What: DHL Aviation (leased from Solenta Aviation) Antonov 26 Where: 2.3 km S of Libreville Airport, Gabon When: 06 JUN 2011 Who: 2 crew 2 passengers Why: The flight had permission to land when it began experiencing a hydraulic problem, and was flying with difficulty when it crashed into the sea near Libreville Airport. (Although reported as a hydraulics issue, both propellors had stopped according to witnesses, so it may have been a fuel issue. )
One passenger from Gabon and one Bulgarian passenger were on board. The two member crew was Ukranian.
The flight ditched in shallow water and the plane is still visible above the water line.
Gabon has banned Antonov 26 flights in its airspace until further notice
What: Home built “rag bags” kit plane Where: Nanaimo Airport, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. When: June 4, 2011 Who: pilot Dr. Bill Phipps, 71, of Campbell River Why: Six minutes into a planned eight minute exhibition before 1000 spectators at the Wings and Wheels air show, while supposed to be doing a four point roll, Dr. Phipps home built plane was “tail-on to the crowd and upright” and flew into the ground. A witness describes that “The right wing clipped the ground and he did a cartwheel.” Another witness said it was likely he stalled and that his wings lost lift.
Rag Bags was Phipps name for his home-built wood and fabric plane.
B.C. Ambulance and Cranberry Fire and Rescue recovered Phips, who was airlifted to Victoria General Hospital. He was in serious condition, with severe injuries but was stable Monday.
What: Cessna 172R Skyhawk Where: Tooele County-Wendover Airport – Kenv Utah When: June 1, 2011 Who: 4 fatalities Why: The pilot of the Cessna was making a fuel stop at Wendover airport when he ran into difficulty, termed “a tough crosswind landing.” He approached for touchdown, bounced and turned north to make a second pass, and crashed 400 feet north of the runway. The four men aboard died in the crash.
Wind is considered to be a factor in the crash.
The names of those aboard the flight are Lincoln Marshal Dastrup, 57, of Salt Lake City, Chad A. Wade, 38, of South Jordan, Justin Michael Yates, 37, of Lehi, and Harish Parashar, 53.
Three Spanair managers, the Spanair shift supervisor at Madrid airport, the maintenance manager and the quality manager, indicted for “negligent homicide” for Spanair Flight JK5022 will be appearing before a judge between June 20 and 22.
Malware in the mainframe software may have been involved in the crash.
What: float plane Where: Lac Labelle Laurentian Mountains, Quebec Canada When: May 30, 2011, 6 pm Who: 2 men aboard, 2 fatalities Why: The float plane crashed in the Laurentians in a lake resort area 160 km northeast of Montreal, between the towns of Alberton and Red River.
The two men’s bodies have been recovered with difficulty in the remote area.
What: Lonn D. Greiner’s Cessna 180 en route from Birchwood to Seldovia Where: Alaska When: May 27, 2011 Who: 5 aboard Why: Not long after a successful takeoff, the nose of the cessna pitched up, then it banked and fell. Witnesses say that the engine sounded fine.
The cessna crashed on train tracks, resulting in a fire. All 5 aboard were killed in the crash. The Alaska Railroad shut down the tracks until the wreckage was removed.
All aboard were members of the Greiner family from the Anchorage suburb of Eagle River. Lonn Greiner, 46, from Eagle River; three of his children, Glory, 13, Nathan, 11, and Grace, 10; and his 69-year-old mother, Carolyn Greiner. They were on a Memorial Day holiday.
Greiner performed jet maintenance at Ted Stevens Anchorage International.
So there you have it: the short version of the investigation’s reading of the Cockpit Voice recorder.
If you missed it, we have posted it here in this blog in it’s entirety:
If you don’t like the visual rendition, you can click at the bottom for the .pdf.
The problems seem to begin at 2 h 08 min 07; then at 2 h 10 min 05 autopilot & auto thrust disengages. The pilots note that the speeds do not agree,( which means the speeds are incorrect, and it is an indication that pitot tubes are malfunctioning. Around this time, ACARS sent a PITOT error message, which was not mentioned in the CVR summary.) The PIC (captain) re-enters at 2 h 11 min 40 and it is all downhill from there.
As far as we can tell, everything in the cockpit voice recorder still indicates that the main cause for this crash is Thales defective pitot tubes which froze over and sent incorrect data back. How could anyone make correct decisions without knowing the speed at which the plane was traveling? How would the pilots have discerned when the incoming data was faulty and which of it—if any—was correct?
