NTSB INITIAL REPORT....Obamas Campaign Aircraft...Near Tragedy

[rsmith6621]

Reporting from Washington -- Airplane control problems last summer could have led to disaster for then-Sen. Barack Obama and his presidential campaign, according to a report released Friday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

On July 7, 2008, a McDonnell Douglas MD-81 en route to Charlotte, N.C., and carrying Obama and 50 other passengers and crew made an emergency landing in St. Louis. An evacuation slide within the tail cone had inflated shortly after takeoff from Chicago.


Although the NTSB's final report -- and determination of probable cause -- is not expected until later this summer, Friday’s report suggested that the inflated slide and a nearby fractured walkway railing may have "impinged" on a set of elevator cables, interfering with the cockpit's ability to control the plane's angle, or pitch.

After liftoff, the captain reported that the airplane's pitch continued to increase without a corresponding flight control input and that the pressure required by the crew to level the airplane was "higher than normal." The airplane's pitch reached 20 to 25 degrees before the captain regained control, according to the report.


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-plane11-2009jul11,0,6369778.story?track=rss

[Botany]

1. I'll be the first

Dick Cheney was behind it. I wish I knew for a fact he wasn't.

[Catshrink]

2. Nah...

it was the Clenis.