Fireball In the Mojave

A jet crashes on purpose

Out in the clear desert daylight at Edwards Air Force Base north of Los Angeles, the big passenger jet circled at 2,300 ft, then started its descent.

The seat belts were buckled, the overhead compartments properly latched. The landing gear, however, was retracted: the Boeing 720 touched the ground hurtling on its belly at 170 m.p.h. Screeching along out of control, it rammed stanchions along the runway. Its left wing was ripped from the fuselage. Soon the plane was engulfed by an enormous fireball--and then a second fire. Not far from the crash zone, a crowd of witnesses, including Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole, calmly watched the whole explosive episode.

Nobody had been aboard, of course; the doomed jet was piloted by remote control for its final, 9 1/2-minute flight last Saturday, and the crash was an elaborately designed, $11.8 million "controlled impact demonstration" that the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA had been planning since 1978.

Yet if there had been passengers, all of them would have died in the inferno. That disappointed federal officials, since the most important goal of the test had been to see if a big fire could be prevented. The jet's 12,000 gal. of fuel contained an experimental anti-misting additive, years in development, that was supposed to prevent escaping fuel from forming a cloud of mist and then igniting into a deadly fireball. The test had been set up so that fuel would spill and be given a good chance to burn: the wings were shredded by 400-lb. blades that protruded from the Mojave Desert like giant can openers, and the landing surface was coarse gravel meant to throw off sparks as the plane slid along. Nevertheless, researchers were betting against the big fires that charred most of the plane and burned holes in its fuselage.

Not that the crash was a total failure. The FAA's overall purpose had been to monitor with sensors and cameras exactly what happens when a big passenger jet crashes. The Government was also trying out equipment that could make crashes more survivable, including rearward-facing seats and fire-resistant windows.

Strapped in the passenger seats were 72 dummies, including an infant-size one. Thirteen of the dummy passengers were fitted with sensors on the forehead, upper chest and pelvis to chart the effect of G forces on the bodies of crash victims.