engineering

Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55

Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 is a engineering 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 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 rather than just read about it. In short: Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight in Alaska that crashed into Pedro Bay on December 2, 1968, killing all 39 on board. The Fairchild F-27B aircraft was operated by Wien Consolidated Airlines and was en route to Dillingham from Anchorage, with three intermediate stops.

Key takeaways

Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight in Alaska that crashed into Pedro Bay on December 2, 1968, killing all 39 on board. The Fairchild F-27B aircraft was operated by Wien Consolidated Airlines and was en route to Dillingham from Anchorage, with three intermediate stops. The NTSB investigation revealed that the aircraft suffered a structural failure after encountering "severe-to-extreme" air turbulence. The accident was the second-worst accident involving a Fairchild F-27 at the time, and currently the third-worst accident involving the aircraft.

Flight Flight 55 was served by a Fairchild F-27B, a twin-engine propjet aircraft that had been in service since 1959. The aircraft was piloted by Captain David Stanley, who had been a pilot for Northern Consolidated Airlines for seven years before that airline was merged into Wien Consolidated Airlines. Prior to that, he had been a flight instructor in Anchorage, and was described as an excellent pilot. Flight 55 departed Anchorage International Airport on Monday, December 2, at 8:46 am AKST, and proceeded 150 miles (240 km) southwest to Iliamna without reported difficulties. At 9:25 am, first officer Jerry Svengard contacted Iliamna air traffic control to request an approach clearance, which was granted at 9:26 am.

Crash While preparing to approach Iliamna, the aircraft encountered extreme turbulence at 11,500 feet (3,500 m). Local witnesses reported hearing an explosion and seeing a fireball in the vicinity of the aircraft's tail before it descended in a steep, uncontrolled spiral towards the ground. Other witnesses reported large quantities of black smoke from behind the wing of the aircraft, and that the plane continued on course for a short period of time, before pieces separated from the aircraft and it entered a dive. The aircraft crashed into Foxys Lake, Pedro Bay, an area described as being a frozen marshland surrounded by mountains. Heavy winds gusting up to 55 miles per hour (90 km/h), as well as low temperatures of −11 °F (−24 °C), hampered search, rescue, recovery, and investigation efforts. An Air Force helicopter was able to reach the crash site that afternoon, but was forced by the wind to take off shortly thereafter. The pilot, Major Norman Kahmoot, reported that there were no survivors, and that the aircraft had been so disfigured by the crash that it was no longer recognizable. Bodies had been scattered across a large area, and local Athabascan villagers volunteered to guard the remains from wolves until they could be collected and taken to the temporary morgue. The NTSB investigation lasted 19 months, and it was discovered that a number of fatigue cracks had formed on the aircraft's wings due to improper and shoddy maintenance. The area over Pedro Bay had been the site of extreme, unreported turbulence, with winds in excess of 50 knots (93 km/h; 58 mph). The stresses due to turbulence and air pressure caused a structural failure in the aircraft's right wing, forcing it into a spiraling, uncontrollable dive.

See also List of accidents and incidents involving airliners in the United States

References

External links Aircraft Accident Report - Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 Findagrave Cemetery for Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, 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 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 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 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 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 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55

In research: Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 appears in engineering 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 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 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: Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1968 in Alaska, Airliner accidents and incidents caused by in-flight structural failure, Airliner accidents and incidents in Alaska, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 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 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 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 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 in simple terms?

Why does Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 matter?

Because it connects several engineering 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 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55?

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 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55.