Scheduled Revenue Flight

The aircraft departed Quito-Mariscal Sucre Airport runway 17 at 1001LT on a flight to Cali with an intermediate stop in Tulcán, carrying 87 passengers and 7 crew members. The flight was completed at an altitude of 18,000 feet on airway G-675 towards Ipiales, south Colombia. At a distance of 29 NM from Tulcán, the crew was cleared to descend to 14,000 feet and was briefed about the last weather conditions at destination. For unknown reasons, the crew failed to comply with the company SOP's and started the descent at an excessive speed of 230 knots while the approach procedure called for a speed of 180 knots. Also, the crew was not following the proper approach track for the Tulcán-Teniente Coronel Luis A. Mantilla Airport. In poor visibility due to clouds, at an altitude of 14,700 feet, the aircraft struck the slope of Mt El Cumbal located about 30 km northwest of Ipiales. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and all 94 occupants were killed. The wreckage was found 1,400 feet below the summit.

On January 16, 2002, at approximately 09:24 UTC, a Boeing 737-300, PK-GWA, ditched into the waters of the Bengawan Solo River, Central Java during a forced landing, following loss of power on both engines as the aircraft was descending through 19,000 ft. The dual engine flame out occurred shortly after the aircraft entered severe cumulonimbus cloud formations with turbulence and heavy rain and ice. The aircraft, owned and operated by PT Garuda Indonesia as Flight GA 421, had departed Ampenan at 08:32 UTC, on a regular scheduled commercial flight with destination Yogyakarta. At departure VMC conditions prevailed. The flight from Ampenan was reported uneventful until its arrival in the Yogyakarta area. The crew stated that they observed cumulonimbus cloud formations on their weather radar. The aircraft descended from cruise altitude of 31,000 ft to 28,000ft as instructed by BALI ATC at 09.08 UTC due to traffic on eastbound at FL290. As they began their descent from FL 280 at 09.13 UTC, prior to entering the clouds at 23,000 feet, the crew noted at the radar screen red cells with two green and yellow areas to the left and right of their intended flight path. The Pilot Flying decided to take the left opening above PURWO NDB. The flight crew prepared to enter turbulence by setting turbulence speed at 280 knots, seatbelt on, engine ignitions on FLT and anti-ice on. Then the Pilot Flying requested to BALI ATC to descend to FL 190 and was cleared by Semarang APP at 09.13 UTC. Shortly after the aircraft entered the area covered by Cumulonimbus cells, the crew noted severe turbulence and heavy precipitation. According to the flight crew interview, the crew noted aircraft electrical power generators loss and they were only having primary engine instrument indications and captain flight instruments, which finally identified both engines flame-out. While in the precipitation, the flight crew attempted at least two engine relights, and one attempt of APU start. As the APU start was initiated, the crew noted total electrical loss of the aircraft. The aircraft descended into VMC conditions at about 8,000 ft altitude. The PIC spotted the Bengawan Solo River and decided to land the aircraft on the river. The crew announced to the flight attendant to prepare emergency landing procedure. The aircraft landed successfully between two iron bridges in the upstream direction, and came to a stop with its nose pointing to the right of the landing path. The aircraft settled down on its belly, with the wings and control surfaces largely intact, and was partially submerged. The evacuation following the landing was successful. Twelve passengers suffered injuries, the flight crew and two flight attendants were uninjured, one flight attendant suffered serious injuries, and another flight attendant was found in the waters of the river and fatally injured.

