Leeds-Bradford

Immediately after take-off from London (Stansted) Airport, on a night flight with 30 passengers and 4 crew on board, an uncontained failure of the right engine occurred. This resulted in sudden power loss and a major engine bay fire. The commander elected to land back on the runway. The aircraft overran the paved surface, and uneven ground in the overrun area caused the nose landing gear to collapse. After the aircraft had come to rest, with the engine bay fire continuing, the crew organized a rapid evacuation and all the occupants escaped, with little or no injury. The engine bay fire was extinguished by the Airport Fire Service (AFS), but fuel release continued for some hours.

On the morning of 24 May 1995 the aircraft had returned to its base at Leeds/Bradford from Aberdeen, U.K. on a scheduled passenger flight landing at 09:44 local time. The crew, which was not the one later involved in the accident, stated that all of the aircraft's systems and equipment had been serviceable during the flight. Some routine maintenance was performed on the aircraft which was later prepared for a scheduled passenger flight, NE816, to Aberdeen. It was positioned at the passenger terminal where it was taken over by the crew which was to operate the service, comprising the commander, who occupied the left hand seat, the first officer and a flight attendant. Nine passengers were boarded. The weather at Leeds/Bradford Airport was poor with Runway Visual Range (RVR) reported as 1,100 metres; scattered cloud at 400 feet above the aerodrome elevation of 682 feet and a light south-easterly wind. It was raining and the airfield had recently been affected by a thunderstorm. The freezing level was at 8,000 feet and warnings of strong winds and thunderstorms were in force for the Leeds/Bradford area. The crew called ATC for permission to start the engines at 17:41 hrs. Having backtracked the runway to line up, the aircraft took-off from runway 14 at 17:47 hrs and the crew was instructed by ATC to maintain the runway heading (143°M). The aircraft began to turn to the left shortly after becoming airborne. One minute and fifty seconds after the start of the take-off roll and as the aircraft was turning through a heading of 050° and climbing through 1,740 feet amsl, the first officer transmitted to Leeds/Bradford aerodrome control: "Knightway 816 we've got a problem with the artificial horizon sir and we'd like to come back." The aerodrome controller passed instructions for a radar heading of 360° and cleared the aircraft to 3,000 feet QNH. These instructions were read back correctly but the aircraft continued its left turn onto 300° before rolling into a right hand turn with about 30° of bank. About 20 seconds before this turn reversal, the aircraft had been instructed to call the Leeds/Bradford approach controller. The aircraft was now climbing through an altitude of 2,800 feet in a steep turn to the right and the approach controller transmitted: "I see you carrying out an orbit just tell me what i can do to help". The first officer replied: "Are we going straight at the moment sir" The controller informed him that the aircraft was at that time in a right hand turn but after observing further radar returns he said that it was then going straight on a south-easterly heading. The first officer's response to this transmission was: "Radar vectors slowly back to one four then sir please". The controller then ordered a right turn onto a heading of 340°. This instruction was correctly acknowledged by the first officer but the aircraft began a left hand turn with an initial angle of bank between 30° and 40°. This turn continued onto a heading of 360° when the first officer again asked "Are we going straight at the moment sir" to which the controller replied that the aircraft looked to be going straight. Seconds later the first officer asked: "Any report of the tops sir". This was the last recorded transmission from the aircraft, although at 17:52 hrs a brief carrier wave signal was recorded but it was obliterated by the controller's request to another departing aircraft to see if its pilot could help with information on the cloud tops. At this point, the aircraft had reached an altitude of 3,600 feet, having maintained a fairly constant rate of climb and airspeed. The ATC clearance to 3000 feet had not been amended. After the controller had confirmed that the aircraft appeared to be on a steady northerly heading, the aircraft immediately resumed its turn to the left and began to descend. The angle of bank increased to about 45° while the altitude reduced to 2,900 feet in about 25 seconds. As the aircraft passed a heading of 230° it ceased to appear on the secondary radar. There were four further primary radar returns before the aircraft finally disappeared from radar. There had been a recent thunderstorm in the area and it was raining intermittently with a cloud base of about 400 feet and a visibility of about 1,100 metres. Residents in the vicinity of the accident site reported dark and stormy conditions. Several witnesses described the engine noise as pulsating or surging and then fading just prior to impact. Other witnesses saw a fireball descending rapidly out of the low cloud base and one witness saw the aircraft in flames before it stuck the ground. All of the occupants died at impact. From subsequent examination it was apparent that, at a late stage in the descent, the aircraft had broken up, losing a large part of the right wing outboard of the engine, and the right horizontal stabiliser. There was some disruption of the fuselage before it struck the ground. The airborne structural failure that had occurred was the result of flight characteristics which were beyond the design limits of the aircraft following the loss of control shortly before impact.

