American City Business Journals

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3:08 PM PDT Tuesday, August 5, 2003

A loose bolt, uncorrected for as long as three months, caused an Emery

Worldwide cargo plane to crash shortly after takeoff from Mather Field on

Feb. 16, 2000, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

The "improperly secured and inspected" part led to the deaths of three crew

members.

The safety board issued 15 recommendations to the Federal Aviation

Administration for revised maintenance procedures, flight crew training, and

the repair and redesign of aircraft parts.

According to published reports, Boeing officials say they have already

changed maintenance and pilot training procedures for its DC-8 jets, and by

next summer will provide a kit to modify the nearly 150 planes still in

service.

"The event was a tragedy," said NTSB Chairman Ellen Engleman in a prepared

statement. "It illustrates the interdependence and critical roles and

responsibilities of each member of the aviation safety chain."

The maintenance errors that eventually led to the crash could have occurred

as early as November 1999, when the jet had its last heavy maintenance check,

or during subsequent maintenance, investigators found. They were unable to

determine precisely when the fatal error occurred.

Sometime after the Emery jet took off from Reno -- its stop just before

Sacramento -- the loose bolt fell out of a connection in the aircraft's wing

controls, investigators concluded. When the DC-8 made its take-off roll after

leaving Mather, the control tab for the right elevator hit the disconnected

rod that had been held by the bolt; the rod kept the control tab from moving,

which forced the plane's nose sharply upward.

"(D)espite the large nose-down forces the pilots applied to the control

columns, the pilots were unable to overcome the effects of the restricted

right elevator control tab," according to a summary of the NTSB

investigation.

The pilot reported trouble about 45 seconds after takeoff and tried to return

to the airport. The jet slammed into an auto auction yard near Douglas Road

and Sunrise Boulevard, killing the pilot and two crew members and starting a

fire that destroyed hundreds of cars and caused more than $1 million in

damage.

Emery -- which is changing its name to Menlo Worldwide and is owned by CNF

Inc. of Redwood City -- grounded its fleet of planes in August 2001 under

pressure from the FAA, which alleged that it had found more than 100 federal

violations in a series of safety inspections over a period of 18 months.

Emery in September 2001 agreed to pay a $1 million civil penalty, without

admitting wrongdoing.

The crash raised questions about the safety of proposals to develop land

around the airport and to make Mather the air cargo center for the region.

Early reports suggested the plane's cargo might have shifted on takeoff,

making the plane uncontrollable, but Tuesday's synopsis of the investigation

said the cargo loading was routine and the load met appropriate center-of-

gravity restrictions.

© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.