And this recent one is even worse…1st of February, a cargo 747 was taking off when (as first report says) it seems like the cargo shifted all on the tail during rotation.
This, due to the exceptional AOA, conduced to a stall at just 1000FT…terrible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lksDISvCmNI
These things are always sad. We just have to hope there will be something new learnt from these accidents.
The only explanation I have so far heard on the 747s stall was due the likely factor that the cargo reinforcing cables/net snapped and shifted all the cargo into the back of the plane instead of the centre, shifting the centre of gravity far back and beyond possible recovery. Any recovery attempt would have failed because of the centre of gravity would be too far back, forcing a constant spin.
Why this is suspected, is because the cargo planes flying in and out of this afghan airport have very steep and extraordinary approaches and take-off lines, to avoid the chance of Taliban ground fire. This extraordinary stress could be the reason for a cargo failure scenario that really would never happen in normal flight conditions. But I would have suspected them to reinforce the cargo even further than normal because of this extra stress. Perhaps a wonky job by the cargo chief.
I have seen that Saeta in flight many times. The pilot was an expert fighter pilot in the Spanish Air Force, with real war missions in F18s in Lybia. He survived the crashm only to die a few hours later due to burns