Sud-Aviation SE-210 Caravelle

Following an uneventful flight from Bombay at 33,000 feet, the crew contacted Dubai control to obtain the latest weather bulletin: wind from 040° at 8 knots, visibility 10 km and 5/8 clouds at 2,000 feet. Approaching via radial 084, the crew was informed he will be able to start the descent at 1955LT. However, at 1949LT (six minutes too early), the crew informed ATC he was ready for the descent as his position was 95 NM from Dubai. At that moment, the plane was in fact 162 NM from the destination but the crew was not aware of it. After being cleared to descend at 4,000 feet, pilots were informed that they may choose either Runway 30 or 12, to which they respond that they will attempt a direct approach on Runway 30. By night, the captain thought he was seeing the lights of the city of Dubai when they are actually those of Fujairah located 95 km east. Despite that the crew had difficulties to tune into NDB frequency, the crew continued the descent when, at an altitude of 1,600 feet, the airplane struck the slope of a mountain. The wreckage was about 92 kilometers east of Dubai Airport. The airplane disintegrated on impact and all 112 occupants were killed, among them 74 Danish whom six crew members, 20 Swedish, 12 Norwegians, four Finns and two West Germans.

On approach to Ibiza Airport, the crew encountered poor visibility due to foggy conditions and failed to realize his altitude was insufficient. At an excessive speed of 515 km/h, the airplane struck the slope of a hill located between Mt Rocas Altas (365 meters high) and Mt Atalaya de San José (301 meters high). The wreckage was found 8 km northwest of runway 07 threshold, some 30 meters below the summit. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and all 104 occupants were killed.
Crew:
José Luis Ballester Sepúlveda, captain,
Jesús Montesinos Sánchez, copilot,
Vicente Rodríguez Mesa, flight engineer,
Pilar Merino López Baeza, stewardess,
Pilar Miravet Martín, stewardess,
Manuel Fernández Cuesta, steward.

While cruising by night over the Taiwan Strait en route from Taipei to Hong Kong, the airplane disappeared from the radar screen without any distress call on part of the flying crew. Debris were found in the next early morning, floating on water off the Penghu Islands (Pescadores Islands), Taiwan. None of the 25 occupants survived the crash, among them the Ambassador of Brazil in China. Eye witnesses reported that the airplane disintegrated in the air.

The airplane was completing a flight from Agadir to Paris with an intermediate stop in Casablanca. On final approach, the crew encountered unclear technical problems when the airplane lost height and crashed 2 km short of runway 35 threshold. The aircraft was destroyed and 61 occupants were killed while 21 other were injured.

Following an uneventful flight from Rome-Fiumicino, the crew started the approach to runway 32 at Marseille-Marignane Airport and calculated the approach speed to be 120 knots. Following a wrong approach configuration and several errors, the crew continued the approach at a speed of 183 knots, causing the aircraft to land too far down the runway, nose gear first. Upon touchdown, the captain released the tailchute that burst immediately due to high speed. Unable to stop within the remaining distance, the airplane overran and eventually crashed in the Etang de Berre. The wreckage sank by a depth of four meter and all 44 occupants were quickly rescued, four of them were injured.
Photo via https://www.azfleet.info/

The airplane was completing a charter flight from Marseille to Hassi Messaoud with an intermediate stop in Algiers, carrying French technicians flying to the Oil facilities in Hassi Messaoud. While in cruising altitude by night, an electrical short-circuit occurred in the cockpit panel, causing smoke to spread. The crew declared an emergency and elected to divert to Biskra Airport. While descending to Biskra, the airplane went out of control and crashed in flames in a desert area located near Aïn Naga, some 40 km southeast of Biskra. Both pilots were seriously injured while all 35 other occupants were killed.

The approach to Bangkok-Don Mueang Airport was completed by the copilot in poor weather conditions (low visibility and heavy rain falls due to tropical storm) when the ILS equipment failed. It was decided to continue the approach and at an altitude of 700 feet, the pilot-in-command was able to locate the runway lights. At this time, the aircraft was slightly too high on the glide and too far to the left. Once the altitude of 300 feet was reached on descent, the IAS was 127 knots, about five knots above the planned speed. Thus, the copilot decided to reduce the speed to 122 knots when the airplane suddenly lost height. The captain elected to regain control but it was too late. With a relative high sink rate, the airplane landed very hard, causing both main landing gear to puncture the wings. The aircraft came to rest after a course of several hundred yards. While all 75 occupants escaped uninjured, the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Following an uneventful flight from Ajaccio, the crew started the descent to Nice-Côte d'Azur Airport when the pilot sent a brief mayday message, saying 'fire on board, request urgent landing'. Few second later, the airplane went into a dive and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea some 40 km off Antibes. Few debris were found on water surface and none of the 95 occupants survived the crash.

