MLive.com
New report sheds more light on Michigan basketball team plane crash
Updated on Apr 20, 2018 at 11:30 AM EDT
Nearly 900 pages of documents attempt to explain a decision a pilot made in 13 seconds.
The National Transportation Safety Board released a report last week as part of its ongoing investigation into the plane that was supposed to take the Michigan men's basketball team to the 2017 Big Ten Tournament last March 8.
Instead, the takeoff was aborted before the plane got off the ground at Ypsilanti's Willow Run Airport, with the Boeing MD-83 eventually plowing through a chain-link fence and into a ditch.
There were 116 people on board, including crew, but the only injury was to eventual Big Ten Tournament MVP Derrick Walton, Jr., who sustained a laceration on his thigh that required stitches.
The NTSB's report , which included statements from crew, exhaustive weather analysis, and equipment assessments, does not assign blame nor does it present a concrete conclusion of what went wrong.
It does not address the fact that weather updates were scarce -- the latest wind measurements the pilots received were two to three hours old, because the instruments had blown down.
The report does, however, confirm what the plane's passengers suspected immediately: It could have been a lot worse.
Interviews with Mark Radloff, the 54-year-old captain, and his co-pilot, Andreas Gruseus, along with a transcript of the cockpit voice recorder tell the story of the aborted takeoff.
The pre-flight routine was lighthearted and, in hindsight, ominous. "All right good luck. We're all counting on you," Radloff said, likely referencing a line from the satiric disaster filmAirplane! Later, Gruseus said, "Should be pretty fun getting this thing off of the ground, huh?"
Both expressed concern over the winds that knocked out power in much of the area, including the Willow Run control tower.
"I'm gonna call (and) ask can we legally use this weather?" Gruseus said. "Because I'm not, I'm not gonna have the FAA come afterwards, 'How did you guys take off outta there?'"
But the flight, carrying 109 passengers -- the basketball team but also family members of the staff, band members, and cheerleaders -- was cleared. Radloff initiated the plane down the runway at 2:51:55 p.m., with the expectation it would land at Washington Dulles International Airport 90 minutes later.
Radloff was troubled immediately. "He had about 4,000 hours on the DC9 types and knew exactly when the nose wheel should have come off the ground," Radloff's interview notes, "but on this flight it did not happen."
"Hey what's goin' on?" Radloff said, according to the transcript. The yoke, used to adjust the altitude of an aircraft, felt heavy. Thirteen seconds after the takeoff began, Radloff said, "Abort," and hit the brakes.
Gruseus did, too, though he didn't necessarily agree with the decision. "No. Not above -," he said, referring to a particular speed. "Don't abort above V-one like that." Gruseus, understandably, added a couple of expletives that were removed from the transcript.
Radloff explained to his co-pilot that he didn't have a choice. "It wasn't flying," he said.
The flight attendants realized something had gone wrong and alerted the passengers. "Heads down, stay down, heads down, stay down," one said.
The passengers evacuated the plane via inflatable slides. They were "incredibly calm and responsive," according to a flight attendant's statement. "The head coach stood at the bottom of the slide and assisted other passengers," he wrote, confirming previous reporting by MLive regarding John Beilein's leadership during the crisis.
The Wolverines flew on a different plane the next morning, arriving in Washington, D.C. just in time for a 12:20 tip against Illinois. Wearing their practice jerseys -- their uniforms were stuck on the badly damaged plane -- they won by 20 points. Michigan won three more games to become the first 8 seed to win the Big Ten Tournament.
A few weeks after the crash, the day before Michigan's season would end in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16, an NTSB report revealed that the left elevator , partly responsible for controlling an aircraft's pitch, had malfunctioned.
More than a year later, this latest, 881-page report, which includes more than 100 photos, delivers a thorough account of the aborted takeoff.
Those on the plane didn't need a report to explain the gravity of the situation. As one passenger told MLive at the time, "That pilot undoubtedly saved our lives. He knew something wasn't right."
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