News: 2011 Yak-Service Yakovlev Yak-42 crash

At least 44 people were killed when a Russian jet carrying hockey players to their first match of the season crashed on takeoff in the latest blow to the country’s tainted air safety record.

The Yak-42 passenger jet took off on Wednesday from Yaroslavl airport about 300 kilometres northeast of Moscow just as a two-day political forum expected to be attended by President Dmitry Medvedev got under way.

German news agency DPA quoted aviation officials as saying the plane struck a radio antenna beyond the runway.

A source told Interfax that the plane suddenly started listing to the left and crashed about 500 metres away from the Tunoshna airport.

‘‘According to the latest data, there were 45 people on board - 37 passengers and eight crew.

Forty-four people died in the crash and one person survived,’’ a police official told the RIA Novosti news agency.

DPA says the survivor was a member of the crew.

The local emergencies ministry said the jet was taking members of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team to the Belarus capital Minsk for their first match of the 2011-12 season.

The team is trained by a Canadian national and has several foreign players on the roster posted on its website.

Two accidents involving Tu-134 and An-24 jets this northern summer that killed a total of 54 people prompted Medvedev to call for most of the aircraft to be retired by January 1 and the rest taken out in subsequent months.

The accidents have tarnished Medvedev’s vision of a modern Russia that he promotes in messages ahead of presidential elections next year that can be also contested by Vladimir Putin - his more nationalist mentor and prime minister.

But that move was followed by a series of smaller air accidents as well as a Volga River boat disaster that killed 122 people during a pleasure cruise.

Medvedev was due to speak at the forum on Thursday and sent his top political adviser Vladislav Surkov to the scene of the disaster.A Kremlin spokeswoman said Medvedev himself would arrive in Yaroslavl later on Wednesday.

Conference participants also held a minute of silence while the country’s hockey season kicked off with a sombre message from the deputy head of Gazprom, the company that sponsors Russia’s Continental Hockey League (KHL).

‘‘I propose that we honour the memory of the dead with a minute of silence,’’ Gazprom number two Alexander Medvedev said at the season opening in the Ural Mountains city of Ufa.

The match was later abandoned to applause from the crowd.

Three-time Russian champion Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was founded in 1959 and last won the country’s title in 2002.

‘‘I am at the airport right now,’’ the team’s general manager Yury Lukin told the R-Sport news agency.‘‘I do not know what they are saying on the news, but things here are very serious,’’ he said.

source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/russian-hockey-team-in-jet-crash-at-least-44-dead-20110908-1jy5f.html

News: Caribbean Airlines Flight 523

Source:wikipedia

Caribbean Airlines Flight 523 was a flight from New York to Georgetown, Guyana with a stopover in Port of Spain, Trinidad on 30 July 2011. The Boeing 737-800 registration 9Y-PBM landed at Cheddi Jagan International Airport, but failed to stop in rainy weather, overshot the runway at 01:32L, and crashed through the perimeter fence. The aircraft stopped 100 meters past the end of runway 06 after it went over a road and broke into two sections.

There was no fire, and only seven out of the 157 passengers and 6 crew were injured.No deaths were reported directly following the incident.Two passengers suffered broken legs. The majority of the injured were treated at Diamond Diagnostic Hospital then sent onto Georgetown Public Hospital, where 35 passengers were treated for leg, back and neck injuries. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair in the accident.

Trinidad's Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar flew to Guyana to assess the situation, because the government of Trinidad and Tobago owns Caribbean Airlines.Guyana's emergency response team appeared at the accident scene two hours after the incident. Further officials from the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Aviation Authority (TTCAA) and U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) were invited to Guyana to aid in investigations.

News: Delta Air Lines Flight 2284

On the 28th of May 2011, aDelta Airlines MD-88 caught fire as it was attempting to land at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport from Pittsburgh International Airport.All 49 passengers and crew survived,but 4 received minor injuries as they were evacuating the plane.It seems till now that the plane had blew out at least one tire and had an engine fire upon landing saturday afternoon.All passengers had safely evacuated via the rear stairwell,and the fire  department sprayed foam to extinguish the plane's right engine on a runway.First signs show that the brakes overheated on the taxiway,which later caused the fire but information is still scarcely to say something for sure.

News: Ash Cloud threatening from Iceland threatening again the European skies!

