What: single-engine Cessna
Where: front lawn of a church WICHITA FALLS, Texas
When: Sunday morning
Who: opthalmologist Dr. Jeffrey Harrington of Wichita Falls.
Why: Harrington was believed to have been practicing landings at Kickapoo Downtown Airport when the Cessna apparently lost power and crashed fatally near Woodhaven Baptist Church.
The only way to hurt big business is through the pocket book. When you hit them there, they eventually come around to doing what is right.
After this California wrongful death lawsuit verdict, my bet is that SDG&E will develop a belated conscience and will install safety devices or ball markers to help prevent this type of disaster.
So we are offering congratulations to the jurors for using their voices; and congratulations to the families. No amount of money is going to bring back those precious four lives, or ever ease the pain of their families, but, at the very least we can hope that the families will have some comfort that a small measure of justice has been served.
What: unidentified “sea” plane … upside down
Where: off Burnt Cedar Beach in Incline Village; south of the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe pier
When: 11 a.m. Thursday Sept 11 2008
Who: pilot and passenger are both unhurt
Why: While the plane was being towed by North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District’s Marine 16 boat, it took on water a half-mile south of Burnt Cedar. Buoys were affixed to keep the plane afloat till crews managed to tow it to Ski Beach. Fuel leaking into the lake has instigated testing by local risk management. Absorbent booms were being used to collect some 40 estimated gallons of fuel, and the rest is expected to safely evaporate without injury to the local ecosystem.
What: Cessna Centurion being used for aerial photography
Where: crash/lands in the shallows north of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
When: 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Who: Pilot Matt Barcelona of San Jose and passenger Bruce Moody.
Why: The pilot reported a loss of power before it crashed. Witnesses reported the plane left a dark trail. After the impact. they managed to get the door open. They waited on the plane’s wing until rescued by Coast Guard vessels conducting training sessions within fifteen minutes of the vicinity; passengers were taken to Yerba Buena Island, then to the hospital.
Listen to the audio podcast of a witness being interviewed by KCBS
What: University of Dubuque plane
Where: Eagle’s Roost Resort in Cassville, Wis. approaching the airport.
When: Tuesday
Who: Grant Vogt, a junior aviation student died six days after the crash; student pilot Cory Alsip is recovering.
Why: The plane crashed into a tree and two cabins before it burst into flames. One student died at the crash; the other died later at the hospital.
What: Single-engine Pitts S-1, experimental craft that had no transponder or Emergency Locator Beacon.
Where: Wooded area near the Ridgely Airport in Caroline County.
When: left airport at 7 p.m. Tuesday evening but not found until found about 2:20 a.m. Wednesday
Who: Pilot 52-year-old Ronald Fenwick is listed as a fatality.
Why: No reason is listed but the accident is under investigation.
What: Diamond DA20 two-seat trainer aircraft owned by Doss Aviation
Where: Near Pueblo Memorial Airport
When: Noon Monday Sept 8 2008
Who: Instructor/pilot and a trainee
Why: The plane fell down a ravine and landed upside-down in a dry creek. A wing, the front landing gear and the engine had to be removed in order to extricate the trapped pilot. The trainee got out on his own
What: a Mooney 20 en route to NJ. Plane registered to Raymond Conley of Sarasota, Florida.
Where: about a mile from Wallace Airport in a wooded area near the Duplin-Pender county line.
When: just before 11:00 a.m. Tuesday
Who: unnamed pilot reportedly 80 years old and airlifted to New Hanover Regional Medical Center
Why: The plane crashed shortly following takeoff.
What: four-seat Grumman Cheetah
Where: 40 miles northwest of Grand Junction/ 210 miles west of Denver.
When: Found Sunday September 7, 2008
Who: Charles Landry of Houston, born in 1947, and Steven or Stephen Bartlet of Green River, Wyo., born in 1958.
Why: Cause unknown. The crash is under investigation by NTSB
What: ultralight plane en route from Volks Aerodrome in Tottenham near Caledon, Ont.
