Aviation

Citation

(1999), "Aviation", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 8 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.1999.07308aac.009

Aviation

Aviation

28 January 1998 ­ Mount Olympus, Greece

Greek authorities, today, confiscated an aircraft belonging to a Ukrainian airline to compensate relatives of a victim killed along with 69 others in a crash last month. A police official said the Aerosweet Airlines Boeing aircraft was seized after it landed in the northern city of Salonika on a flight from Kiev. It would be kept at the airport until Aerosweet paid the family of the victim $140,000, a sum set by a court as compensation. The Russian-made Yakovlev 42 operated by Aerosweet crashed in the mountains of northern Greece in December, killing 70 passengers and crew. The family of one of the victims filed for interim measures and a Greek court ruled this week in favour of the petition. The aircraft is the only property asset of Aerosweet in Greece and was why it was confiscated, the police official said. He said the court based its decision on a 1935 Warsaw agreement saying companies could be asked by national courts to pay damages to crash victims' relatives.

29 January 1998 ­ Ukraine's Foreign Ministry protested to Greece today over yesterday's detention of a Ukrainian-owned passenger jet in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. The Greek authorities said they would hold the aircraft until Aerosweet paid $140,000, a sum demanded by a Greek court for compensation. Ukrainian media reported recently that Aerosweet was in a row with state-owned airline Air Ukraine, whose Yakovlev jet was used to replace Aerosweet's Boeing after it was grounded with a technical problem during a stopover in Ukraine's southern city of Odessa. Aerosweet argues Air Ukraine should compensate the victims' relatives, but Air Ukraine insists that it only leased the plane and that the flight and tickets ­ on which insurance details are printed ­ were those of Aerosweet's.

27 January 1998 ­ Thandwe, Myanmar

At least seven people were killed when a Fokker F.27 owned by state-run Myanma Airways Corp crashed near Thandwe, about 320km north-west of the capital Yangon today. However, dozens of passengers survived, a Transport Ministry source said. The aircraft had just taken off from Thandwe in Arakan state carrying 40 passengers and four crew and was heading to the state capital Sittwe when it crashed at about 03:50, UTC, the source said. He said most of the remaining people on board the aircraft had survived the crash but he could not give exact details. "The cause of the crash is not known yet. We are still waiting to hear the official report", he added.

27 January 1998 ­ 14 of the 45 passengers and crew on board the Fokker F.27 that crashed near Thandwe were killed today. The aircraft was halfway down the runway during take-off from Thandwe airport when its starboard engine failed and the aircraft veered into an embankment. A total of 20 people on board suffered injuries in the crash and the remainder were unhurt.

2 February 1998 ­ Manila, Philippines

A Philippine domestic McDonnell Douglas DC-9 with more than 100 people went missing today and there were unconfirmed reports it had crashed in a mountainous area in southern Mindanao island, officials said. Bad weather forced rescue officials to call off their search by late afternoon for Cebu Pacific Air flight 387 which disappeared as it approached Cagayan de Oro airport. The commander of the Air Force search team said they had not found any signs of a crash. Search efforts would resume tomorrow. "We have heard from someone who said he heard news it had crashed but we have not had any confirmation" airline general manager Diego Garrido said. The plane had 99 passengers, including four or five foreigners, and five crew, airline officials said. They withheld the names and nationalities of the foreigners but said they were all Caucasians. The plane was on a flight from Manila to Cagayan de Oro when it disappeared after a stopover at central Tacloban city. Airline officials said the plane made its last contact at 10:48 hrs, 02:48, UTC, about 12 minutes before it was scheduled to land, when it was at 11,000 feet during its descent to Cagayan de Oro. It was also in radio contact at the time with two other commercial planes flying over the area, they said. "Cloud was building up in the area at the time", airport manager Amirul Duran said. "We have conducted an aerial search over possible areas where the plane might have come down. As of now, we have not found any sign of the aircraft", Colonel Chris Datu, area Air Force commander, said from Cagayan de Oro. He said five Air Force helicopters were conducting the search over land and sea around Cagayan de Oro. An airline official declined to say how old the plane was, but said it had been purchased from Air Canada.

