United Airlines Flight 173

Introduction
United Airlines Flight 173 was a passenger flight from New York to Portland with a stop in Denver. The aircraft crashed when it ran out of fuel whilst on approach to Portland International Airport.

Pilots
Captain Malburn McBroom, First Officer Roderick Beebe and Flight Engineer Forrest Mendenhall were the three pilots for the flight, and it was what went on in the cockpit that caused the accident.

The Distraction
65 minutes before the crash, the pilots were going over the landing checklist as Portland Airport was nearby. But after putting the gear down, a thump was heard in the cabin and cockpit. This was the left gear falling down instead of being slowly lowered. This was a basic mechanical failure, but this created an issue. When a gear comes down by falling, this means the gear lock isn't working. What this means is that when the aircraft lands, the left gear will be extremely weak, and could collapse. Captain McBroom asked ATC if they could go into a holding position around the airport while they diagnosed the problem, and ATC allowed them to do so.

Getting On The Ground
After multiple circulations of Portland, the plane was now running low on fuel. Passengers were warned of the emergency landing due to faulty gear, and the captain wanted as much time as possible in the air so passengers could prepare. The longer before the landing, the less fatalities. This can be seen in a later accident, British Airways Flight 38, when a Boeing 777 ran out of fuel and crash landed short of the runway. That accident had zero fatalities. Captain McBroom wanted to make another circle before landing, which would take another 15 minutes. Flight Engineer Mendenhall alerted him that they only had 14 minutes of fuel left, but Captain McBroom went ahead with the circle. This was due to superiority in the cockpit, which lead the First Officer and Flight Engineer to think the Captain made all the decisions, and so they did not challenge this move. The plane was nearing the end of the final circle when an engine flamed out. Then another, then another and then the last one. All four engines had run out of fuel and could no longer run. It was after this that the first officer realised that without any more fuel, they weren't going to make it to the airport. Captain McBroom was so focused on his landing gear that he had forgotten about the fuel, and now they were in this situation. Flying over the largest city in Oregon with no fuel. They had to find a safe space to land, and fast. Eventually they spotted a large area of land that looked like a field. They could make it there, and it looked like a safe place to land. But as they got closer, they realised it wasn't a field, it was instead a housing estate filled with trees. They had no other options, and had to go in. The plane crashed to the ground, luckily missing multiple houses.

The Definition of Lucky
The aircraft had miraculously missed many trees, and the cabin was left nearly unharmed. A fire had not broken out, meaning the passengers had no threat of danger. 179 of the passengers and crew made it out alive, with 24 sustaining injuries. Both Captain McBroom and First Officer Beebe had made it out alive, however Flight Engineer Forrest Mendenhall, the lead flight attendant and 8 other passengers had not. An 8-year old was awarded $900,000 in damages from the airline after both of her parents were killed in the accident.

Not A Isolated Case
After investigators had found what went wrong on board United Airlines Flight 173, they discovered this wasn't a isolated case. A list of similar accidents were found to have taken place not long before the accident.


 * An Aeroflot Tu-124 had to ditch into the Neva River after circling an airport for 2 hours when the Captain was distracted by a faulty landing gear. No one was killed.
 * Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed after in a holding pattern when the pilots got distracted by a nose gear light issue, and in doing so accidentally disconnected the auto-pilot, causing the aircraft to slowly descend into the Florida Everglades. 101 people were killed. An almost identical case occurred when SAS Flight 933 crashed into the ocean and killed 15.United 173 Site.jpg
 * Avicana Flight 52 crashed after being left in holding patterns for most of the flight, and the aircraft ran out of fuel. 73 were killed.
 * United Airlines Flight 2860 crashed after being places in the wrong holding pattern, and the aircraft crashed into a mountain. It killed all 4 on board.
 * The Tenerife Airport Disaster, the worst air accident in history, was caused by a lack of communication between two sets of pilots.

After further training was given, accidents similar to the ones above began to dry out, and are now an extremely rare cause of an accident.

May those ten passengers and crew rest in peace.