25th Anniversary of Delta 191

[Mike Smith]

Twenty-five years ago today, Delta Flight 191 crashed on approach to Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport in a microburst. The crash led to major changes in meteorology, commercial aviation, and search and rescue. All of this has made us much safer -- the last downburst-related accident was sixteen years ago.

A long-overdue memorial is being dedicated at the airport this morning.

There is more here: http://meteorologicalmusings.blogspot.com/2010/08/25th-anniversary-of-crash-of-delta-191.html

Mike

 

[Michael Nicolaou]

I lived in Hurst at the time and can say that this was the one event/storm that made me want to get interested in learning more about eather in general. My dad and I were outside watching the hail core pass by and then heard about the crash. Still remember driving by the airport and seeing the damaged tank where the plane had hit.

 

[Tom Dulong]

My sister lost her husband on that flight. Delta was great. They flew me down from Denver the next day and set my relatives and me up at a hotel near the airport along with 100s of others. There were counselors, clergy, etc at our disposal.

While landing at DFW, I also remember seeing the crash site including the dented water tower.

They say bad things happen in threes. There was also a train crash that killed an engineer and burned a bridge on Hwy 36 near Broomfield, CO on that day. There was also a deadly hail storm and flash flood in Cheyenne, WY two days later.

The Flight 191 crash was what shifted my focus to aviation meteorology.

 

[john.sibley]

This is still studied in the college level met courses I took. It's a tragedy that so many were lost on that day. It's good that Delta stepped up to the plate.

 

[Jonathan Whitehead]

Mike,

As a meteorologist, a son with parents in the airline business, and a resident of the D/FW area, this event really hits home for me. Thankfully I didnt know anyone on board. I also own both books authored by Fujita, The Downburst and DFW Microburst. Most of whats in those books is way too technical and overmyhead but through the evolvoing technology of Doppler radars we can now see a microburst minutes before they happen through the Decending Reflectivity Core (DRC). There have been many AMS papers written on the DRC, one such paper by Wakimoto and Bringi revolved around a thunderstorm project back in the 80s called MIST that focused on pulse-storms in Alabama in the summer and how they used dual-pole radar to foresee a microburst before it occurred at the surface.
Wakimoto and Bringi

A more recent microburst event that occurred in the DFW area happened on Sept 21, 2009 in Burleson. That day a N-S line of severe storms organized W of DFW and moved east with one cell in the line putting out a swath of wind damage to 100mph in a very small area on W side of Burleson after sunset. The WFO here in FWD now uses that event in their SKYWARN presentations.

 

[Mike Smith]

Mike,

As a meteorologist, a son with parents in the airline business, and a resident of the D/FW area, this event really hits home for me. Thankfully I didnt know anyone on board. I also own both books authored by Fujita, The Downburst and DFW Microburst. Most of whats in those books is way too technical and overmyhead but through the evolvoing technology of Doppler radars we can now see a microburst minutes before they happen through the Decending Reflectivity Core (DRC). There have been many AMS papers written on the DRC, one such paper by Wakimoto and Bringi revolved around a thunderstorm project back in the 80s called MIST that focused on pulse-storms in Alabama in the summer and how they used dual-pole radar to foresee a microburst before it occurred at the surface.
Wakimoto and Bringi

A more recent microburst event that occurred in the DFW area happened on Sept 21, 2009 in Burleson. That day a N-S line of severe storms organized W of DFW and moved east with one cell in the line putting out a swath of wind damage to 100mph in a very small area on W side of Burleson after sunset. The WFO here in FWD now uses that event in their SKYWARN presentations.

Chris,

Thanks for the post. Let me offer a little background that might be helpful:

Fujita (with Byers) published the original "downburst" in Monthly Weather Review in February, 1977. The first of the formal research projects to find downbursts was NIMROD in northern Illinois, followed by JAWS in Colorado. You are correct about MIST, it came after the first two.

I was on the AMS's Aviation Meteorology Committee in the mid- to late 80's and I was a consultant and expert witness in the DL 191 post-crash litigation.

At the time of the Delta crash, many meteorologists and aviation professionals were still deeply skeptical of Fujita's theory in spite of the bountiful evidence that it was correct. Fujita was called in by Delta immediately after the crash. Within a couple of months, he had used the meteorological data along with the TriStar's digital flight data recorder (most were analog in those days and yielded much less info) to amass so much information that even the most skeptical were convinced.

Of course, Fujita didn't do it alone. By 1985, John McCarthy of NCAR and Patrick Clyne of Northwest Airlines were essential to getting the systems and training in place needed to end the string of downburst - related crashes.

I am so sorry to hear about your family's loss. As I state in the posting on my blog, today is a day to reflect on the losses so many families suffered in this horrible event. I am attempting to get the word out that some good came from the events of that tragic evening.

