Aviation

Citation

(2005), "Aviation", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 14 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2005.07314aac.009

Aviation

27 March 2004Crash into sea off Cotonou, Benin

A probe into a crash that killed about 140 people in Benin last year has concluded the jet was overloaded. Investigators found the aircraft was carrying about 10 tonnes of excess cargo, a Benin official told AFP. The chartered aircraft bound for Lebanon went down after taking off from Benin’s main city, Cotonou, on Christmas Day. Most of the passengers and victims were Lebanese nationals returning home for the holidays. The investigation was carried out by the French Bureau of Inquiry and Analysis. “After analysing data, the initial technical results show that the aircraft was overloaded,” said an official on the committee set up by Benin to look into the crash. “The aircraft was too heavy and the weight was badly distributed,” the official added. He said the inquiry was continuing and full results would be made public in the coming months. French investigators have been examining the aircraft’s flight data recorders since January. The manifest listed 151 passengers and ten crew. The bodies of 139 people were recovered. There were 21 survivors. The aircraft belonged to Union des Transports Africains, a Lebanese-owned airline.

7 April 2004Crash, south of Denver, Colorado, USA

The families of five men killed in a 2001 Colorado crash of a plane carrying people associated with the Oklahoma State University basketball team from a game in Boulder have reached a settlement with the pilot’s estate and other defendants. Ten died in the crash. No disclosure was made on the size of the settlement, reached Saturday (April 3) after two days of mediation. No settlement was reached against Raytheon Aircraft of Wichita, KS, manufacturer of the plane, a Beechcraft King Air 200. The family of the pilot, Denver Mills, agreed with the five plaintiffs to pursue legal action against Raytheon. A Raytheon spokesman declined to comment. The airplane was owned by North Bay Charter LLC of Reno and managed and flown by Mills. It was the last of three planes carrying home the OSU basketball team from a game against the University of Colorado in Boulder. It crashed in a field near Byers on January 27, 2001. Two players were among the ten men who died. The National Transportation Safety Board found that the crash was caused by the pilot’s failure to respond correctly to an electrical malfunction. Defendants in the court-ordered mediation were Raytheon, North Bay Charter, the Mills estate doing business as Jet Express, and aircraft parts manufacturers Marathon Power Technologies and Marathon Flite-Tronic, both of Waco, Texas. All but Raytheon agreed to pay the families an undisclosed amount of money. The aircraft manufacturer left the mediation after about a half day. The settlements included no admission of fault.

16 April 2004Crash, Linate Airport, Milan, Italy

A Milan court has found four aviation officials guilty of manslaughter and sentenced them to up to eight years in jail over Italy’s worst air disaster in which 118 people were killed. Family and friends of some of the people who died on the morning of October 8, 2001, burst into tears as the rulings were read out, some of them straining to hear the sentences from outside the packed courtroom. All 104 passengers and six crew on the Copenhagen-bound SAS aircraft were killed when it collided with a private Cessna jet in heavy fog on a runway at Milan’s Linate Airport. The Cessna’s two German pilots and two Italian passengers were killed in the crash. Four airport workers also died when the SAS aircraft ploughed into a baggage hangar. After the collision, investigators uncovered a series of shortcomings at Linate including the lack of a working ground radar system at an airport that is regularly shrouded in fog. Prosecutors called Linate “a death trap” but since the crash its safety has been upgraded and the ground radar now works. The court sentenced Linate director Vincenzo Fusco and air traffic controller Paolo Zacchetti to eight years in jail. Zacchetti’s sentence was double the term prosecutors wanted and his lawyer said he would appeal. Sandro Gualano, the former chief executive of air traffic control authority Enav, and Francesco Federico, the head of the Malpensa and Linate airports, were given six and a half years. Gualano’s lawyer said he would appeal and called the ruling “the fruit of this emotional climate which has little technical basis”. The sentence called for the defendants to be barred from holding a government job again, but they will be able to keep their current jobs pending an appeal process that could take two to three years, said Paolo Dondina, a lawyer for the victims. Another seven defendants face a separate trial over the crash that has been delayed by a technical challenge. A hearing is scheduled in that trial in June, Dondina said

