Boeing 727 Passenger Jet Crash Experiment On April 27, 2012, an international team of scientists, experts and elite pilots deliberately crash landed a 170-seat Boeing 727 passenger jet to study the mechanics of a plane crash in real time. The jet was then slammed into the ground by remote control in a “high vertical load impact” where the plane falls short of the runway. It hit the ground at 140mph – the speed of impact in 80% of crashes – while 24 cameras recorded the result. The first 11 rows