Aviation

Citation

(2006), "Aviation", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 15 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2006.07315eac.006

Aviation

Aviation

5 May 2005Crash, Lubutu Area, Democratic Republic of Congo

Around 11 people were killed and only one survived when an Antonov 26 plane crashed while preparing to land in the northeast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) city of Kisangani, Okapi, a United Nations-sponsored radio station reported today. A total of 12 people were aboard the aircraft, including six crew members, when the plane crashed on Wednesday near Lubutu, some 130 kilometres from the DRC's third largest city Kisangani, said Okapi. The plane had been chartered by the private company, Kisangani Airlines List. A KAL official said the plane had taken off from Kisangani's Bangboka airport early yesterday afternoon, heading for Isiro. It could not land in Isiro for unknown reasons and headed back towards Kisangani. The plane “hit a tree” before crashing, the KAL official said. Kisangani lies in a bend of the River Congo in a densely forested region. DRC aviation authorities said they were aware of the accident, but were unable to give further details.

9 May 2005B-2552

Mistakes by poorly trained flight crew caused the crash of an Air China International passenger jet in South Korea, resulting in the death of 129 people on board, aviation authorities said. Wrapping up a three year-long investigation, the Korea Aviation-Accident Investigation Board said the crew had failed to pull up and turn the plane again when they missed a right approach area. The plane continued flying low under driving rains before smashing into a small hill near the airport, the board said in a report last week. It said:

The flight crew exercised poor crew resource management and lost situational awareness during the circling approach to runway 18R, which led them to fly outside of the circling approach area, delaying the base turn, contrary to the captains intention to make a timely base turn. The flight crew did not execute a missed approach when they lost sight of the runway during the circling approach to runway 18R, which led them to strike high terrain (mountain) near the airport.

When the first officer advised the captain to execute a missed approach about five seconds before impact, the captain did not react, nor did the first officer initiate the missed approach himself, according to the report. The independent investigative body added in an appendix to the 151-page report that poor weather conditions and the airport's automatic altitude warning system could have been contributing factors. The B767-200 aircraft was completely destroyed by crash impact and a post-crash fire after it crashed during a circling approach on a hill at Gimhae International Airport on 15 April 2002. Of the 166 persons on board, 37 persons including the captain and two flight attendants survived, while the remaining 129 occupants including two co-pilots were killed.

8 May 2005VH-TFU

Search crews are setting out this morning to try to reach the wreckage of an aircraft that crashed in far north Queensland with 15 people on board. Poor weather and difficult terrain is expected to hamper their attempts. A police spokeswoman said the searchers were being briefed before beginning their attempts to reach the twin-engine aircraft which had 15 people on board when it crashed into a hillside at about midday yesterday. The aircraft was carrying two male pilots and 13 passengers, ten men and three women, including a policewoman. None are believed to have survived the crash. The spokeswoman said the burnt-out wreckage was about 11 kilometres north-west of the Lockhart River airport at Iron Range. The wreckage was located by a search helicopter crew but failing light forced them to abandon attempts to lower a paramedic to the wreckage. Acting Superintendent of Cairns Police, Superintendent Michael Keating, said police aircraft were on standby and every effort would be made to get officers to the scene by first light. None of the people on board the Fairchild Metroliner commuter aircraft are likely to have survived, Supt Keating said. “The observations from people within the (rescue) helicopter is that it is highly unlikely that anyone would have survived the crash. The impact is very severe” he told reporters. The Aero-Tropics AirServices aircraft had left the small Aboriginal community of Bamaga, 40 kilometres from the tip of the peninsula, and had almost reached Lockhart River, just south of the Iron Range National Park, when it crashed. The pilot had radioed air traffic control four minutes before the aircraft was due to arrive at Lockhart River at 11.45, AEST, and was preparing to land as scheduled. Supt Keating said the aircraft was flying in rain, low cloud and 20-knot winds when it crashed into the hill, but there was nothing to suggest the plane's pilot or crew had been in distress. Australian Transport Safety Bureau personnel were also en route to Cairns and expected to reach the site today.

8 May 2005. Authorities have confirmed there are no survivors from a passenger aircraft that crashed yesterday on Queensland's Cape York Peninsula. Ten male passengers, three women passengers and two crewmen were onboard the Metroliner. Police winched into the crash site from a helicopter shortly after 07.00, AEST, today. Senior investigator Bill Fry says the bureau is relying on police assistance. The wreckage was found on a hill with a 60 degree slope. Mr Fry says recovering the flight recorders will be a priority. “If we can locate those, those will be recovered as soon as possible, and they'll be transported to the Australian Transport Bureau laboratories in Canberra for download and analysis” he said. Aero-Tropics, which operated the Metroliner aircraft, has confirmed three of its employees were among the 15 people killed. Bad weather and rugged terrain had prevented rescue and recovery crews from reaching the crash site earlier. Nine Air Transport Safety Bureau investigators have travelled to Cairns, with four expected to reach the Iron Range crash site this afternoon.

