Saturday, December 29, 2012

TODAY: A Russian Red Wing Airlines Tu-204 overruns rumway at Vnukovo International Airport with 12 onboard 8 perished

Cockpit section detached from the rest aircraft
                                                     video of the crash from a car camera


Red Wings Flight 9268: Crashed after overrunning the runway at Moscow Vnukovo International Airport following a flight from the Pardubice Airport, Czech Republic. The aircraft broke up and caught fire after landing. There were only 8 crew members onboard from wich only 4 survived the accident.The aircraft split into three sections upon landing. The cockpit section of the aircraft became detached from the rest of the airframe(as you can see above).The Airport was closed for several hours and emergency crews were late because of some maintenance issues with the firefighting vehicles.Story developing...










The aircraft involved in the accident (RA-64047)

Thursday, December 27, 2012

News: 2012 Kazakhstan Antonov An-72 crash operated by military of Kazakhstan all 27 on-board perished




            A Kazakh Air Force, REGISTRATION: UP-72859 Antonov An-72 plane crash in Kazakhstan Tuesday has left all 27 passengers dead.“The aircraft was completely burned, only fragments remain,” head of the local Emergencies Department Valikhan Derezhepov said in an official statement, according to RT News.
           The military transport plane was carrying 20 soldiers and seven crew members when it fell from 2,600 feet around 7 p.m. local time, the Telegraph reported.
Among the dead is Turganbek Stambekov, the acting head of the Border Protection Department of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee (KNB), BBC News reported. He was appointed to his position in June 2012.
          The crash happened just about 12 miles away from the city of Shymkent near the Uzbekistan border. The plane was making a descent into Shymkent, the capital of the South Kazakhstan region, according to Reuters.
          No details were given about the cause of the crash, but the weather was reportedly very bad around the airport at the time of the plane’s downing, and Southern Kazakhstan has been hit with plunging temperatures, as well as winds and heavy heavy snowfall in recent weeks, NBC News reported.
         Authorities said a full investigation was being launched into the fatal crash.
Also Tuesday, a passenger jet packed with Christmas tourists crash-landed in Myanmar, killing two.





News: Air Bagan Flight 11 - Fokker F-100 crashes in Heho,Myanmar

Focker 100 crash on Burma




         Two people died when a plane packed with Christmas tourists crash-landed on a road in central Burma today.A Briton was one of four foreigners among the 11 injured.
The two people killed were an 11-year-old passenger, believed to be a Burmese citizen, and a man riding a motorcycle on the road where the plane came down.
        The Air Bagan flight was carrying 63 passengers, including 51 foreigners, and six crew members from the city of Mandalay to Heho airport in Shan State, the gateway to popular tourist destination Inle Lake.The airline identified the injured tourists as a British national, two Americans and a Korean. It described the incident as an “emergency landing”.Authorities gave a more dramatic account, saying the pilot mistook the road for a runway due to bad weather.
       State television reported: “While descending, the plane mistakenly landed … due to fog beside the runway.”It said the aircraft made a hard landing on a road and then came to a stop in a nearby rice paddy field.“The rear end of the plane broke and caught fire,” state TV said.
Rescuers brought the fire under control about 45 minutes later.Witnesses said smoke filled the plane when it hit the ground and was still rising from the plane’s badly-charred wreckage hours later.
Airport officials in Heho said injured passengers were taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Taunggyi for treatment.
       Air Bagan is one of five private airlines that fly domestic routes in Burma, also known as Myanmar.




Tuesday, October 2, 2012

News: Sita Air Flight 601 crashes in central Nepal killing all on-board



       Nepal has become notoriously dangerous place for flying the last decade.Main reasons are fast changing weather conditions,high mountainous area(Himalaya), finally the airstrips themselves are notoriously challenging, with short runways that are uneven, sloping, or both, and with approach and departure paths obstructed by high ground. When the weather changes rapidly, pilots are faced with difficult decisions about whether it is safe to continue an approach, and if the weather closes in too fast, abandoning the approach may be equally risky.Early reports about this accident point to bird strike and pre-crash fire(this is yet to be confirmed though).Seven britons were among the dead most of them probably going for the autumn trekking season around the popular hills of Everest.