Based on the pilots’ response to the stall, we can also reiterate points made at the February 24 hearing, where Justice Zimmerman pointed out a lack of training for pilots on how to respond to a catastrophic failure. Shouldn’t pilots (and not just the PIC) be trained in this procedure to the point that the correct corrective response is second nature? The time to try to figure out how to respond is not during the catastrophe, with 228 lives hanging in the balance.
There does not appear to be an emergency procedure from the manufacturer. (This was also noted in the February hearing by Justice Zimmerman.)
It appears that the plane stalled, and that could not be corrected in time to prevent the catastrophe.
So now, all eyes will turn to the DVR, which will hopefully help decode what happened mechanically in the stall.
And I do have questions about the notation, which seems to imply that even if autopilot is not online, some (background?) processes continue to be determined by digital input, which may be faulty. When the measured speeds are below 60 kt, the measured angle of attack values are considered invalid and are not taken into account by the systems. When they are below 30 kt, the speed values themselves are considered invalid. (Or I am misreading the data and the fact of unrecoverability is due to other system factors. It does appear that the Flight Control System is unwieldy or badly conceived.)
It seems to me as a layman, that this is a fly-by-wire conundrum. If the plane is in crisis, but it is logically disregarding the correct input when it is beyond a “safe or logical” range, then how can it be corrected, if there are no manual controls? (Not to mention no emergency procedures to fall back on.)
What: Aero Resources Corp. of Hazard Beechcraft 58 Baron en route from Georgia to Kentucky Where: Unaka, about 125 miles west of Asheville, NC When: May 25, 2011 Who: 4 fatalities: pilot Mat Shuey, Tiffany Maggard, Kassie Robinson and Miranda Morgan Why: Pilot Mat Shuey was flying at 9,000 feet, above the area peaks when he reported an emergency over North Carolina when it crashed north of Lake Hiwassee near the Tennessee border, and started a brush fire.
The wreckage was spotted on the afternoon of the 25th but the site was not immediately accessible. The pilot and three female passengers died in the crash. The four bodies were recovered by rescue crews on Thursday.
Tiffany Maggard, Kassie Robinson and Miranda Morgan, who had all graduated from a Knott County Kentucky high school, had been visiting a friend in Alabama. The pilot’s name was not released.
What: Air Charter Services Pvt. Ltd Pilatus PC-12/45 en route from Jagdish Memorial Hospital to Apollo Hospital. Where: Faridabad When: May 25, 2011 10:45 pm Who: 7 aboard, 3 on the ground, 10 fatalities Why: After the pilot reported flying into bad weather, the plane transporting a patient from a Patna hospital to Apollo Hospital (Delhi) and carrying two doctors, two attendants, the pilot and the co-pilot crashed onto the rooftop of two houses in Parvatiya Colony. The plane’s nose broke off and fell to the street below. It appears that local residents may have taken the propellor and other parts of the plane. It did not carry a cockpit voice recorder or a data recorder.
After the crash, the plane and scattered medical equipment remained on the roof. The 22-year-old patient, was Rahul Raj and the plane’s crew was Dr Rajesh, Dr Arshad, Captain Harpreet, co-pilot Manpreet Kataria, Ratnesh Kumar and male nurse Cyril. Rahul and Ratnesh were cousins, and both residents of Bettiah in West Champaran. Raj, who was in a coma and on a ventilator was being transported to treat jaundice and complications of hepatitis.
In the Sehrawats house, fifty five-year-old Vedvati, her daughter Sarita (19) and daughter-in-law Rani (20) died in their house in Gali, 3 Mukesh Kunj at 10.35 pm. Because of the heat, they were on the roof at the time of the crash.
Sobharam Sehrawats, his son Deepak, and nephew Yash were injured.
The other house that was damaged (but no fatalities) was owned by 37-year-old Chittaranjan Singh.
Both the 3 residents of the house(s) and the 7 aboard the plane were burned beyond recognition.
An Indian Airlines flight to Delhi which was due to leave at the same time stayed on the tarmac at Patna instead of flying into the strong winds.
The plane disappeared from radar at 10:45 pm. It was reported that at the time of crash, strong winds were affecting planes landing at IGI airport. The DCGA is not carrying out the investigation, but it will be carried out independently.
