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Eastern Air Lines Flight 304

Eastern Air Lines Flight 304, a Douglas DC-8 flying from New Orleans International Airport to Washington Dulles International Airport, crashed on February 25, 1964. All 51 passengers and 7 crew were killed. Among the dead were American opera singer and actor Kenneth Lee Spencer and Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux, a women's and human rights activist and member of the French delegation to the United Nations.

Flight 304, which had originated in Mexico City, left New Orleans International Airport for Atlanta at 2:01 a.m., Central Standard Time, and disappeared from radar at 2:10 a.m. Visibility was good, although there was a light rain. The winds were calm. The Coast Guard and other searchers sighted the wreckage around dawn in Lake Pontchartrain, about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of New Orleans.

The subsequent investigation concluded that the jet crashed into Lake Pontchartrain en route due to "degradation of aircraft stability characteristics in turbulence, because of abnormal longitudinal trim component positions."

Dates

• September 11, 1963 - Aircraft jammed in full ANU position during landing at San Juan, PR
• February 25, 1964 - Accident
• March 13, 1964 - Wreckage found
• April 16, 1964 - Search for wreckage ended
• May 29, 1964 - Douglas aircraft company publishes report about wear patterns
• June 1, 1964 - FAA issues alert to inspect stabilizer adjusting mechanism
• July 15, 1964 - CAB Hearings in New Orleans
• August 1, 1964 - Overhaul procedures modified

References collected

McClement

• To maintain straight and level flight, the pilot uses trimming, which changes the attitude of the aircraft by raising or lowering the nose where the wings best attack the air mass through which they are moving. This trimmed adjustment is called the angle of attack. The raising or lowering of the nose is accomplished by a stabilizer trim wheel at the pilot's side which activates an air foil on the tailpiece. [page 162]
• When air currents raise or lower the nose of the plane, the pilot moves the trim wheel forward or backward to and level the plane out.[ page 162]
• In propeller craft the adjustment of the trim was common during the entire flight, but jet planes handle differently, and some experts came to believe that some jet disasters were caused by or accentuated by trimming during critical speed periods.[page 162]
• FAA issued a set of turbulence penetration instructions that instructed pilots of jet craft to minimize the amount of trim adjustments they make, and never make adjustments in turbulence because the rapid changes in air drafts may unexpectedly exxagerate the adjusted trim and cause a nose that is too high (stall) or too low (dive). [page 162-3]
• ATC transcripts [pages 164-165]
• At dawn after the flight, coast guard helicopters and several surface craft found a patch of water that appeared to be littered with debris. A man's sport jacket was floating beside a pair of trousers. There was a white shirt and some bits of paper. Oil coated the surface. Using fishnets, the searchers dragged the shallow bottom of the lake, about 15 feet deep, and found a section of a human body. [page 166]
• The Civil Aeronautics Board held a public inquiry into the crask on July 14, 1964 in New Orleans. Robert T. Murphy, vice-chairman of the CAB, conducted the hearings. He said there were no indications of any pre-crash failure of the electrical system, radio system, navigational equipment, the instrumentation system, the oxygen system, or the fire protection system. All four engines were recovered with no evidence of in-flight damage, fire, or other failure prior to impact. The fuel tanks and fuel system showed no indication of burning, sooting, or arcing. The hydraulic system had no evidence of operational distress. Flaps were up which was normal for flight. Nearly all of the horizontal stabilizer-control system mechanism from the tail section was recovered. [page 167]
• Aircraft prior incident- stabilizer malfunction incident in San Juan Puerto Rico on September 11, 1963 and repairs were completed. [page 167]
• Maintenance record shoeed that the pitch-trim computer had numerous write-ups by flight crews for unwanted extension with the command switch in the normal position. A ground check was made in Philadelphia on February 24 and a mechanic found the system failed to check. An entry was made in the log book to this effect, and the aircraft was dispatched to Mexico City.[page 167]
• At the hearing, Eastern Airlines pilot Paul M. McGill testified. He had flown the plane to Mexico City and handed it over to Captain Zeng and Grant Newby. He confirmed that the jet's pitch-trim compensator was inoperative. He testified that he felt it was not a major issue and that the plane handled fine. [page 167]
• Copilot Grant Newby had survived the crash of Eastern DC-8 over Houston and had shown skill in bringing it under control. [page 167]
• Another Eastern pilot, Captain Louis Fedvary, was called. He had flown the same plane with the same copilot and testified that the copilot was skillful in flying the plane in turbulence.[page 167-8]
• Captain A.V. Appelget, supervisor of flying for Eastern, testified that even if the pitch-trim compensator burned out in flight, it would not aerodynamically affect the plane and the pilot would be able to exert more than adequate control. He also revealed that it was common to engage the automatic pilot during climbing periods. [page 168]
• Paul A. Sonderlind, manager of research and development for Northwest Airlines in Minneapolis revealed that jet instruments have registered incorrectly when climbing. He said that a study of airline accidents over the previous 18 months revealed that all of the accidents tended to occur when the plane was climbing and when the pilots were flying on instruments rather than using visual references. He said that pitch-trim compensators were necessary to the jets, and their use contributed to the stability of the aircraft. He said that jet accidents could be caused by aircraft being pitched up or down as a result of turbulence.[page 168-9]
• Charles A. Ruby, president of the Air Lines Pilots Association stated that most pilots would rather not have the pitch-trim compensators in the aircraft. He also said that some conditions of turbulence, instrument panels could be a blur for as long as five or ten seconds during turbulence penetration.[page 169]
• Arnold G. Heimerdinger, chief pilot of Douglas, said he would object to the removal of the pitch-trim compensator in the DC-8s. He said the compensator is constantly adjusting the pitch of the aircraft in flight to achieve safe and level flight. [page 170]
• Charles Ruby said he had received oral and written reports from pilots who had experienced difficulties with the device under flying conditions. These occurred when the nose of the plane was unexpectedly forced up, when it should not have been adjusted at all.[page 170]
• Roy Peterson, chief of the Flight Test Branch of the FAA West Region testified that the DC-8 stability was poor during a fast climb. [Page 171]
• Peterson said the FAA had conducted tests of the pitch-trim compensator in a "runaway" condition and found that the pilot would have to compensate for the device's malfunction manually within 3 seconds, or the aircraft would lose altitude or normal equilibrium. He defined a runaway condition as one where the automatic pitch-trim device takes corrective action when no such action is needed. [page 171]
• Peterson said that with the device inoperative, the aircraft has a weak stability in a climb at 300 knots. He said the DC-8 is stable while cruising, but not during a high-speed climb, which occurs a few minutes after takeoff.[page 171-2]
• Two year investigation determined that the pitch-trim had been somehow extended, but not by the pilots, and that when the aircraft entered the short sharp turbulence a few minutes after entering the clouds, the jet nosed over and dove. Immediately the Douglas aircraft co. was ordered to change the limit of the pitch-trim from two degrees to one degree.[page 172]