Mike

 

[Jonathan Whitehead]

Chris,

Thanks for the post. Let me offer a little background that might be helpful:

Fujita (with Byers) published the original "downburst" in Monthly Weather Review in February, 1977. The first of the formal research projects to find downbursts was NIMROD in northern Illinois, followed by JAWS in Colorado. You are correct about MIST, it came after the first two.

I was on the AMS's Aviation Meteorology Committee in the mid- to late 80's and I was a consultant and expert witness in the DL 191 post-crash litigation.

At the time of the Delta crash, many meteorologists and aviation professionals were still deeply skeptical of Fujita's theory in spite of the bountiful evidence that it was correct. Fujita was called in by Delta immediately after the crash. Within a couple of months, he had used the meteorological data along with the TriStar's digital flight data recorder (most were analog in those days and yielded much less info) to amass so much information that even the most skeptical were convinced.

Of course, Fujita didn't do it alone. By 1985, John McCarthy of NCAR and Patrick Clyne of Northwest Airlines were essential to getting the systems and training in place needed to end the string of downburst - related crashes.

I am so sorry to hear about your family's loss. As I state in the posting on my blog, today is a day to reflect on the losses so many families suffered in this horrible event. I am attempting to get the word out that some good came from the events of that tragic evening.

Mike

Mike,

Correct me if Im wrong but wasnt this crash the event that was the "straw that broke the camels back" in getting the 88D's passed through Congress? My senior synoptic professor, Dr. Ken Crawford at OU, said that something like within either some many days of the crash or the findings (cant remember which) that Congress authorized nationwide use of the 88Ds. Before that time, Congress didnt want to spend the billions of dollars that it would cost to deploy 50-70 88D's across the country when, at the time, a senator from Alabama was promoting this much less expensive (and much less effective) radar that a company in his home state was in the process of building.

Also, FWIW, I posted a link to your blog on my facebook page

 

[Mike Smith]

Chris,

Thanks for the link!

While I tell much of the "radar saga" in Warnings, let me boil it down here. I attended my first meeting, in Washington, pertaining to NEXRAD in January, 1979. While there were many frustrations and setbacks, the WSR-88D (it was supposed to have been deployed in 1988) program was well underway in August, 1985. That said, there were glitches until mid-1991. Ken was one of the people who correctly forced the issue that spring, leading Congressman Dan Glickman (in a hearing regarding the Wichita-Andover Tornado) to proclaim, "I want my NEXRAD!"

The 1991 glitches involved attempts by Raytheon to get the WSR-88D contract (awarded to Unisys) rebid. Raytheon ended up getting the TDWR contract. The TDWR program sprang up directly as a result of Delta 191.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: I believe you will enjoy reading about all of this in Warnings. It is a fast read. Even though it is non-fiction, it is written in "story" style. There is so much more in the book on this topic than I can post here.

Mike

 

[Mike Smith]

...a senator from Alabama was promoting this much less expensive (and much less effective) radar that a company in his home state was in the process of building.

I decided to make this a separate posting because it is a separate topic.

Yes, Enterprise Electronics Company, Enterprise, Alabama, had an "off-the-shelf" Doppler radar they were promoting in the early 1980's. They hooked up with Gary England and located a demonstration radar between OKC and TUL and sold a Doppler-based warning service under the name of First Warning. Enterprise had created the highly successful WSR-74C "local warning radar" and was highly respected.

Here are Gary's own words:

So in ’78 I found a company called Enterprise Electronics and asked them if they could build us a Doppler radar, and the reaction, as I recall, was that they had never thought about that. So, to make a long story short, I got with the people who owned the station, the Griffins, and talked them into – this was a long time ago – $250,000 was a huge amount of money – into developing the world’s first commercial Doppler radar. We got it in ’81 and in ’82, after I learned to use it, we issued the first public Doppler warning in history on television. That was March 1982. A tornado hit Ada and killed one person. So we didn’t invent Doppler. Doppler’s been around a long time, but we moved ahead with the private end of the business, the commercial end of the business, television.

The NWS of the time was adverse to "off-the-shelf" solutions, plus they wanted a 10cm radar than the 5cm radars Enterprise was building. So, they creates specs for their own radar leading to today's WSR-88D's.

Mike

 

[Chriss Lyon]

Thank you Mike Smith for reminding us about this tragic anniversary and for everyone else who added to the discussion. I'm an avid historian and one who has done quite a bit of research on several plane crashes. As horrific it is to know, I'm glad your article mentioned how much knowlege and advancement has come from this incident and even in tragedy we can overcome.

History is the best teacher. Thank you all for the reminder!

 

[Shane Adams]

I argued with a friend over this yesterday....coulda swore this happened in 1986.