accident reconstruction
The remarkable technical team is what sets Rapperport Associates, Inc. apart. Our group of distinguished scientists and engineers is drawn principally from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. They have impeccable academic credentials and an impressive list of accomplishments. Rapperport Associates, Inc. offers exceptional capability in failure analysis, mechanical engineering design, structural analysis, metallurgy, electrical engineering, accident reconstruction, and fire and explosion investigation.
Selected Cases
Silk Air 185 Aircraft Accident:
On December 19, 1997 a Silk Air flight MI 185 was on a scheduled commercial international passenger flight routing Singapore – Jakarta – Singapore. The Singapore to Jakarta leg was uneventful. After completing a turnaround in Jakarta the aircraft departed Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at 15:37 local time with 97 passengers, 5 cabin crew and 2 cockpit crew for the return leg. At 08:37 GMT (15:37 local time) flight MI 185 took off, climbed to 35,000 feet and assumed a Palembang heading. At 09:05:15, the cockpit voice recorder ceased recording with no abnormal data. The last readable data from the flight data recorder was at 09:11:27. Jakarta Air Traffic Control radar recording showed that MI 185 was still at 35,000 feet at 09:12:09. The next radar return, eight seconds later, indicated that MI 185 was 400 feet below 35,000 feet and a rapid descent followed. The last recorded radar data at 09:12:41 showed the aircraft at 19,500 feet. The empennage (the tail section including stabilizing and flight control surfaces) of the aircraft subsequently broke up in flight and the aircraft crashed into the Musi River delta, about 50 kilometers north-north-east of Palembang at about 09:13. The accident occurred in daylight and in good weather conditions.
All 104 persons on board were killed and the aircraft was completely destroyed on impact with the Musi River. The wreckage had penetrated deep into the river bottom complicating recovery efforts. The impact force was so great and the destruction was so extensive that most of the recovered fragments from the river consisted of small highly distorted parts. Portions of the rudder skin and the outboard sections of the horizontal stabilizer were recovered on land, the furthest about four kilometers from the main impact site. About 73% by weight of the wreckage was recovered.
Our team was engaged to develop a simulation of the final flight path from pre-upset flight data recorder and recorded radar information, as well as wreckage locations to determine the final aircraft maneuvers and trajectory from the time it departed cruise flight until the end of recorded data.
Motor Vehicle Accident Reconstruction:
On March 9, 1991 a vehicle traveling at a high speed struck a tree and burst into flames in Nashua, New Hampshire, killing three of the four occupants. The sole survivor was thrown clear of the vehicle and claimed he was an innocent passenger. Our firm was retained to perform an accident reconstruction, occupant motion study and fire investigation. We established that the survivor was the vehicle operator and that the impact speed was approximately 75 mph.
Aircraft Accident Reconstruction:
On August 31, 1993 a fully loaded de Havilland Beaver crashed in Iliamna, Alaska with six occupants on board. Three passengers were killed, two passengers sustained severe closed head brain injuries and the pilot was hospitalized with minor injuries. As part of our analysis of the accident, we performed test flights on a similar aircraft to the incident one. Pre-crash maneuvers executed by the pilot of the accident aircraft were replicated at higher altitude (to allow for recovery). Stall characteristics were found to be predictable with stall initiation at the wing root. As a result of the flight testing, we were able to determine that the cause of the crash was pilot error and not a sudden and unpredictable wing tip stall followed by high wing snap roll.