This blog is intended to inform people about new,unusual and historic airplane accidents and incidents in an educational way and by no means it try's to promote fear of flying or any other distress or whatsoever to the reader.Information is gathered from many sources and so i will try to be as accurate as possilble for the safe information of my readers.Enjoy and learn!
Flydubai flight 981 is one of the latest major accidents in 2016 that will probably point to a decades long problem in aviation.As it is way too early to even make assumptions as to what brought down this state of the art airplane, there are some strong indications there was strong negligence and bad decision making from the part of the pilots. One of the first indications is that the pilots were holding for two hours waiting for a windows of good weather to land at the Rostov-on-Don Airport in Russia which never came, taking into consideration that another flight tried for 3 times unsuccessfully to land in this airport and then diverted! As the plane made its second approach it initiated a go-around procedure which in simple terms means the pilots after breaking from the clouds they couldn't see the airport and had to abandon the approach and try again!after this attempt though it seems that the plane entered a low altitude stall which was as seen from the multiple videos unrecoverable at that point.Another factor that probably contributed to this accident was that the crew was fatigued from working too many hours per week (again all these are personal assumptions and opinions and do not reflect at all the real reason of this accident,for this we'll have to wait a few months for the official report).
If the assumptions i made above as per the reason of this accident are true we see a dangerous pattern of accidents where pilots simply can't handle basic flying skills and procedures such as how to recover from a stall or understand the limitations of the technology and automation of the cockpit. A few recent examples are Air France Flight 447, Air Asia flight 8501,Asiana flight 214.In all of these flights we see the dangerous trend of how bad pilots react to a simple problem such as a high altitude stall or loss of an airplane system which shouldn't cause an accident in any other situation but the pilots of those specific flights seemed to be overwhelmed by the unfolding situation and simply reacted badly leading to the loss of the plane crew and passengers.
Automation plays a major role in today's aviation world but when things start to fail in the cockpit then we see the real situation, which is that flight crew is unable to respond to basic flying skills which are taught from the beginning of their flying career!
Hi,
I know it is being while since i have posted anything at all but it is actually a nice feeling cause it means not a lot of crashes,haha kidding.Truth is that the last 2 years even though there is great economic recession the aviation industry is strangely at its safest rates for this decade,at least that is what the statistics show considering the number of crashes and fatalities of big airliners.Anyways because i have a lot of work to do in real life those days and this is a side project i don't have time to improve this site more and because it is a side project and not my job(yes i still do it for free :) no annoying ads,pop ups etc.) the pace is slow by just posting significant air crashes and letting the small ones slip by.
I have created a Facebook page quite some time ago and maybe we can continue discussing there aviation matters and more and also about any ideas you guys have about how can i improve this blog by adding more content,buttons,options etc. the link is https://www.facebook.com/pages/aviationaccidents1blogspotcom/482208161875253
you can like and star talking with other readers of the blog.Lets meet up :)
The pilots aboard the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 that crashed in San Francisco relied on an auto-throttle system to maintain airspeed and did not realise the plane was flying too slowly until it was just 200 feet (60 metres) above the ground, the head of the US National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday.
In her third detailed briefing on Saturday's crash that killed two Chinese passengers and injured more than 180 others, NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman also said two flight attendants were ejected from the plane after its tail hit a seawall in front of the runway and was torn off. Both were found injured but alive on the side of the runway.
Hersman said many questions remained about the incident. The South Korean airline's flight crew members were not tested for drugs or alcohol after the crash, a requirement for pilots of US-based carriers involved in accidents, she said.
The accounts given to investigators by the pilots, as relayed by Hersman, confirmed information from the plane's flight data recorder that showed the plane was flying 25 percent below its target airspeed as it came in for landing.
While she has declined to speculate on the cause of the crash, much of the information released by the NTSB suggests pilot error as a main focus of the investigation.
The pilot in charge of landing the plane on Saturday was in training on the 777 and was roughly halfway through the process, while seated next to him was a pilot on his first flight as an instructor. Both were experienced pilots, although they had not flown together before, Hersman said.
"At about 500 feet, he realised that they were low," Hersman told reporters, referring to the instructor pilot's account of the failed last-second attempts to avoid Saturday's disaster. "Between 500 and 200 feet (150 and 60 metres), they had a lateral deviation and they were low. They were trying to correct at that point."
Referring to the instructor pilot, she said it was not until 200 feet that "he recognised the auto-throttles were not maintaining speed" and tried to abort the landing. Hersman had previously said that the plane had been at an altitude of 200 feet 16 seconds before crashing.
Three of the four pilots on board were in the cockpit during the landing, although only two could see the runway, Hersman said, citing the interviews by investigators with the crew.
Hersman said an examination of the wreckage showed that the auto-throttle was "armed," but it was not clear if it had been properly engaged or had somehow failed before the plane slowed to a near-stall and hit the ground. "We need to understand a little better" how the auto-throttle is used, she said.
