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| 2 flights bound for prison aborted |
| By Anchorage Daily News |
| Published: 09/30/2004 |
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Two jets flying dozens of Alaska prisoners to an Arizona prison on separate days this week ran into trouble and had to abort the flights after one lost engine power and another cracked its windshield at 20,000 feet, officials said. Both aircraft, an McDonnell Douglas MD-82 and a Boeing 727, were operated by the U.S. Department of Justice and were flying out of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, according to Clint Johnson, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board. No one was injured on either flight, said Johnson and Portia Parker, deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Corrections. Parker said her department contracts with the U.S. Marshals Service when it needs to transport large groups of prisoners to the private prison in Arizona that the state pays to house inmates due to overcrowding here. That's what was going on with the two flights that had problems this week, she said. The first episode, which involved the MD-82, occurred Sunday. Johnson said the plane was speeding down a runway at the airport with 112 prisoners and 17 crew members on board, going about 90 knots, when just before lifting the nose, the pilots heard a thump and the aircraft veered slightly to the left and lost partial engine power. The captain aborted the takeoff. At first the crew thought maybe the plane had blown a tire, Johnson said. A mechanic on board checked the landing gear but found no problems, Johnson said. The crew taxied back down the runway for an inspection. The prisoners were returned to Anchorage Correctional Complex, Parker said. It turned out that the plane had "significant damage" to the inside of one of its two engines, Johnson said. The cause isn't yet known. Airport officials did not find anything unusual on the runway, Johnson said. Johnson said that takeoff is one of the most critical times for engine problems and that the crew handled the situation correctly. The plane's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder will be analyzed at the NTSB's headquarters in Washington, D.C., Johnson said. It's also likely the damaged engine will be sent to its manufacturer to be inspected with the oversight of an NTSB specialist, he said. Investigators will look at the plane's maintenance, operations -- pretty much everything. MD-82s are in commercial use, Johnson said, so it's important to figure out exactly what happened. The second incident occurred Monday. Parker said it involved the same group of prisoners from the first flight. Johnson said shortly after takeoff, at about 20,000 feet, the 727's crew realized their windshield had cracked. They turned around and landed back at the airport, which is standard procedure in such cases, Johnson said. The prisoners were, once again, returned to the jail downtown. As of Wednesday evening, they were still there, said Parker, who declined to talk about future transports. |
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