This fuel included the Federal Aviation Regulation requirement for fuel to destination plus 45 min and the company contingency fuel of about 20 min. During a post accident interview, the captain stated that he was very close to his predicted fuel for the entire flight to Portland."..or there would have been some discussion of it." The captain also explained that his flight from Denver to Portland was normal." (the Editors of AVweb, 1999) the captain was obviously responsible for this event because just like any captain at sea, he is, or at least should have been, the man There was some thought after the fact that maybe fuel gauges were broken. But that has been disputed. "I, too, was surprised to read in the Oregonian article on the 20-year reunion of the crash of UA173 that faulty fuel gauges were attributed to the crash. That is the first time I had heard about that. I was one of the Portland International FAA Air Traffic Controllers on duty that fateful evening." (KingRey, 1999) According to one of the controllers on the scene, at some point the UA173 crew announced they had gear problems and the controller offered the flight's captain the option of holding or landing. "Captain McBroom declined and canceled IFR. He elected to proceed southeast of the airport 20 miles or so, and circled for a period of time." (KingRey, 1999)

Who else was supposed to help and did the first officer or flight engineer fail to maintain vigilance in regard to the fuel situation and thus missed the opportunity to recommend a quick landing? It looks as though that is exactly what happened. Apparently everyone on board and on the ground was properly...

That is, if there had been enough fuel. "About 1738, Flight 173 contacted the United Airlines Systems Line Maintenance Control Center in San Francisco, California, through Aeronautical Radio, Inc. According to recordings, at 1740:47 the captain explained to company dispatch and maintenance personnel the landing gear problem and what the flight crew had done to assure that the landing gear was fully extended. He reported about 7,000 lbs of fuel on board and stated his intention to hold for another 15 or 20 minutes. He stated that he was going to have the flight attendants prepare the passengers for emergency evacuation." (the Editors of AVweb, 1999)
In conclusion, this report was a short investigative paper into the occurrences of United Airlines Flight 173 that crashed on December 28, 1978. In hindsight, crash reconstruction experts, on-flight recorders and eye witness accounts seem to point to a serious miscalculation in fuel capacity and therefore all of the guilt seems to point to the captain. He simply ran out of gas

References

KAKE News. (n.d.). Emergency Landing. Retrieved November 17, 2004, at http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/634811.html

KingRey, Ed. (1999, January 17). Close-Up: United Airlines Flight 173 -- a Controller's Account. Retrieved November 17, 2004, at http://www.avweb.com/news/safety/183017-1.html

The Editors of AVweb. (January 17, 1999). Close-Up: United Airlines Flight 173. Retrieved November 17, 2004, at http://www.avweb.com/news/safety/183016-1.html

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