3 February 1998 ­ Official reports that 15 people survived what appears to be the Philippines worst air crash were thrown into doubt today. "There are conflicting reports coming in right now, the earlier confirmation of 15 survivors might not be true", Cebu Pacific Air spokesman Larry Zurita said. The Cebu Pacific McDonnell Douglas DC-9, carrying 104 people, crashed into the side of a mountain in the southern island of Mindanao yesterday. The wreckage was only discovered today. The airline, and police, had earlier said that 15 had survived the crash. "They did not categorically state that, there may be no survivors. The new reports state for us to disregard the initial report", the spokesman said, quoting local research and rescue officials. An airport controller at Cagayan de Oro quoted one helicopter search team, which flew over the crash site, as saying the plane "apparently disintegrated on impact". Police had said 30 people also died in the crash but the fate of the remaining 59 was unknown as soldiers and civilians, including volunteer nurses and doctors struggled to reach the mountainous crash site. An army helicopter radioed it had sighted the wreckage of the plane at an elevation of 6,800 feet on the steep slopes of Mount Sumagaya, about 40 miles north-east of Cagayan de Oro airport. "Initial reports reaching Cebu Pacific Air have confirmed visual contact with 15 survivors", the airline said. The plane disappeared on Monday 12 minutes before it was to land at Cagayan de Oro on a flight from Manila and shortly after it radioed ground control that it was at 11,500 feet and preparing to descend. An army spokesman said initial reports they had received indicated the plane exploded on impact on a forested slope of the mountain. A helicopter which flew over the crash site reported seeing bits of metals, flashing in the sun, hanging on tree branches. The airline said the plane was 31 years old and manufactured by McDonnell Douglas Aircraft. The Boeing Co, which owns McDonnell Douglas, said in Seattle it would send a team to the Philippines to help investigate the crash. Local officials said a first group of rescuers had reached the crash site but had lost radio contact with them. Police, quoting civilian volunteers, said 30 people had been found dead but there was no word on their identities or nationalities. "We received a report that 15 passengers were injured and 30 were dead" police radio operator Joy Maghanoy said. An airline spokesman said the plane passengers included five people with foreign sounding names as well as five children. Radio reports said search and rescue teams were making slow progress because of fears of land mines which they said were planted in the mountain years ago during the height of skirmishes between government forces and communist guerrillas. The local Bombo Radio station said the injured were being treated on the scene by medical volunteers, but were due soon to be flown to Cagayan de Oro airport and then to local hospitals.

4 February 1998 ­ Rescuers today found a blood-stained cloth and name cards but no survivors on a southern Philippines mountain where a Boeing/McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 (RP-C1S07) crashed with 104 people on board. As soldiers and civilian volunteers reached the general area where the Cebu Pacific Air flight 387 went down on Monday, pessimism deepened that any one could survive what is certainly the worst air disaster in Philippine history. "We're hoping, but definitely the chances of finding survivors are diminishing", Colonel Jacinto Ligot, chief of the Philippine Air Force rescue team, said. Ligot, who has established a command post at the foot of Mount Sumagaya where the plane crashed on Monday, said his men had found the crash site close to the summit of the 7,375-foot mountain but had seen no survivors or bodies. A search team on a military helicopter lowered three paramedics down a rope onto the mountain peak hoping they would be able to scale down to the actual crash site and look for possible survivors. Dozens of soldiers, armed with machetes, hacked their way to reach the summit. Officials said their immediate task was to make a clearing to let rescue helicopters land. "They have recovered some calling cards and a piece of the curtain from the airplane but they have not seen anyone", Ligot said. The blood-stained piece of cloth was recovered by civilian volunteers who had to return to a government command centre at the base of the mountain because they could not withstand the cold near the mountain-top. Six military helicopters also flew sorties over the densely forested mountain, but found no signs of life below, officials said. "Definitely, there will be an investigation", Transportation Secretary Josefina Lichauco said in Manila. Investigators said the plane was flying at 300kph when it hit the mountain about 150 feet from the summit. They said photographs showed the impact of the crash flattened trees in the densely forested area and set off an explosion and a fire, as indicated by scorched vegetation. Metal fragments, none bigger than five feet long, were strewn around and pieces of clothing hung from trees.

