When Disaster Struck Hockey

Hockey is a religion in Russia. Hockey Players become role models for people as like football players in Europe and cricket players in south Asian countries. Every one among us follows sports in their lives. Everyone does have a team to support. Just for a moment think yourselves to be in a situation when you realize that you have lost your favourite player or the whole team you supported throughout your life forever. What I just said is not completely abstract; in fact it really happened to the residents of a small town in Russia called Yaroslavl not long ago just before the beginning of the continental hockey league.

On 7^th of September 2011, the Yaroslavl team had to make a journey from their home town to Minsk in Belarus for a match. The plane being used the very day was JAKA-42. The plane boarded the crew and the hockey team and started its lift-off procedure. The plane taxied down the runway and attained the V1 and V2 (recommended velocity for take-off), but the plane did not go air born. Eventually the pilots thought they were a bit slow so they might be able to do it a bit later with a bit more speed, but they fell short of runway. After a lot of toil the plane finally got into air but the sudden rise of nose to twenty degrees created a lot of drag in wings and the plane went to stall. It hit a radio tower and rolled sideways and finally crashed into the Volga River not far from the runway. 43 dead bodies were found only two had survived. Among the two survivors was Yaroslavl’s star player Alexander Galimov. So what caused this horrific accident which shook the world?

Investigators came across twenty eyewitnesses and a runway camera and found out the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, which are always important for any kind of air disaster. The main reason for the accident was inability of the plane to take off. So investigators started their investigation on this perspective. There are three factors responsible for a plane’s take-off. They are:-

• ENGINE THRUST: - The engines must provide adequate amount of thrust for this purpose.
• LIFT: - The wing flaps must be fully extended to get aerodynamic lift
• PROPER ANGLE: - Horizontal stability should be angled to keep tail down and bring the nose up.

Flight data recorders showed all this instruments were properly aligned, but saw a sudden decrease in acceleration even if the engines provided the proper thrust. The investigators found out from the landing wheels obtained from the crash site that the brakes were being applied during the lift off procedure. (But how?)

Digging into the pilot’s flight record, investigators found out that the pilot and the first officer had trained in different versions of JAKA planes, which is not allowed in different airlines. They were JAKA 40 and JAKA 42. Let’s have a look at some of their technical aspects

• JAKA -40- These are Soviet made planes first introduced in 1968. These could carry a total of 38 passengers.
• JAKA-42- These planes are upgraded JAKA-40 with an air turbo engine and could carry three times the number of passengers.

But the main point of discussion is the design of the brake pedals in the cockpit. The YAKA-40 pedal was such that the pilot’s foot was completely cupped in it, while the YAKA-42’s pedal was such that the foot’s heel remained on floor. If one tried to cup his foot on the pedal it would put pressure on the upper part of the pedal accidentally turning on the brakes. Investigators also found out that the pilots didn’t have required hours of flying experience and the first officer was secretly undergoing neurological treatment. His disease had symptoms where he lost senses of his limbs, still airline provided them with pilot licenses.

On September 12^th the last surviving member of the team Alexander Galimov also lost his life fighting his injuries.

After all this the airlines was to be blamed and the complete company was shut down.

This incident took a lot from the lives of people in Russia. The world lost a huge personality in form of “Evan Kravchenko” (Team Captain). He used to donate billions of rubles to helpless children in Russia. Reports say just minutes before take-off he donated to a girl in Moscow whom he had never met.

“Long Live the team”

Zeebrugge Ferry Capsize

English Channel is one of the busiest sea route in the modern world. Thousands of people cross it every day. Many companies run ships(Ferry) across the route to transport people and their vehicles across this ocean's stretch. When a disaster struck such an ill-fated ferry this led to the worst maritime disaster in world history since the Titanic.

Belgian port of zeebrugge hustles with people throughout the year. It is a major destination for ferries crossing the English Channel routed towards this country. This port is built on shallow water and maintains a lot of traffic throughout the year.

“Townsend Thorensen” owned “MS Herald of Free enterprise” was en route from zeebrugge to Dover in England. It was to carry 80 crew members, 459 passengers, 3 busses, 81 cars and 47 trucks. At 5pm the lower deck started filling up with vehicles. After the lower deck was filled, in order to accommodate more, captain let some water into the lower hull in order to lower the ship's level and to let vehicles pass onto the upper deck.

The deck filling was completed in haste in order to cope with the departure time. A crew member named Stanley received a break and went to his chamber for a nap. However he had to perform a final part of his duty. He had to close the bow doors at the front of the ship which led the vehicles in. The ship started sail at 6:05 pm instead of 6pm with Stanley still sleeping in his cabin. Although it had its bow door open, with a hude opening at the front, it could have made it all the way to Dover safely. As you can see from the picture below.

The real twist lays here.

The captain and crew members feel a lot of pressure from company owners for the perspective of punctuality. In order to recover the lost time after around 12 minutes after the ship set sail, captain increased the speed up to 18 knots(maximum possible speed). And minutes later the ship was already sinking. Investigations show that within a speed of 12-13 knots the waves produced at front of ship(bow waves) always remained beneath the bow doors. But in shallow water of zeebrugge with speed of 18 knots created waves which reached up to the three-fourth height of the bow gates. As ship was already a meter lower, it let more and more water inside. With vehicles inside the ship inclined an angle of 30 degrees and due to buoyancy it returned back to initial position completing one oscillation. But due to inertia of motion, it inclined further more (point of no return) and capsized sideways onto an elevated terrain in the sea. Captain tried for a may-day call, but before he could do this, he got hit and got unconscious. This incident claimed lives of 193 people including crew. It turned out that the elevated ground beneath the sea actually acted as a Saviour by not letting the ship sink with people trapped within. This provided opportunity for rescuers to save people.

Zeebrugge suffered an ill fate. British government has made sure that such thing never happens again.

Always Be Prepared!!