Where: north of Toronto
When: The wreckage found by York Region police helicopter at about 7:45 p.m.
Who: The pilot, John Townsend of King City was found in the wreckage
Why: unknown. Transport Canada is investigating
What: Aerogulf Bell 212 helicopter flying from Dubai International Airport to one of the oil fields in the Gulf Sea. The helicopter was leased to the oil company by the aircraft firm Aerogulf,
Where: Crashed into an oil platform off the Duba Coast 50 NM west of Dubai Airport
When: Sept 3–20:23 local time
Who: two pilots and five contractors working for British oil and gas services company Petrofac: an American, a Briton, two Indians, a Pakistani, one Filipino and a Venezuelan.
Why: The British pilot lost control during take off, hit a crane crashed and exploded wednesday on a recently installed Resilient jack-up oil rig. After the helicopter propellers hit the crane, the aircraft split in two; half smashed on to the rig, while the other half fell into the sea.
The rig is owned by AP Moller-Maersk but operated by Petrofac on behalf of state-owned Dubai Petroleum. Production in one of Dubai’s four oil fields has been suspended. The engine and the gear box have been found.
So far five of the bodies have been identified; one report says only two of the bodies need identification by DNA testing. All of the victims were contracted personnel.
What: helicopter en route to a remote fishing camp near the Quebec-Labrador border
Where: wilderness in northeastern Quebec
When: Friday
Who: Two pilots–a man and woman–flown to hospital in nearby Schefferville, Que and are reported to be in good condition.
Why: No cause is given. The search began Tuesday after someone at the fishing camp called to say the helicopter hadn’t shown up. The crash was located by a Cormorant from Greenwood, N.S. at 8:10 p.m. Tuesday
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.
What: 1930s single-engine de Havilland Tiger Moth
Where: East Windsor, Conn
When: Saturday August 30
Who: pilot and passenger
Why: The plane lost power 200 feet from the runway at the Skylark Airpark Saturday. The pilot and passenger crashed in treetops and were stuck in the tree until help arrived. A tree surgeon climbed the tree, and set up a pulley to rescue the pilot and passenger who were apparently unhurt. The pilot was an instructor who “maintained an airspeed where he was in control and buffeted [the plane] into the top of the trees. That’s what saved both their lives.”
What: Russian-built Yak-52 stunt plane flying from Archerfield Airport on Brisbane’s southside
Where: off South Stradbroke Island, Jumpinpin Australia in south-east Queensland. Wreckage was found after a significant search in about 20 metres of water
When: Sunday Aug 31 12.30pm AEST
Who: veteran pilot Barry Hempel and 20 year old passenger. The pilot and passenger are missing.
Why: no reasons listed; crash is under investigation
While on it’s third run from Helispot 44, at an elevation 5,935 feet, to Helispot 36, at an elevation of 2,516 feet, ferrying firefighters from a remote mountain site in the Shasta-Trinity forest, the Sikorsky S-61N helicopter crashed killing 9.
Fortunately, the voice-data recorder was determined to be intact despite fire damage. The investigation so far has found that the chopper’s main rotor lost power during takeoff. After the rotor malfunction, witnesses say the helicopter struck trees and slammed into the hillside. Four of the thirteen passengers–three fire fighters and the co-pilot–survived. The co-pilot remains hospitalized.
Pictured: A UTair Aviation Mil Mi-8T
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Schelakovsky Maxim
What: UT Air
Where: 350 kms from Nizhnevartovsk, Russia
When: July 2 2008
Who: 9 fatalities, 13 aboard
Why: The helicopter was on landing approach when according to witnesses, it caught fire and crashed. Apparently one of the black boxes survived and is being studied. The crew survived the crash.
