Carlos Dardano was the flight’s captain. Dardano had accumulated thirteen,410 flight hours at the age of twenty nine, with nearly eleven,000 of these as pilot in command. He had lost an eye fixed to crossfire earlier in his career once on a brief flight to Central American country, wherever a war was raging at the time. Dionisio Lopez, the primary officer, had over twelve,000 hours of flight time beneath his belt. Captain Arturo Soley, a tutor pilot, was conjointly within the cockpit, keeping an eye fixed on the new 737’s performance.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation disclosed that whereas the Boeing 737-3T0 craft was in descent mode from Florida thirty five0 (about 35,000 feet or eleven,000 meters) on final approach to its destination in preparation for his or her close arrival at urban center International flying field, the pilots noticed vital electric storm activity visible ahead and on their aboard radar. They tried to fly between 2 sturdy red weather cells shown on their measuring device.
At Florida three hundred (about thirty,000 feet or nine,100 meters), the jet entered significant clouds and featured severe rain, hail, and turbulence. some minutes later, whereas the plane was downward-sloping through sixteen,500 feet (5,000 meters), each CFM International CFM56 jet engine engines unsuccessful. As a result, all created wattage was lost, exploit the craft flying powerlessly with neither engine providing thrust nor wattage. 1st Officer Lopez sent out a distress signal} call over the radio, however despite the assistance of recent Orleans traffic controllers, WHO offered vectors to a close-by flying field at geological formation, it absolutely was too isolated.
Captain Dardano aligned the plane with the canal, whereas 1st Officer Lopez completed the ditching list and ready the plane for a water landing. It landed in Associate in Nursing unpowered glide on the grounds of the independent agency Michoud Assembly Facility’s grass dyke (MAF).
The craft had accidentally flown into a class four electric storm, and water intake caused each engines to blow out, consistent with NTSB investigators. The craft sustained minor hail harm, and its right-side (number 2) engine hot. To avoid future difficulties, the engine manufacturer upgraded the CFM56 engine by putting in a detector that forces the combustor to continually ignite in severe rain or hail. different changes were created to the engine ogive and blade spacing to higher deflect hail removed from the engine core.