Tuesday, July 10, 2012

News: USAF releases South Dakota C-130 FireFighter crash photos




 The plane that crashed 1st of July in South Dakota was assigned to North Carolina National guard was equipped with the MAFFS(Modular Airborne FireFighting System) system and had just released fire retardant liquid but later crashed in a slope and dragged for quite a distance before coming to a halt.Because of that dragging there was  enough energy absorbed resulting in two of the six crew members to survive the fall.

Monday, June 4, 2012

News: Dana Air MD-83 crash in Lagos,Nigeria with 153 souls on board plus 40 deaths on ground

Plane debris scattered across a populated area
      Dana Air flight 992 has crashed into buildings in a densely populated district of Nigeria's main city of Lagos.It was carrying 153 people on board at the time of the crash The crash occurred as the crew declared an emergency 11 nautical miles (20 km) from the airport, and a witnesses said it seemed to be having engine trouble. While approaching runway 18L for landing,the plane collided with a power line and apparently landed on its tail.
The crash scene reportedly became chaotic, with The Sun reporting that more than 500,000 Lagos residents attempted to approach the site. Crowds attempted to bring hoses to the site while soldiers attempted to disperse onlookers with punches and rubber whips. The onlookers then threw stones at the soldiers in retaliation.Water for firefighting was in short supply for several hours due to the city's dearth of fire trucks and civilians attempted to fight the fire by hand with water from plastic buckets. Water trucks commandeered from nearby construction projects had difficulties reaching the site due to the neighborhood's narrow roads.The situation was almost chaotic prompting the Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan to declare 3 days of national mourning and also pledged that "every possible effort" would be made to boost the nation's aviation safety.






sources:BBC,Wikipedia,RT,Google

Saturday, June 2, 2012

News: Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-400 skids off runway at Indonesia Pontianak airport



 A Sriwijaya Air b737-400 carrying 163 from jakarta to Pontianak veered off runway 15 during landing at Pontianak in heavy rainstorm.The aircraft came to stop left of the tarmac on soft ground on its belly (the landing gear either collapsed or sank in the soft soil) and received substantial damage.No injuries occurred among the passengers.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Update: Sukhoi Superjet 100 crash at Indonesia one of two black boxes found



    On the 16th of May,Indonesian special forces have found as we can see from the video above what appears to be part of one of the planes black boxes called CVR(cockpit voice recorder).This device records all sounds that can be heard in a cockpit combing discussions between the pilots,providing valuable information to the investigators.The other one called FDR(flight data recorder) that records all flight parameters is yet to be found.The first box was found near the tail of the plane,approximately 100 meters away.Rescue teams will continue to search for the other box,but it will be 2-3 weeks at least before the CVR will reveal any crucial information to the Russian and Indonesian investigators.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

News: Iberia Airbus 340 hits hawk after taking off from Spain to Puerto Rico

The damage to the nose cone is pretty evident



       An Iberia Airbus A340 had to make an emergency landing today by an apparent bird strike that hit the radome of the aircraft causing significant damage.
       Flight 6533 of the Spanish carrier was flying from Madrid, Spain (MAD) to San Juan, Puerto Rico but returned for an emergency landing shortly after takeoff when the incident occurred.
Details are still emerging, but reports say there were no injuries and the airliner made a safe landing.


An A340 of the Iberia's feet


source: aviationispector.com

Monday, May 14, 2012

News: Agni Air - Dornier 228 crash in Nepal 15 people perished

The Plane that crashed 9N-AIG(photo:Courtesy of JetPhotos.net)

     A plane carrying 21 people on board had crashed in Nepal leaving only 6 survivors with 2 of them being infants.The plane had crashed around 9:45 local time as it was trying to land again at Jomson airport after a failed go-around possibly due to strong winds.Police spokesman Binod Singh told the AFP news that "The plane had hit a muddy slope and is now burried in the side of the hill".Himalayas range is considered among the most difficult and dangerous places in the world to fly planes especially the small ones that are being used to transfer tourists,trekkers-mountaineers and locals among the small villages around the nepalese area.Last year 19 people were killed when a plane carrying tourists to view Mount Everest crashed outside Kathmandu.It is not the first time that Agni Air had a crash of that kind,in 2010 another dornier 228 in a flight between Kathmandu,Nepal and the infamous Lukla Airport(a.k.a Tenzing-Hillary airport named after the famous Everest mountaineers) crashed around half an hour after take off.The accident was attributed to severe weather and mechanical problems with the aircraft as well as spatial disorientation following the loss of a flight instrument leaving all 14 people on board dead.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Update: Sukhoi Superjet 100 crash at Indonesia


