Inside Embry-Riddle's airplane crash lab

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University train to be crash investigators using real crashed planes
• "The benefit after figuring out what happened means that it's probably not going to happen again."

In a fenced-off patch of high desert, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is training future cash investigators using real-life wrecks.

The gate to the crash lab sits inside a giant circular engine cowling from a Boeing 747. Step inside and there are severed tails, broken cockpits and crumpled wings everywhere.

"It's a puzzle," student Julie Bales said. "I like puzzles. And the benefit after figuring out what happened means that it's probably not going to happen again."

The planes are from across the country. Private planes become the property of the surviving owners or their families once the NTSB is finished with its investigation. Embry-Riddle asked for donations and got a collection of wrecks, from small single-engine planes to larger commuter aircraft.

One, a Varga single-engine plane, sits under an awning, nose straight in the ground. The cockpit is almost unrecognizable. A single lap belt sits in what's left of the seat. The plane hit the ground so hard the pilot's body was cut in half.

"Half his body was still in the aircraft," student Eleazar Nepomuceno said, picking up the seatbelt. "The other half was pretty much launched."

But details like that help the students investigating the crash. The aluminum on both sides of the cockpit is crumpled like an accordion. That tells investigators the plane hit evenly, without spinning.

The real-life NTSB investigation found the pilot had failed his medical screening and wasn't certified to fly, but took off anyway. Nepomuceno says the pilot probably had a heart attack in midair.

Everything from radio communication to fuel levels and the weight of the passengers has to be taken into account.

"Some people pick it up faster than others," Nepomuceno said.

A few dozen yards away, another plane has been reduced to parts spread out over a large area. It was a big plane, eight or more passengers. The tail sits upright at one end of the field, a tangle of wires marks what's left of the cockpit at the other end.

Bales said when she first saw the crash lab, she didn't know where to start. But Nepomuceno explains that's why the lab exists. Students should see the debris field and methodically examine it.

In the large debris field, students should discover that the tail of the aircraft is charred, but only on one side. That should lead to them to the left engine, where faulty wiring caused an explosion in the fuel tanks, lighting the engine on fire.

It's hard, sometimes gruesome work. But that's what the students signed up for, and they believe their work is for the greater good.

"That's our duty to families of the occupants of the aircraft and to society in general," student Taylor Smith said. "To make aviation safer."

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