He knew he would die in ‘a ball of flame’: One of seven dead in fiery crash at Afghan military base predicted death
YouTube A video posted on YouTube shows the plane stall and plummet to the ground.
DETROIT
— One of the seven Americans killed in a fiery 747 plane crash outside
of an Afghanistan military base that was caught on video told family
that he knew he would die “in a ball of flame.”
Jamie Brokaw was an experienced navigator who was no stranger to dangerous flying situations and had the skills to stay cool in the face of danger, according to close friend Chris Connerton.
“He was a very good person and very smart person,” Connerton told The Associated Press by telephone from Rochester, Minn.
Brokaw, 33, of Monroe, Mich., was among seven Americans killed Monday
when their National Air Cargo plane crashed near an Air Force base in
Afghanistan. Six of the victims were from Michigan and a seventh was
from Kentucky, said Shirley Kaufman, National Air Cargo vice president.
Connerton said Brokaw was a key reason he was able to make it through flight school in Jacksonville, Fla., where they met.
Connerton also described a harrowing flight two years ago from Toledo, Ohio, to an international flight expo in Lakeland, Fla. Connerton said ice had built up on the plane to the point that he could no longer get it to climb.
“If it wasn’t for Jamie’s navigation and know-how … we wouldn’t have made it,” Connerton said.
Killed along with Brokaw in the Afghanistan crash were maintenance worker Gary Stockdale, 51, of Romulus, Mich.; pilots Brad Hasler, 34, of Trenton, Mich., and Jeremy Lipka, 37, of Brooklyn, Mich.; first officer Rinku Summan, 32, of Canton, Mich.; loadmaster Michael Sheets, 36, of Ypsilanti, Mich.; and maintenance crewman Timothy Garrett, 51, of Louisville, Ky.
Building model planes and working on real ones comprised Stockdale’s passion, filling the family’s basement with models in his youth, jumping into aviation as a career at age 16 – and later working at two Detroit-area airports.
Stockdale also knew the dangers of flying, his older brother said Tuesday.
“He always said it was dangerous,” said Glenn Stockdale, 55. “He would always say, `You either will die in a car crash or a ball of flame in a plane.’”
Lipka had flown in Iraq as well as Afghanistan and had close calls before, said his stepfather, Dave Buttman.
“There was risk there all the time. He knew the risks. He volunteered to take the trips,” Buttman told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. “Basically, you’re taking your chances flying in there and he was just happy to be one of the pilots to do it.”
The Dubai-bound Boeing 747-400 – operated by National Air Cargo – crashed just after takeoff Monday from Bagram Air Base around 11:20 a.m. local time, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement Tuesday.
The accident site is within the perimeter of Bagram Air Base.
The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for downing the plane, but NATO said the claims were false and there was no sign of insurgent activity in the area at the time of the crash.
The NTSB said it will lead a team of three investigators to assist the Afghanistan Ministry of Transportation and Commercial Aviation in investigating the crash. But a ministry spokesman, Nangoialy Qalatwal, said Tuesday the ministry is not involved with the investigation because it occurred at a military and not a civilian airport.
Kaufman said the plane – owned by National Airlines, an Orlando, Fla.-based subsidiary of National Air Cargo – was carrying vehicles and other cargo.
Elena Garrett, of Jeffersonville, Ind., just across the Ohio River from Louisville, said ex-husband Timothy Garrett would have turned 52 on Saturday. They have two daughters together, ages 11 and 12.
“We’re all devastated,” Elena Garrett said about his death. “We were still best friends. He’s the best father I’ve ever seen (and) ready to help anybody. He would give the shirt off his back for anybody.”
Bill Hasler said his family learned Monday morning that his brother, Brad, was one of the crash victims.
“Brad was a wonderful father to two young children, a beloved husband to a wife who is expecting another child, a loving son, and the most loyal and supportive brother I could have ever asked for,” Bill Hasler said in a statement. “His influence in the lives of all of us who loved him is immeasurable, and our grief is indescribable.”
National Airlines was based until recently at Michigan’s Willow Run
Airport, west of Detroit. It carries cargo both commercially and for the
military, Kaufman said. She said the company employs about 225 people.
Summan had worked 2 1/2 years for National Air Cargo, said his wife, Rajnit Summan.
Rajnit Summan said she last spoke to her husband Sunday.
“I told him to be safe,” she said.
The U.S. military is “looking into the authenticity of the video,” Wired.com reports.
Wired’s Danger Room suggests a cargo malfunction could have caused the crash.
Jamie Brokaw was an experienced navigator who was no stranger to dangerous flying situations and had the skills to stay cool in the face of danger, according to close friend Chris Connerton.
