Aircraft Accident Reconstruction ESI has been a leader in aviation litigation support since our inception in 1987.

Our Aviation Practice Group provides world-class aviation expertise with experienced staff located throughout the company. Over 70 technical personnel were involved in various aspects of aviation incidents last year, enabling the core group of over 20 to thoroughly analyze and report on all

aspects of aircraft accident reconstruction, from ultralights to airliners, including those listed in the box at right.

ESI capabilities in this area include:

Mid-air collisions

Airplane and helicopter performance analysis

Flight path reconstruction from radar data and on-board data recording

Safety and maintenance procedure evaluations

Analysis of control configuration, impact orientation, impact speed, impact direction, etc. using a thorough wreckage and site inspection

Flight testing with on-board data and video recording

Analysis of failed metal and composite materials

Fluid dynamic analysis

Biomechanical and occupant kinematic evaluations

Component and instrumentation inspections and testing

Airplane stability and control analyses

Analysis of piloting actions and expectations

Determination of ice build-up and its effect on aircraft performance characteristics

Models, mockups, and presentations

CVR and Sound spectrum analysis

Representative Projects

Our aviation engineering staff is well trained and experienced, from the scholastic perspective, as well as the practical one. Our backgrounds encompass such ranges of areas as maintenance, to design, to testing, to the

physics of flight, and the critical understanding of what can and can’t happen if the laws of physics are followed. Our staff is well published, even quoted by others in their cases, and we are often presenters, instructors and teachers to the many universities, industry organizations and groups, and technical committees and subcommittees involved with the development and review of proper procedures for the aviation industry. In addition to analyzing hundreds of general aviation accidents, we have played a major role in most high-profile aircraft accidents in the past twenty plus years, including:

• USAir 1016, the DC-9 windshear accident in Charlotte, NC. ESI analyzed the radar and flight data recording to determine the winds actually experienced during the airplane’s windshear encounter. The result was an understanding of the impossible task facing the crew during the encounter.

• Comair 3272, the crash of an Embraer 120 near Detroit in icing conditions. ESI performed detailed ice accretion analyses and combined it with airplane performance, cockpit voice recorder, and flight data recorder analyses to show that the crash was caused by the failure of the crew to use their ice protection system and maintain sufficient airspeed. • ESI performed an accident reconstruction involving an in-flight breakup of a Piper Saratoga as it was maneuvering to land. ESI determined that the breakup resulted from an encounter with wing-tip vortices from a Boeing 737 that passed through the same area.

• USAir 427, the Boeing 737 crash near Pittsburgh. ESI metallurgists used a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to determine possible causes of a jamming of the servo that directs hydraulic fluid to the rudder actuator. ESI aviation experts then modified and tested an actual 737 to show the effect

of a jam on rudder operation. Finally, ESI analyzed the data recovered from the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder to show that the airplane performance during the upset was consistent with a servo jam. • American Airlines 1420, the MD-80 crash at Little Rock. ESI modeled the landing performance of the airplane and proved that the runway overrun was caused by the failure to deploy the spoilers when the airplane touched down.

• ESI analyzed the FedEx MD-11 landing accident at Newark in 1997 in which the airplane entered a pitch oscillation and hit hard on the right main landing gear.

The gear strut pushed up through the main spar and the airplane rolled upside down and burned. ESI analyzed the flight data recorder information to show that the loads on the right main landing gear that were a result of the combination of vertical speed, lift decrement, roll rate, and roll acceleration far exceeded the FAA design requirements and failure was assured.