Iberia flight IB062 left Málaga, Spain, at 19:30 UTC on a flight to London-Heathrow Airport, United Kingdom. The weather at the time was slightly misty with intermittent drizzle but there was reasonable visibility. The aircraft was cleared to descend to FL210 after passing latitude 50 °N and was given a routing via Ibsley and Dunsfold. After passing conflicting traffic, the aircraft was recleared to FL110 and directed to turn right on to 060° for Dunsfold. Passing abeam Fawley the aircraft was further cleared to FL60 and, in acknowledging this instruction, the crew reported leaving FL145. Just under 4 minutes later the aircraft was cleared to proceed direct to Epsom on its own navigation. The flight crew acknowledgement this instruction. All the while the aircraft had been in a continuous descent, until it impacted trees on the southern slope of Blackdown Hill, approximately 48 km south-southwest of Heathrow Airport. The aircraft continued for hundreds of yards, passing across a meadow where it killed 65 grazing sheep. It then broke through a large hedge and parts of the aircraft fell off destroying a garage, and damaging parts of the roof of Upper Blackdown House as the aircraft disintegrated. None of the 37 occupants survived the crash.

Thai Airways International Flight 601, a scheduled passenger service from Taipei International Airport, Formosa, to Hong Kong International Airport, departed from Taipei at 0540 hours with an estimated enroute time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and an endurance of 4 hours 19 minutes. The flight was made at flight level 260 and was entirely normal except that, because of turbulence expected from a severe tropical storm, the passenger seat belts were on for the majority of the flight. No turbulence of any importance was in fact experienced. At 0638 hours, when approximately 170 miles from Hong Kong, Flight 601 made contact with Hong Kong airways control and received clearance to descend to flight level 70. At 0658 hours they contacted Hong Kong approach control, which later cleared them to descend to 2 500 feet using an altimeter setting (QNH) of 999 mb, and informed them that there was a heavy rain shower at Hong Kong and that the visibility was very reduced to 2 km. The co-pilot flew the aircraft manually from the right-hand seat, whilst the Captain monitored the approach from the left hand seat and handled the R/T communications, the third pilot, who was acting as the system operator, also monitored the flight instruments. Rhe approach controller provided radar guidance to position the aircraft for an ILS approach to runway 31 and when it was at about 8 miles from touchdown, cleared the pilots to contact the precision controller. This controller cleared them to continue their ILS approach, informed them that there was heavy rain at the field and told them the overshoot procedure to be adopted should this become necessary. The aircraft remained well within the approach safety funnel 2° either side of the localiser centerline and 1/2° above or below the glide slope, until 3 miles from touchdown, the PAR controller having provided information on weather, overshoot instructions and distance from touchdown as shown on the R/T transcript at Appendix C. In his 3 miles distance advisory, the PAR controller informed the pilot that he was just a little to the right; this appeared to be corrected and the aircraft returned to the centre line. At about 2 3/4 miles, the aircraft descended momentarily below the glide slope safety funnel but returned quickly towards the glide slope before the PAR controller had made any advisory comment. At 1 1/2 mile the aircraft was again a little right of centre line and at this time also interference from the heavy rain began to obscure PAR reception, firstly in elevation and, shortly after one mile, also in azimuth. Correlation of the flight recorder readout and the R/T transcript indicates that-approximately 2 seconds after receiving the 1 1/2 mile advisory that he was a little to the right, the co-pilot made a left turn of 14°. Eight seconds later, the PAR controller advised him that he was coming back to the centre line and almost immediately he began a right turn of similar dimensions. Five seconds after this, the PAR controller save the 1 mile advisory and the information that the aircraft was going left of centre after which the aircraft increased its rate of turn to the right. On hearing the 1 mile advisory, the captain reinforced it by telling the co-pilot to move to the right and a moment or two later, when looking across the cockpit, saw the sea about 100 ft below through the copilot's side window. He immediately attempted to make a pull-up, but the aircraft struck the surface, bounced slightly, and settled on the water about 3 925 ft before the ILS reference point of runway 31 and about 100 ft left of the ILS centre line. According to the survivors the impact was not unduly greater than that of a heavy landing but the starboard wing and undercarriage broke away, the latter ripping open the underside of the fuselage; in addition, the rear end of the fuselage broke open. As a result of this damage the aircraft sank very rapidly and 14 of the passengers did not escape from the fuselage and were drowned, 6 were dead on arrival at hospital, 4 were missing and later found drowned. The remaining passengers and the crew were rescued by nearby surface vessels and a helicopter.