Welcome to Air NASA
NASA Nearly Crashed the Vomit Comet on a Reckless Trip to Greenland, Motherboard
“NASA’s infamous “Vomit Comet” zero gravity airplane briefly served as a delivery plane for the Navy and a private company owned by an ex astronaut, which some of the plane’s crew members who filed formal complaints felt was a misuse of the craft, according to documents obtained by Motherboard. … In the first instance, NASA officials pressured the crew to transport a giant wooden engine from Houston to Costa Rica as a favor to a former astronaut, according to two of the crew members. Although the mission was successful, NASA seemed to deliberately avoid publicizing the flight. On another occasion that year, the crew was asked to deliver Navy cargo to Greenland even though members of the crew said the trip was unsafe, resulting in a “near fatal crash,” according to documents from a NASA Inspector General investigation. Despite conducting an investigation, the agency says it never reviewed a video that was taken of the incident, and never contacted one of the crew members who was deemed the “principal witness.”
Never underestimate the sense of ownership that NASA federal employees are capable of rationalizing, a sense developed and indoctrinated in them over many years. The goals, the rhyme and reason, all fall by the wayside, until one day you have the situation, and possible improprieties, even the disregard of safety, described in the article.
This sounds like something where even the investigators need to be investigated. And up, all the way back to Gerst.
Spilt their guts eh?
If the stats are correct Air NASA would be the deadest transportation operator out of all transportation.
On a related note, wasn’t there a legit Vomit Comet crash back in 1999 that killed twenty people?
No, but NASA did lose both its Convair 990’s. A Convair 990 that was used as an airborne observatory crashed after a collusion with a U.S. Navy P-3 at Moffett Field killing all aboard in 1973.
http://aviation-safety.net/…
A second Convair 990’s crashed taking off from March AFB due to a blown tire in 1985. Everyone survived but the aircraft was written off.
http://aviation-safety.net/…
I wonder if they flew parabolas on the way there?
Even if it only cost $75,000, wouldn’t it have been drastically cheaper to just buy some plywood in Costa Rica and build another mockup at the local site?
Found it. TAESA Flight 725. A retired Vomit Comet but a Vomit Comet nonetheless.
“It turned out not to be so clever an idea” is a huge understatement. The trip to Greenland to deliver cargo for the US Navy was clearly a bone-headed idea from the very beginning. The NASA C-9 “Vomit Comet” was not properly equipped to fly at those high latitudes either in terms of the navigational equipment on board, or in terms of the cold weather conditions.
And lastly, flying cargo is not at all the same as flying “zero-G parabolas”. All flight hours are not the same.