5 February 1998 ­ Rescuers today found mangled bodies but no survivors from the Boeing/McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 (RP-C1507) that crashed in the southern Philippines. In Manila, the Air Transport Office said it was suspending all flight operations of the aircraft's owners, Cebu Pacific Air, pending the outcome of investigation into the crash. The suspension was effective as of midnight tonight. Rescue officials, soldiers and civilian volunteers found the torso of a woman and many parts of bodies on a mountain about 1.5km away from where the plane crashed. Officials said the distance between the bodies and the crash site indicated that the aircraft either exploded in mid-air or that the force of the crash was so enormous as to scatter bodies and debris over a wide area. A crucial job of the searchers is to locate the aircraft's "black box" containing a flight data recorder, which should give investigators an idea of what happened in the cockpit before the aircraft slammed into the mountain. Experts from the USA flew in last night to help with the investigation.

8 February 1998 ­ A search team found the cockpit voice recorder from a wrecked Philippine DC-9 today, which may yield clues to why it crashed killing all 104 people aboard, officials said. But the flight data recorder from the Cebu Pacific Air plane is still missing, presidential action officer Jesus Dureza said from Cagayan de Oro city, where he is supervising search and rescue operations.

26 March 1998 ­ Human error probably caused the Philippines' worst air disaster, which killed 104 people last month, the presidential palace said today. The palace cited a preliminary Air Transportation Office (ATO) report that ruled out a criminal act, mechanical failure and bad weather as causes for the country's deadliest air disaster. The Cebu Pacific Air McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 (RP-C1507) crashed in a mountainous area in the southern Philippines on 2 February, killing all 99 passengers on board as well as five crew. "ATO chief Carlos F. Tanega said their findings specified human factor as the probable cause of the accident, ruling out other probable causes such as criminal acts, mechanical or material failure or weather", the palace statement said. "The number and nature of these findings would indicate poor operational control as well as inadequate and unacceptable training standards and practices, particularly non-conformity with prescribed minimum training requirement, relative to pilots and aircraft dispatcher". In his report, Tanega said more than half of 17 facilities checked were found to be deficient, "resulting in situations where components may inadvertently be operated beyond their life limits". Tanega did not specify how poor training and deficient equipment led to the midday crash. The 31-year-old plane, which was manufactured by McDonnell Douglas Aircraft, was on a flight from the capital Manila to southern Cagayan de Oro city. The ATO has asked Cebu Pacifie to undertake several measures to ensure adequate operational and maintenance control, placing all their flights under close safety surveillance for at least six months. Tanega said the ATO also intended to make all domestic aircraft undergo a safety audit in the next few weeks.

3 February 1998 ­ Cavalese, Italy

A low-flying US military aircraft on a training mission struck cable car lines in north-east Italy today, dropping 20 holidaymakers to their deaths as the cabin plunged onto a mountainside. The victims were believed to be Germans, Poles, Hungarians and an Austrian on their way down from the Cermis ski resort to the town of Cavalese, 50 km north of Trento in the Italian Dolomite mountain range. Nine women, ten men and one child were killed when the aircraft clipped the cable, sending their cabin plunging 200 metres onto the Cermis mountain, a spokesman for the central government representative in Trento said. Rescuers said there were no survivors. Italian news agency ANSA quoted one hotelier in the area as saying he had seen the aircraft fly under the lines and that it had clipped the cable with its tail fin. Firefighters said aircraft parts were found near the site of the accident. US military authorities had begun an investigation into the accident and that the four members of the crew were being interviewed, White House spokesman Barry Toiv said. Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said the aircraft, a EA-6B Grumman Prowler, a four-man surveillance aircraft equipped with tactical jamming systems, had "obviously been flying too low". Italian television showed pictures of the mangled wreckage of the bright yellow cable car, which had the capacity to carry up to 70 people. The cable car plunged onto a part of the mountain not used for skiing. No one on the ground was hurt. While most passengers would have perished in the fall, the accident was compounded by a huge hook weighing several tonnes which attached the cabin to the cable. The hook smashed into the roof of the car, flattening the cabin like a cardboard box. A second cabin was left dangling from the cable after the accident. Its sole occupant was later rescued. The aircraft, which returned to Aviano with only slight damage, was one of three Prowlers assigned to the 31st Air Expeditionary Wing at Aviano in support of North Atlantic Treaty Organization air operations over Bosnia.