 Above:Images from the crash site(click to enlarge)

   
      As rescue teams still collect dead bodies and remains from the crash site more details emerge such as that the plane was being flown from one of the Russia s best test pilots  Alexander Yablontsev and that the accident was caused possibly by CFIT(controlled flight into terrain) due to bad weather and flight planning.Because rescue was also hampered due to bad weather it is proposed that the pilot was showing off the planes capabilities to journalists and misjudged his altitude due to the fog and low visibility conditions and possibly descended too much for the plane's safety and integrity.News emerge also about the mountains attitude and rage against planes flying close to it.Three people were killed in a crash of a training aircraft not long before the SSJ-100 accident,18 people were killed in a crash of an Indonesian Air Force military plane in 2008, five people were killed in crashes of a small aircraft in June 2004, two in April 2004, seven in October 2003 and finally one in October 2002.Search for the black boxes which will shed light into the causes of the crash,will continue tomorrow.Still as well the total number of passengers is disputed between 45-48 on board the plane.More to come stay tuned!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

News: Brand New Sukhoi Russian Passenger Plane crashed on Demonstration In Indonesia All feared DEAD

Crash Site in the hillside of Mount Salak,Indonesia
        Russian's aviation industry received a serious blow yesterday when news broke out that a brand new Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed in a demonstration flight with 45 people on board in the hills of a volcano in Indonesia,West Java.This was the second demonstration flight of this aircraft at that day with representatives from many airlines such as Aviastar Mandiri,Batavia Air,Pelita Air Service and Sriwijaya Air.The last contact the  Air Traffic Control had with the aircraft was when the crew requested a decent to 6.000ft(1.800m).The mountain hill that the plane had crashed is up to 2.200m,so early speculations are that the crash was due to bad planing and possibly weather as well that lead to it crash at speeds of up to 800km/h almost vertically to the hillside making search efforts looking totally hopeless.As we can see from the picture above almost nothing can be positively identified as a part from the plane suggesting the high rate of speed that the plane has hit the mountain.As i mentioned in the start of this thread this is a serious blow to Russia as it tries to prove that it can still create passenger planes even 20 years after the fall of communism in the country.The plane involved was undertaking a demonstration tour called "Welcome to Asia!" throughout Central and Southeast Asia,having previously visited Kazakhstan,Pakistan and Myanmar,have not crashed it would have gone to Laos and Vietnam as well for demonstration.At the time of the crash the company had 42 orders of the type from Indonesia,170 in total and was planning to produce up to 1,000 planes.Experts have criticised the aircraft on some minor counts, but there was never any real doubt about its safety or performance.
The Superjet made its maiden flight in April 2011. Since then, it has experienced some minor failures mainly associated with the landing gear.e then, it has experienced some minor failures mainly associated with the landing gear.Stay tuned...


The aircraft type involved SSJ-100

Monday, April 30, 2012

Educational: Deliberate crash of a B727 in Mexico for the shake of air travel safety!

Sequence from the crash as being captured live on tape

               Usually most of the crashes reported in this blog have many fatalities,families grieving and safety investigators scratching their heads as to what went wrong and brought the plane down.This crash though is  surprisingly  welcomed because it did not involve any death at all and many lessons can be learnt from it to improve the safety of the planes flying around the world right now.The idea of  crashing a big passenger plane remotely in a desert is not exactly new.
               NASA,28 years ago in 1984 crash landed a boeing 720(a variant of the famous 707) to test a new type of aviation fuel to minimize post crash fire and to document with crash dummies the effects on the human body.Coming back to the 727 case a pilot guided the plane to the desert and a few minutes before the crash he jumped off using a parachute,then another man in a following jet used a remote control to guide the plane in its last moments crashing in it hard down in the desert below.
               Compared to the NASA case also in this crash test dummies have been used as well recording equipment to help scientist understand better the causes of a plane crash and the necessary steps to avoid it happening again in the future.Discovery channel will use the footage of the crash to create a documentary about air safety,that will be screened later this year.What more can we say than "with our blessing!".

video of the crash


NASA's experiment of the 80's


sources: 1) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2137327/Discovery-Channel-Watch-passenger-jet-crash-land-Mexican-desert-devastating-consequences-documentary.html
2)      http://ptisidiastima.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/συντριβή-εν-ονόματι-της-ασφάλειας/

