science

Ozark Air Lines Flight 809

Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 rather than just read about it. In short: Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 was a regularly scheduled flight from Nashville, Tennessee, to St. Louis, Missouri, with four intermediate stops.

Key takeaways

Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 was a regularly scheduled flight from Nashville, Tennessee, to St. Louis, Missouri, with four intermediate stops. On July 23, 1973, while landing at St. Louis International Airport, it crashed, killing 38 of the 44 persons aboard. A severe downdraft, associated with a nearby thunderstorm, was cited as the cause.

Synopsis On July 23, 1973, Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 was operated by one of the company's Fairchild-Hiller FH-227s, registration N4215. The flight was scheduled to go from Nashville, Tennessee, to St. Louis, Missouri, with four intermediate stops at Clarksville, Tennessee; Paducah, Kentucky; Cape Girardeau, Missouri; and Marion, Illinois. The segments to Clarksville, Paducah, Cape Girardeau, and Marion proceeded normally. While the weather was clear at the flight's stops, several persons who boarded family or friends on the flight at Marion reported that the sky "didn't look good". The flight departed Marion at 1705 en route to St. Louis. At 1726 the flight arrived in the vicinity of St. Louis. Visibility in the area was reported as hazy. The flight continued on and soon after reported an inoperative fuel pump to company maintenance. At 1732 the flight entered an area of thunderstorm cells around St. Louis International Airport. The pilot told the passengers they were approaching turbulence. At 1742 the controller at St. Louis reported to Flight 809 that thunderstorms were passing south of the runway, directly in Flight 809's path. This was the last transmission to the flight. The aircraft crashed 2 miles (3.2 km) short of the runway, in a wooded ravine next to a residential area in Normandy, Missouri, near the University of Missouri-St. Louis. There were reports of a tornado near Ladue, Missouri near the time of the accident but the Weather Service did not confirm it.

Investigation The flight had crashed directly in the approach path to St. Louis International Airport. It had descended below the glide slope, crashing short of the runway. Witnesses in the area saw the flight "suddenly ascend to 400 or 500 feet" (between 122 and 152 m) "and then rapidly descend to 200 feet" (61 m), following which it was struck by lightning. The aircraft was reported to have performed several "evasive maneuvers" before crashing into the trees. All witnesses reported heavy rain at the time of the accident. A Trans World Airlines flight landing just before Flight 809 reported getting caught in a strong updraft and being forced to execute a missed approach rather than a landing. The captain and first officer both survived the accident. While the first officer could not remember anything about the incident, the captain did report seeing hail hitting the airplane, pulling the control stick, and seeing fire after impact. The aircraft was broken in several pieces after impact; the cockpit area was clear of the main wreckage. Four passengers were thrown clear at impact; all survived. The remainder of the fuselage was broken open; all in this area were killed upon impact. No mechanical defects other than the inoperative fuel pump were reported. The aircraft was found to be in a high nose-up attitude at impact. The approach controller vectored Flight 809 into Runway 30L at St. Louis. Although the flight crew knew thunderstorms were in the vicinity of the airport, the controller's lack of urgency seemed to lead the flight crew to believe they could land ahead of the storms. In coming through the storm, the high winds in the storm cell led investigators to believe that a strong downdraft pushed the plane below the glide slope. The crew's evasive actions were not sufficient to prevent the plane from striking the ground. The investigators' main questions were why the controller had not indicated the severity of the storm to the flight and why, once the flight knew of the storms, they had not requested a different path to the airport to avoid the storm.

Cause The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the crash was caused by the aircraft encountering a severe downdraft on approach, and the captain's decision to continue the flight into a known severe storm area. The captain's decision was influenced by the lack of a timely warning about the storm by the weather service and the improper assessment of conditions by the dispatcher.

See also List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft Microburst Delta Air Lines Flight 191

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ozark Air Lines Flight 809

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ozark Air Lines Flight 809

In research: Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1973 in Missouri, Airliner accidents and incidents caused by microbursts, Airliner accidents and incidents in Missouri, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 in simple terms?

Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 was a regularly scheduled flight from Nashville, Tennessee, to St. Louis, Missouri, with four intermediate stops.

Why does Ozark Air Lines Flight 809 matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ozark Air Lines Flight 809?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ozark Air Lines Flight 809.