12 February 1998 ­ Nasir, Sudan

Sudan's first vice president and at least seven others were killed when their aircraft overshot a small runway in heavy fog and plunged into a river in southern Sudan today, official media said. The Sudan news agency SUNA said First Vice-President Lieutenant-General Al-Zubeir Mohammad Saleh and at least seven guards and officials were killed in the accident in Nasir, about 700km south of Khartoum, near the Ethiopian border. Official media said the Antonov military aircraft missed the start of the runway when trying to land and plunged into the River Sobat, where it sank. Many passengers are still missing. The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) said Saleh's plane was shot down by its rebels. The claim could not be independently confirmed. Arok Thon Arok, a former Independent Group rebel leader who was one of the signatories of a Khartoum peace agreement in 1997, also died. The bodies of some of those who were killed were flown back to Khartoum airport late today and loaded onto pick up trucks, witnesses said ­ Reuters.

13 February 1998 ­ At least 13 people including Sudan's first Vice President were killed and 18 others went missing when their military aircraft overshot a runway and crashed into a river in southern Sudan, the Sudan news agency SUNA said today. SUNA reported that 26 people survived the accident. Local media said the Antonov military aircraft missed the start of the runway when trying to land in Nasir, about 700 km south of Khartoum near the Ethiopian border and plunged into the River Sobat yesterday. Among the dead were First Vice-President Lieutenant-General Al-Zubeir Mohammad Saleh, former rebel leader Arok Thon Arok, who was one of the signatories of a Khartoum peace agreement in 1997, and Timothy Tolam, governor of Upper Nile state. Omdurman Radio said that both Information Minister Brigadier Al-Tayeb Ibrahim Mohamed Khair and Animal Resources Minister Musa Mek Kur were among the survivors.

16 February 1998 ­ Taipei, Taiwan

A China Airlines Airbus Industrie A-300, flight CI676, returning from Bali crashed in flames today at Taipei's international airport, airport officials said. "The plane crashed as it attempted to land and burst in flames", an airport official said by telephone at about l220, GMT, shortly after the crash. "The plane is still burning", he said. The official said conditions were chaotic and weather was foggy, so it was impossible to ascertain the severity of the crash. He said he was unable to estimate any casualties. State television said the aircraft had a maximum capacity of 182 passengers plus crew. It was not known how many passengers were aboard. The aircraft crashed after dark at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, Taiwan's main international terminal.

16 February 1998 ­ Most of the 197 passengers aboard the China Airlines Airbus Industrie A-300 that crashed in Taiwan died in the crash, including central bank governor Sheu Yuandong, airport officials said. "Judging from the scene there is little chance of there being any survivors", an airport official said at Taipei's International Airport.

17 February 1998 ­ The China Airlines Airbus Industrie A300-600 that crashed outside Taipei's international airport killing 203 people was insured for US$ 71.5 million, an insurance industry source said today. The hull of the aircraft was insured by Taiwan Fire & Marine Insurance and reinsured in the International market, said the source. The reinsurance was led by American International Group and others, including underwriters at Lloyd's of London. Accident investigators, a team from the Singapore regional office of Airbus Industrie and insurance surveyors have been sent to the scene to discover why the aircraft crashed late on Monday as it attempted to land in dense fog. All 196 passengers and crew on board flight CI676 arriving from Bali, Indonesia died in the crash. At least seven people on the ground were killed when wreckage from the aircraft slammed into a residential area near the airport, setting homes ablaze. The "black box" flight recorder has been recovered, but sources close to the investigation say it is too early to form any opinion as to why the aircraft went down.