Pictured: A Lancair Legacy 2000
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Connector
What: Poulin L/Cullen D Lancair Legacy
Where: Murrieta, CA
When: May 30 2008
Who: 2 aboard, both fatalities
Why: The Lancair Legacy was heading south to the runway, made a hard right turn and nosed into the ground with one “loud engine rev” before the engine ” died out.” The propeller was not under power when it impacted terrain. The wings, wreckage, vegetation, and ground did not indicate signs of a fuel spill. It appeared that the airplane had run out of fuel and stalled on approach, causing it to enter a spin prior to impacting terrain in a near vertical attitude. Cited as cause was the pilot’s inadequate preflight planning, which resulted in the loss of engine power.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Jerry Search
What: Island Express Helicopter Service
Where: Catalina Island
When: May 24 2008
Who: 6 aboard, 3 fatalities
Why: On May 24, 2008, at 0920 Pacific daylight time, an Aerospatiale AS-350-D helicopter, N67GE, operated by Island Express Helicopters, Inc., impacted terrain while landing at Two Harbors, Avalon, located on Santa Catalina Island, California, during a 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 135 on-demand, commercial flight. The flight departed from the Queensway Bay Heliport, Long Beach, California, at 0907. The commercial pilot, a company employee, and one passenger were killed, and three passengers were seriously injured. The helicopter was destroyed by impact damage and fire
Pictured: A Cessna 172A
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Giovanni Francisco Rodriguez Bravo
What: Bolivian Cessna 172 RG
Where: “Agropecuaria Arco Iris” airstrip, north of Montero, Santa Cruz, Bolivia
When: May 11, 2008
Who: 5 fatalities
Why: While en route, the plane impacted a tree with its left’s wing and then the ground, where a fire ensued. The accident site was about 1,150 meters from an unlit runway of “Agropecuaria Arco Iris” airstrip, north of Montero, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The pilot and the four passengers received fatal injuries; the airplane was destroyed. The flight originated from El Tromprillo Airport, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, at about 1808.
A year after Kenya Airways Douala, Cameroon crash, Kenya Airways is again being forced to defend its air safety record. On that flight, all passengers on board died. Kenya Airways other major crash was January in 2000 a plane with 169 passengers crash-landed into the sea on take-off.
Kenya Airways has had 135 incidents between January and March of this year. Incidents include “passengers falling sick on the plane, a tear on the carpet or even a bird flying into the plane.”
The Airline’s IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) was renewed in October 2007 and is valid for a period of two years. Out of 193 African carriers, 20 are certified.
The probe of the Douala, Cameroon crash is ongoing.
The video below is of last year’s crash.
Footage right after the crash. The neighborhood is close to the airport.
COMPTON CA — On West Cypress Street, a twin-engine Cessna 310 collided with three homes. Five individuals were injured, including the pilot, two passengers and two on the ground. All five victims were taken to area hospitals and are expected to survive.
The crash occurred after the plane experienced complications and losing power. The cause has not yet been determined.
After clipping a house, the right wing detached, then the craft cartwheeled down the street over a second home and landed nose down through the roof of a third house.
One of the homeowners was at home washing dishes at the time of the crash and sustained a fractured jaw and broken bones. The plane’s passengers are in critical condition, and the pilot can’t give an accounting. The cause is under investigation by the FAA and NTSB, with both reports expected by December 2008.
A killing syndrome of four letters
By Héctor Héreter
Special for Air Crash News and Information
Right after 46 passengers and crew of Santa Barbara’s flight 518 were killed on February 21st on a desolated and cold mountain slope in the Venezuelan Andes, it became evident for many that Venezuelan pilots do as they wish, disregarding all local and international set of flying regulations.
Their attitudes demonstrate a lack of professionalism and excess of self confidence, mostly among the most experienced pilots who think of themselves as infallible. This leads to bad judgment and unfortunate decisions, in some cases with tragic results, as in flight 518.
Just as The Peter Principle states in a hierarchy members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their “level of incompetence”), with potential to create conflicts, or worse still, disastrous endings.
