| | | | |

Spanair JK5022: Final Report

Update
What: Spanair Flight JK5022, a 15-year-old MD-82 jet en route to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.
Where: Madrid airport Terminal Four
When: Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008 2:45pm
Who: Carrying 166 passengers and nine crew, at the time of this writing, the number of fatalities had mounted to 154 people.
Why: The jet swerved off the runway and caught fire during takeoff.

The final report of Spanair Flight JK5022 was released, it claims that the pilots failed to deploy the flaps for takeoff. The report blames the crash on “pilot error.” The automated voice warning to alert the crew did not sound.

Already more than one hour late, the flight experienced a technical issue with the plane (a sensor reporting excessive temperature in an air intake, and the temperature sensor was de-activated on the ground) that forced the first takeoff attempt to be aborted when there were failure signals taxiing away from the terminal. The aircraft was inspected and then tried to take-off for the second time, which ended in the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board said that “that the probable cause of the accident was the flightcrew’s failure to use the taxi checklist to ensure the flaps and slats were extended for takeoff. Contributing to the accident was the absence of electrical power to the airplane takeoff warning system which thus did not warn the flightcrew that the airplane was not configured properly for takeoff. The reason for the absence of electrical power could not be determined.”

A similar disaster occurred in the Northwest Flight 255 in Detroit in 1987 when 154 people also died in an MD-82 due to incorrect flap settings.

As a consequence, Spanair and McDonnell Douglas now require a TOWS* system check prior to every flight.

The Interim Report is available here.

Final report (Spanish).PDF

*The Take Off Warning System is part of CAWS. TOWS provides alert warnings on the following components involved in the configuration of the aircraft for takeoff: Flaps, Slats, Brakes, Auto brake, Auto spoilers, Spoilers and Stabilizer Trim.

To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.

Similar Posts

  • | | | | |

    United Airlines Flight Makes Emergency Landing in San Francisco

    United Airlines flight UA-892 made an emergency landing in San Francisco, California, on January 3rd.

    The Boeing 747-400 plane was flying from Seoul, South Korea, when the crew entered a hold, reporting a loose flap track fairing cover.

    The plane continued for a safe landing. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • |

    OAG Reports Air Travel Growth, Over 285 Million Seats Offered Worldwide

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — OAG (www.oag.com), the global leader in aviation intelligence reports that worldwide scheduled airline capacity increased 5% in February, year-on-year, to a total of 285.7 million seats. The number of flights increased 4%, to 2.3 million departures worldwide during the month.

    In its monthly Frequency and Capacity Trend Statistics (FACTS) report, OAG finds all regional markets recorded year-on-year growth in February, with the exception of capacity to and from Central and South America. This region lost 3% of its seat capacity, when compared to the same month last year, feeling the impact again this month of the loss of Mexicana services.

    Although capacity fell in Central and South America, overall; within Lower South America, scheduled capacity increased 12% year-on-year. The Brazilian market is showing the strongest growth in the region, with a 14% increase in domestic capacity in February compared to the same time last year.
    “The current expansion in some South American markets may be at the height of a growth period. The impending rationalization of carriers in the region, and the development of larger alliances such as that proposed by the LAN Group and TAM, could lead to capacity consolidation as network rationalization occurs,” said Peter von Moltke, Chief Executive Officer, UBM Aviation.

    Year-on-year, the two fastest growing markets in the world are those to and from the Middle East, and to and from Asia Pacific, in terms of frequency of service. The total number of flights offered to and from the Middle East grew 13% to a total of 49,014; flights to and from Asia Pacific increased 13% to a total of 55,965.

    Scheduled frequency and capacity to and from Europe was the second fastest growing region among the largest markets with scheduled capacity increasing by 11%, to a total of 21.3 million seats; frequencies increased 10%, to a total of 93,558. Growth within Europe, however, increased a modest 2% in both seat capacity and the total number of flights to a total of 59.5 million seats and 493,150 flights.

    “Medium to long haul carriers continue to build their presence in European markets, with the objective of securing greater shares of the longer haul markets, which traditionally deliver higher yields,” continued von Moltke. “Carriers such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways will continue to increase flights and open new markets as their development progresses, and increased frequencies to a number of European destinations are expected by these airlines throughout the year.”

