The Vital Pressure

There was small cause for alarm when United Air Lines Pilot John Grosso reported, ten minutes out of Denver, that his Los Angeles-bound DC-8, with 122 persons aboard, had lost most of the pressure in its hydraulic system. The landing gear would still drop into place and lock. Once on the runway, Grosso might not be able to maneuver the steerable nose wheel, but reverse engine thrust would slow his plane down, and a reserve supply of hydraulic fluid would permit some operation of the main landing-gear brakes. As a last resort, the pilot could jam on the brakes with an emergency supply of compressed air. Grosso radioed for a routine stand-by of Stapleton Airfield's fire trucks and announced to the passengers that the landing might be "a little rough."

The $5,000,000 138-ton plane touched down on the east-west runway at about 130 m.p.h., rolled 1,000 yds., then swerved suddenly to the right. There was a staccato burst of explosions as all four tires on the right landing gear blew out. The big jet skidded wildly across the field for another 300 yds. Then it struck a parked truck and smashed into the unyielding, 30-in.-high concrete shoulder of a jet taxiway still under construction. The tremendous impact ripped loose the engines and landing gear. Orange flames crackled along the plane's left side and swept toward the rear.

Even before the ship settled to a stop, one passenger, Air Force Captain Clyde F. Autio, was tugging at a forward escape hatch. Stewardesses dropped collapsible chutes at emergency exits. A mother threw her baby 15 ft. to a man on the ground, then jumped herself. Other men and women leaped through the flames. But 16 passengers did not get out and died in the fire. In the demolished truck, Civil Engineer Henry Blom, 52, who had been quietly eating his lunch, died too.

Next day an Eastern Air Lines DC-8 approaching Miami also lost hydraulic pressure. Captain H. O. Hudgins, 50, brought the plane down normally, used up his reserve supply of hydraulic fluid and had to try the air brakes. They locked, all the tires blew out, and the plane careened off the runway. But there were no nearby obstacles for it to hit and no one was hurt. Back at Denver the day after that, another UAL DC-8 pilot on a training flight reported low hydraulic pressure, emergency rigs stood by, but the landing was normal.

Federal Aviation Administrator Najeeb Halaby saw no reason to ground the 96 DC-8s in service in the U.S., but issued orders for new procedures to conserve valuable hydraulic pressure when the landing supply runs low.

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