What: Aero-Services for Trans Air Congo Ilyhushin IL-76T freighter en route from Pointe Noire to Brazzaville
Where: Brazzaville
When: Nov 30 2012
Who: 32 fatalities, 14 injured
Why: The Armenian crew fatalities of the crashed Trans Air Congo cargo jet have been named:
Varazdat Balasanyan, born in 1949 (captain of the crew)
Ara Tovmasyan,
Andranik Gevorgyan
Edgar Avetyan,
Tadeos Hovhannisyan
Two of the crew were not Armenian.
Compagnie Africaine Aviation flight BU-2311 suffered a nose gear steering system failure at Mbuji Mayi Airport, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on April 16th.
The incident happened when the plane was backtracking to depart for Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The plane became disabled on the runway.
Everyone aboard remained unharmed.
View larger photo here
Contact photographer Iam Lim
What: Yemenia Air Airbus 310 flight 626 en route from Yemen’s capital Sanaa to Moroni
Where: Indian Ocean near the Comoros archipelago
When: Monday June 29, 2009
Who: 142 passengers, 11 crew ( 6 Yemenis, 2 Moroccans, 1 Indonesian, 1 Ethiopian and 1 Filipino). 66 on board were French Nationals. A young girl survived. 5 bodies were found.
Why: Airbus attributes the crash to bad weather. The crash occurred on the pilot’s second attempt to land. The first landing was aborted because of 50 mph winds. The plane had circled to make a 2nd attempt and was flying low and impacted the ocean. Earlier reports described a “u turn.”
The 19 year old plane has 51,900 flight hours. Two years ago, aviation officials reported problems with this plane. Fifty-one percent of the airline is owned by the Yemeni government. Forty-nine percent is owned by the Saudi Arabian government.
Its fleet includes two Airbus 330-200s, four Airbus 310-300s and four Boeing 737-800s, according to the company website.
Comorian President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi cut short his attendance at the AU summit in Libya to return to Moroni to “mourn alongside those who lost loved ones in the crash.” He expressed “condolences to the Comorian people and to the affected families.”
Yemin call center: for more info contact the call center at 00967 1250800 or the emergency No 00967 1 250833 or call center 00967 1 250800 #IY626
Gen. Bruno de Bourdoncle de Saint-Salvy is the senior commander for French forces in the southern Indian Ocean. The islands are considered a French “department” and 80,000 immigrant Comorans are domiciled in Marseille. The general is quoted as saying that the Airbus 310 crashed 9 miles north of Comoros and 21 miles from the Moroni airport.
Reports of a toddler being found have not been verified; but when a young girl could not grasp the ring that had been tossed to her, Sgt. Said Abdilai jumped in the water and rescued her. The water was apparently too rough to recover more than five bodies. No other live victims have been found.
Comoros honorary consul in Marseille, Stephane Salord calls Yemenia’s planes “flying cattle trucks” and is quoted saying “This A310 is a plane that has posed problems for a long time, it is absolutely inadmissible that this airline Yemenia played with the lives of its passengers this way,” he said.
The plane in question has been also referred to as “ancient, old, elderly, and geriatric.”
There are complaints about Yemenia Airlines:
Safety breaches have put this area on a French “watch list.” A group called “SOS Voyage aux Comores” claims Yemenia Airlines is run by “cowboy operators.” They list complaints like:
src: http://www.douniaweb.net/webradio/index.php?2008/09/06/248-sos-voyage-aux-comores-6-septembre-2008
According to Airbus, A380 wing cracks (“non-critical wing rib-skin attachments on a limited number of A380 aircraft”) are a non-issue because they “do not make the planes unsafe.”
The plan is to use scheduled 4-year maintenance checks called “D-Checks” to screen planes for signs of cracking.
We are just curious if this was a manufacturing error or a design flaw. And even if it is not a safety issue, the idea of just waiting around till a scheduled check seems chancy at best.
On April 13, 2013, a Bandung to Denpasar Lion Air Boeing 737-800 en undershot the Denpasar Airport runway and ditched in the ocean—literally falling from a height of 55 yards. All of the 101 passengers and 7 crew got out alive, but at least twenty people were injured.
On impact, the plane broke in two. The brand new plane was delivered to Lion Air on March 28, 2013.
Passengers were evacuated into rubber boats. The injured were taken to three hospitals. No serious injuries were reported.
The pilot had 10,000 hours in the air.
Something happened. The investigation will do its best to pinpoint what exactly could knock out a plane with weeks of service. But with no serious injuries in a plane that is cracked in half, I have only two things to say: two best safety devices are 1) a well built plane and 2)a well-trained crew.
We’re posting this only hours after it happened. So expect updates when more information is available. Initial reports can be prone to misinformation.
What: Congo Republic (Aero Fret Business?) Antonov 12 cargo plane en route from Pointe Noire to Brazzaville
Where: SE of Brazzaville-Maya Maya Airport, in the cemetery of the village of Nganga Lingolo
When: Wed Aug 26, 2009
Who: Five 5 Ukrainian crew and one Congolese passenger
Why: Radio contact was lost at 3000 feet and the rear of the plane was on fire prior to impact with the ground. One report says “The airplane broke up in flight.”
Approaching the runway, the plane crashed in a cemetery.
What: Beechcraft plane owned by Air Serv which provides air transport for international aid agencies. The plane was being flown by South Africa’s Cem Air.
Where: eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
When: crashed into a mountain near Bukavu. The plane was last contacted in heavy rain 10 minutes from Bukavu
Who: 15 passengers and two crew members. Most of the passengers were aid and relief workers.
Why: The weather is considered a factor but no cause is listed as yet. UN rescue teams are “securing the site and searching for and recovering victims’ bodies.” No survivors.