10 May 2005. An aircraft that crashed in far north Queensland killing all 15 people aboard had an engine problem last month, its owner said today. Transair Australia said the aircraft had flown more than 60 hours since repairs were carried out. Transair, which owned and operated the aircraft used on the service under a commercial agreement with Aero Tropics of Cairns, said the Fairchild Metroliner 3 had suffered an engine problem on 20 April. The company's director, Duncan MacKellar, said the aircraft had suffered a loss of power in one engine while preparing for take-off from Cairns. “The pilots as part of their procedures check their instruments and follow procedures, and on this occasion the power output from that engine did not meet requirements” Mr MacKellar said. “It certainly wasn't an engine failure”. He said the pilots had returned to the terminal and a well respected maintenance company that the airline used assigned had engineers to check the engine. “They made some adjustments and the flight took off about an hour and a half later” Mr MacKellar said. He said the engine had flown 60-70 hours since the incident. “It would be speculation that I don't want to enter into (to try to link the engine problem to Saturday's crash),” Mr MacKellar said. The aircraft crashed into a 500 meter rainforest-covered peak on Saturday (7 May) while attempting to land at Lockhart River after flying from Bamaga near the tip of Cape York Peninsula. Cairns Police Superintendent Mike Keating said determining whether the engines played any part in the crash was a task for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). “Any reports about the airworthiness are speculation, there are no confirmed reports of that, that is part of the ATSB and police investigation” Supt Keating said. Mr MacKellar said today the regular daily flights from Cairns to the Cape operated by Transair for Aero Tropics had been suspended at the request of communities on Cape York as a mark of respect to the victims. He said the flights would resume and he believed Aero Tropics had received strong bookings for the service.

12 May 2005. The cockpit recorder on the aircraft (VH-TFU) that crashed in northern Queensland, killing all 15 people on board, has provided few clues for investigators. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau says the two recorders were badly damaged in the crash near Lockhart River on Cape York. Spokesman Alan Stray says while the flight data recorder has provided information about the altitude and speed of the aircraft, the cockpit recorder contains little other information. “Preliminary analysis of the 30-minute cockpit recording tape indicates that it contains a variety of electrical impulses and fragments of conversation” he said. “Some of those have been identified from previous flights but at the moment there has been nothing found from this flight” he said. The weekend crash was Australia's worst air disaster in 30 years.

13 May 2005. Police say the investigation into the cause of the Iron Range air disaster (VH-TFU), in far north Queensland could take up to a year. Nearly 15 people died in the tragedy near Lockhart River on Cape York on 7 May. Acting Superintendent Michael Keating from Cairns Police says a report will be prepared for the coroner, but he says it will not be an easy process. He said:

It's the process of statement making, gathering more evidence, preparing reports, assessing what we've got, discussing amongst various agencies about what we're finding, it's just that laborious investigative process which needs to be extremely thorough.

he said

This will take probably 12 months before it's all finalised, so we have to be methodical, take our time and do what needs to be done.

17 May 2005Andes Mountains, Argentina

A Chilean light aircraft with at least nine persons on board crashed in Argentina, said national police, who sent out a search party without finding the passengers. The aircraft crashed in the Andes Mountains today, which separate Chile and Argentina, in an area with snow and high winds, Roberto Caserotto, a Spokesman for Argentina's National Police told reporters. “In the area are very heavy snow and high winds” he said. “Today's temperatures were less than 20 degrees below zero” Caserotto said. He also said that the company that owns the aircraft, Don Carlos, sent another aircraft to the area and was able to locate the downed aircraft. However, the rescue team used an aircraft and a helicopter to search for survivors, but had seen none, Caserotto said. The aircraft was flying between two points inside Chile, but crashed 130 kilometers from Perito Moreno, in southern Argentina, Caserotto said.

18 May 2005. Border guard search teams yesterday found the dead bodies of three of the ten passengers of a small plane which crashed in bad weather on Monday (16 May) in a remote part of southern Patagonia near the Chilean border. The plane crashed on Argentine territory across the border from the Chilean town of Balmaceda, from where it had departed. The plane belonged to the regional Chile airline Don Carlos and was taking staff of the Cerro Bayo Mining Company.

26 May 2005Crash, Goma Area, Democratic Republic of Congo

At least 27 people were killed today when an Antonov transport aircraft on a flight from the North-Eastern City of Goma to the South-Eastern Town of Kongolo crashed in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, military officials said. “Twenty-seven people, 22 passengers and five crew members, were killed in the crash of the plane” said a military source who spoke on condition of anonymity from Goma. The defence ministry and civil aviation authorities in Kinshasa confirmed the crash but were not able to give any further details. The transport plane belonged to a private Congolese company Victoria Air and had been chartered by another group, Maniema Union.

