There was no clear video of last weekend's tragic Asiana Airlines Flight 214's crash landing that killed three passengers, but animation artists were quick to provide crude renderings of the accident. Now a former airline pilot and current forensic animator has created the most realistic and well-researched look yet at what probably happened last Saturday at San Francisco International Airport.
The video was created by former Boeing 727 pilot Jack Suchocki, who also happens to be a talented 3D animator who founded Eyewitness Animations, a company that provides aviation accident reconstruction animations for legal investigations. He told us he used Autodesk's pro animation software 3DS Max to create this super-realistic view of the crash landing.
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Notice the blue "ghost plane," flying on the correct path and altitude and giving you a clear look at where Flight 214 should have been when it landed. That ghost plane would actually have been flying much faster than the crash-landing plane, but Suchocki slowed its speed to keep it in the frame for comparison purposes.
Suchocki told Mashable he used multiple sources for his detailed reconstruction. To re-create the precise flight scenario — as well as match the runway events with the air-traffic-control chatter — he used "NTSB Press releases, NTSB press conferences, AirNav.com, Google Earth Pro, passenger statements, Flight 214 crew statements, FAA released radar data (also contained in NTSB releases) and LiveATC.net."
That's all the data currently available, but Jack says he'll keep updating this video as he gets more info. He said, "We will also be posting additional new segments and perspectives," adding that additional animations will include a "chase-view perspective which will show the difference in speed between our "ghost" exemplar aircraft flying at 137 knots and Flight 214."
He says, "We are also considering a segment demonstrating exactly how the Auto Throttle system works sometime in the near future." This is thorough work that's courtroom-ready, something that Jack and his company regularly produce.
Jack says the updated animations should be online by late Monday afternoon.
Video and screenshot courtesy YouTube, Jack Suchocki
- Charlie White, mashable
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