On the 21st of May the icelandic volcano Grímsvötn erupted breaking the ice covered glacier and sending ash plume up to 65000ft(20km), causing many flights to be canceled mainly in UK region but today also Germany and maybe Berlin later.Last year the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull caused the biggest air disruption in Europe since the WW2 and one of the most costly also,lasting for almost 2 months.Planes typically can fly in almost any condition but volcanic ash can cause damage to almost any part of the plane and mainly the engines.The ash from this volcano is thought to be thick so it must fall faster to the ground reducing the damages from more cancelations later this month.Going back in history we can see 2 examples where an airplane flew through a volcanic ash and had all its engines shut down.

24 june 1982:British Airways Flight 9,a Boeing 747-200 flew into an ash cloud created from the eruption of Mt.Galunggung,southeast of Jakarta,Indonesia.All of the engines had failed and the pilots tried desperately to restart them after losing height fast.In what can only be described as a passengers worst nightmare the pilot made this announcement "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress.".After a while of losing altitude and hope together the plane passed the ash cloud and the crew where able to restart all of the engines,except from one which failed again later again and made a safe landing in jakarta.

15 December 1989: KLM Flight 867,identical to the first one again a Boeing 747-400 flew through the ash cloud of Mt.Redoubt,Alaska which had erupted the day before causing again all engines to fail.After falling over 14000ft Captain Karl van der Elst and crew were finally able to restart the engines and safely land the plane. In this case the ash caused more than 80 million dollars in damage to the aircraft (requiring all four engines to be replaced), but no lives were lost and no one was injured.

News: Crash of Sol Líneas Aéreas Flight 5428 at Argentina

copyright 1001crash.com

On the 18th of May 2011 a Saab 340A(built in 1985) operated by SOL Líneas Aéreas departed from Neuquén, Argentina, for a domestic flight to Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina but it had crashed on Prahuaniyeu,Argenitna with 22 souls on board (19 passengers,3 crew), all of whom unfortunately died instantly when the aircraft hit violently the ground at high speed.The flight crew declared an emergency at 8:50 PM (GMT-3) and local ocal people located around 2 km away from the crash site saw an airplane flying extremely low. A few moments later they heard explosions and noticed black smoke coming from the ground,they rushed for help but not much of the airplane has been left intact.Firefighters arrived at the scene three hours later, desperately seeking for signs of survivors but none could be found. The Planes black boxes had been found the following day near the crash site.Argentinas national meteorological services have issued warnings about icing conditions near the area the plane was flying and at an altitude between 7000ft and 1800ft with severe turbulence at 1500ft.The crew had requested to the air traffic controllers to descend out of icing conditions seconds before the radar contact was lost.Details are still sketchy but the bad weather may have contributed to the accident.More details to come...

sources:

wikipedia.org

1001crash.com

Airline Safety: Qantas Safety Overview

The name "QANTAS" is the acronym for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline was founded in 1920  and it is based in Sydney,Australia.It is Australia's largest airline, and the second oldest in the world.Qantas was voted the seventh best airline in the world by the research consultancy firm Skytrax. Throughout its history Qantas have had one of the best safety records rarely found in other airlines of the same or even younger age.After 1951 there has been no fatal airplane accident,just some serious but not life threatening incidents.Most of its fatal accidents have happened during the World War II Era were the company was operating on behalf of the allied military forces.

Accidents summary(1927-1951):