The pilot, sole on board, was completing a positioning flight from Teesside to Leeds where passengers should embark for Alicante, Spain. On approach, the visibility was poor due to low clouds. After being cleared to descend to 3,000 feet then to land on runway 14, the aircraft descended too low and crashed on the top of a hill located 3,4 km short of runway threshold. The pilot was killed.

En route to Leeds, the pilot encountered low visibility due to thick fog while cruising over France. Too low, the twin engine airplane struck tree tops and crashed in a wooded area located in Mont Beuvray. Three occupants were seriously injured while four others were killed.

The accident occurred at Blackbushe airfield following a go-around from an approach to land on runway 26. The aircraft appeared to begin the go-around normally but was then seen to bank to the left and start turning left. The turn continued through 135° of heading, at a low height, with the bank angle increasing progressively, until the aircraft crashed into trees, semi-inverted, approximately 550 meters from the runway 26 threshold. The reason for the initiation of the go-around was an unsafe main landing gear indication caused by a defective microswitch. The reasons for the subsequent loss of control could not be determined.

The pilot was preparing to land to Frankfurt-Main Airport by night when the twin engine aircraft crashed in unknown circumstances in a wooded area located one km southeast of Obernburg am Main, some 45 km southeast of Frankfurt-Main Airport. The aircraft was destroyed and all three occupants were killed.

One pilot and one engineer departed Leeds-Bradford Airport in the mid-morning on a local post maintenance flight, the aircraft being transferred the following day to Pakistan on behalf of UNO. On final approach to runway 15, the aircraft has been observed to be flying more slowly than usual and at a low height. The turn on to final approach developed into a spin to the left, and after two or three rotations, the aircraft crashed into a wood an caught fire. Both occupants were killed.

The pilot was completing a ferry flight to Leeds-Bradford Airport so the airplane could be taken by Northair Aviation for a 50 hour maintenance check. On approach, the pilot encountered very bad weather conditions with strong winds and heavy rain falls. The airplane was unstable and landed too far down the runway. After touchdown, it was unable to stop within the remaining distance, overran, struck a fence and eventually came to rest on a road. The pilot was injured and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair. Due to poor weather, all other flights were diverted to other airport.

The twin engine airplane departed Leeds-Bradford Airport at 1715LT on a charter flight to Staverton, carrying a pilot and seven employees of the ICI Fibres Company. During initial climb in marginal weather conditions, the airplane encountered difficulties then control was lost. It entered a dive and crashed in a field located two miles from the airport. The aircraft was destroyed and all eight occupants were killed. The accident occurred six minutes after takeoff.

Shortly after take-off from Leeds-Bradford Airport, for a positioning flight to Belfast, the cabin filled with smoke which issued from the camera hatch near the starboard wing root. The aircraft was, by this time, about 800 feet above the downwind end of the runway from which it had taken off, and the pilot closed the throttles and began a descending turn to port. At about 400 feet, power was applied for a base leg and short final but, despite full throttle, the airspeed began to fall. Because he found it necessary to apply an increasing amount of left rudder, the pilot concluded that the starboard engine had failed and he decided to make a forced landing in a field outside the airport. During the approach, the aircraft was dived, and turned, in an attempt to avoid HT wires, but it collided with a port and struck the ground heavily. The airplane was damaged beyond repair and all three occupants escaped uninjured.
Source: https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=24985