“He was a very good person and very smart person,” Connerton told The Associated Press by telephone from Rochester, Minn.
AP Photos/Courtesy Stockdale Family This
undated family photo shows Gary Stockdale of Romulus, Mich. Stockdale,
51, is of one of seven Americans _ six from Michigan _ killed in a cargo
plane crash just after takeoff from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan on
Monday, April 29, 2013.
Connerton said Brokaw was a key reason he was able to make it through flight school in Jacksonville, Fla., where they met.
Connerton also described a harrowing flight two years ago from Toledo, Ohio, to an international flight expo in Lakeland, Fla. Connerton said ice had built up on the plane to the point that he could no longer get it to climb.
“If it wasn’t for Jamie’s navigation and know-how … we wouldn’t have made it,” Connerton said.
Killed along with Brokaw in the Afghanistan crash were maintenance worker Gary Stockdale, 51, of Romulus, Mich.; pilots Brad Hasler, 34, of Trenton, Mich., and Jeremy Lipka, 37, of Brooklyn, Mich.; first officer Rinku Summan, 32, of Canton, Mich.; loadmaster Michael Sheets, 36, of Ypsilanti, Mich.; and maintenance crewman Timothy Garrett, 51, of Louisville, Ky.
Building model planes and working on real ones comprised Stockdale’s passion, filling the family’s basement with models in his youth, jumping into aviation as a career at age 16 – and later working at two Detroit-area airports.
Stockdale also knew the dangers of flying, his older brother said Tuesday.
“He always said it was dangerous,” said Glenn Stockdale, 55. “He would always say, `You either will die in a car crash or a ball of flame in a plane.’”
Lipka had flown in Iraq as well as Afghanistan and had close calls before, said his stepfather, Dave Buttman.
“There was risk there all the time. He knew the risks. He volunteered to take the trips,” Buttman told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. “Basically, you’re taking your chances flying in there and he was just happy to be one of the pilots to do it.”
The Dubai-bound Boeing 747-400 – operated by National Air Cargo – crashed just after takeoff Monday from Bagram Air Base around 11:20 a.m. local time, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement Tuesday.
The accident site is within the perimeter of Bagram Air Base.
The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for downing the plane, but NATO said the claims were false and there was no sign of insurgent activity in the area at the time of the crash.
The NTSB said it will lead a team of three investigators to assist the Afghanistan Ministry of Transportation and Commercial Aviation in investigating the crash. But a ministry spokesman, Nangoialy Qalatwal, said Tuesday the ministry is not involved with the investigation because it occurred at a military and not a civilian airport.
Kaufman said the plane – owned by National Airlines, an Orlando, Fla.-based subsidiary of National Air Cargo – was carrying vehicles and other cargo.
Elena Garrett, of Jeffersonville, Ind., just across the Ohio River from Louisville, said ex-husband Timothy Garrett would have turned 52 on Saturday. They have two daughters together, ages 11 and 12.
“We’re all devastated,” Elena Garrett said about his death. “We were still best friends. He’s the best father I’ve ever seen (and) ready to help anybody. He would give the shirt off his back for anybody.”
Bill Hasler said his family learned Monday morning that his brother, Brad, was one of the crash victims.
“Brad was a wonderful father to two young children, a beloved husband to a wife who is expecting another child, a loving son, and the most loyal and supportive brother I could have ever asked for,” Bill Hasler said in a statement. “His influence in the lives of all of us who loved him is immeasurable, and our grief is indescribable.”
AP Photos/Courtesy Summan Family This undated family photo shows Rinku Summan of Canton, Mich.
Summan had worked 2 1/2 years for National Air Cargo, said his wife, Rajnit Summan.
Rajnit Summan said she last spoke to her husband Sunday.
“I told him to be safe,” she said.
The U.S. military is “looking into the authenticity of the video,” Wired.com reports.
Wired’s Danger Room suggests a cargo malfunction could have caused the crash.
Any airplane must be carefully loaded to maintain the center of gravity within a carefully designed and tested zone of the airplane. Cargo aircraft are always loaded so light things are far away from the “CG” and heavier things are closer to the CG. If the cargo inside the 747 were to break loose during take off, it would slide towards the tail, dramatically shifting the center of gravity to the back of the airplane. This would cause the nose to rise dramatically, and without sufficient power to overcome the extremely high angle of attack (the angle between the wing and the flow of air), the air flowing over the wings would “detach” from its normal flow, causing a stall where the wings can no longer generate enough lift to keep the airplane airborne.
Labels: Afghanistan, In Memoriam, United States
posted by Pieface @ 3:07 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home