Troop Plane’s Weight Was Underestimated at Takeoff

Federal investigators disclosed Friday that an Arrow Air military charter plane that crashed on takeoff Dec. 12 in Newfoundland was carrying at least 12,000 more pounds than the cockpit crew had calculated.

“We are not saying this caused the accident,” said National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Brad Dunbar. Airplane safety experts said, however, that weight is always an important consideration in preparing a plane for takeoff.

The NTSB recommended to the Federal Aviation Administration that airlines be required to pay increased attention to gauging the actual weight of passengers and their carry-on baggage. The FAA said that it “expects to promptly implement the practices recommended by the board.”

At present, pilots estimate the load by assuming an average weight of 170 pounds per passenger. In the case of the Arrow crash, which killed 248 soldiers and a crew of eight, investigators believe that the passengers and their luggage weighed at least 220 pounds each. The soldiers, in addition to being relatively hefty as a group, were carrying their military uniforms, helmets and guns.

Fuel Weight Was Less

Sources said that the extra passenger weight may have been offset by the fact that the plane was carrying less fuel when it took off from Gander, Newfoundland, than it needed when it took off before its flight across the Atlantic.

Canadian and U.S. investigators also are exploring other potential causes of the crash, such as ice on the plane’s wings. Light rain and snow were falling at the time of the accident, but the Arrow crew did not request de-icing of the wings.

The Arrow Air DC-8 charter was transporting members of the U.S. peace-keeping force in the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt to Ft. Campbell, Ky., for the holiday season.

The NTSB’s recommendation that the method of estimating passenger weight be reconsidered came after investigators spent a week in Europe tracking the plane’s route.

The NTSB was asked to make the recommendation to the FAA by the Canadian Aviation Safety Board, which is overseeing the accident investigation. The Canadian board made the same recommendation to Canadian authorities earlier this week.

The NTSB urged the FAA to tell airlines to use actual passenger weights, instead of estimates based on rules of thumb, for flights such as that of the Arrow charter, when the passengers did not represent a typical cross section of the public.

Arrow, based in Miami, declared bankruptcy Tuesday.