What: Aviheco Bell 206L-3 LongRanger III en route from Bucaramanga to Sardinata Where: El Alto, Lourdes, Norte de Santander Colombia When: May 23, 2011 4 pm Who: 2 aboard, both fatalities Why: Pilot Rodrigo Javier Acosta and tech Jorge Velez Valbuena died in the Aviheco helicopter crash in Colombia. The helicopter may have been struck by lightning or taken down by other storm related condition. The wreckage went down in an area known as “Los Cables” on the “La Aguadita” farm in the village of El Alto. The helicopter was on a reconnaissance flight sponsored by an oil company with local wells . The bodies have been recovered by the Civil Defense commission.
May 22 was the anniversary of Air India Express Flight 812 from Dubai, which overshot the runway and crashed at Mangalore, India. The crash victims’ support group spokesman said that “About 50 families have received compensation from the insurance companies, but many families have not even been contacted. ” According to the organizer, Rafik Eroth, “…insurance representatives are playing foul over the payouts…Many families have lost their breadwinners and face major financial difficulties. I believe [the insurance companies] are delaying the process to pass the two-year mark so that the families lose their claims.” Families of crash victims had a two-year period in which to apply for compensation
The Civil Aviation Ministry ordered the airline to provide up to $159,840 to families of the victims in accordance with the Indian Carriage by Air Act, (following the Montreal Convention.)
It has been a year, and still some of the families have not yet been contacted about compensation.
The Indian Court of Inquiry probe report was submitted to the civil aviation ministry yesterday. The report says that “Air India pilot Zlatko Glusica, from Serbia, was asleep for much of the three-hour flight and was “disoriented” when the plane started to descend.” The experienced First Officer had fewer hours but was soon due for command, and had landed frequently at that airport. He called for a go-around which the Captain ignored.
Captain Z Glusica had more than 10,200 hours of flying experience—but not landing at that airport. He was the pilot in command and reacted late, and was suffering from “sleep inertia”. His heavy nasal snoring and breathing was captured on the CVR. Many standard operating procedures were not followed during landing. Co-pilot H S Ahluwalia repeated “abort landing” saying they didn’t have enough runway left, three times asking for a “go around”.
With less than 3,000 feet of runway left, the pilots tried to take off again and crashed in the gorge at the runway’s end.
The plane’s takeoff gear was found activated. Experts concluded if the pilots had not attempted to take off again, the plane emergency brakes could have brought the plane to a halt.
This is not the first time Air India has had exhausted pilots. What had their schedule been that week?
June 2008: Mumbai air traffic controllers woke two sleeping pilots with an alarm when they were 200 miles past their destination.
What: Air India Express Boeing 737-800 en route from Dubai to Mangalore Where: Mangalore airport When: 6:00 a.m May 22 2010 Who: Passengers including 23 children, 6 crew= 158 fatalities and 8 survivors Why: Air India Express flight 812 attempted touch down was around the middle marker. (Conflicting) reports are that it overshot the runway, and that the pilot intended a go round (tapes reveal the co pilot was urging a go-round) but the plane hit the localizer antenna at the runway’s end, plowed through the perimeter losing part of a wing, and went down 75 feet into a ravine, and broke into pieces and burst into flames. On touchdown, there was a reported “bang” which may have been a tire bursting. A drizzle started after the accident. From 5 to 10 people have been hospitalized, but according to reports there are possibly 3 survivors.
Survivor Abdul Puttur suffered burns. He was seated near the wing exit and said that the pilot had announced the landing, then there was a thud. He saw huge flames after the plane fell into the ravine and then he jumped out from the back entrance. Another passenger said the pilot made no announcement.
The Serbian pilot was Zlatko Glusica, first officer was S.S. Ahluwalia.
According to DGCA rules, Mangalore International Airport is deemed a “critical airfield” which means that “supervised take offs and landings” are prohibited. Only the captain (not the first officer) can pilot take-offs and landings. Mangalore International Airport has a controversial table top runway and which forces pilots to make a precision landing. The airport has no buffer zone, and pilots landing planes must fly precisely or risk hurtling off the edge.
Argentine Aviators Union of Air Lines said that the investigation into the Rio Negro crash will take 3 months.
After departing from Neuquén at 20:08, the pilot sent out a distress call declaring an emergency. 19 passengers and 3 crew were aboard.
Locals saw a ball of fire fall from the sky 35 kilometers from the town of Los Menucos in an area not available to cell phone usage. Rescue units (three ambulances and civil defense team including the police force of Black River (Rio Negro), Sierra Colorado, General Roca and Los Menucos) were deployed but there were no survivors.
Saab officials will be participating in the investigation. But three months till the investigation is done? I don’t think so. Maybe three years.
