Terrifying new revelation about female Frontier pilot's landing from hell
By WILL POTTER
A Frontier plane could have exploded in a fireball after a female pilot landed so hard one of the jet's wheels snapped off and was sucked into its engine.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board released the images as a new report detailed how one of the plane's wheels came off and was sucked into the engine.
The horrifying near-miss came on April 15 as the Frontier flight landed in Puerto Rico from Orlando, and footage from inside the jet showed its 228 passengers screaming in terror after the plane touched down on the tarmac.
According to the new report, the crew heard a loud bang from under the fuselage as the plane's monitor warned the captain of an engine failure when they made their initial descent.
This led the crew to abort their landing and perform several 'go-arounds', with air traffic control also reporting an engine fire. The report noted the crew said they only had an engine failure, however footage from inside the plane showed a fire on the wing.
The plane was being flown by a female co-pilot at the time with a male captain monitoring her, however he took over the controls as he decided the 'aircraft was too high, so she corrected with a shallow descent and then a gradual flare.'
The report noted that the aircraft was in a 'nose down' position and was in a 'takeoff/ go-around setting' when it first touched down, and it recorded a vertical acceleration of 2.2G's - far higher than the 1.8G's allowed for the Frontier aircraft.
The pilot went ahead with the landing, with footage from terrified passengers on board showing people screaming and praying as they noticed the flames from the plane before it landed with an aggressive thud.
The wheel from the landing gear broke when the Frontier Airlines aircraft tried to land on the runway at Luis Marín Muñoz International Airport in Puerto Rico last month, which sent 'metal fragments' into the engine, a new report showed
The horrifying near-miss came on April 15 as the Frontier flight landed in Puerto Rico from Orlando, and footage from inside the jet showed its 228 passengers screaming and praying as an apparent fire was seen on the wing
As the pilot took over and performed the landing, he decided to pass by air traffic control to see if controllers could see if the plane's landing gear was intact and appeared to be down, which a controller confirmed it was.
Once they landed, investigators found that the left wheel and tire on the nose landing gear had been severed from its axle, which led 'metal fragments' to be sucked into the left engine.
According to the NTSB report, 'damage was found on the engine's inlet cowl liner, thrust reverser, fan blades, and guide vanes' as a result of the wheel and tire being destroyed in the landing.
It remains unclear if the hard landing was the result of pilot error or an as-yet undisclosed technical or external issue that was beyond the pilot's control.
A full report with a conclusion on what caused the incident will be released at a later date.
Data from the preliminary probe showed the plane touched down with a 'maximum recorded vertical acceleration' far higher than the landing threshold on the Frontier aircraft.
There were no reported injuries as a result of the hard landing.
According to the new report, the crew heard a loud bang from under the fuselage as the plane's monitor warned the captain of an engine failure as they made their initial descent (pictured inside the plane filmed by a passenger)
Flight tracking company FlightAware showed that the aircraft circled the airport a total of four times before it made its successful landing attempt.
Luis Irizarry, who has investigated other aviation accidents, told WAPA television that the aircraft was not stable on its first approach.
'The plane was coming in, but it was in an unstable pattern. It wasn't stabilized for landing,' Izarrry said at the time.
'While trying to land, it hit the runway with its nose wheel.'
NTSB investigators have not fully established the cause of the hard landing, however expert Irizarry speculated that the pilot may not have had control of the aircraft as they made their descent.
'When the nose wheel hit the plane, the pilot grabbed it and gave it power to turn around. At that time, they shut down the left engine to avoid further damage and the possibility of it catching fire. They turned around and landed,' he said.
'The information we have is that the person flying was the copilot, and the copilot was a new pilot for the airline. When I say new, I mean a young pilot, with a thousand or so flight hours,' he said.
'Perhaps it was their first flight, flying solo and not with a supervisor or a trainer, and that's the situation we fear. That's why the plane wasn't stable because they didn't have it under control.'
A video recorded by Melanie González Wharton, who was on the flight with her husband and their two children, showed sparks coming out of the airplane's left engine.
Melanie González Wharton said cries and prayers were heard throughout the Frontier Airlines aircraft after it encountered mechanical issues on landing
The horrifying near-miss came on April 15 as the Frontier flight landed in Puerto Rico from Orlando
Irizarry's claim that the novice co-pilot was in control of the airplane seemingly confirmed González Wharton's initial concern.
'Oh my God, I knew it!!! Finally, the answer I wanted to hear,' she wrote on her Facebook page at the time.
'I said the same thing to Edwin [her husband], 'I have a feeling it was a trainee pilot who didn't know how to land properly.' They almost killed us.'
'It was a horrible experience,' she added to El Nuevo Día.
'While we were on the plane going around the island, we were crying, the children were screaming, people were praying, singing loudly,' she said. 'It was an unforgettable experience. It was horrible.'
Frontier Airlines said in a statement that the plane experienced a 'hard landing upon arrival,' but it landed safely and there were no injuries. It noted further that the incident is under investigation.
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