MBB team plane accident (everyone is okay)
Our team and everyone in our travel party is safe. Update on today's travel accident.
— Michigan Basketball (@umichbball) March 8, 2017
Thanks for your well wishes! #GoBlue 〽 pic.twitter.com/CJfrr5ONEJ
A lot of jet fuel on that thing just waiting to go, jeezus. How it affects their play tomorrow, I don't really give a shit. Glad they are all safe.
I was worried about freaking *driving* to work in SE Michigan today, due to downed power lines, tree limbs falling, grabage cans skittering across the road.
Yet someone thought it was a good idea to try and takeoff around 2-3pm, when winds were at their highest and gusting at up 55 MPH? Severe wind gusts during takeoff/landing are near the top of the list for danger in flight (which, generally speaking, is much safer than driving).
Wait until this evening when the winds die down. This looks like a chartered plane -- use some of that sweet Michigan cash and delay the trip a few hours.
A good 50% of the arrivals board at DTW are showing delayed right now, which sucks for my sister because she was supposed to get back from Emerald City Comic Con this evening and the chances of that happening are increasingly remote right now.
Actually seeing what they were attempting to do is scary as shit.
exactly!
Could the BTT reschedule some of the games tomorrow? If we can't get there as planned, is it fair to ask us to play at noon?
The wind is supposed to significantly die down by this evening. Michigan (and any other team) should be able to catch a flight around 7-8pm.
While not ideal, that's plenty of team for them to physically be there for a 12pm game tomorrow. Whether they will be "off" because of the travel plan changes, who knows? But TV contracts are lined up, tickets have been sold, etc.
Wow, that's terrifying. I am glad everyone is safe, though it sounds like someone did get at least a little bit banged up. Could have been a lot worse.
Also if I am the owner of a plan manufacturer that a competitor with the builder of plane they just crashed in, I am going to hire Derrick Walton to create a plane and/or marketing strategy to destroy their rival once and for all.
What a bizarre day. I'm glad everyone is well enough that we can discuss basketball implications about this, but seriously: how does this affect the team tomorrow? Friday if they make it that far?
this paragraph is pure gold:
"Also if I am the owner of a plan manufacturer that a competitor with the builder of plane they just crashed in, I am going to hire Derrick Walton to create a plane and/or marketing strategy to destroy their rival once and for all."
there is so much in there that made me laugh. It reminds of the whole "t-shirts in ohio" thing.
Get in, everyone. I'm driving this team to D.C. tonight.
Seriously, tho -- wow. I'm glad no one was hurt. Like others in this thread, though, I'm wondering why the attempt to take off was even made, knowing what they knew about the conditions.
Good to hear. That must have been terrifying.
They are all lucky to be alive. It looks like the landing gear collapsed after the plane left the runway. That implies some speed and a quick stop. We will have to wait for more details but I would imagine the effects on the body would be similar to being in a car accident. Having been in a couple you tend to wake up the next day very sore from the impact. It could be very difficult for this team to play a game at 12pm tomorrow. Not to mention having everyone spend twelve hours on a bus after being in a crash like that.
Glad they are genrally OK but very concerned about putting them on the basketball court within 24 hours of this incident.
You think skidding on a collapsed gear is analagous to a car crash? If by "car crash" you mean coasting to a stop after running out of gas, then maybe.
Less than a car crash, but much rougher than running out of gas.
You are assuming it slowly slid to a halt. Once the gear hit the grass it could have stopped very quickly. 30mph to 0 mph in 5 seconds is no big deal. If it happened in 1 second it would be like a car crash. The comment that people were banged up implies some amount of force was exerted on the passengers.
You think the gear just gently lowered the plane to the ground? The post you're responding to suggests that the gear collapsed upon leaving the runway. The amount of force required to collapse the gear is pretty harsh; that sounds a lot like a car accident to me. Not a fatal 60 mph head-on wreck, but a hard fender-bender for sure. That would have been a hard and scary hit.
As a stress engineer, I can tell you gear collapse quite frequently, often from fatigue failure. A 2g landing can collapse a gear if it has enough GAG cycles put on it. But anyway, this argument is moot since we don't have any actual details on the incident.
The plane rolled about 1000 ft past the end of the runway. The only major jolt wwas probably the ditch that collapsed the nose gear.
All in all the only people that were hurt most likely weren't belted in and suffered their injuries when the plane started braking hard, compounded by the jolts as it went onto the grass. Anyone wearing a seat belt should physically be fine.
That's a big plane to be forced down by wind. I assumed it was a small or medium-sized plane until I watched this. https://twitter.com/tylerjdavis2/status/839584612758220805
Very scary stuff!
An older plane, but plenty of them still in service. Seats well over 150 passengers when configured for regular travel (may have fewer seats, for more room for bigger passengers such as basketball players, for charter flights).
Don't know if we have any pilots on the board, but it would be interesting to know if this plane, typically, would differ in the type of tech & capabilities it has for dealing with wind gusts / shears versus planes built in the last 10 years or so.
It's an MD-83, virtually identical to the ones that American just retired or the MD-87/88s that Delta still flies.
Not sure yet why takeoff was rejected. If it was wind shear related there's really no advantage a new aircraft has vs an older one.
Thanks for the info.
Hopefully this is another way for the team to unite and keep playing well.
Man... I would be off in my game tomorrow too.
If they win tomorrow, it will be a miracle.
Yeah, it's from a 247 article, but --
No major injuries were sustained in the accident and the team will make their way to Washington D.C. by bus due to the severe weather in the area.
The forecast is calling for the winds to go down. Why not wait a few hours then fly?
They may not have an aircraft available on short notice. Another problem is the equipment is on the plane and can't be touched because the accident is being investigated.
https://twitter.com/tylerjdavis2/status/839584612758220805
Don't know how to embed. You can see plane went off runway and through a fence. At end of his short video you can see two players (one of whom is DJ) also taking pics.
Looks like DJ is limping!
Let's not alarm anyone.
It was a half second and I'm sure he, like every other human being who is trying to walk around today, is stumbling around trying not to fall over while being buffeted by 50 MPH winds.
half-serious, all alarmist
Could have been so much worse. Let's hope the team is unscathed mentally and physically.
That's a long bus ride to DC. Won't be a restful evening tonight.
I'm no aviation expert, but it sounds from that write-up that the takeoff was aborted at just about the last possible opportunity (plane was at "high speed."). I can't even imagine how freaking scary that would have been. I've been aboard a plane before that had some slight slippage during the taxiing process, but, thankfully, nothing remotely close to what happened here.
Edit: nevermind I somehow had it in my head they were trying to take off from DTW
Even in the article you posted, a supposed Illini fan trolled us. Just pathetic.
this was the extent...could have been catastrophic...Like some others I fear this will really affect them tommorow....how could it not? on the other hand maybe it will make them appreciate the game more and play the B!10 tournament lights out!!!!!