5 May 2004Singapore Airlines (SIA) 9V-SPK

The first wrongful death case to go on trial in the USA against Singapore Airlines (SIA) for a couple killed in the October 31, 2000, crash of Flight SQ006 (Boeing 747-412 9VSPK) in Taiwan began yesterday. Siblings Sidney Wu and Christina Wu are suing SIA for the wrongful deaths of their parents Richard Tzuen Ren Wu and Ching Ying Wu in the crash which occurred on take-off from Chiang Kai Shek airport in Taipei amid heavy rain and windy conditions. Mr Kevin Boyle, one of the two lawyers representing the Wus, said that SIA did not contest liability for the crash. This means that the trial would determine how the Wu children should be fairly compensated for the deaths of their parents caused by Singapore Airlines, he said. SIA has made an offer of compensation, said Mr Boyle, who works for Greene, Broillet, Panish & Wheeler. However, he said that four years after the crash, SIA “still hasn’t offered a fair sum of money”. He declined to say how much SIA has offered. “We think it’s far below what the jury will give,” he said of SIA’s offer. Lawyer Frank Silane of Los Angeles-based law firm Condon & Forsyth is representing SIA and Los Angeles Federal Court Judge William Keller is presiding over the trial. The trial opened with jury selection and both sides made their opening statements yesterday. It is expected to close by the end of this week. Mr Boyle said there were more than 30 cases outstanding against SIA for the crash. So far, SIA has settled some cases, the compensation amounts of which were not disclosed. Last September, for example, the carrier settled a negligence suit by Dr Harald Linke for a confidential sum described by his lawyers as “probably a record for post-traumatic stress”. SIA has previously offered US$400,000 to the families of those who died in the crash and US$20,000 to those who were injured. A total of 179 people were on board the aircraft which crashed while attempting to take off from a closed runway at the airport. Eighty-three people were killed and 57 were injured in the crash. Mr and Mrs Wu, both executives with Ameripec, a company that packages beverages, were returning home to the USA after a business trip.

11 May 2004. Singapore Airlines (SIA) is insured against the US$15 million in damages that a US court has ordered it to pay the children of a couple killed in the SQ006 crash four years ago. SIA spokesman Rick Clements said yesterday: “The coverage is enough to meet all compensation.” Businessman Sidney Wu and his sister Christina, a lawyer, who filed their wrongful death lawsuit in 2001, won the judgment in Los Angeles on Friday (May 7). Their parents, Mr Richard Wu Tzuen Ren, and Mrs Wu Ching Ying, died when the Los Angeles-bound aircraft (Boeing 747-412 9V-SPK) crashed in October, 2000, while attempting to take off from a closed runway at Chiang Kai-shek Airport in Taipei. Theirs was the first of such claims to go to court in the USA over the crash, which killed 83 of the 179 people on board. Asked whether SIA would appeal, Mr Clements said it was up to the insurers. A lawyer instructed by four US law firms representing SQ006 victims to file 21 civil suits against SIA in Singapore, said six cases had been settled out of court. Of the remaining 15, four had been filed by Singaporeans.

7 May 2004Jiech, Sudan

A total of 14 people, including 12 children, died in an aid plane crash in southern Sudan, aviation officials and aid workers in neighbouring Kenya said today. The Czech-designed Let-410 twin-engine turboprop crashed on take-off from Jiech in Western Upper Nile yesterday, the aid workers said, adding the dead included the pilot and an education co-ordinator. There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash. The co-pilot and four passengers injured in the incident were due to be flown to Kenya for treatment later today. The Let-410, a 1970s-era light commuter plane, has a payload capacity of 19 passengers, according to aviation web sites.