    The number of scheduled services both within and to and from North America remained constant year-on-year, although a slight increase in average capacity per flight resulted in more seats being offered. Total capacity to and from this region increased 3%, to a total of 15.5 million.

    This data comes from the February 2011 edition of OAG FACTS (Frequency And Capacity Trend Statistics), a monthly report with interactive graphs to display performance trends of specific airports, routes, countries or regions, sourced from OAG’s consolidated database of global airline schedules. A more detailed review of this month’s OAG FACTS statistics – including information about specific regions, routes and airports – is available to download at: (http://www.oagaviation.com/OAG-FACTS-February-2011-EXECUTIVE-SUMMARY

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | |

    Symposium Announced: Airline Code-Sharing Arrangements and Their Role in Aviation Safety


    Date and Location:
    October 26 – 27, 2010
    NTSB Conference Center

    Short Description:
    The goals of the symposium are to (1) elicit information on the structures, practices, and oversight of domestic and international code-sharing arrangements; (2) gain insight into best practices regarding the sharing of safety information between airlines and their code-sharing partners; and (3) to explore the role that a major airline would have in the family disaster assistance response for an accident involving a code-sharing partner. These areas will be explored through presentations from major and regional airlines, industry organizations, and representatives of the traveling public.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | |

    Small Plane Crashed near Steamboat Springs Airport; No Injuries Reported

    A small plane crashed into a snowy field near Steamboat Springs Airport, Colorado, on January 22.

    It is believed that the 1959 Beech K35 aircraft lost power shortly after taking off from the airport.

    The pilot, who was the only one aboard, remained uninjured.

    The FAA and the NTSB are investigating.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | |

    Proposed Brazilian Airline Restrictions

    Defense Minister Nelson Jobim announced plans to for an escape area at the end of the notorious Congonhas runway and limits on operations in wet conditions.

    Proposed rules would restrict destinations to a 620-mile radius of the Congonhas airport; it would also bar connecting flights

    Plans include limiting the number of passengers, and restricting takeoffs/landings to 33 hourly, and cutting passenger capacity from 5,100 per hour to 4,700.

    Operations at Brazil’s busiest airport were reviewed after an airliner ran off the runway and crashed into a building on July 17, the deadliest air accident in the country’s history. The 620-mile limit would eliminate tourist destinations in the northeast. One wonders if they are deliberately targeting the American market.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | |

    AirBlue Flight 202 Remembered

    This day, July 28 is carved in history as the day 146 passengers and six crew boarded an Air Blue plane to Islamabad Pakistan. They arrived in heavy rain going the wrong direction and flew into a hillside. They arrived, but they went up in a cloud of blue fire and black smoke. They arrived, but the families who were waiting for them in 2010 will be waiting forever.

    Airblue Flight 202 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight which crashed on 28 July 2010. We can remember the crash, and write it on our calendars to remember the event again next year, and the year after that. Our remembrance, unlike all the kings horses and all the kings men, will not put together those who were lost; but it will give us an opportunity to also recall the report of the crash. That report is notorious now; it was missing transcripts, black box recordings, and evidence. It was repudiated by the Peshawar High Court, a landmark pronouncement in itself. The lack of transparency, the lack of scholarship and truth has consequences in future Airblue and Pakistan flights. This is because, in order to fix the problems, problems must be reviewed, analyzed, taken apart, studied, examined in the clear light of day. Problems are opportunities for correction. The examination of such flaws is the only way that future tragedies can be prevented.

    It is probably the saddest thing of all that the problems on this flight could have been prevented with adequate CRM (crew resource management) training. Simply put, CRM is methodology designed to improve efficiency. A crew well-trained in CRM knows how to step up and handle issues when the pilot in control has lost touch, as it appears happened on Flight 202.

    We can only hope that Air Blue and other Pakistani air carriers are now undergoing adequate CRM training that will give flight crews procedures that will enable them to survive.

    To the families who lost loved ones and friends in this tragedy, let us all again make our condolences. We can only hope that time will ease your loss.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.