Bratislava-Ivanka-Milan Rastislav Štefánik

The crew took off from Leipzig Airport at 0438LT bound for Bratislava Airport (Slovakia). The approximately forty-five minutes flight took place without incident and the crew was cleared for the ILS approach to runway 22. The Captain was PF. During the descent, the controller informed the crew that the wind was from  120° at  7  kt. The crew selected the slats and flaps at 25°. The antiskid and the autobrake were armed in MED mode. The ILS 22 approach was stable until the wheels touched down. The main landing gear touched the runway about 700 m from the threshold of runway  22. The crew deployed the thrust reversers. About six seconds after the nose gear touched, the crew felt strong vibrations that increased as the speed dropped. At 85 kt, the thrust reversers were retracted. The aeroplane veered towards the left. The PF explained that he applied energetic braking and tried in vain to counter the rocking by using the rudder pedals then the nose gear steering control. He  added that the sequence occurred so quickly that he did not think to use differential braking to try to keep the aeroplane on the runway. The aeroplane exited the runway to the left at a speed of about 45 kt. Its nose gear struck a concrete inspection pit and collapsed. The aeroplane skidded for a few dozen metres before coming to a stop. The crew evacuated the aeroplane. Between the start of the vibrations and the aeroplane stopping, it had rolled about 400 metres.

On approach to Bratislava-Ivanka-Milan Ratislav Štefánik Airport, the twin engine aircraft crashed in an open field located few kilometres from the airport, bursting into flames. All three occupants were killed. Weather conditions were marginal at the time of the accident.

The aircraft was leased to a Belgian charter broker around June 1998 to operate fish charter flights between Mwanza and Vienna. The aircraft was in fact seen on many other airports, Bratislava, Ostrava and Lubumbashi. At the time of the accident, the plane is understood to have had a long list of 32 faults that needed urgent repair. Problems included a limited EGT of n°1 & 4 engines; n°3 engine constant speed drive (CSD) gearbox was consuming a 'massive amount of oil'; n°1 engine CSD generator missing; n°2 engine required bleed on takeoff and above FL330; left wing leading edge cracked and leaking; n°4 fuel tank and reserve tank gauge not working. Decision to ferry the aircraft to N'Djamena was taken on February 7. During the takeoff roll the n°2 & 3 engines failed. The takeoff was aborted but the aircraft could not be stopped within the remaining distance. It overran, lost its nose gear and came to rest 200 metres past the runway end. All seven occupants escaped uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

On approach to Bratislava-Ivanka-Milan Rastislav Štefánik Airport, the crew encountered poor visibility. He passed below the decision height until the aircraft struck the ground and crashed in a field located 1,800 metres short of runway 22. A crew member was injured while four other occupants were killed.

While descending to runway 22 at Bratislava-Ivanka-Milan Rastislav Štefánik Airport, the crew adopted a wrong approach configuration and descended with a rate of descent of 22 m/s instead of 10 m/s. This caused the airplane to be unstable while its speed varied from 435 to 225 km/h. Flaps were directly selected from zero to full down position, which caused the airplane's speed to decrease. Reverse thrust were activated on both engines n°2 and 3 below the altitude of 1,000 metres. At this time, the engine n°3 failed and in a certain confusion, the crew inadvertently feathered the propeller on engine n°4. During the last segment, about 50 metres above the runway threshold, the captain considered a missed approach and decided to initiate a go-around manoeuvre. The airplane climbed to an altitude of 40 metres and turn to the right when the engine n°4 was restarted. The airplane rolled to the right then stalled and crashed in the Zlaté piersky Lake located one km short of runway 13 threshold, northwest of the airport. Four passengers were rescued while 75 other occupants were killed. Few hours later, one of the survivor died from his injuries.

Flight LZ101 was a scheduled international air service from Sofia to Berlin with intermediate stops in Budapest and Prague. The four engine airplane departed Budapest-Ferihegy Airport at 1146LT bound for Prague, but en route, the crew was informed the airport of Prague-Ruzyne was closed to all traffic due to poor weather conditions. So the crew decided to divert to Bratislava-Ivanka Airport where he landed at 1258LT. About 1550 hours the pilot-in-command of the aircraft decided to resume his flight to Prague. He took off from Bratislava Airport at 1628:30. After take-off he made a turn to starboard according to the flight clearance with the instruction to perform a right turn on to the OKR Beacon, to climb only to 300 m and then to climb on to the NI beacon up to the flight level of 5 100 m. At 1630:20 hours the flight was requested to change to the ATC approach service frequency, 120.9 Mc/s. The crew confirmed reception of this message, but they did not carry out the retuning. Shortly afterwards the aircraft crashed into wooded ground in the mountains. The accident occurred 8 km away from the 31 runway threshold of Bratislava Airport at an altitude of 420 m above MSL, i.e. 288 m above the airport level. The aircraft was totally destroyed and none of the 82 occupants survived the crash.

The approach to Brno was started in limited visibility due to marginal weather conditions. On final, the airplane struck the top of a hill and crashed by a house located near the village of Slavkov, about 6 km from the runway 28 threshold. The aircraft was destroyed upon impact and three crew members and ten passengers were killed, the rest of the occupants were injured, some of them seriously.

On the leg from Bratislava to Košice, the crew encountered poor weather conditions and was contacted by ATC and diverted to Poprad. Few minutes before its ETA in Poprad, while cruising in bad weather conditions at an altitude of 1,300 meters, the aircraft hit trees and crashed in a snow covered and wooded area located in the Tatra Mountain Range. Four passengers were injured and rescued while all 22 other occupants were killed.

The crew was performing a cargo flight from Prague to Bratislava with an intermediate stop in Brno. At 2242LT, the crew obtained the permission to descend to Bratislava via heading 225° to join the approach path for runway 23. At 2302LT, the pilot reported completing a last turn to join the glide when the airplane hit the ground about 10 km north of the airport, near Pezinok. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire and all four crew members were killed. The wreckage was found two days later only. At the time of the accident, the airplane was off course by 1,500 meters and the weather conditions were as follow: horizontal visibility 1,800 meters, broken at 80 meters and overcast at 300 meters with heavy rain falls and severe icing conditions.

On final approach to Košice Airport, the aircraft crash landed in a field and came to rest on a railway embankment. All 23 occupants were uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.