8 May 2004. A small aircraft carrying students on a field trip crashed in southern Sudan, killing 12 children, a pilot from New Zealand and an adult chaperone, an aid worker said today. The Czech-built LET-410 crashed shortly after takeoff yesterday on a trip between two towns in the Upper Nile province, said Dan Eiff, the Sudan co-ordinator for Norwegian People’s Aid. “It was in the air and then it just collapsed. I think the engine failed,” said Mr Eiff, who witnessed the crash near Nur. One of the pilots, from New Zealand, was killed, while the other survived. Four Sudanese children also survived and all were taken to a hospital for treatment, Mr Eiff said. The aircraft belonged to a charter company and regularly operated in Sudan, other aid workers said.

11 May 2004Manila area, Philippines

A Philippine TV station reported today that at least 14 people were killed after a small aircraft crashed into the waters near Manila coast, but the accident has not yet been officially confirmed. The ABS-CBN TV station said that the aircraft carrying 29 passengers and five crew crashed at around 0600 hrs, yesterday. The TV quoted a witness as saying that thick smoke was coming from the aircraft minutes before it crashed into the water and the pilot apparently failed in making an emergency landing. After hours of search operations, rescue teams discovered 19 survivors and 14 bodies, including a three-year-old boy, a South Korean and a crew member, the report said. It also said that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had ordered an immediate investigation into the incident and designated transportation and communications secretary to oversee the search and rescue work in person. The report said that the aviation authorities attributed the engine failure as one of the possible reasons for the crash of the aircraft, which had been in service for at least 16 years.

13 May 2004. Engine failure might be the reason why a plane with 29 passengers and five crewmen onboard plunged into the waters near Manila on Monday morning (May 10), a ranking official said. The ill-fated plane took off under fine weather condition, and there was no malfunction report from the pilots of the plane until it crashed, Assistant Secretary Adelberto Yap of the Philippine Air Transportation Office said. Yap confirmed that 13 people have been rescued so far, saying that the cause of the accident would come out in two or three days since the pilot, the co-pilot and three air hostesses are among the survivors. The survivors also include three Filipinos and an Australian. Yap said the actual number of survivors might be higher since the confirmed 13 were pulled out of water by several vessels, and there might be unaccounted survivors. Divers are still checking the wrecked plane, but Yap discounted the possibility to find more survivors there. The latest report in Manila said four have been confirmed dead from the disaster. The Fokker plane crashed shortly after it took off from a domestic airport. The co-pilot has been taken to the nearby Philippine Navy office for interrogation while the plane had to be ditched at the bay area after the attempt to bring it back to the airport failed. The plane crashed at around 0600 hrs on Monday. Chinese and Southern Korean passengers were reportedly onboard. It disappeared from radar screen 30 minutes later.

15 May 2004Crash, Manaus area, Brazil

A Brasilia Embraer 120 aircraft carrying a full load of passengers to Manaus from Sao Paulo de Olivenca in western Amazonas state crashed in the Amazon jungle just minutes from its scheduled landing today, killing all 33 persons on board, aviation authorities said. The propeller aircraft operated by Rico Linhas Aereas fell into dense jungle about nine miles from Manaus airport at 1837 yesterday in north-west Amazonas state, 1,200 miles north-west of the capital, Brasilia. The airline said the passengers were all Brazilians over the age of 12. Rescue crews abandoned the search for survivors and wreckage along the banks of the Rio Negro River today after only finding scattered human remains and unidentifiable fragments of the aircraft. “They only found small wreckage. No survivors,” a spokesman for Rico Linhas Aereas told national radio. The lack of any large pieces of wreckage indicated the aircraft exploded, the company spokesman said.