The flight was a second route of four routes on a first day of two days schedule flight for the crew. All crew have flight schedule on the previous day and returned to Jakarta. The first flight was from Jakarta to Pekanbaru with departure schedule on 08.00 LT (01.00 UTC). All crew did the pre-flight check completely but did not check the audio warning and departed Jakarta on schedule. The flight was normal and landed in Pekanbaru on schedule. There was no problem reported. Transit in Pekanbaru for about 30 minutes and the flight was ready to continue the next flight to Batam. At 10.15 LT (03.05) the boarding process has been completed and all flight documents have ready. First Officer asked for start clearance and received weather information in Syarif Kasim Airport. The weather was fine, wind calm and clear. After start completed, the aircraft taxi to the beginning of runway 18. Flight crews have set the V1, VR, V2 and V2+15 speed bugs according to the load sheet. Take off power decide to use “reduced take off power” with assumed temperature 35o C while the actual temperature was 27° C. flight Attendant have completed the passenger briefing includes rearrange seat for the seats near the “over wing exit windows”. The checklist was done, but flight crews were not sure the indication of flap setting. When ready for take off, flight crew gave a warning to the flight attendants to take their seats. First Officer acted as “Pilot Flying”. PIC opened the power and adjusted to the required take off power setting. The aircraft rolled normal and there was no abnormal indication. PIC called “V1” and “ROTATE” at speed bugs value setting, and the First Officer rotated the control column and set to 150 ANU (Aircraft Nose Up) pitch. The aircraft’s nose was lifted up but the aircraft did not airborne. Flight attendant who was sitting at the rear felt that the nose was higher than normal. Officer also felt stick shaker, warning for approaching stall. First Officer suddenly noticed a warning light illuminated and cross-checked. He found than the warning came from the problem on the air conditioning system. Both pilots also felt pain in the ear. Recognizing this situation, PIC decided to continue the take off and called to the First Officer “disregard”. Realized that the aircraft did not airborne PIC added the power by moving power levers forward. The speed was increasing and passed the speed bug setting for V2+15 ( ± 158 KIAS) but the aircraft did not get airborne. PIC noticed that the runway end getting closer and he thought that the aircraft would not airborne, he decided to abort the take off and called “STOP”. PIC retarded the power levers to idle and set to reverse thrust, extended the speed brake and applied brake. Nose of the aircraft went down hard and made the front left door (L1) opened and 2 trolleys at front galley move forward and blocked the cockpit door. Flight crew turns the aircraft slightly to the right to avoid approach lights ahead. The aircraft moved out or the runway to the right side of the approach lights. After hit some trees the aircraft stopped at ± 275 meters from the end of runway on heading 285°. One passenger had serious injury and the rest had minor injury, all crew were safe and not injured. No one killed in this accident, while the aircraft considered total loss.

The departure from Bremerhaven to the Wangerooge Island was delayed for 30 minutes due to snow showers over the airport. Prior to departure, the pilot manually removed snow from the windshield, leading edge and wings. After takeoff from runway 34, the twin engine aircraft climbed slowly to a height of about 195 feet then stalled and crashed in the Weser River. The crew of a ferry was quickly on the scene to rescue a passenger while eight other occupants were killed.

After takeoff from Medellín-Enrique Olaya Herrera Airport runway 01, the crew initiated a turn to the right and continued to climb. In poor visibility due to clouds, at an altitude of 9,200 feet, the twin engine aircraft struck the slope of Mt El Silencio near San Antonio de Prado. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire and all 16 occupants were killed. At the time of the accident, weather was poor with towering cumulus and rain falls.

The aircraft was on its way to Skien with a crew of two and 11 passengers. During the flight, ice was observed on the aircraft’s wings, but the ice was considered to be too thin to be removed. During descent towards runway 19 at Geiteryggen the aircraft’s ground proximity warning system (GPWS) sounded a total of three times. The aircraft was then in clouds and the crew did not have visual contact with the ground. The warnings, combined with somewhat poorly functioning crew coordination, resulted in the crew forgetting to actuate the system for removing ice from the wings. The subsequent landing at 1828 hrs was unusually hard, and several of the passengers thought that the aircraft fell the last few metres onto the runway. The hard landing caused permanent deformation of the left wing so that the left-hand landing gear was knocked out of position, and the left propeller grounded on the runway. The crew lost directional control and the aircraft skewed to the left and ran off the runway. The aircraft then hit a gravel bank 371 metres from the touchdown point. The collision with the gravel bank was so hard that the crew and several of the passengers were injured and the aircraft was a total loss. It was dark, light rain and 4 °C at Geiteryggen when the accident occurred. The wind was stated to be 120° 10 kt. The investigation shows that it is probable that ice on the wings was the initiating factor for the accident. The AIBN has not formed an opinion on whether the ice resulted in the high sink rate after the first officer reduced the power output of the engines, or whether the aircraft stalled before it hit the runway. Investigation has to a large extend focused on the crew composition and training. A systematic investigation of the organisation has also taken place. In the opinion of the AIBN, the company has principally based its operations on minimum standards, and this has resulted in a number of weaknesses in organisation, procedures and quality assurance. These conditions have indirectly led to the company operating the route Skien – Bergen with a crew that, at times, did not maintain the standard that is expected for scheduled passenger flights. The investigation has also revealed that procedures for de-icing of the aircraft wings could be improved.