UPDATE: Crash of Bhoja Air flight 213



    A Russian news report on the crash shows footage of three mysterious lights moving in formation, leading to speculation in the UFO community that blame for the tragic accident may lie with an extra-terrestrial craft, reported the Daily Mail.
The news report suggests that the pilot may have been distracted by the object and complained to the control tower at Islamabad Airport as he made his approach. The official reason, however, is that the plane’s fuel tanks exploded mid-air during a heavy thunderstorm, killing all 127 people on board.
In a mayday call made moments before the disaster, the pilot reported that a fuel tank had caught fire and the plane was out of control.
He asked controllers at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto international airport for help as he prepared for an emergency landing, saying he could see the roofs of homes but not the runway.
The Civil Aviation Authority said the aircraft had been properly positioned as it began its approach, but suddenly descended to 200 feet while still flying at 300 miles an hour. It then descended 50 feet more before its tanks exploded.
Given the violent storm lashing Islamabad during the accident, some experts have speculated that ”wind shear”,’ sudden changes in wind that can lift or smash an aircraft into the ground during landing, may have been a factor.


source: aviationinspector.com

Sunday, April 22, 2012

UPDATE: Crash of Bhoja Air flight 213


Large piece of wreckage in the crash site 






ISLAMABAD: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Saturday issued a preliminary investigation report on the Bhoja Air plane crash, DawnNews reported.
According to the report, three minutes before the crash, the plane’s captain had informed the control tower that the plane was getting out of his control.
The report moreover said that the fuel tank of the plane had exploded.
The plane was flying at the altitude of 2,000 metres when it had last contacted the control tower.
Minutes prior to its planned landing at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, the plane had been descending at a speed of 500 kilometres per hour before it eventually crashed, the report revealed.
The Bhoja Air passenger jet crashed on Friday as it tried to land in a thunderstorm at Islamabad’s main airport, killing all 127 people on board. The small domestic airline, which resumed operations in March after an 11-year pause, had said the weather was the cause.
Bhoja Air started domestic operations in Pakistan in 1993 and eventually expanded to international flights to the United Arab Emirates in 1998. The company suspended operations in 2001 due to financial difficulties but resumed them in 2012.

Friday, April 20, 2012

News: B737-200 Bhoja Air Flight 213 Islamabad,Pakistan 20-4-2012

Crash Site

    A plane carrying 127 people on board has crashed a few miles away from islamabad's international airport in pakistan.It is feared that all on board have perished and from pictures and videos coming from the crash site it seems unlikely that anybody has survived the crash.It is quite early to suggest a reason for the crash but it seems that the bad weather around the area has been a contributing factor.Eyewitnesses have stated that the aircraft was on fire before it actually crashed.The accident has happened in a rural area,so more people may have lost their lives due to the crash.Bhoja Air is a small new commercial airline which was started about 10 years ago but closed because of financial difficulties. It recently re-opened.Last July, an Airbus A321 crashed as it was about to land in Islamabad, killing all 152 people on board.Story developing...


The Plane involved in the accident in better times

sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17788698
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhoja_Air_Flight_213
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEwDD24Su-U

Monday, April 2, 2012

News: ATR-72 UTair Flight 120 Tyumen, Russia 2-4-2012



   The ATR-72  with 43 souls on-board had crashed just after take-off,killing 32 out of them.The crew attempted an emergency landing one mile from the airport but apparently failed as the aircraft crashed and caught fire immediately after hitting the ground hard.Circumstances of the crashes are still sketchy but the flight data recorders have been found and they should soon shed some light to what had actually brought down the rather safe french-italian made plane.All of the 11 survivors have sustained critical injuries and are in serious condition in a hospital at the city of Tyumen.UTair is a domestic Russian carrier with generally good safety record but a few notable incidents and accidents the last 6 years.Russia has a notoriously bad air accident record but it has shown signs of improvement.In September although, 44 people, including the entire Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team, were killed in a plane crash that investigators found was caused by pilot error.
Story developing keep in touch...


source:Wikipedia
 VP-BYZ the actual aircraft involved in the accident in better days
source:airliners.net



main source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTair_Flight_120
sub source: http://www.aviationinspector.com/?p=5193
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17580917