Download Scapegoat: A Flight Crew's Journey from Heroes to Villains to Redemption AudioBook Free
"This is the type of case the Table has never had to deal with - a head-on collision between the credibility of any flight team versus the airworthiness of the aeroplanes." - NTSB Investigator-in-Charge Leslie Dean Kampschror. On Apr 4, 1979, a Boeing 727 with 82 travellers and a team of seven rolled over and plummeted from an altitude of 39,000 toes to within seconds of crashing, were it not for the crew's activities to save the plane. The reason for the unexplained dive was the main topic of one of the longest NTSB investigations in those days. While the crew's efforts to save TWA 841 were initially hailed as heroic, that changed when protection inspectors found 21 minutes of the 30-minute cockpit tone recorder tape blank. The captain of the trip, Harvey "Hoot" Gibson, consequently emerged under suspicion for intentionally erasing the tape in an effort to hide incriminating facts. The tone recorder was never evaluated for just about any deficiencies. From that minute on, the analysis was focused on the team to the exclusion of all other evidence. It was an investigation predicated on gossips, innuendos, and speculation. Eventually the NTSB, despite sworn testimony to the in contrast, blamed the team for the event by having incorrectly manipulated the controls, leading to the dive. This is the story of any NTSB investigation eliminated awry, and one pilot's decades-long challenge to clear his name.