18 February 1998 ­ The hunt for bodies gave way to a search for answers today as experts from Airbus Industrie joined the inquiry into what caused Taiwan's worst air disaster. Initial investigations provided little insight into why the China Airlines Airbus Industrie A300-600 crashed in a fireball on Monday night. "We have not been able to find out the cause of the crash based on existing information", said Chang Kuocheng, deputy director of Taiwan's Civil Aeronatics Administration. Chang affirmed that weather at the airport, though foggy, was within safe limits, saying visibility was 1,000 metres, well above the safe limit of 600 metres. Official and eyewitness reports from the scene minutes after the crash had said there was heavy low-lying fog, which is not uncommon in the area at this time of year. Chang said the bodies of the pilot and navigator had been screened for drugs and alcohol and both were negative. Investigators and relatives continued identifying the dead, turning to DNA sampling for those so badly burned or dismembered as to make them unrecognisable. China Airlines has called chances of mechanical malefaction "very slim", saying the seven-year-old wide-body had undergone a February maintenance check with no problems found. Chang concurred, replying with a firm "no" when asked if there was a possibility of mechanical malfunction. Taiwan nonetheless has grounded China Airlines' nine remaining Airbus A300-600s for safety checks, saying they could fly again only when their airworthiness was confirmed. The move has forced China Airlines to cancel many flights. Authorities elected to ship the aircraft's "black box" flight data and cockpit recorders overseas for analysis, saying this would ensure a detached and candid evaluation. The recorders would be sent to Australia or the USA, they said. Chang said investigators were perplexed by a control tower query to the pilot just seconds before the crash as to whether he wanted to make a "go-around", to abort the landing attempt and go around for another try. "We have examined all existing information", Chang said. "We are very experienced people, but we see no reason why the plane would need to go around or why the plane would have mis-aligned with the runway". The tower recordings include what sound like cockpit alarms, but there was no response to the query as the aircraft crashed. China Airlines said the alarms probably indicated the pilot had tried to disable the highly automated aircraft's autopilot system so he could land the plane manually. The disclosure prompted some aviation experts to question whether the pilot had failed in the effort or disabled the wrong system. Others wondered whether the aircraft's autopilot system had locked onto the wrong runway or even adjacent roads. Human error has not been ruled out. "Misjudgement by the pilot about distance or other factors may have contributed to the crash, according to the tower communications", the United Daily News said. Airbus spokesman Sean Lee, who flew in late last night with specialists from Airbus headquarters in France, declined to comment on the early findings or assess the various theories, saying the team would play a support role in the inquiry.

23 February 1998 ­ Partial analysis of a "black box" flight recorder retrieved from the China Airlines Airbus Industrie A300-600R aircraft that crashed on 16 February has failed to yield any clues to the cause of the disaster, officials said today. Experts had extracted some data from the cockpit voice recorder but not enough to form any theory about what caused the crash. Extraction of information from the flight data recorder could take a few more days, said an official at Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration. The official said complete information was expected as early as Wednesday from experts in Australia, where the devices were sent. China Airlines' nine remaining Airbus A300-600s, grounded for safety checks after the crash, are still out of operation even though four had been given clean bills of health. The airline said they would not fly until all of the aircraft's pilots had taken refresher courses.

1 March 1998 ­ As Taiwan's news media reported flight experts speculating that pilot error was to blame for the island's worst air crash officials said today no conclusion had been made yet. "Aviation officials were expected to come back from Australia tonight with two black box flight recorders sent there for study", Yang Chen spokesman for Taiwan's largest carrier China Airlines, said. Until then, news reports that the crash was caused by pilot error were purely speculative, Yang said.