"They had set speed at 137 knots (158 mph), and he assumed that the auto-throttles were maintaining speed," Hersman said of the instructor pilot.
She noted that the pilots were responsible for maintaining airspeed.
"We have a flying pilot and two other pilots in the cockpit and they have a monitoring function," she said. "One of the critical things that needs to be monitored on an approach to landing is speed. So we need to understand what was going on in the cockpit and also what was going on with the aircraft."
'RAMPANT SPECULATION'
The Air Line Pilots Association International union rebuked the NTSB for its handling of the crash investigation, saying the agency had released too much information too quickly, which could lead to wrong conclusions and compromise safety.
Releasing data from the flight's black boxes without full investigative information for context "has fuelled rampant speculation" about the cause of the crash, ALPA said in a statement.
Hersman rejected the criticism. "We work for the travelling public," she said. "We feel it is important to show our work."
Aviation consultant Hans Weber, the president of TECOP International, said the accident may revive a long-running debate over whether pilots' increasing reliance on automated flight systems has taken a toll on their "hand-flying" skills.
Maintaining proper airspeed and altitude is "the most basic responsibility of the pilot, like breathing in and out," Weber said. But it could be the case, he added, that "pilots are paying attention to the computer rather than paying attention to the fundamentals."
Hersman did not comment on whether anyone in addition to the two flight attendants was ejected from the plane, though the two teenage Chinese students who died were found outside the aircraft. One of them may have been run over by an emergency vehicle, San Francisco fire department officials have said, but the local coroner has not yet released autopsy results showing the cause of death.
Asiana Airlines chief executive Yoon Young-doo arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday to meet US investigators, Asiana staff and survivors of the crash.
Hersman also confirmed witness accounts that at least one emergency escape chute had deployed inside the aircraft, trapping a flight attendant. The pilot who was sitting in the cabin worked to free her, Hersman said.
"I saw a leg sticking out between the slide and the wall. It kept moving," passenger Eugene Rah said in an interview on Monday. He said he and a man he believed was a crew member struggled to free her, adding: "He was asking me if I had anything sharp, but these days nobody can be on board with anything sharp."
She was eventually freed and hospitalised with serious injuries, Rah said.
On July 6, 2013, at 11:26 a.m. PDT (18:26 UTC), a Boeing 777-200ER, registration number HL7742,crashed at San Francisco International Airport upon landing, short of runway 28L's threshold, striking the seawall that projects into San Francisco Bay.One engine and the tail section behind the aft pressure bulkhead became separated from the aircraft.The vertical and both horizontal stabilizers came to rest on the runway before the threshold, while the remainder of the fuselage and wings halted to the left side of the runway. After the aircraft came a rest it is seen that the right engine also came off. Eyewitnesses described a large brief fireball upon the aircraft landing, and a second large explosion minutes after the impact, with a large, dark plume of smoke rising from the fuselage. Evacuation slides were deployed on one side of the plane, and were used to evacuate the passengers.
Warning: Some viewers may find this video to be graphic. A wing walker and her pilot died in a fatal plane crash during the Vectren Air Show at the international airport in Dayton, Ohio.
DAYTON, OHIO A plane carrying a wing walker crashed Saturday as she sat on top of the inverted plane at the Dayton Air Show, killing the performer and her pilot, CBS Dayton affiliate WHIO-TV reports. Terrence Slaybaugh, Dayton's director of aviation, confirmed to WHIO-TV that two people died in the crash.
"Obviously this is a tragedy for what is a very small community," he said.
The identity of the pilot of the plane has not been released.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating along with the Federal Aviation Administration, which was already on scene for the show.
"Right now there is no conclusive answer about why the accident happened," Slaybaugh said. He said the investigation could take months.
The 450 HP Stearman burst into flames when it hit the ground just before 1 p.m. A fire truck was at the crash site within seconds and extinguished the flames.
"All of a sudden I heard screaming and looked up and there was a fireball," Stan Thayer of Wilmington, Ohio, told WHIO-TV.
Shawn Warwick of New Knoxville, Ohio, said he was watching the plane through binoculars.
"I noticed it was upside-down really close to the ground; she was sitting on the bottom of the plane," Warwick told WHIO-TV. "I saw it just go right into the ground and explode."
His wife was getting a drink when the crash happened.
"I came back, and everybody was just in shock," Cara Warwick told the affiliate.
Many spectators were already leaving when show organizers canceled the show for the day at 1:30 p.m.
The show announcer encouraged parents to move children away from the crash scene.
