July 10, 2009
Posted: July 10th, 2009 06:29 PM ET

From

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A preliminary report on the mysterious deployment of an evacuation chute aboard a Barack Obama campaign plane last summer appears to close the book on one potentially embarrassing possibility - that Secret Service agents inadvertently tampered with the chute mechanism during preflight security checks.

"An internal (Secret Service) investigation ... revealed that no (Secret Service) personnel or ... support personnel interfered with or altered the aircraft's ... tailcone evacuation slide," a National Transportation Safety Board report says.

Then-candidate Obama was on the MD-81 charter aircraft at the time of the July 7, 2008, incident, accompanied by his staff, Secret Service personnel, reporters and the plane's crew. An airline mechanic was also on board and was seated in the rear of the aircraft not far from the evacuation slide in the plane's tailcone.

But neither the flight crew nor the mechanic heard the chute deploy shortly after the plane took off from Chicago's Midway airport.

The pilot first noticed that something was amiss when the plane's nose-up pitch continued to increase, even without his input, the safety board said. The pilot regained control using the control column and stabilizer pitch trim inputs.

The plane diverted to Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and made an uneventful landing.

The report says lines of "grease-like material" were found on the slide, seemingly confirming early speculation that the inflated slide had rubbed up against the plane's control cables.

While the report does not give the cause of the incident, it does hint at two possible factors that, acting together, could have caused the chute to deploy.

It says investigators conducted tests in an effort to recreate the incident. In one test, forward tie-down straps were left unsecured. When an inflation lanyard was released the slide inflated, pushing aside its cover in much the same manner as the 2008 incident.

Investigators also said flight recorder data shows the plane took off at a steeper-than-usual angle, and there was sufficient inertia "to allow an unsecured slide cover to rotate open" and inflate the slide.

But safety board investigators generally warn against people drawing early conclusions about the causes of accidents, and spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said a final report is expected later this summer.

The evacuation chute mechanism on the McDonnell Douglas plane is unlike those found on many commercial planes. The chute is deployed when a mechanism in the plane's aft bulkhead door jettisons the plane's tailcone. The tailcone falls away from the plane and an attached lanyard pulls open a cover over the evacuation chute, the safety board said. This in turn rotates the slide pack and a second lanyard triggers an inflation cylinder that inflates the slide.

The Obama plane's chute had been inspected one month before the mishap, the report said, and "no anomalies were noted."

After the Obama plane mishap, Midwest Airlines, operator of the charter, released a maintenance bulletin adding an additional check to ensure the security of the slide cover tie-down straps.

Updated at 1:55 p.m. EDT

Filed under: President Obama


Peter E   July 10th, 2009 11:31 pm ET

Back early 20th century it was 'bear hunting accident.' By later that century it was 'skiing accidents.' At the start of the new millenium it became 'plane crashes.' Call it what you want, they happen more frequently to politicians, and especially when an untimely death would be very convenient for their opponents.
Of course, one can just be direct, like they were for JFK and RFK.

Limbaugh is a liberal   July 10th, 2009 11:25 pm ET

I'm sure the GOP will use this to 'show' that Obama is making the country less safe... even though the Secret Service in 2008 was still under Bush Jr.'s control, and Obama hasn't changed a single homeland security policy since then, (other than increasing funding for it) not even domestic spying.

Zac   July 10th, 2009 11:23 pm ET

Thanks, CNN – now I can sleep tonight

Dan, NY   July 10th, 2009 11:21 pm ET

Who cares.

makesUwonder   July 10th, 2009 11:21 pm ET

That's what I love about CNN.com...........they are on top of the news

JAY   July 10th, 2009 11:13 pm ET

Obama should have been in the senate doing his job the
American people were paying him for. If he wanted to fly
all over the country campaigning for president he should
resigned from the senate.

the rector   July 10th, 2009 11:00 pm ET

Why did a candidate for the presidency have a ss detail? This is exactly what is wrong with the economy and this country. As long as we treat these people like they are irreplacable and invaluable, they will keep screwing us to the wall. Just think about this, the bush twins have, at this very moment, several well paid government employees "protecting" them. Protecting them from what? There are ex-judges, ex-preses and their famalies who "require" secret service protection because they have all contributed so much to the world that the loss of any of them would spell disaster for us all. Put these public servants in their place, behind the rest of us! Sorry for the rant, but the article missed this very illuminating facet of american politics and I felt compelled to illeterate it for anyone who is interested in an alternative view.