2 March 1998 ­ The mystery of the crash of China Airlines' Flight 676 on 16 February deepened today after the release of flight data that yielded more questions than answers, and the placing of a gag order on the inquiry. Aviation regulators said they were ordered by prosecutors not to reveal more information about the China Airlines crash even though analysis of the airliner's flight recorders had been completed in Australia. "I wish I could give more details, but we have been ordered by the prosecutor not to reveal any information during the course of the investigation", Civil Aeronautics Administration deputy director Chang Kuo-cheng told reporters. As is standard procedure, prosecutors declared the crash a criminal matter soon after it occurred, obliging investigators to observe Taiwan's judicial confidentiality rules. There has been no suggestion of foul play. Chang repeatedly declined to say whether analysis of the "black box" voice and flight data recorders, which were returned from Australia yesterday, had found error or fault with the pilot or the aircraft. Chang also declined to respond to numerous local media reports quoting investigators as suggesting human error was to blame. Chang's agency issued only technical data about the flight's final minutes. Data from the digital flight data recorder indicated the Airbus A300-600R had been flying too high in its final approach to Taipei's international airport and failed in an effort to undertake a "go-around" that would have aborted the landing, the agency said in a brief statement released by Chang. The statement said an alarm heard on airport tower tapes and the black box recordings had been determined to be an overspeed alarm. After the alarm sounded, the plane attempted to climb, but lost speed and crashed, it said. The statement gave no indication as to why the plane was flying too high, why the go-around failed or why the aircraft was unable to climb after the warning sounded.

14 March 1998 ­ China Airlines today offered T$8.6 million (US$ 265,000) in compensation to relatives of the 202 people who died in Taiwan's worst air disaster in February. It was not immediately known whether the families accepted the airlines offer. Investigators who have analysed the aircraft's "black box" flight recorders have not yet announced any conclusions about what caused the crash.

18 March 1998 ­ Taipei, Taiwan

A Taiwan domestic Saab aircraft disappeared from radar today and was believed to have crashed, possibly into the sea, state television reported. The 36-seat Formosa Airlines Saab, carrying 12 or 13 people including three crew, disappeared two minutes after take-off from Hsinchu south of Taipei bound for Kaohsiung, state and private media said.

19 March 1998 ­ Saab 340, B-12255, operators Formosa Airlines, was on a scheduled flight from Hsin Chu to Kaohsiung and took off at about 19:30, local time, 18 March. Shortly after it crashed, at about 19:33 hrs, into the sea, near Hsin Chu. Total on board was 13, pilot, co-pilot, three other crew and eight passengers. No survivors. Cause will be under investigation.

Taiwan rescue workers searched through a foggy night at sea for survivors of yesterday's aircraft crash but said they had found only wreckage and human remains. Rescuers said they had found the remains of some of the 13 passengers and crew on board. The search teams have found pieces of bodies, but had not found any survivors. The Formosa Airlines Saab 340-B disappeared from radar two minutes after takeoff late yesterday at Taiwan's northern town of Hsin Chu. Authorities said the aircraft had taken off normally in visibility of 3,200 metres. Taiwan's transportation ministry said it would impose punitive measures yet to be determined on the airline for its poor safety record.

19 March 1998 ­ Taiwan aviation authorities today grounded all flights by domestic Formosa Airlines, whose Saab 340-B crashed into the Taiwan Strait yesterday, killing all 13 passengers. "It has been decided to ground all Formosa Airlines flights effective from tomorrow (Friday)", state radio said, quoting an official at the Civil Aeronautics Administration. Authorities earlier grounded Formosa's six remaining Saab 340 aircraft for safety checks. Premier Vincent Siew demanded that aviation authorities take measures to improve the island's air safety, saying a spate of aircrashes has tarnished Taiwan's image in the international community. The administration said officials were looking into the cause of the crash. They declined to comment on local reports quoting witnesses as saying they saw the aircraft explode in the air before plunging into the Taiwan strait. Authorities said the aircraft had taken off normally in visibility of 3,200 metres. Radar information showed the aircraft appeared to have made a wrong turn, flying north-west instead of south, officials said.

