely think that they are receiving the reverse thrust that they commanded until they realize that the airplane is not slowing.”
The changes to the thrusters were among five other recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board.
It’s sad that people had to die for this information to come to light, but it usually takes a tragedy like this to happen to ensure it will never happen again.
[Image via WENN.]