Evacuation slide on Barack Obama's campaign plane brought it 'close to disaster'
An emergency aboard Barack Obama's campaign plane last July nearly had catastrophic effects after an evacuation slide inflated in mid flight, it has emerged.
It was just over a year ago that the pilot of "Obama One", as the presidential candidate's aircraft was dubbed, went through an extraordinary drama high above the clouds shortly after takeoff.
After leaving Chicago, an evacuation slide mysteriously inflated in the plane's tail section, preventing the flaps that controlled the aircraft's pitch from functioning properly. As he struggled with the controls of the elderly McDonnell Douglas, the pilot ordered an emergency landing.
A report released by the National Transportation Safety Board this weekend has revealed that the airborne drama was much more serious than the preliminary reports at the time showed. The inflated slide appears to have pressed against cables that control the plane's pitch causing it to shoot upwards at a 25 degree angle instead of a normal 20 degrees.
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
It was just over a year ago that the pilot of "Obama One", as the presidential candidate's aircraft was dubbed, went through an extraordinary drama high above the clouds shortly after takeoff.
After leaving Chicago, an evacuation slide mysteriously inflated in the plane's tail section, preventing the flaps that controlled the aircraft's pitch from functioning properly. As he struggled with the controls of the elderly McDonnell Douglas, the pilot ordered an emergency landing.
A report released by the National Transportation Safety Board this weekend has revealed that the airborne drama was much more serious than the preliminary reports at the time showed. The inflated slide appears to have pressed against cables that control the plane's pitch causing it to shoot upwards at a 25 degree angle instead of a normal 20 degrees.