The single engine airplane departed San José Airport on a schedule flight to Puerto Jiménez with an intermediate stop in Quepos, carrying six passengers (3 Americans, 2 Germans and one Dutch) and two pilots. While descending in clouds to Quepos Airport, the aircraft collided with trees and crashed on the slope of a wooded mountain located about 13 km from Quepos Airport. Both pilots and one passenger were killed while five other passengers were seriously injured. The aircraft was totally destroyed by impact forces.

On 24 November 2001 at 20:01 UTC the aircraft AVRO 146 RJ 100, registered as HB-IXM of the Crossair airline company took off in darkness from runway 26L at Berlin-Tegel airport as scheduled flight CRX3597 to Zurich. At 20:58:50 UTC, after an uneventful flight, the aircraft received the clearance for a standard VOR/DME approach 28 at Zurich airport.Ahead of the aircraft involved in the accident, an Embraer EMB 145, flight CRX3891, landed on runway 28 at Zurich airport. The crew informed the control tower that the weather was close to the minimum for this runway. At 21:05:21 UTC flight CRX3597 reported on the aerodrome control frequency. When the aircraft reached the minimum descent altitude (MDA) of 2,390 feet QNH at 21:06:10, the commander mentioned to the copilot that he had certain visual ground contact and continued the descent. At 21:06:36 UTC the aircraft collided with treetops and subsequently crashed into the ground. The aircraft caught fire on impact. Twenty-one passengers and three crew members died from their injuries at the site of the accident; seven passengers and two crew members survived the accident. The wreckage was found in the Geissbühl forest, 4,050 metres short of runway 28.

En route from Tallinn to Kärdla, at an altitude of 6,000 feet, the crew obtained the last weather bulletin for Kärdla Airport. The actual conditions were as follow: wind 020° at 24 knots, visibility 8,000 metres, snow, overcast 1,200 feet, broken 600 feet, temperature 0°, dewpoint 0°, QNH 1001, braking action is good, runway in use 32. One minute later, the crew was cleared to descend to 1,400 feet and reported this altitude at a distance of 11 km from the airport. The airplane continued on a heading of 240° towards the OZ NDB beacon, which was the Final Approach Fix (FAF) located about 4 km from the runway threshold. The crew continued the descent and initiated a slow turn towards the runway some 2,5 km short of the FAF. The aircraft descended into trees some 1,500 metres short of runway threshold and crashed in a wooded area. Two passengers were killed and 15 other occupants were injured, some seriously. The aircraft was totally destroyed.

On November 12, 2001, about 0916:15 eastern standard time, American Airlines flight 587, an Airbus Industrie A300-605R, N14053, crashed into a residential area of Belle Harbor, New York, shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, Jamaica, New York. Flight 587 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight to Las Americas International Airport, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, with 2 flight crewmembers, 7 flight attendants, and 251 passengers aboard the airplane. The airplane's vertical stabilizer and rudder separated in flight and were found in Jamaica Bay, about 1 mile north of the main wreckage site. The airplane's engines subsequently separated in flight and were found several blocks north and east of the main wreckage site. All 260 people aboard the airplane and 5 people on the ground were killed, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire. Flight 587 was operating under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 on an instrument flight rules flight plan. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.