OT: Key instrument failed before jumbo crash

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http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/Breaking_News/UK/0,2478,599576,00.html

Key Instrument Failed Before Jumbo Crash

From the Press Association Thursday January 6, 2000 10:12 pm

A vital navigation instrument failed moments before last month's Korean Air jumbo jet cargo plane crash near Stansted airport.

A fault had developed with the altitude director indicator, which tells crews the exact position of an aircraft at night and in cloud, on the previous flight of the Boeing 747.

The fault was worked on on the ground at Stansted in Essex before the plane took off on the evening of December 22, an official interim accident report reveals.

But after take-off, the crew received warnings that the indicator was not working properly and the plane crashed in completely uncontrolled fashion killing all four crew on board.

After the work had been done on the ground at Stansted, the Korean Air ground engineer said he would complete the technical log but no copy of the log was left at Stansted.

The engineer was one of those killed in the crash.

"The result was that there was no record of what the ground engineer entered in the technical log to clear the fault and no way of knowing if he briefed the on-coming commander (captain) about the fault," said the report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.

The report came to no conclusions about the exact cause of the crash and the AAIB added that its investigations were continuing.



-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), January 06, 2000

Answers

http://library.northernlight.com/FC20000106530000082. html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc

Korean Crash Cargo Contained Depleted Uranium: Report

Story Filed: Thursday, January 06, 2000 4:07 PM EST

LONDON (Jan. 6) XINHUA - The Korean Air Boeing 747 cargo plane, which crashed last month near an airport north of London, contained several hundred kilograms of depleted uranium, it was revealed Thursday.

Depleted uranium (DU) is a heavy substance, 1.7 times as dense as lead. It has also been used in aircraft to make counterweights in the tailplane.

"If no precautions were taken at the crash scene, people will have been exposed to hazards that could prove fatal," Malcolm Hooper ,professor emeritus of medicinal chemistry at the University of Sunderland, told BBC News Online.

A Boeing spokesman said that the company began using DU in the early 1960s.

"Boeing replaced it with tungsten in the early 1980s on grounds of cost and availability. The Korean 747 was delivered to the airline in June 1980. We think it contained about 300 kg of DU," the spokesman said.

More than 800 residents and rescue workers were reported after the crash to be complaining of a range of problems, including fatigue, skin complaints, joint and bone pains, kidney ailments and respiratory problems.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), January 06, 2000.


The reason I posted this is that there was a discussion whether this crash was terrorist related.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), January 06, 2000.

Great Stuff DU, it's used to make armor piercing rounds for assault rifles.

-- Gordon (g_gecko_69@hotmail.com), January 06, 2000.

How awful and it goes to show we never know what the hell we're involved in when we get into a situation. So it was, too, with Y2K. Better safe than sorry!!!!! NO ONE KNEW. That's why prepping was thw wise thing to do.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), January 06, 2000.

DU makes a great anti tank round too, the plasma penetrates the armor and then makes a fire.... fun play toy for the rich and famous

-- Helium (Heliumavid@yahoo.com), January 06, 2000.


it also appears, on good initial scientific evidence, to be a strong contributing factor to the statistically unusually large increase in cancers among US and UK Gulf War veterans...

DAILY EXPRESS, 3rd November, 1999

GULF WAR VETERANS:WE WERE BETRAYED

EXCLUSIVE BY GREG SWIFT

TESTS designed to establish the extent of radiation poisoning among Gulf War veterans have been exposed as worthless, The Express can reveal.

Former soldiers described the disclosure as a betrayal, while scientists and MPs accused the Government of covering up depleted uranium (DU) poisoning in troops by giving them tests which could only produce negative results.

According to the Ministry of Defence, up to five servicemen have been tested for DU - which is used in armour-piercing shells and bullets - and their results found to be negative. But new evidence seen by The Express shows that just one man - a civilian in the Gulf on an MoD contract - has been tested and that the technology used was not sensitive enough to detect the radioactive metal.

The civilian, former engineer Paul Connolly, has also obtained an admission from Professor Harry Lee, head of the MoD's Medical Assessment Programme (MAP) which monitors veterans' health, that he was not even tested for depleted uranium, only total uranium. Yet the same procedures were offered in September to 30 Gulf veterans. They had already tested positive in Canadian research, but this was deemed unreliable by the MoD.

More than 700,000 rounds of DU- tipped missiles and bullets were used during the war because of its armour-piercing capabilities. Many veterans claimed they inhaled the radioactive dust created during and after battles in the Gulf. The effects of massive DU exposure can be devastating as it attacks the lungs, liver, kidneys and blood, and can cause genetic mutations. Sufferers of DU poisoning are susceptible to developing cancer anywhere in the body. Shaun Rusling, head of the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association, said: "Veterans have gone to MAP in good faith to be tested for their many illnesses and they have been betrayed.