19 May 2004Collision in mid-air, Southern Germany

German investigators said today the Swiss air traffic control agency, Skyguide, was partly to blame for a fatal mid-air collision which killed 71 people. Germany’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said the crash of two aircraft over Lake Constance in 2002 was caused primarily by human error. A Russian Tupolev Tu-154 charter aircraft carrying over 40 schoolchildren en route to Spain collided with a DHL Boeing 757 cargo aircraft while flying in Swiss-controlled airspace over the German town of Berlingen on July 1, 2002. In their final report published today, the German authorities blamed both the lone Swiss air traffic controller on duty at the time of the crash and the pilots of the Russian aircraft. The report found that the controller only gave the two aircraft instructions to avoid a collision 43 seconds before impact. The crew of the Tupolev obeyed the controller’s instruction to descend, but failed to listen to their on-board collision warning system which advised them to climb. As the aircraft lost altitude, it crashed into the DHL aircraft which was also descending in accordance with its own collision-avoidance equipment. According to international aviation rules, on-board collision warning systems should take precedence over instructions from air traffic controllers. The report called for greater efforts to ensure that such regulations are applied in the same way worldwide. Skyguide came in for criticism for allowing only one controller to be in charge of air traffic surveillance at the time of the crash. Investigators pointed out that the lone controller had been left to monitor two work stations because a colleague was taking a break. “This accident happened because many actions and failures to act came together that, viewed on their own, might only have a small significance for air safety,” said the investigators in their summary of the report. The Swiss president, Joseph Deiss, has written to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to express his regret about the accident. He added that the government would find out where responsibility lay and take action, including criminal proceedings if appropriate. Skyguide – which is majority-owned by the Swiss government – said it accepted responsibility for the chain of events that led to the collision. “Skyguide accepts full responsibility for its errors and is dismayed that its safety system failed on the night of this tragic accident,” the air traffic control agency said in a statement. The director of Skyguide, Alain Rossier, apologised for the first time to the relatives of those killed in the crash. “We offer our sincere apologies to the families of the 71 individuals who lost their lives,” he said. Investigators have urged the Swiss authorities to ensure that in future two controllers are on duty at all times. Skyguide said it was in the process of adopting safety recommendations contained in the report. Compensation packages have been agreed with 13 of the victims’ families following an out-of court settlement with Skyguide. Talks are continuing with the relatives of other victims. Peter Nielsen, the Skyguide controller who was on duty at the time of the crash, was stabbed to death outside his home near Zurich in February. The chief murder suspect, Vitaly Kaloyev, lost his wife and two children in the crash.

1 June 2004Lake Erie, Canada (C-FAGA)

A commuter plane that crashed into icy Lake Erie off Pelee Island on January 17, killing all ten people on board, was more than 1,000 pounds overweight, according to a report by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. Representatives of the TSB were in Kingsville today to provide an update on their investigation into the crash of the Cessna Caravan 208B, Georgian Express Flight 126. Seconds after takeoff the aircraft listed, banked its left wing and plunged nose-down into the lake about 1.6 nautical miles off the island, said Denis Rivard, TSB investigator-in-charge. “It was not a survivable accident,” Rivard said. “All occupants died upon impact.” The maximum amount of weight recommended by the manufacturer for the Caravan 208B is 8,732 pounds, but Rivard said the investigation found it was carrying 9,779 pounds on take-off, between 13 and 15 per cent more than its recommended capacity. Rivard said the plane was de-iced at Windsor Airport at about 1445 hrs, almost two hours before its fateful last flight from Pelee Island. A fine icy sleet was in the air as the plane taxied down the runway at 1638 hrs. Several witnesses reported seeing ice on the wings before the plane took off, Rivard said. “But we will never be able to determine if there was ice on the plane at the point of takeoff,” he said. “That information was lost when the plane hit the lake.” Rivard said the investigation has not found any indications of structural or mechanical problems with the plane at the time of the crash. “We’re confident there was nothing wrong with the plane,” he said, adding the TSB is now concentrating on the operational side of the incident – looking at the human factors involved in the crash, including the possibility of pilot error and whether aircraft and company operational procedures were followed. He said the investigation would have been helped immeasurably had the plane been equipped with a cockpit voice and data recorder, which are not required in small commuter aircraft.