20 March 1998 ­ Sharki Baratayi, Afghanistan

A total of 45 people were killed when an Afghan Ariana airlines Boeing 727-200 Advanced (Ya-FAZ) crashed into a mountain in bad weather, an airline official said today. Rescuers carried 32 bodybags and another 15 bags of body parts from the charred mountain. Searchers found the wreckage of the aircraft, approximately 100 metres from the summit of Sharki Baratayi mountain near the town of Charasyab, 15 kilometres south of Kabul, but the rescue attempt is being hampered by mines left over from the Afghan-Soviet war. The director general of Ariana Afghan airlines, Hassan Jan, said the aircraft crashed at 1400, local time, 19 March, in a cloudbank, rain and sleet near Kabul. He said it was not technical problems, just bad weather which brought the aircraft down. Only wreckage remains of the aircraft. Searchers continue looking for the black box. Ariana officials at the site confirmed 45 people had been on the aircraft, including the ten crew members and several Ariana staff. Kabul, 20 March ­ An Ariana official said the Boeing 727-200 Advanced (YA-FAZ) was carrying about 32 passengers and 13 crew members. All have died, but they are still not sure about the exact death toll of passengers, he added.

Heavy rain lashed the mountainside as rescuers, mostly Taleban members and Ariana officials, carried down bodies in blankets from the top of Shakhi Baranta peak, officials said. They said rescue work had been delayed as the aircraft was on fire until 03:00, local time, today. The aircraft was on its way to Kabul from the southern city of Kandahar when it hit the Barantan mountain top in cloudy weather, officials said. The aircraft had earlier flown from Sharjah and unloaded its cargo in Kandahar yesterday morning, before heading to Kabul. A big black scar marked the site of the crash, which residents said occurred around noon.

19 March 1998 ­ Kabul, Afghanistan

An aircraft of Afghanistan's Ariana state airline crashed near the capital Kabul today, killing all 17 people on board, a Pakistan-based Afghan news service said. The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted sources in the ruling Taleban Islamic movement as confirming the crash of the aircraft in Masai area, some 20 km south of Kabul. Five of the 17 people killed were passengers, while the rest were crew, it said. AIP quoted an Ariana source as saying the aircraft, flying from the southern town of Kandahar to Kabul, had disappeared from radar when it was 20 km from Maidan Shahr town, capital of Wardak province. Earlier the aircraft, one of only four jets flown by the airline of the war-shattered country, had flown to Kandahar from the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai, the agency said.

23 March 1998 ­ Honolulu

Two navigation aids that could have helped a Boeing 747 (HL7468) land safely on Guam were not in operation when the Korean Air Lines aircraft slammed into a hillside last year, a US report released today said. The report, by the National Transportation Safety Board, also said the pilot was trying to gain altitude just seconds before the crash that killed 228 people 6 August 1997. Information received from the aircraft's Flight Data Recorder (FDR) showed that Korean Air Lines flight 801 was flying several hundred feet below the recommended altitude for the airport approach. The report said a Minimum Safe Altitude Warning (MSAW) system that would have alerted air traffic controllers that the aircraft had dropped below 1,700ft ­ the minimum safe altitude for its approach to Guam had been taken out of service on the island by the Federal Aviation Administration "as a means of eliminating what local air traffic controllers perceived as nuisance warnings". However, subsequent tests conducted by the NTSB at the FAA's test centre in New Jersey indicated that had the MSAW system been operating on Guam, the alert would have been generated as the aircraft was descending through 1,700ft, 64 seconds before the crash. A NTSB official said the absence of the MSAW would be an "important issue" at a public hearing into the crash, which will be held in Honolulu this week. The report said a review of air traffic control at ten mainland US airports performed after the Guam crash found that "the overall level of understanding of the MSAW system... is disturbingly low". It also criticised the FAA's evaluation process regarding the system "because the issues raised here are not new". "The larger question is, 'How did this go unnoticed for so long'", the NTSB report asked. Also out of operation on Guam, was a key navigational device that guides an aircraft in for landing. It had been out of commission for servicing since July and the crew of KA801 was using a directional radio navigation aid called VOR on its approach to Won Pat International Airport in Guam's capital of Agana. The report indicated the pilot tried to gain altitude and bring the aircraft around for a second attempt at a landing just seconds before it crashed. The flight data recorder showed that KA801 began its descent too soon. As the pilot, Capt Yong-Chul Park, tried to maneuver the aircraft to make a second attempt at landing, a Ground Proximity Warning System on board the aircraft "began a rapid succession of radio altitude call-outs: '50, 40, 30, 20' (ft from the ground)", the report said. "The first sounds of impact were recorded at approximately 1542:26 (GMT) ­ 1:42:26, local time, as the '20'callout was made", it added. The report also indicates that comments were made by the crew during the last five minutes of the flight showing they believed they had missed the runway. According to the data, the crew made a "missed approach call" seven seconds before the crash followed by a "not in sight and missed approach call" about a second later and a "go around call" just three seconds before the crash. Transcripts from the Voice Cockpit Recorder were not contained in the report released today. They were to be made public at 12:01, Honolulu time, tomorrow. Just over a minute before the crash, the aircraft descended below 2,000ft at a distance of 6.8 miles from the runway, about two miles sooner than it should have done. It then dropped to 1,440ft when it should still have been at 2,000ft apparently indicating that the pilot believed he was closer to the airport than he actually was. The NTSB's final report on the crash is expected to be issued later this year.

