Breaking News: 747SP Crashes, Crew escapes with odd vehicle.
Early this morning, Private Spaceways Flight 2890 was coming in for a landing. At 4:32 AM, the crew selected 20 degree flaps. The modified 747SP had a retired STS OV-103 on the back of it. It was transporting it for a launch near Wright North Air Base. The heavy vehicle was not properly installed, and an extra 3 tons of weight was on the right support strut. Under that strut was the flaps and trim hydraulic cables. The fluid moving through the tubes created pressure on the trim tubes. Instantly, 100% trim was set. The plane pitches up violently, until there wasn't enough pressure to keep the plane moving. At 4:33 AM, the captain yells "FULL POWER!". He declared a mayday and the plane fell into a flat spin at 3,000 feet. Descending at 7000 ft/m, the pilots decided to do something no crew have ever done. The captain told the flight engineer to get the shuttle flight systems ready. He told the first officer to step on the right rudder as hard as he could. The second officer got the ladder to get into the shuttle ready. The captain got the ejection systems ready and armed the ejection sequence. The second officer opened the door and the captain set an ejection timer for 30 seconds. Everyone ran into the shuttle. The captain and second officer were starting the engines. They first officer set up the drag cap covering the engines to jettison. Once they ejected, the drag cap exploded off. The pilots forgot one crucial step in their checklist: Pressurization lock. Without, the shuttle could decompress and implode into itself. At 4:37 AM, the captain gave controls to the first officer and he inspected the shuttle for visible damage. At 4:41, he came back into the cockpit. At 4:43, the shuttle passed flight level 120. The captain ordered him to hold there for a second. At 4:45, three National Guard F-16s intercepted the aircraft the was not responding to radio calls and was seeming to fly suspiciously. The F-16s realized it was the shuttle, and turned back. Finally, the captain gave the first officer permission to ascend up to 22,000ft. They wanted altitude to work with if there a catastrophic control failure. At 14,000ft, the Master Config Reset warning light went off. This meant they weren't properly configured to ascend above 15,000ft. Ascending at 100 feet per second, this alarm wasn't early enough. At 5:01 AM, a massive explosion is heard. Seconds later, the attitude indicator vacuum low warning lit. 2 minutes later, all instruments had failed. The shuttle was banking left very sharply. Using the full ailerons and rudder, the pilots leveled the shuttle. The captain orders gear down, and it falls down by gravity, as the hydraulic supply controlling it was shredded by the explosion. The explosion ripped out most panels in the right fuselage. Luckily, the hydraulic systems 1 and 2 are contained in the top and left sides of the shuttle. Based on his general knowledge of the area, the captain steered the plane to an approach at Wright Int'l Airport. On approach, the second officer opened the emergency kit and took out the binoculars. He saw a plane taxiing onto Runway 36, but that wasn't a problem. The captain wanted to land on the Delta 1 and Delta 2. He saw planes refueling there. They had to land on the grass field. They knew that the field between the runway and the taxiway was their only option without risking a go-around. They would have to slow down to a stop in 2,904 feet or they would hit taxiway Bravo and would most likely break apart and their fuel would explode. The second officer told the captain if they deployed their thrust reversers in mid-air they could slow down in time to stop before hitting taxiway Bravo. 250 ft. from beginning of the field, the first officer enabled the thrust reversers. The pilots didn't know what their airspeed was and they were making an optimistic guess based on their throttles. 50 feet before the field, they deployed the parachute. The air directional indicator was indicating a stall. The radio altimeter was one of the only functional instruments. "40", "30", "20","10", "RETARD". On the ground, a backup system inside of the nosewheel used the rotation of the wheel to determine the shuttle's speed. They landed at 190 knots. A shuttle optimal landing speed is 220 knots. They came to a complete stop with 212 feet to spare from hitting taxiway Bravo. Private Spaceways improved its policies and has modified their 747SPs to have the control cables moved from under a heavy strut.