What: Flugsportklub Volkswerft Stralsund Evektor-Aerotechnik EV-97 Eurostar training flight Where: Klein Kedingshagen, near Flugplatz Stralsund Germany When: May 20, 2011 Who: 2 aboard, 2 fatalities Why: After a touch and go near Klein Kedingshagen, the sport plane crashed and both aboard died on the scene. Aboard was the 41 year old flight instructor and his 47 year old (beginning) student from Stralsund on Rügen aus Sellin Island. The instructor had been teaching in that plane for three years. This was the student’s third maneuver.
Witnesses say the vehicle lurched and fell out of the sky. Four forensic scientists traveled to the scene.
Evektor-Aerotechnik is a manufacturer located in Kunovice, Czech Republic.
What: Campbell Helicopters Ltd. Bell 212 Twin Two-Twelve Where: Slave Lake, Alberta, Canada When: May 20, 2011 Who: 1 fatality Why: The chopper responding to a (wildfire) fire call crashed for unknown reasons 30 meters offshore Slave Lake, Alberta. The forest fire leveled a third of the Slave Lake community. The pilot’s name has not yet been released.
The STARS Air Ambulance call was cancelled. The pilot died in the crash. Emergency responders were treated for hypothermia.
What: Kauai Aero Sport P&M Pegasus Quick 912S en route from Port Allen Airport, Hawaii Where: North Shore of Kauai, 100 yards offshore near Honopu beach When: May 17, 2011 10:53 a.m Who: 2 aboard Why: The ultralight belonging to Kauai Aero Sport landed in the water 100 yards off shore.
Witnesses saw the ultralight in trouble and tried to come to the aid of the two men in the crash. (see video below)
Captain Bob Butler describes hearing a (possible) aluminum strut break, and the aircraft hit the water at a 70 degree angle. They pulled the craft to the surface but not soon enough to save those aboard.
The bodies of both men were recovered as well as the wreckage. The pilot/owner of Kauai Aero Sport is Steve Sprague.
What: Sol Líneas Aéreas Saab 340A en route from Córdoba to Mendoza to Neuquén to Comodoro Rivadavia Where: Prahuaniyeu, Rio Negro, Argentina When: May 18, 2011, 22:00 Who: 19 passengers and three crew (two pilots and a stewardess) Why: After departing from Neuquén at 20:08, the plane sent out a distress call declaring an emergency
Locals saw a ball of fire fall from the sky 35 kilometers from the town of Los Menucos in an area not available to cell phone usage. Rescue units (three ambulances and civil defense team including the police force of Black River (Rio Negro), Sierra Colorado, General Roca and Los Menucos) were deployed but there were no survivors.
The number for family members to call for information is 0810-122-7765.
What: AEROCLUBE DE PIRACICABA PIPER PA-34-200 Seneca I Where: Morro do Cristo village suburb of Sao Paulo, Brazil When: May 16, 2010 Who: 4 fatalities Why: The plane, which had six seats, was used to give flying lessons. It was returning from the city of Sao Jose do Rio Preto, when it crashed near a village outside the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, killing its four occupants at 11 pm Monday, just after the pilot lost contact with Pirassununga control tower.
Searches were performed by a C-105 Amazonas plane, and a Military Police helicopter. The missing plane was found in dense forest between São Pedro and Itaqueri.
The bodies of Instructor Job de Oliveira, Jean Carlos Capelin (30, of São José do Rio Preto), Rodrigo Matos Gomes (27 of Recife ), and Diego Pereira da Costa (27 of Taguatinga) were identified today, and recovered.
What: 2 seat helicopter Where: Devon When: May 16 2011 Who: 2 aboard Why: The 2 seat helicopter crashed on the grounds of the Gridleigh Park Hotel in Devon. The wind was reported blowing at about 30 plus knots.
Devon and Somerset Fire Service responded, and used foam on the chopper which is said to have landed on its roof. The two aboard were injured, treated on the scene.
What: Pulsar group Super Cruiser YS 300 ED plane en route from Ilopango Where: Changallo, El Salvador When: May 14, 2011 Who: 3 fatalities Why: The Pulsar Aircraft Super Cruiser plane climbed to an altitude of about 500 feet and crashed about 500 meters from the landing strip south of the airport. Fatalities included Yaron Degani, a 56-year-old Israeli businessman who manufactured small planes, and two businessmen—Lee Yen, 49, and Yu Wen Kao, 42— in Salvador on business on behalf of a Chinese aircraft company from Wuxi.