Frank   July 10th, 2009 10:57 pm ET

Yeah, nothing to see here... except maybe the evil hand of Dick Cheney at work. I have never underestimated the depths to which Cheney will stoop. For eight years he and Bush lied to us, and thousands of Americans died in Iraq as a result of those lies.

AJ   July 10th, 2009 10:45 pm ET

How do you do something like this inadvertently? Looks like a cover-up or a whitewash to me.

Pat K   July 10th, 2009 10:42 pm ET

I assume this problem would not exist on Air Force One.

Let us learn......   July 10th, 2009 10:27 pm ET

As a maintenance supervisor and former mechanic for the last 29 years in the manufacturing field, I've come to realize that things rattle, shake, move, break, wear-out, fray, and break, sometimes just because "God (or whoever your deity is) deemed-it-so". Even, oh my gosh, human error. Physics is still not a perfect science, much as we would like to believe, that is why we call it science. We are learning every day. This is why we have investigations. To learn. Even 'Brand New' products fail that are made to exacting standards.

Let us allow the investigators do their jobs without hinderance, redefamation, or snide. it is a difficult process. Been there, done that, got people off the hook that were presupposed guilty when they were not. Also taught good men and women how to do their jobs better through proper training.

I seriously doubt there is any conspiracy. Maybe, could be.....but I doubt it.

Let us learn from this incident for the safety of all of us that fly our nations airlines.

I would hope for that patience and respect. How about you?

Thank You.

Jeremy   July 10th, 2009 10:22 pm ET

CNN....When are you going to replace John King shame with something serving and deserving? We are tired of his pure Republican coverage! CNN,earn your neutral respect back or bring in Sean Hannity and Rush to support King.

Pamma   July 10th, 2009 10:21 pm ET

Bush is to blame!!

George Washington   July 10th, 2009 9:58 pm ET

what does this have to do with allowing CEOs of failed companies to rediculously receive large bonuses?

Mark,B'ham,Al.   July 10th, 2009 9:50 pm ET

Did they check and see if the maintenence was done overseas or did an illegal immigrant (one that overstayed his VISA) do the work here in the USA. Both have been happening alot to national airlines.

Tatianna   July 10th, 2009 9:38 pm ET

For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really embarrassed of my country

HDOBSIYE   July 10th, 2009 9:30 pm ET

this is news to me. Was it around the time Clinton talked about the possibility of an accident happening? Please check the timing.

Concerned Douglas Pilot   July 10th, 2009 9:28 pm ET

For those of you who fly on commercial airlines, this is a very important story. Forget the political aspect.

The entire fleet of Douglas narrow body aircraft have the same slide/tail cone system. If it's possible for a slide raft to inflate inside a tailcone, the results could be catastrophic if the inflated slide comes in contact with the flight control cables.

I will be interested to see what comes of the final report.

stevie   July 10th, 2009 9:17 pm ET

didn't they blame this on bush?

phoenix86   July 10th, 2009 9:11 pm ET

Meanwhile, back in Iran...North Korea...2+ million unemployed since Obama took over...increased taxes for all Americans......

Joe in Austin   July 10th, 2009 9:10 pm ET

Wow, an uncontrolled pitch-up attitude is really dangerous. I hadn't heard of the issue before.

Randall in Torrance - Desert Storm Veteran   July 10th, 2009 9:09 pm ET

Two possibilities here. The first one is that Cheney, Limbaugh, Rove or some right wing hate group saboteur tried to sabotage the plane. The second possibility is that there is a poorly designed piece of equipment that must be replaced immediately. The Department of Defense and probably the FAA has a safety mishap reporting process in place whereby whenever there is a mishap or potential mishap resulting from faulty equipment that can cause the loss of life or limb, the plane is grounded until the problem is fixed to 100% operational capacity. There should be zero guessing about this. This is an engineering problem it seems that can be identified and correctly repaired. But, if Obama was not flying on a DoD aircraft, then my hunch is that it was due to random circumstances that nobody noticed during pre-flight checks or routine maintenance. But at least now President Obama is flying on Air Force One, which is probably the best maintained aircraft in the world. The DoD has the best safety and maintenance process hands down. Everything is done with meticulous detail and no flight is released unless it is for certain the aircraft is completely safe to fly.

neo-facism in the 21st century...   July 10th, 2009 9:08 pm ET

I would be inclined to wonder about the dubious role of bush's "secret" service in having the unexplained events happening around obama that rendered his life in somewhat jeopardy. Remember folks, that these individuals did work for gwb, at the time. How convenient, if something were to happen to obama in mid-flight. Good thing he survived it, I don't think anyone could tolerate another eight years of adolf w. bush, or joseph "dick" stalin in power. Just the fact that they used illegal wiretaps (WITHOUT going first thru the FISA court!), or the illegal circumvention and blatant disregard for the geneva conventions, or the illegal war that was a war of choice (cheney bullying cia employees into saying that saddam had wmd's when cheney knew full well that they didn't but went there daily until they relented. I don't like that bush-cheney illegally gave up our cia operatives' identity for political gain, that was not cool. All told, the overwhelming majority of americans want the bush regime put to trial for High Treason and breaking the law. But, the lawmakers will never give in to the american public, because they are just as guilty as the bush administration officials.

