Region

Crash of a PZL-Mielec AN-2R in Skopje: 2 killed

Date & Time: Sep 16, 1995
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
Z3-BGE
Flight Phase:
Flight Type:
Survivors:
No
MSN:
1G111-14
YOM:
1969
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
2
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
2
Circumstances:
Crashed in unknown circumstances while engaged in a fire fighting mission near Skopje, killing both pilots.

Crash of a Yakovlev Yak-42D in Ohrid: 116 killed

Date & Time: Nov 20, 1993 at 2330 LT
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
RA-42390
Survivors:
No
Schedule:
Geneva - Skopje
MSN:
40 16 557
YOM:
1990
Flight number:
AXX110
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
8
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
108
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
116
Circumstances:
The three engine aircraft departed Geneva-Cointrin Airport in the evening on a charter flight to Skopje, carrying 8 crew members and 108 passengers, most of them citizens from Kosovo working in Switzerland and returning home for the winter break. While descending to Skopje-Brazda Airport, the crew was instructed by ATC to divert to Ohrid due to poor weather at Skopje (snow falls). On final approach to Ohrid Airport in limited visibility, the crew failed to realize his altitude was insufficient when the GPWS alarm sounded for seven seconds. The aircraft struck tree tops and crashed on the slope of Mt Trojani (1,204 metres high) located 2 km from the airport. A man aged 20 was seriously injured while 115 other occupants were killed. Few days after the crash, the only survivor died from injuries sustained.
Probable cause:
The accident was caused by a significant deviation of the aircraft from the established approach path and the lack of information from the crew about the exact position of the aircraft while descending in IMC conditions that excluded a visual approach.
The following contributing factors were identified:
- The Ohird VOR was unserviceable at the time of the accident,
- The visibility was poor due to the night and marginal weather conditions,
- The crew failed to follow the traffic pattern on approach to Ohrid Airport and continued to descend despite the fact they were unaware of their exact position,
- The crew failed to comply with published procedures, which led to the loss of proper control over the parameters of the aircraft movement in altitude, the impossibility of landing from the first approach and the failure to maintain the established flight altitudes during subsequent maneuvers;
- No VOR signal in the cockpit,
-Insufficient illumination of the Ohrid motorway in relation to the possibility of using it as a spare, which, in the conditions of a malfunction of the RTO and the absence of radar control and radio direction finding, significantly complicated the actions of the crew and dispatcher to control the aircraft position,
- Implementation by the crew of their unjustified decision to attempt a second approach without VOR indication on board, which led to the loss of his exact location,
- Underestimation of the danger of the situation by ATC based at Ohrid Airport when he realized the loss of orientation by the crew while flying over a mountainous area. ATC failed to take all possible measures to prevent the aircraft from colliding with obstacles and disoriented the crew about the possibility of landing in this situation, expressed in the requirement to report receiving a signal derived from the localization beacon regulations ("REPORT LOCALIZER ESTABLISHED"), which was perceived by the crew as 'cleared to continue the approach'.

Crash of a Fokker 100 in Skopje: 83 killed

Date & Time: Mar 5, 1993 at 1112 LT
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
PH-KXL
Flight Phase:
Survivors:
Yes
Schedule:
Skopje - Zurich
MSN:
11393
YOM:
1992
Flight number:
PMK301
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
5
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
92
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
83
Captain / Total flying hours:
11200
Captain / Total hours on type:
1180.00
Copilot / Total flying hours:
5580
Copilot / Total hours on type:
65
Aircraft flight hours:
188
Aircraft flight cycles:
136
Circumstances:
Palair Macedonian Airlines flight PMK301 was destroyed when it crashed immediately after takeoff from Skopje Airport, North Macedonia. Fourteen of the 97 occupants survived the accident. The aircraft, a Fokker 100 jet, was leased to Palair by Aircraft Financing and Trading (AFT) of the Netherlands since January 1993. AFT provided route training captains, while Palair provided the first officer or candidate Palair captain and the cabin crew. The aircraft arrived on a scheduled flight from Frankfurt to Skopje at 09:40 hours local time with a 35 minute delay. The new crew arrived at Skopje Airport at approximately 10:30 and they went straight to the aircraft. It was snowing lightly. The temperature was 0° Celsius, dewpoint -1° Celsius. The AFT Director Flight Operations was the pilot-in-command and was sitting in the right seat. He performed the first officer duties and was the pilot not flying (PNF). He was also giving route-instruction. A captain-under-training was sitting in the left seat. He was acting captain and was pilot flying (PF), receiving route-training. The dispatch officer checked both wing leading edges and saw they were not contaminated with ice or snow, but were only wet of melted snow. The Flying Station Engineer subsequently performed the walk around and was accompanied by three Palair ground handling crew members. The ground handling crew members stated that they had a brief discussion with the FSE about the weather and asked if the aircraft needed deicing since there was some snow on the right wing inner flap. The FSE replied that de-icing was not necessary and that any deposit would blow off the wing during take off. The total time the aircraft remained on the ground at Skopje Airport was about 1 hour 35 minutes. At 11:05 hours start-up was approved and clearance was given to taxi to holding point runway 34. During taxying, a Yak-42D from Vardar Air, which was standing on the apron, was de-iced. This was the first aircraft that day being deiced. In the meantime the snowfall had increased to moderate. According to the Cockpit Voice Recorder, no discussion about the weather conditions took place by the pilots. At 11:11 Palair 301 was cleared for take off, the wind was given as 010° with 3 knots. The tower controller stated that the visibility was 900 meters and it was snowing. The aircraft rotated normally and the PNF then called "positive", followed by the call "gear up" from the PF, which was confirmed by the PNF. Two seconds after lift off the aircraft experienced heavy vibrations followed by a sudden right bank to approximately 10°, immediately followed by approximately 50° left bank and 55° right bank in sequence within 2 seconds. The roll movements were counteracted by aileron and rudder input. Approximately 10 seconds before impact the PNF called "deselect" followed by sounds which were determined to be the autopilot cavalry charge (twice) followed by the GPWS aural alert, "sink rate" (twice). The aircraft right wingtip hit the ground 382 meters beyond the end of the runway with approximately 90° bank, the fuselage was more or less in a horizontal position. The right wing disintegrated towards the wing-fuselage attachment, followed by major impact of the fuselage, which broke up into three major parts, and the impact of the right engine and stabilizer. The right engine separated and subsequently impacted and penetrated the aft fuselage. The stabilizer and the upper part of the vertical tail plane also separated. Witnesses stated that explosions followed shortly after impact and several residual fires broke out on the debris.
Probable cause:
The Board determined that the impact with the ground in a steep right bank shortly after lift off was caused by a loss of roll controllability due to contamination of the wings with ice. This situation resulted from an omission to carry out spraying of the aircraft with deicing or anti-icing fluid in meteorological conditions conducive to icing, due to a lack of ice-awareness of the flight crew and the Flying Station Engineer. Contributing factors were a lack of common background and procedures in a difficult multi-sources operational environment.
Final Report:

Crash of an Antonov AN-12BK near Skopje: 8 killed

Date & Time: Jul 24, 1992 at 2023 LT
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
CCCP-11342
Flight Type:
Survivors:
No
Site:
Schedule:
Simferopol - Skopje
MSN:
00 347 607
YOM:
1970
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
6
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
2
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
8
Aircraft flight hours:
4537
Aircraft flight cycles:
4868
Circumstances:
The aircraft departed Simferopol on a positioning flight to Skopje, carrying two passengers and six crew members. In Skopje, a load of automobile spare parts should be loaded and the aircraft was then scheduled to continue to Ukraine. A second AN-12 from the same operator approached Skopje few minutes prior to the accident and its crew decided to divert to Sofia Airport due to poor weather conditions (thunderstorm activity and heavy rain falls) at destination. On approach to Skopje, the crew modified his route to avoid the thunderstorm and followed a wrong heading of 230° instead of the planned 163°. Few minutes later, the crew was cleared for an approach to runway 34 and followed heading 140°. At an altitude of 5,200 feet on approach, the aircraft struck the slope of Mt Lisec (1,934 metres high) located 26 km south of runway 34 threshold. The wreckage was found at an altitude of 1,600 metres and all 8 occupants were killed.
Probable cause:
Controlled flight into terrain after the crew decided to continue the approach in poor weather conditions without visual contact with the ground and unaware of his exact position. The following contributing factors were reported:
- Weather conditions were extremely difficult and unfavorable with the presence of thunderstorm activity and heavy rain falls,
- No call-out during the approach,
- Information regarding weather deterioration were not efficiently transmitted to the crew,
- Poor ATC assistance,
- The crew was unable to effectively use its Distance Measuring equipment either because of its failure or because of a momentary shutdown of the ground equipment, maybe after being switched to an emergency power unit,
- The crew's decision to continue the approach and his failure to initiate a go-around procedure.

Ground accident of a PZL-Mielec AN-2 in Skopje

Date & Time: Sep 22, 1975
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
SP-WOB
Flight Phase:
Survivors:
Yes
MSN:
1G160-15
YOM:
1975
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
0
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
0
Circumstances:
While parked on apron at Skopje Airport, the aircraft was struck and destroyed by another ZUA AN-2 (SP-WNZ) that crashed upon landing. The aircraft was empty.

Crash of a PZL-Mielec AN-2R in Skopje

Date & Time: Sep 22, 1975
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
SP-WNZ
MSN:
1G155-29
YOM:
1974
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
0
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
0
Circumstances:
Crashed on landing at Skopje Airport and collided with a second ZUA AN-2 parkend on apron and registered SP-WOB. Both aircraft were destroyed. Occupant's fate unknown.

Crash of a Douglas DC-3C in Skopje

Date & Time: Apr 16, 1966
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
YU-ABG
Flight Phase:
Survivors:
Yes
MSN:
14035/25480
YOM:
1944
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
0
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
0
Circumstances:
Crashed in unknown circumstances while taking off from Skopje Airport. There were no casualties.

Crash of a Douglas C-47A-20-DK in Skopje: 12 killed

Date & Time: Oct 22, 1951
Operator:
Registration:
YU-ACC
Survivors:
No
Schedule:
Belgrade – Skopje
MSN:
13014
YOM:
1944
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
3
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
9
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
12
Circumstances:
Crashed on final approach to Skopje Airport, killing all 12 occupants.