"They have asked to be tested for DU and it now seems that MAP's offer of such testing is a hollow one. It is now clear that not only have they been let down but so have their doctors and their specialist consultants.

"Consequently, veterans are not getting the proper treatment for their conditions. Is MAP more concerned about protecting the MoD from embarrassing disclosures that British troops were poisoned by their own weapons than helping the servicemen?" The latest disclosure is a serious embarrassment for the Government which only last month attempted to avert mounting anger over its handling of the issue when Armed Forces minister John Spellar announced that veterans had been offered DU testing.

Now even one of the Government's own scientific advisers has accused officials of a "clinical and calculated attempt at deception" and described them of overseeing a "cock-up verging on a cover-up".

Professor Malcolm Hooper, who sits on the independent panel advising the MoD on Gulf-related illnesses, said: "This is either a deception by MAP or a failure on its part to understand the issue at stake.

"Of course the DU levels being found in these guys is at a low level, but the fact that they are still excreting it eight years after the war ended means they were exposed to a high level and it has been present in their bodies ever since.

"The cumulative radiological effects of such prolonged exposure has considerable long-term health implications for all those suffering from DU poisoning. It makes me very angry that this can happen."

His views were endorsed by Mr Connolly's local MP. Humfrey Malins, who represents Woking in Surrey, said yesterday: "I am beginning to wonder whether there is some form of delaying tactic going on here and or a cover-up."

The MoD admitted last night that in the wake of fears raised about Imperial College's testing process, it was considering using other laboratories with more sophisticated equipment. A spokesman said: "We believe there are better techniques available elsewhere that can detect historical exposure to DU. The equipment and system used at Imperial College was entirely suitable for determining a patient's current uranium level and to say whether that was not abnormally high or a threat to health. But the veterans are concerned about whether they have uranium in their system from the past.

"Our latest initiative is based on the draft protocol for future testing that has been sent to the veterans and we are waiting for their response."

In August, The Express revealed that tests 500,000-times more sensitive than any previously conducted proved beyond doubt that British troops had been poisoned by DU in the Gulf.

Less than two weeks later, Mr Spellar announced that he had met with veterans' groups and offered them testing at Imperial College. Those tests have now been shown to be futile.

The latest embarrassment for the MoD centres on MAP's questionable handling of the tests for Mr Connolly, who worked in the Gulf keeping filtration and cooling systems free of dust.

He was told that the tests he underwent at Imperial College were for DU and his results came back as negative. But after persistent questioning by his brothers Ivor and Kevin Connolly, it is now clear he was misinformed as Imperial College revealed its testing procedure was not sensitive enough.

That was followed by Prof Lee's admission that he had only asked Imperial College to test for total uranium. In a letter to Paul Connolly, he justified this by stating: "I did ask for the measure of total uranium, for as I explained to you, measurement of depleted uranium in terms of health matters gives a no better indication of potential health hazards than measuring total uranium."

He concludes: "I feel last week's meeting was valuable and certain areas were re-explored where clearly there were some misunderstandings, but certainly no deceit."

Richard Birch, at AEA Technology, a radiation research and monitoring centre in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, said: "The only way to tell whether uranium in a body is naturally occurring or from a depleted source is to measure the ratio of specific isotopes.

"To look just at total uranium would not tell you whether the uranium came from natural sources or whether it was due to DU."

[ENDS]

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), January 06, 2000.


Depleted Uranium is a safe material as long it retains its integrity. A lump of DU constitutes no hazard to your health.

However, when it is vaporized it constitutes a grave hazard to human health. DU munitions really ought to be outlawed; they may be able to penetrate any form or armour, but the vaporized atoms of DU can cause severe problems if they are inhaled. The low emissions of radioactivity can cause damage if minute particles of DU are lodged in your lungs. Large areas of the Kuwaiti desert are now contaminated, and many people have blamed "Gulf War Syndrome" on radioactive pollution cause by DU munitions.

However, I think that news article is potentially untrue.

1) The crash site is at least a mile away from any populated areas (a couple of small villages)

2) An air crash and the resulting fire does not produce the same intense conditions as a munition hitting it's target at a velocity of several thousand feet per second. The DU might have burned, but it wouldn't have vaporised.

3) The effects of low-level radiation poisoning (which is what is being claimed) do not manifest themselves immediately. Servicemen did not fall ill during the Gulf War.

This is what my limited intuition tells me - I don't see how 800 people could immediately report symptoms of something which take times to manifest itself, and which involves much higher quantities of DU vapour.

That news articles is very strange

-- Matthew (mdpope@hotmail.com), January 06, 2000.


HOLY SH*T!

