The video shows the climbout, subsequent stall, and crash of a National Air Cargo 747 departing Bagram Airfield very clearly. It is tough to stomach. Warning: death.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c32_1367332518

Various stuff I've read say 7 souls aboard, speculation includes possible cargo shift causing uncontrollably aft CG. I hope none of our BCP members were aboard, as I know some are heavy pilots.

Very sad here. It is graphic y'all.....
I was about to post this. possible shift in cargo which would have lead to a pitch up and stall/spin.

Left wing drop recovered to right wing down then nose just below level at impact. Cargo shift back then forward? I dunno.

I'm the Sargent Shultz of aerodynamics.

Pretty hard to watch.

EB

I have unfortunately seen this before off a carrier. Load shift can do it, but it looked more like an elevator disconnect. He reduced power, and the nose came down, as it should and he added before impact and the nose came up. He was trying to control with the rudder for roll.

We had a problem in the E2's with elevator disconnect, the ram literally broke off the fitting. So we would practice pitch control with the power levers, can be done, just need more altitude.

Then again somebody could have used a spear gun/claw hammer on the pilot, just like in FedEx.

Video date/time stamp show January or February but looks like it happens yesterday.

This is an unfortunate tragedy. I fly into Bagram for a different carrier so I know the airport well. My company had an aircraft on the ground being loaded when National started up and taxied out. One of our former flight mechanics was onboard and I know several National pilots but have not heard the crew names other than the mechanic. The video is hard to watch. National has not been operating 747-400's very long. For those that aren't aware, there are many civilian flights/contractors operating in middle east for our gov. in support of our military. Condolences to all families involved.

Load shift perhaps? Looks like a nice plane too..

Here's the results of a quick Google search:

http://aviation-safety.net/database/rec ... 20130429-0

dogpilot wrote:<snip> Load shift can do it, but it looked more like an elevator disconnect. He reduced power, and the nose came down, as it should and he added before impact and the nose came up. He was trying to control with the rudder for roll.
<snip>.

It looked like a valiant effort to do just that. God Speed and condolences to the families involved.

EB

My initial thought was elevator loss of control. I dont know any thing about the 747 flight control system. I flew Convair 340 / 440 freighters and we had a good system of palletized cargo and security. I have a hard time seeing a fully loaded 747 400 palletized shift that much to cause that kind of problem. If you had a large item strapped down over the wing box with nothing aft and that shifted to the tail? I could see that.

Wow....sad.

That is something you don't see every day (thank God). Pretty sobering.

You'd have to think the flight computer takes control of the plane in that situation, whatever caused it, it would try to auto-recover... the pilot probably had little ability to do anything about the result.

Battson wrote:.........
You'd have to think the flight computer takes control of the plane in that situation, whatever caused it, it would try to auto-recover... the pilot probably had little ability to do anything about the result.

It was a Boeing product... Not an Airbus industries aircraft.... The pilot can hand fly it and over ride the AP...

I read that it was departing Bagram heading to Dubai. Would it have been carrying much cargo? Seems like the war materiel goes to Afghanistan, not comes out of it.

Most trips like this are staged out of the U.A.E., in and out. Dubai and Bahrain being the cities most used. There is always payloads coming out. We don't fly over Iran, we have to go around so that takes a little more time and fuel.

They were hauling 5 MRAPS, load shifted backwards according to crew. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRAPS
Ron

"According to the crew"?

Didn't they perish in the crash? Was there a radio transmission or something?

This is a load shift in a C2 off the carrier. It was with my sister squadron VRC-50. The load had been mis-packaged, a large generator in a box (approximately 2 tons). It broke through the barrier went aft. When the pilot used the rudder to pull the nose around, it came back forward and went to the nose. A carrier takeoff is slightly higher acceleration than a 747 on a runway. Loads do shift. The 747 was an ex-Air France bird that went through conversion recently. The company has an interesting history, started with a couple of MU-2's a few years ago, then got some 757's and operated on an Icelandic certificate. Originally Murray Air Cargo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlDmMwI9cik&feature=player_detailpage

In that part of the world one might suspect sabotage or enemy fire.....

Kind of disgusting how this has gone viral over multiple venues. Had it been a commercial flight people would be screaming about the anguish of the relatives and those left behind and would have been shut down. But since it was only some freight dog pilots nobody gives a shit like the different set of safety rules the cargo pilots operate under versus the 121 commercial airlines. Not me, I hope they ended up in a heaven with cold beer and big titted blondes who love freighter pilots.
Blue Skies my Friends:)