The act was the third of the day at the 39th Vectren Dayton Air Show.* *taken from youtube description
A historic jet plane crashed into a hangar and exploded in a fireball at an airshow southwest of Madrid in Spain on Sunday, May 5, 2013. Pilot was reportedly severely injured and later died in Getafe hospital. I’m surprised he was reported “severely injured” rather than fried on the spot. The fireball looks rather unsurvivable, unless he was able to eject at some point and that’s how he survived with mortal injuries.35 year old Ladislao Tejedor Romero was an experienced jet pilot and assistant to Defense Minister Pedro Morenes, a spokesman for Spain’s Defense Ministry said. Cause of the crash is not known. Other than the pilot, no one else was injured, although the pilot’s father who was at the airshow when his son crashed reportedly suffered from an anxiety attack and had to be transferred to hospital. Europa Press agency also reported that several rescue workers suffered from smoke inhalation or burns they sustained during the rescue operation.The airshow at Cuatro Vientos airfield was attended by about 3,000 people. The HA-200 Saeta jet was a built in the 1950s – one of the first jet-propelled planes to be manufactured in Spain, by Hispano Aviacion. It was initially an advanced jet trainer but was later given an attack capability.
National Airlines Flight 102 was a cargo flight operated by National Airlines between Bagram Airfield—a military base in Afghanistan—and Al Maktoum Airport in Dubai. On 29 April 2013 a Boeing 747-400 operating the flight crashed shortly after taking off from Bagram, killing all seven crew.Initial reports say that there may have been a cargo shift of the military material inside,such as cars or other heavy stuff.Also there was bad weather approaching the airport around that time that may have played a role.Still it is very soon to draw hasty conclusions.Story developing... Video Animation on what may have happened inside the plane:
Lion Air Flight 904 (JT 904, LNI 904) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight on the aircraft PK-LKS, a Boeing 737-8GP operated by Lion Air between Bandung and Denpasar, Indonesia. On 13 April, 2013, at about 3:00pm (07:00 GMT), the aircraft ditched into a shallow coastal sea, some 0.6 nautical miles (1.1 km) short of the seawall protecting the threshold of Runway 9, while attempting to land at Denpasar. The aircraft’s fuselage broke up in two parts.There were 101 passengers and 7 crew members on board the aircraft. A total of 22 people were injured in the accident,however there were no fatalities.
On February 13th, 2013, a Ukrainian South AirlinesAntonov An-24 plane commencing chartered flight YG 8971 crash-landed in Donetsk, Ukraine leading to five confirmed casualties.
Accident
After an Ukrainian internal flight from Odessa to Donetsk the plane overshot the runway as it attempted an emergency landing at Donetsk International Airport.As of 13 February 2013 five passengers were confirmed dead, while the fate of one passenger remains unclear.After touchdown the aircraft had burst into flames, however most occupants were evacuated because they were able to escape from the burning aircraft through a hole in the fuselage left by the crash. Eyewitnesses have stated that the aircraft was attempting to land in dense fog and touched down on soft ground between main runway and taxiway, other observers reported the aircraft touched down short of the runway on soft ground.According to flight documentation on board were 36 passengers and 7 crew members; but there where also several unregistered passengers making the total of people on board 52.All 44 passengers were football fans on their way to the match-up of Shakhtar Donetsk and Borussia Dortmund.This match opened with a minute of silence in memory of the deceased.The aircraft was built in 1973.
Investigation
Donetsk Region Prosecutor's Officer Volodymyr Vyshynsky is in charge of the inquiry which was opened the day after the crash.On 14 February 2013 investigators considered pilot error, faulty ground support equipment and poor weather conditions as possible causes.The plane's pilot blamed bad weather for the accident; while the plane's operator, South Airlines, stated that the plane was in good condition and the pilot should not have landed in the fog and should have diverted to another airport. One passenger mentioned "engine failure during landing".In the years before this crash, former Soviet republics (like Ukraine) had seen a series of deadly crashes that has tarnished the region's air safety record.Experts blamed them on poor maintenance of aging planes, weak government controls, insufficient pilot training and a cost-cutting mentality among carriers.
I just saw the movie Flight with Denzel Whashigton a few days ago and i was baffled as to which real crash it could have taken its story from.It hit me suddenly and unexpectedly that i have seen a documentary from the famous Air Crash Investigation series(episode 6 season 1 "Cutting Corners" ) that had STRIKING similarities with the movie.The real crash was that of Alaska Airlines 261 back in january 2000.The crash of alaska had the jackscrew problem and as well two deep dives because of this problem with the second one being the final fatal dive.The last striking similarity that everyone will notice (if he has seen the movie and the documentary) is the last effort of the pilots to fly the plane inverted in order to reduce or stop the dive.This of course had little effect in real life but suprisingly saved almost everyone in the movie!Anyways great movie that i suggest anyone to see it if he had not done so already and also i would be glad to read your comments about this interesting trivial story.
VERY CHILLING REAL TOWER AUDIO TAPE!!LISTEN AT 2:26 ANOTHER PILOT SAYS "PLANE IS INVERTED" ANOTHER ONE AT 2:45
Red Wings Flight 9268:Crashed after overrunning the runway at Moscow Vnukovo International Airportfollowing 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...
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.
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.