Date	Location	Aircraft type	Registration	Description	Aboard	Fatalities
24 March 1927	Tambo,Australia	de Havilland DH.9C	G-AUED	Stalled at low altitude on approach to land.	3	3
4 September 1928	Adelaide Hills,Australia	de Havilland.50J	G-AUHI	Following a tour carrying Sir John Salmond, aircraft departed Adelaide piloted by C.W.A. Scott  with engineer as passenger; lost control in cloud during attempt to cross the Adelaide Hills and aircraft crashed and caught fire killing the engineer.	2	1
3 October 1934	Near Winton,Australia	de Havilland.50A	VH-UHE	Crashed after in-flight loss of control, possibly stalled at low altitude in dusty low-visibility conditions.	3	3
15 November 1934	Near Longbeach,Australia	de Havilland.DH86	VH-USG	Crashed on its delivery flight from England to Brisbane after in-flight loss of control, probably due to the type's design deficiencies.	4	4
30 January 1942	Timor Sea off Kupang	Shorts S.23 Empire Flying Boat	G-AEUH	Shot down by Japanese aircraft; ex-Qantas VH-ABD, owned by Imperial Airways and operated by Qantas.	18	13
20 February 1942	Brisbane,Australia	de Havilland.DH86	VH-USE	Lost control after take-off in stormy weather, possibly broke-up in flight (tail fin found a mile from the crash site).	9	9
28 February 1942	Tjilatjah, Netherlands East Indies	Shorts S.23 Empire Flying Boat	G-AETZ	Shot down by Japanese aircraft; ex-Qantas owned by Imperial Airways and operated by Qantas.	20	20
22 April 1943	Gulf of Papua off Port Moresby,Papua	Shorts S.23 Empire Flying Boat	VH-ADU	Broke up in heavy seas after emergency landing in open water in poor weather.	31	13
26 November 1943	Port Moresby,Papua	lockheed C-56B lodestar	42-68348	Struck hill after take-off; USAAF aircraft operated by Qantas for Allied Directorate of Air Transport.	15	15
11 October 1944	Rose Bay,Sydney Australia	Shorts S.23 Empire Flying Boat	VH-ABB	On final approach with one engine shut-down, stalled 3 metres (10 ft) above the water and hull ruptured on impact.	30	1
23 March 1946	Indian Ocean	Avro Lancastrian	G-AGLX	Aircraft disappeared between Colombo and the Cocos (keeling) islands,cause unknown; aircraft owned by BOAC and operated by both airlines on Sydney-London services (BOAC crews operated London-Karachi and Qantas crews Karachi-Sydney).	10	10
16 July 1951	Huon Gulf near Lae,Papua New Guinea	de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover	VH-EBQ	Crashed in sea after centre propeller failure.	7	7

Incident Summary (1960-2010):

• On 24 August 1960,plane:Lockheed L1049 Super Constellation.During takeoff from runway 13, engine number 3 lost power just before reaching the V1 speed of 115 knots. The captain pulled off the power, braked hard, and pulled selected reverse thrust. The aircraft however, did not decelerate as expected. The flight engineer feathered the number 3 engine and pulled its emergency shut-off valve. The Super Constellation, named "Southern Wave", could not be brought to a stop on the remaining runway and overran the runway at a speed of 40 knots. The airplane bounced over a low embankment, crashed into a gulley and caught fire.
• On 23 September 1999, Qantas Flight 1:a Boeing 747–400 VH-OJH, overran the runway while landing at Bangkok,Thailand during a heavy thunderstorm. The aircraft ended up on a golf course, but without fatalities. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau criticised numerous inadequacies in Qantas' operational and training processes.

• On 25 July 2008, Qantas Flight 30 a Boeing 747–400 VH-OJK, on the leg from Hong kong to Melbourne, suffered a rapid decompression and made an emergency landing in Manila after an explosion. There were no injuries. The ATSB officially stated that the incident was caused by the failure of an oxygen tank.

• On 7 October 2008, Qantas Flight 72:an Airbus A330-300 VH-QPA "Kununurra" travelling from Singapore to Perth suffered a rapid loss of altitude in two sudden uncommanded pitch down manoeuvres causing serious injuries while 80 nautical miles (150 km) from Learmonth, Australia. The aircraft safely landed in Learmonth, with 14 people requiring transportation by air ambulance to Perth. Another 30 people also required hospital treatment, while an additional 30 people had injuries not requiring hospital treatment.Initial investigations identified an inertial reference system fault in the Number-1 Air Data Inertial Reference Unit as the likely origin of the event. On receiving false indication of a very high angle of attack, the flight control systems commanded a pitch down movement, reaching a maximum of 8.5 degrees pitch down.
• On 4 November 2010 Qantas Flight 32: an Airbus A380, named "Nancy-Bird Walton" and registered VH-OQA, fitted with four Trent 972 engines manufactured by Rolls-Royce suffered an uncontained turbine disc failure of its left inboard engine shortly after taking off from Singapore Changi Airport.The flight returned to Singapore and landed safely, and all 433 passengers and 26 crew on board survived uninjured. Cowling parts of the failed engine fell over Batam island,Indonesia.