Sam I Am   July 10th, 2009 8:54 pm ET

It's a little disconcerting that anyone would even question the Secret Service. But if you read article, the Secret Service cleared themselves of any wrong doing. Let's see, hmmmm.....sounds a lot like the Bush administration. Should we be worried?

I'm guessing this plane was actually meant for Palin, so she'd have the option to bail out on her job early.

is it ever the secret service's fault   July 10th, 2009 8:41 pm ET

and would they admit it or talk about it?

Ryan   July 10th, 2009 8:40 pm ET

I thank god that no real accident happened though. We need god's son alive and well making policy that he thinks will actually work.

lkinopfl   July 10th, 2009 8:24 pm ET

Why are they off the hook???? Are they trying to kill the president or something????? Worse stuff than this has happened in our history before, hopefully this is not a repeat of some of the messed up crap that's happened. something is really fishy about this, I don't know, they need to straight up do a thorough investigation before just simply Dismissing something like this!

Michael, Pensacola, FL   July 10th, 2009 8:17 pm ET

Probably just one of the Hillarites (clinton) attempt to take him out during the campaign!

kevin   July 10th, 2009 8:17 pm ET

This story is lame. CNN is becoming more and more tabloid fodder!

Tom   July 10th, 2009 8:11 pm ET

The report doesn't say whether the Secret Service were Republicans or not. If so further investigation is deffinately waranted!

Michael   July 10th, 2009 7:34 pm ET

Bush caused this!

Steve   July 10th, 2009 7:30 pm ET

wonder if the CIA had anything to do with it?........ Ask Pelosi, she'll get to the bottom of it.

Carlos   July 10th, 2009 7:19 pm ET

Great now they can start working on the big photo op NYC joyride that the nobama ss took to the tune of about a million bucks.

Aspen Professor   July 10th, 2009 6:57 pm ET

SARAH did it!

Steve in NYC   July 10th, 2009 6:57 pm ET

It's Bush's fault!!!

SentSovi   July 10th, 2009 6:43 pm ET

Old, irrelevant news. C'mon! Is this really worth the on-line electrons?

jaye   July 10th, 2009 6:19 pm ET

Were any republicans around the plane???

turn Texas blue   July 10th, 2009 6:08 pm ET

Good post,I believe every word.hahaha

Robert   July 10th, 2009 4:46 pm ET

Im surprised that Levi Johnston has no comment on this....SHeesh

GOPBslapper   July 10th, 2009 4:44 pm ET

And of course the Secret Service would no more lie than the CIA would........whoopsie

Don   July 10th, 2009 1:52 pm ET

Wow now this news. I have been waiting for the truth to come out. Please don't hold back any longer. I am so exciting here I can not hardly stand it.

Comments have been closed for this article

subscribe RSS Icon
About The Ticker

The latest political news from CNN's Best Political Team, with campaign coverage, 24-7. Sign up for our twice daily Ticker emails. Got a news tip or feedback? For complete political coverage, bookmark CNNPolitics.com.

CNN=Politics Screensaver

CNN=Politics ScreensaverTap into the power of The Situation Room. Download this powerful new tool that keeps you posted on the latest political news from the campaign trail.
Download (4.1 MB, PC only)

twitter
@edhenrycnn: WH just revealed that in addition to Pelosi, President called leaders of AARP, AMA, and American Nurses Assoc after House vote
Updated: Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:06:47 -0800
@edhenrycnn: @JoshHoyos zero in on a specific area/niche instead of general assignment
Updated: Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:04:51 -0800
@edhenrycnn: @wonz did u expect the President to say anythimg negative about the bill?
Updated: Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:03:22 -0800
@edhenrycnn: @bsonder AARP did endorse Pelosi bill
Updated: Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:01:21 -0800
@edhenrycnn: Gop Rep. Tom Price, a doctor, says "Speaker Pelosi's 2,000-page bill represents an unmitigated disaster for the future of quality hcare"
Updated: Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:00:02 -0800
Categories
Powered by WordPress.com VIP