27 May 2005. The wreckage of an Antonov transport plane that crashed in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was located yesterday, according to the plane's owner, the private Congolese company Victoria Air. The ill-fated plane had been carrying 21 passengers, all Congolese, and five crew members; two Russians, one Ukrainian, one Belarussian and a Congolese, Victoria Air official Malira Mavos said in Goma. There were believed to be no survivors. An earlier toll given by a military source after Wednesday's (25 May) crash had spoken of 27 dead. “The wreck was located in the afternoon by a reconnaissance flight in the town of Bitale, near Bunyakiri, in a mountainous region of Sud-Kivu” said Mavos. Air traffic controllers said the plane disappeared from their radar screens 30 minutes after it took off on Wednesday. The Antonov had been chartered by another firm, Maniema Union. It had been scheduled to stop off at Kindu in the central Maniema region before going on to Kongoloa, in the mineral-rich Katanga Province.

30 May 2005. The remains of 26 people killed last week when a plane crashed into a cliff were recovered today in Eastern Congo, a government official said. The Russian-made Antanov-12 crashed on 23 May shortly after take-off near Bunyakiri, about 60 miles south-west of Goma, scattering the plane between two mountains, government officials said last week. A team of 50 soldiers, Red Cross workers and family members recovered the remains early today, said Gen. Gabrielle Amisi, Commander of Government Troops in North Kivu Province. Amisi said most of the passengers were from Kindu, the plane's destination.

1 June 2005SU-ZCF, Egypt

The release of a report into an air crash in Egypt which killed 148 people last year has been delayed from June until the end of the year, the head of the investigation said on Wednesday. Shaker Kelada said investigators needed more time to study what caused Flash Airlines Boeing 737 (SUZCF) to crash, killing 133 French tourists in January 2004. The aircraft crashed into the Red Sea just after take off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport. Investigators said in November the Boeing had gone into a steep turn after take-off and the crew did not fully correct it before the crash. Samir Abdel Maaboud, Head of Egypt's Civil Aviation Authority, said there were new details which needed study but he did not specify what they were, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency said. He said experts from the International Civil Aviation Organisation would arrive in Egypt in September to inspect aviation methods and the extent of the Authority's compliance with the annexes of the Chicago International Civil Aviation Convention.

16 July 2005Equatorial Guinea

An aircraft, carrying at least 45 people, is believed to have crashed shortly after taking off in Equatorial Guinea. The Russian-built Antonov aircraft was flying from the island capital, Malabo, to the mainland City of Bata. Military aircraft were searching for the aircraft. The country's information minister said there were “rumours” it had crashed into the sea. The aircraft was known to be carrying about 35 passengers and some ten crew, although exact numbers were not known. Equatorial Guinea's capital, Malabo, is situated on an island and much travel to the mainland is by regular air service. The missing aircraft, a 42-seater operated by Equatair, may have been carrying up to 80 people, reports said. As well as passengers, crew members often accept bribes to allow extra people on board. It took off at about 10.00, local time (09.00 GMT), and disappeared shortly after it became airborne. There was little official news on the aircraft, with worried locals gathering at the airport as the military began a search. A witness, working on an offshore oil platform, saw flames coming from the side of the aircraft shortly after takeoff. The aircraft then tilted and fell into the jungle, he said.

17 July 2005. All 55 passengers and crew were killed when an Antonov aircraft crashed shortly after take off from Equatorial Guinea's capital Malabo, the Government said today. Information Minister and Government Spokesman Alfonso Nsue Mokuy said he was in touch with a team at the site of yesterday's crash near Baney, a town some 19 kilometres from Malabo. “No one survived – the plane was destroyed,” Nsue Mokuy said. Until teams reached the site today, the government had been unable to say whether anyone might have survived the crash. Nsue Mokuy dismissed local media reports that the Russian-made Antonov aircraft had been carrying up to 80 people when it crashed. The aircraft, owned by local company Equatair, was heading from Malabo, on the Atlantic Island of Bioko, to Bata, on the mainland section of the central African country. The flight route to Bata is virtually all over the ocean, although the aircraft crashed on land. It disappeared off the radar screen shortly after taking off at 10.00, UTC, yesterday, officials said. Six of the 55 people on board were crew, officials said yesterday.

20 July 2005. Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang admitted yesterday that the air accident which occurred on Saturday (16 July) in the Baney District on the Island of Bioko was due to the fact that the (Air Equateur) plane was overloaded, Equatorial Guinean state radio has reported. Obiang appealed to the government, the owners of planes and the population to avoid using means of transport with excessive loads and stressed the need to bear transport regulations in mind. The opposition Popular Union party blamed the disaster on the government, saying that “it is the administration that must oversee citizens' safety”. It also urged the relatives of the deceased to “demand justice” and ask for compensation for the victims. It also complained that, a short time ago, the Transport Ministry banned flights by planes from the airline UTAGE that were in poor condition, while it did not withdraw those of Air Equateur, which also were, because “behind Equateur are the big fish, and it has become an untouchable company”.