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2012 Boeing 727 crash experiment
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Coordinates: 32°22′N 115°40′W / 32.36°N 115.66°W / 32.36; -115.66
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Televised crash test experiment
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AircraftAircraft typeBoeing 727-212 AdvancedAircraft nameBig FloOperatorWarner Bros. DiscoveryRegistrationXB-MNPFlight originMexicali International Airport
On 27 April 2012, a multinational team of television studios staged an airplane crash near Mexicali, Mexico. An unmanned Boeing 727-200, fitted with numerous cameras, crash test dummies and other scientific instruments, was flown into the ground. The exercise was filmed for television.
Aircraft and test site<br>[edit source]
The aircraft used was a Boeing 727-200 purchased by the television production companies, registration XB-MNP[1] (formerly N293AS).[2]
The site in Mexico was chosen because authorities in the United States would not allow the test to take place.[3][4]<br>The aircraft's original owner was Singapore Airlines.[citation needed] The last United-States-based owner was Broken Wing LLC of Webster Groves, Missouri, who then exported it and transferred it to a Mexican production company. Broken Wing is also the company that planned and executed the experiment.[5] The aircraft had been leased to Bob Dole's 1996 presidential election campaign by the then-owner AvAtlantic.[6][7]
Flight<br>[edit source]
Several federal permits by the Mexican government were needed before the remote controlled flight and crash could be performed. In addition, the Mexican authorities stipulated that the aircraft had to be flown by humans during part of the flight, since it would be flying over a populated area.
The flight was piloted by captain Jim Bob Slocum, then controlled remotely by Chip Shanle, a former United States Navy pilot who worked at American Airlines.[8]
The airplane took off from Mexicali International Airport in Mexicali, with three flight crew and three support jumpers, as well as a number of crash dummies, and with a chase plane Cessna Skymaster following close behind. As the flight progressed towards the Sonoran Desert of Baja California in Mexico, its occupants parachuted to safety via the 727's ventral airstair. Slocum was the last one to leave the jet, three minutes before impact. Shanle then flew the jetliner by remote control, from the chase plane.[8]
Aftermath at the crash site. Note that the cockpit broke off.<br>The jetliner hit the ground at 140 miles per hour (120 kn; 230 km/h), with a descent rate of 1,500 feet per minute (460 m/min).[9] Upon impact, the Boeing 727 broke up into several sections, the main landing gear collapsing with the cockpit being torn off the fuselage.
The zone of the crash had been cordoned off by security teams, as well as Mexican police and military, for the safety of the public.[10]
Aftermath<br>[edit source]
The crash site received a full environmental cleanup and salvage operation, under the supervision of Mexican authorities.[10]
Large sections from the crashed plane stored alongside Highway 5 in March 2016
Most of the large sections of the plane that survived the crash – including the majority of the fuselage, as well as the detached cockpit and nose section – were moved to a field next to Federal Highway 5 south of Mexicali at 32°30′05″N 115°23′48″W / 32.50139°N 115.39667°W / 32.50139; -115.39667, and were still there in December 2022.[11] However, satellite imagery taken in 2026 shows that nothing of the aircraft remains at the site.
Study result<br>[edit source]
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The conclusion for this test was that, in a case like this, passengers at the front of an aircraft would be the ones most at risk in a crash. Passengers seated closer to the airplane's wings...