Tennessee fans avert disaster

Tennesseans' jet makes an emergency landing

Mike Watson/Special for The Republic

A plane full of frightened Tennessee football fans dumps fuel over Scottsdale and Tempe before returning to Phoenix for an emergency landing Tuesday.

By Mark Shaffer
and Jennifer Barrett
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 6, 1999

It started with a glance out the window.

Just after takeoff from Sky Harbor International Airport about 9:50 a.m. Tuesday, a passenger on a charter flight full of Tennessee football fans noticed the cargo door was open.

That led to cries among the passengers to turn the plane around.

Which led to an emergency U-turn and the intentional dumping of 9,000 gallons of jet fuel.

Which meant that a wide swath of Tempe, Scottsdale and Phoenix got soaked with the mist. And people stopped their cars, or climbed on roofs, to gape at the spectacle.

"My nose is burning and my wife's nose is burning," said Clyde James, a maintenance supervisor at an apartment complex near Scottsdale and Thomas roads. The smell lingered there for hours.

No one was injured in the incident, and the airplane landed relatively smoothly 10 minutes later, after climbing to about 2,500 feet.

Mike Watson/Special for The Republic

The Miami Air International plane that returned to Phoenix was examined by officials Tuesday to try to determine why the cargo door was open in flight.

But it was a harrowing experience for the 170 University of Tennessee fans aboard the plane. One 33-year-old man was later treated for a seizure, but it didn't appear to be related to the incident, said Bob Khan, division commander for Phoenix Fire Department.

"I just knew we were goners," said Allan Wainscott of Jackson, Tenn., whose window seat was above the cargo door of Flight 665.

"The whole plane was vibrating, and that door hit the side like a tremendous boulder 35 or 40 times," he said. "I'd hate to think what would have happened if we were any higher."

Two investigators from the Phoenix office of the Federal Aviation Administration were examining the plane Tuesday and will continue their investigation today, said Mitch Barker, an FAA spokesman.

Barker said the National Transportation Safety Board had expressed interest in the incident but had not dispatched investigators as of late Tuesday.

Ross Fischer, president and CEO of Miami Air International, said the plane suffered no structural or engine damage during the ordeal. Fischer said company workers were examining whether human error, a failed latch or some other reason caused the problems with the 6- by 8-foot cargo door.

"If the door was left open, there are lights -- very glaring lights -- that go off in the cockpit," Fischer said. "It would be hard to even taxi when those are on."

The plane has the same tail number as a Miami Air plane that was involved in two cabin decompression incidents five days apart in 1992. In one of the incidents, two passengers received minor injuries.

On Tuesday, numerous people who had been aboard the plane, still celebrating Tennessee's national championship victory in Monday's Fiesta Bowl, said a pilot announced that nothing out of the ordinary had been recorded on the airplane's warning system.

"We were going down the runway picking up speed, and this guy right in front of me looked out the window and said, 'There's a cargo door open,' " said Delisa Locke of Nashville.

"Everyone moaned about that, and we got the word very quickly to a stewardess."

Garnett Gardner of Nashville said, "Just as soon as we were airborne, everyone started yelling, 'Turn around!' to the pilot. Then it got quiet as a church inside as that door whacked the plane."

Gardner said he clutched his wife, Carolyn, and 13-year-old son, David, in the next terror-filled minutes. "We all let out a big yell when we got back on the ground."

Bill Fallati, a retired Nashville police sergeant, said he salutes the crew for pulling off the safe landing.

"The way that door was thumping every 15 to 30 seconds, everybody was going 'whoa' on the plane," Fallati said. "But they did a nice job of bringing it down in one piece."

Eyewitnesses on the ground said the plane left a trail of smoke as it circled around over Scottsdale, dropping streams of fuel from both wings over Scottsdale and Tempe.

Scottsdale spokesman Mike Phillips said one unidentified woman called to report that fuel was coming down "like a fine misty rain" on an apartment complex near Hayden Road and Palm Lane. She also reported that two people had been "saturated" by the fuel.

Rural/Metro Fire Department personnel went door to door in south Scottsdale making sure that no one was suffering any ill effects, said Marc Eisen, Scottsdale's emergency services director. Officials said the dumped fuel did not pose a health risk.

Phoenix resident Traci Schumacher was driving north on Scottsdale Road when traffic slowed and she noticed a line of people standing along the street, pointing to the sky.

"Everyone and their uncle were standing outside looking up," Schumacher said. "I was trying to drive and see what they were looking at."

What many thought they were witnessing was a plane crashing.

James said he was working in the laundry room when he heard a series of loud booms and ran outside. Looking up, he said, he saw a plane flying maybe 200 to 400 feet overhead, fuel pouring out of its wings.

The plane was so close, he said, he could see the open cargo hatch.

On the south side of Thomas Road, some residents had climbed onto their roofs to watch. James estimated there were more than 70 people outside looking up at the sky. Traffic slowed to nearly a standstill along Thomas and Scottsdale roads as drivers strained to get a view of the plane.

"I looked right into the plane," James said. "I didn't think it was going to make it."

Miami Air International, a small charter airline based in Miami, has been in operation since October 1991, Fischer said.

According to NTSB records, one of the company's airplanes -- which has the same tail number -- had problems with decompression while descending into Miami in December 1992, and a side window was blown out. One passenger received minor ear injuries. Another passenger's arm was sucked out of the window, and he suffered minor cuts and scrapes.

The cause of that incident was never determined.

The same plane was involved in another incident five days earlier in which another passenger window was blown out during decompression but no one was injured, according to FAA records.

Tuesday's incident, however, had much more serious overtones.

"You're flying and the damn cargo door opens. That's unreal," said Brad Hutchison of Nashville, who said he was still nervous two hours after the fact.

He also had his bags in his hand.

"I'm driving back home."

Airline officials said most passengers caught another flight and were expected to be back in Nashville late Tuesday night.

Republic writer Diana Balazs contributed to this article.

Mark Shaffer can be reached at 444-8057 or at mark.shaffer@pni.com via e-mail. Jennifer Barrett can be reached at 444-7113 or at jennifer.barrett@pni.com via e-mail.