-- cin (cinlooo@aol.com), January 06, 2000.

Hey Matthew what do you think they do with all this uranium excess? Tons of DU rounds laying all over Kosovo and Iraq. It's the new form of "low level nuclear warfare". Poison the populace with exposure to spent shells. Research it lad and wake up to reality. How about some irradiated meat/milk/eggs to kill bacteria, converting waste into a new industry? But first we must create the need... And now tail counter weights in aircraft. Brilliant idea Boeing. Toxic crashes!

-- bones (nukesrus@usa.inc.), January 06, 2000.

I didn't deny that DU was hazardous; I was only asking for a second opinion on whether an incident like that at Stanstead could produce so many radiation related complaints to quickly.

Of course DU shouldn't be used in aircraft.

-- Matthew (mdpope@hotmail.com), January 06, 2000.



I've just traced the source of the article, and it appears that the 800 casualties were actually people exposed to DU when an El Al cargo 747 crashed in Amsterdam seven years ago. Less than half of the 282 kilograms of DU on board was recovered.

Beanfang, you are a _lousy_ editor...

Complete article is as follows:

Emergency services have insisted there was no danger to the public from depleted uranium on a Korean Air Boeing 747 cargo plane which crashed near Stansted Airport.

It has emerged that the plane, which crashed in Essex last month, contained several hundred kilogrammes of depleted uranium.

The revelation comes as an Air Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) report into the crash highlighted defects in the flight captain's attitude director indicator - which tells a crew whether their aircraft is level, climbing or descending.

The report said instrument warning buzzers had sounded 14 times in the seconds before the plane crashed into Hatfield Forest in December. The AAIB says the problem with the equipment was known about and apparently rectified before the plane left Stansted.

The emergency services also played down the risk from the depleted uranium.

Sergeant Deborah Duce from Essex police said: "The presence of depleted uranium was known about at the time of the crash.

"The authorities said it did not pose a danger to the emergency services. There is no danger to surrounding residents."

Depleted uranium (DU) is a heavy substance, 1.7 times as dense as lead, and used in armour-piercing munitions. Many Gulf War veterans believe it is implicated in a range of medical problems they are suffering from, known collectively as Gulf War Syndrome.

DU has been used in aircraft to make counterweights in the tailplane.

A Boeing spokesman told BBC News Online: "The company began using DU in the early 1960s. Boeing replaced it with tungsten in the early 1980s, on grounds of cost and availability.

"The Korean 747 was delivered to the airline in June 1980. We think it contained about 300 kg of DU.

"But it would need to have been exposed to a fire of 800 degrees Celsius for more than four hours before it emitted uranium oxide. And even then, if it was breathed in it would be only 40% of the amount deemed harmful." DU is known to vaporise into a spray of burning dust on striking a hard object, and some studies suggest that it can form uranium oxides at lower temperatures.

A report in 1985 from the Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory said that after only two hours' exposure to a fire of 700 degrees Celsius, 22% of a DU munition appeared to have burnt off.

The Korean plane crashed in flames. Malcolm Hooper, professor emeritus of medicinal chemistry at the University of Sunderland told BBC News Online: "If no precautions were taken at the crash scene, people will have been exposed to hazards that could prove fatal.

"Those who were handling the wreckage should have been advised of the risk. I can't see any way you could have a significant fire in a crash like this without producing the conditions that would allow a potentially hazardous release of DU."

Dutch crash

On 4 October 1992 an El Al cargo 747 crashed into a block of flats in an Amsterdam suburb. It had been carrying 282 kg of DU counterweights.

Only 130 kg were recovered in the clear-up after the crash, and the Dutch commission of inquiry concluded that some of the rest had been released as particles, which would have been inhaled by rescue workers and local people.

The plane was also carrying chemicals used to manufacture the nerve gas sarin, which local people blamed for ensuing health problems.

More than 800 residents and rescue workers were reported after the crash to be complaining of a range of problems, including fatigue, skin complaints, joint and bone pains, kidney ailments and respiratory problems.

The commission of inquiry did not conclude that these problems had been caused by the DU lost in the crash.

End or article.

You can draw your own conclusions now.



-- Matthew (mdpope@hotmail.com), January 06, 2000.


Regarding the Korean Air crash at Stanstead, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that *engine parts* from a JT9D engine, which are what was used on that 747, were found lying on the runway as part of the investigation. That would corespond with reports that one engine was on fire as the plane was airborne.

Having seen up close & personal what one duck will do to a similar type of engine on a C5, maybe a more mundane cause is to be found. Birds are Y2K ignorant, but they'll do a heck of a job a destroying a turbofan. And when flying cargo loaded to max gross takeoff weight, losing one engine can easily be a faal event.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), January 06, 2000.


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