“The level of pilots arrogance in our country is amazing” says a high Venezuelan airline executive who prefers to remain in anonymity. “They do as they please regardless of regulations set by authorities or the airline the work for, and there is no nobody that can restrain them from following that behavior”
“And this is common among all the airlines?” we asked.
His answer gave us chills: “You better believe there is God who will protect you and start pray to him so you reach your destination in one piece every time you board a Venezuelan plane.”
The 518 flight is a vivid example of what is known here as the “3IA” syndrome: Impatience, Imprudence, Indiscipline and Arrogance.
Human error is a major, recurring issue in most aviation accidents. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has consistently cited triplane’s crews as the major cause or factor of accidents, exceeding the proportion of accidents related to aircraft or environmental causes by a large margin. The human factor in modern aviation is a source of concern, since humans are the ones to suffer from the 3IA syndrome: aircraft equipment, engines, navigation and in-flight safety devices have become so good that human beings are the constant weak link in aviation safety.
NTSB HUMAN ERROR CHART
Unprofessional Attitudes 47%
Visual Perception Misjudgment 19%
Pilot Technique 21%
Inflight Judgment or Decision 5%
Improper Operation of Equip. 6%
Unknown Causes 4%
Santa Barbara’s crash started with a series of events that led to a disastrous end.
In first instance the pilot who commanded the ill-fated airplane, Captain Aldino Garamito, was called at last minute to substitute for the designated pilot grounded at the Vigia airport because of bad weather. Garamito who was an experienced pilot with 9 years in Santa Barbara, was hastening to return to his home near Caracas.
The first “I” of the 3IA syndrome: Impatience
In this point enters another law, Murphy’s law. Anything that can go wrong, will—and at the worst possible moment When an event begins badly and is not corrected on time, the subsequent decisions that are taken follow a mistaken path. Due to the change of pilots, SB flight 518 already had two hours of delay which increased the pressure on (and impatience of) the pilots. Such impatience was demonstrated when initiating the return to Caracas, the flight: 1) didn’t wait for the airplane’s avionics to calibrate, 2) didn’t follow procedure of preparing a pre- flight check list, 3) took a flying route prohibited by the National Institute of Civil Aeronautics (INAC the Venezuelan equivalent of FAA). This “non-approved air path” saved them 15 minutes on their way back to MaiquetÃa International airport.
This last decision, aside from being impatient, demonstrates imprudence, a lack of discipline and a failure to follow the set of flying rules established by the aeronautical authorities and Santa Barbara´s Corporate policies.
Several experts in the Venezuelan civil aviation agree that the most experienced pilots become victims of excess of confidence, developing among them a sense of “infallibility and rules don’t apply to them”. Minutes before the airplane collided with the mountain, copilot, Denis Fereira, said to Garamito “we just made another yucca”, That’s a Venezuelan idiom meaning that they were repeating a mistake.
Posted in “Vigilante Aéreo”, a blog dedicated to analyze airplane crashes in the country, were the last words ever exchanged between pilot and copilot just before they slammed the mountain wall:
“Sir. this is not the route”, says copilot Fereira.
“Relax, I know what I’m doing,” and then sarcastically adds, “Are you scared?”
The big gray barrier of mountains appears in front of them. They set the engines to full power.
The fatal affirmation of “Relax, I know what I’m doing.” and asking “Are you scared’?” is the last letter of the syndrome.
“A” for Arrogance and excess of confidence, ends the life of 46 people in a desolate and the cold Andean slope at 12,000 feet.
By Héctor Héreter
Click to view full size photo at abpic.co.uk
Contact photographer George Trussel
What: Aero JL Cessna 182 registration XB-AIL en route to Jalapa, Veracruz, Mexico
Where: Xalatlaco, Estado de México, Estado de Mexico
When: April 3, 2008
Who: 1 dead, 3 injured
Why: After losing altitude, the Cessna crashed in the Toluca Valley.
45 year old Ricardo Medina died in the crash; Jose Adrián Hernandez, the pilot survived with injuries. The injured were airlifted to ABC Hospital in Mexico City.