29 March 1998 ­ Castilla area, Peru

A total of 28 civilians died today when an Air Force Antonov An-32 cargo aircraft carrying more than 50 people crashed into a drainage canal in a shantytown in northern Peru, President Alberto Fujimori said. Up to an estimated 20 more passengers were injured in the crash, and two townspeople, including a young boy, were hurt by flying debris after the aircraft plunged into the canal and split in two, authorities said. The pilot, whose aircraft sustained engine problems, narrowly avoided a much worse disaster by guiding the aircraft over dozens of homes to crash-land in an irrigation channel that ran through the center of shantytown, Fujimori said. "He was trying to reach the airport, and he kept losing height. To avoid falling onto houses, he crashed the plane nose-first into the canal", Fujimori told local radio station CPN. The aircraft was ferrying civilians between towns in northern Peru because violent El Nino-driven storms had triggered floods and mudslides, blocking some land routes. The aircraft bellied along in the shallow, 130-foot-wide canal before its cabin split from the fuselage, witnesses said. The aircraft crashed only yards from the nearest houses in the shantytown in the district of Castilla, a few miles from Piura. Fujimori, who spoke in the nearby town of Trujillo, said some surviving passengers were able to walk away from the crash site. The five-member flight crew survived the crash. Doctors and firemen in Piura could not immediately confirm the president's account of the crash. They had estimated that 14 people were killed. Teams of rescuers dragged bodies from the fuselage and transported those injured in the crash to Piura's city hospital. They also began to haul the aircraft's wreckage from the canal.

29 March 1998 ­ The aircraft was carrying out emergency services between Tumbes and Piura, both in northern Peru, due to adverse weather conditions, which have severely affected the northern part of Peru, attributed to the El Nino current. The aircraft was carrying out at least six flights per day, with passengers and cargo, due to bridges and parts of the Panamerican highway having been washed away. The aircraft was carrying at least 60 passengers, of which 28 have been reported killed and at least 40 injured to varying degrees. It appears that the pilot was aware of problems and tried to effect a crash landing very near to the airport. Reports state that the fire service was surprised to find no traces of fuel near the accident scene.

Fifteen people were injured and seven unaccounted for. The aircraft split in two but did not explode. Most of the passengers were merchants carrying produce to Piura.

Twenty-four of the injured were in a "very critical" state, doctors said. The military transferred a dozen of the most seriously injured victims to the Air Force's hospital in Lima. A further 11 people were being treated for light injuries. The aircraft was on a humanitarian mission carrying 50 civilians from flooded areas of the country when it crashed on Sunday (29 March) into a wide drainage canal only yards from hundreds of homes. President Alberto Fujimori said on Sunday 28 people died in the crash, but Air Force officials said today the toll was fewer than previously thought. The Ukrainian-built Antonov bellied across the shallow, 130-ft wide canal before the cockpit split from the fuselage as it skidded to a stop.