8 June 2004Crash into sea off Gabon

A passenger plane carrying 27 people plunged into the sea off the coast of Gabon today, officials from the aircraft’s operator Gabon Express said. The French army rescued seven passengers and took them by helicopter to a hospital in Libreville, the central African country’s capital, while the others remained trapped in the plane, an army spokesman said. The plane was travelling from Libreville to Franceville in the southeast of the former French colony, via Port-Gentil, the economic capital.

8 June 2004. A small commercial aircraft crashed today into the Atlantic shortly after take-off from the capital of the West African nation of Gabon, killing at least 14 of the 30 people aboard, the airline said. Ten others were rescued and were being treated at a hospital in the capital, Libreville. The twin-engine propeller aircraft, travelling to the southern city of Franceville, crashed about 50 yards offshore, according to officials of Gabon Express, the private company operating the flight. Regional Africa No. 1 radio said the crew had unspecified technical problems shortly after take-off and tried unsuccessfully to make it back to the airport. Rescuers saved ten of the 26 passengers and four crew members aboard, company officials said. Fourteen bodies were recovered by late afternoon, while six people were still missing. French navy sailors based in the former French colony were helping Gabonese fire-fighters in the effort. Recovery teams were trying to attach a cable to the aircraft’s cabin to drag it onto the beach. At least two Lebanese were on board, and the passenger roster indicated several other foreign passengers, a company official said.

9 June 2004. Gabon’s president, Omar Bongo, has declared three days of mourning after an aircraft crash in the Gulf of Guinea which killed 16 people and has left three others missing, his office said today. “A national funeral will be organised after consulting the families of those lost,” a statement from Bongo’s office said, after the aircraft nosedived into the sea yesterday morning about 100 m off Libreville’s beach. Eleven survivors, eight passengers and three of the four crew members, were treated in hospital in the capital, according to the official toll released after emergency services worked all day to save trapped people. The survivors “were not seriously injured”, a hospital official said late yesterday. The 19 people dead or missing included two French nationals, a Lebanese and a German, their respective embassies said today. The turboprop Hawker Siddeley 748 passenger aircraft was headed from Libreville to Franceville in the southeast of the central African country when it crashed after take-off, part of its landing gear falling off and landing on the beach. Seven French nationals were aboard the aircraft, five passengers and two crew members, and five of them were among the survivors, the French embassy said. The German embassy said that “a German citizen whose body has not been found” was on board the aircraft. Two Lebanese people were also on aboard, according to Beirut’s mission here. One survived and the other was known to have died. When the aircraft, which belonged to private company Gabon Express, plunged into the water, its tail was jutting above the surface, raising hopes survivors could still be found. Nearly four hours later the wreck was fully submerged with people presumed trapped inside. Witnesses said they saw the twin-engine aircraft begin to head back to Leon Mba international airport before it crashed. “The plane took off, then turned back with only one propeller turning,” said a man who had just seen off a relative at the airport. A woman on the beach who was waiting for returning fishing boats when the accident happened said: “Smoke was coming out of the plane. It plunged nose-first into the water, and people emerged.” The president’s office said the accident happened “following technical problems”, according to a statement read out on national radio. The last of this type of aircraft, known as the BAe 748 after the company was merged into British Aerospace in 1977, was produced in 1988.

16 June 2004. The families of people killed in a plane crash off Gabon last week fear a protracted and possibly fruitless fight for compensation after it emerged the aircraft was not insured, family members said today. “We have little faith in a quick reaction with any financial support for the families … and even less that Gabon Express will compensate families,” said Ndong Germaine, 28, a student who lost an uncle in the crash. The government said late yesterday it would take legal action against the company and had banned it from operating because it had failed to insure its aircraft. “Gabon Express and its directors will be taken to court for lying and concealing information which, had it been known, would have prevented them from obtaining an operating licence,” Transport Minister Paulette Missambo told state television. Investigators have recovered two black box flight recorders from the twin-engine plane, which will be sent to London for examination, Missambo said.