So far, there have been no answers in the question of the Chinese built Xian MA-60 Merpati Nusantara Airlines plane which killed 27 people on board when it crashed in Kaimana, West Papua. The plane was moments from landing when it crashed.
There are questions concerning state-owned Merpati Airlines, the state financing, and the planes air-worthiness. There is a local call for the Finance Ministry to publish details of the plane’s purchase.
On Thursday, the black box data of the Chinese made plane was sent to China for decoding.
The Indonesian Aviation Industry suffers from a reputation of questionable safety.
What: Gary L. Delia (rgd. owner) Piper PA-24-250 Comanche #N7757P What>Edward J. Crump(rgd. owner) Piper Cherokee D # N5275L Where: County Road 12 and County Road 37, Wawayanda, about 60 miles north of New York City When: May 9 2011 Who: 2 fatalities (pilots) Why: The planes were headed back to New Jersey when they crashed. A witness says one clipped the other, one spiraled down, the other angled over the hill. One of the planes caught fire. Edward Crump was not piloting his plane when it crashed.
Licensed pilots Gary Delia in the Comanche (of Sussex, N.J.) and William Clark in the Cherokee (of Matamoras, Pa.) flew from Sussex County Airport.
What: Merpati Nusantara Xian MA-60 en route from Sorong to Kaimana Where: Kaimana, West Papua When: May 7, 2010 12:21 pm Who: 21 passengers (including 2 children and a baby), 4 crew, 2 technicians Why: After flying a holding pattern for a quarter of an hour, the plane was on its final approach when it crashed in shallow water .3 miles before it reached the runway. On impact with the water, the plane broke in two and sank, with the passengers trapped within. Officials say bad weather and low visibility (6,600 ft) are responsible for the crash.
Crash victims are being paid Rp 50 million (US$5,850) by State insurance firm PT Jasa Raharja, according to published reports. The total is 1.35 billion Rp. Reports do not say if this is an interim payment.
What: Pawan Hans Helicopters Eurocopter AS 350B3 Ecureuil en route from Tawang to Itanagar Where: Luguthang, India When: April 30, 2011 Who: 5 fatalities, including Dorjee Khandu Why: The helicoptor taking Dorjee Khandu from a retreat disappeared en route. Two MI-17 and two Cheetah helicopters were engaged in the search.
The helicopter wreckage was found 5 days after it went missing. Dorjee Khandu, Mr Khandu’s security officer Yeshi Choddak, Yeshi Lamu, and crew members JS Babbar and KS Malick all died in the crash. The wreckage was at 4900 meters, near Jung Falls in the Tawang district. The search was hampered by bad weather.
The chopper that crashed was 4 months old, according to Chief Minister Khandu’s adviser Kiren Rijiju. However, the maintenance department of Pawan Hans has a bad reputation.
What: Fuerza Aérea Boliviana Cessna T210 Turbo Centurion en route from El Alto International Airport in La Paz Where: Santa Elena River, Iquisiva Province, La Paz When: May 5 2011 Who: 6 aboard Why: The Bolivian Air Force plane piloted by the air force and carrying four United Nations workers was doing a fly-by and did not return at 2:30 as scheduled. The plane, which had been missing since May 5 and a search going on in Yungas (Coroico, La Asunta and Caranavi). The flight was located near the Santa Elena River, where it appears that it hit a tree during an emergency landing.
The passengers lost in the crash were Ivan Alfaro Santiago, Estephan Campos Ruiz, Mariela Romero Torreblanco and Patricia Delgado Rua, and the Cessna was being flown by Lt. Néstor Álvaro Ottich Arenas and Lt. José Javier Alegría Estrada.
What: Merpati Nusantara Xian MA-60 en route from Sorong to Kaimana Where: Kaimana, West Papua When: May 7, 2010 12:21 pm Who: 21 passengers (including 2 children and a baby), 4 crew, 2 technicians Why: After flying a holding pattern for a quarter of an hour, the plane was on its final approach when it crashed in shallow water .3 miles before it reached the runway. On impact with the water, the plane broke in two and sank, with the passengers trapped within. Officials say bad weather and low visibility (6,600 ft) are responsible for the crash.
The divers recovering the bodies from Kaimana Bay have been hampered by heavy rain; those recovered were described as “not intact.”
The Chinese-made plane was new and only had been in operation for just over 600 hours, since its purchase in October. Merpati flies three other Xian MA-60s’.
