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EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED
THE EVOLUTION OF THREAT AND ERROR MANAGEMENT
by Stan Dunn
United Airlines flight 173 departed Denver’s Stapleton Airport on the afternoon of December 28, 1978, bound for Portland, Oregon.
Sitting in the left seat was a journeyman captain who had accumulated nearly 28,000 hours of flight time in a career spanning three decades. The flight plan called for 31,900 lbs of fuel to be consumed on the hop. The aircraft departed the gate with an additional 14,800 lbs in order to meet IFR requirements plus a 20-minute buffer (46,700 lbs total). Remarkably, the Douglas DC-8 would crash in a wooded area short of Portland’s Runway 28L three hours later due to fuel exhaustion. Of the 189 occupants aboard the flight, 10 perished. Another 23 suffered serious injury. Ironically, the empty fuel tanks saved lives by eliminating the potential for a post-crash fire.
May 2022 / TWIN & TURBINE • 7
