Scheduled Revenue Flight

LAPA flight 3142 was scheduled to depart from Buenos Aires-Jorge Newbery Airport at 20:36 for a 1 hour and 15 minute flight to Córdoba, Argentina. The first officer and cabin crew were the first to arrive at the Boeing 737-200. The first officer notified one of the mechanics that the total fuel requirement was 8,500 kg, all to be stored in the wing tanks. The mechanic noticed there was still some fuel in the central tank and commenced transferring the fuel from the central to the wing tanks. At that moment the captain boarded the flight. He threw his paperwork on the ground, showing annoyance, confirming that attitude by later shutting off the fuel transfer between the main tank and the wing tanks. During their first four minutes on board, the captain, the co-pilot and the purser talked about trivial matters in good spirits, focusing on the purser's personal issues. When the purser left the cockpit, the conversation changed tone as they discussed a controversial situation about the family problems of the captain. The captain said that he was "going through bad times", to which the copilot replied that he was also having a bad day. Without interrupting the conversation, the crew began working the checklists, mixed with the personal issues that worried them and that led them to misread the checklist. In the process they omitted to select the flaps to the appropriate takeoff position. This confusing situation, in which the checklist procedure was mixed with conversation irrelevant to the crew's task, persisted during push back, engine start and taxiing, up to the moment of take-off, which was delayed by other aircraft waiting ahead of the LAPA flight and heavy arriving traffic. During this final wait, the crew members were smoking in the cockpit and continued their conversation. Take-off was started on runway 13 at 20:53 hours. During the takeoff roll the Take-off warning system sounded because the flaps had not been selected. The crew ignored the warning and continued the takeoff. After passing Vr, the pilot attempted to rotate the aircraft. The stick shaker activated as the aircraft entered a stall. It successively impacted the ILS antenna, the perimeter fence, a waiting shelter for buses, two automobiles, two excavators and an embankment where it stopped. Immediately a fire erupted. Three flight crew members, 60 passengers and two persons inside an automobile were killed.

The Piper PA-31-350 Navajo, C-GHMK, departed from St. Andrews, Manitoba, on a visual flight rules charter flight to Berens River. One pilot and ten passengers, including one infant, were on board, and a dog was stowed in the baggage compartment behind the right, rear seat. At approximately 1530 central daylight saving time (CDT), while the aircraft was at an altitude of about 2 500 feet and about 30 nautical miles south of Berens River, the pilot heard a loud sound from the left engine. He saw deformation of the left engine cowling and smoke coming from the engine, and the aircraft yawed to the left. Part of the engine cowling departed in flight. The pilot could not pull the left propeller lever beyond half of its normal travel, nor could he move it into the feather position. He set maximum power on the right engine, but the aircraft did not maintain altitude. The pilot advised company dispatch over the radio that he would attempt a forced landing, then force landed in a mossy marsh area. Everyone on board, including the dog, deplaned. Five of the passengers sustained minor injuries during the evacuation. A fire ensued, completely destroying the aircraft except for the empennage aft of the horizontal stabilizers.

On approach to Turtkul Airport, the aircraft was not properly aligned on the glide and the captain initiated a go-around procedure. During a second attempt to land, the aircraft position was wrong so the pilot passed over the runway 20 at a height of about 4-7 metres then initiated a second go-around procedure. The aircraft passed over the runway end at a height of 10 metres when the landing gear were retracted. At a distance of 2 km past the runway end, the aircraft collided with trees and power cables, crash landed, slid for about 130 metres and came to rest against an embankment. Two passengers were killed while four others were injured.

As the MD-90 touched down following a 25-minute flight from Taipei, there was a loud noise from the front of the cabin and thick black smoke poured from one of the overhead luggage compartments on the right hand side of the plane. Insulation and charred luggage littered the runway. Passengers were swiftly evacuated, but it took firefighters more than half an hour to control the fire. Twenty-eight people were injured. Preliminary investigation reports in 1999 indicated that the blast was caused by two bottles of household bleach. However, the Hualien District Court judges decided the bottles contained gasoline. According to the judges, Ku Chin-shui had put the gasoline into two plastic bleach bottles and gave them to his nephew. The gasoline leaked during the flight and exploded when it caused a short-circuit in a motorbike battery in a nearby overhead luggage compartment. In July 2003 Ku appealed a seven-and-a-half-year prison term. Considering the prosecutor's case against Ku to be full of holes, the Supreme Court ordered a retrial.

China Airline’s flight CI642 was scheduled to operate from Bangkok to Taipei with an intermediate stop in Hong Kong. The crew had carried out the sector from Taipei to Bangkok, passing through Hong Kong on the previous day. On that flight, the crew were aware of the Severe Tropical Storm (STS) ‘Sam’ approaching Hong Kong and the possibility that it would be in the vicinity of Hong Kong at about the scheduled time of arrival on the following evening. Weather information provided at the preflight briefing for the return flight indicated the continuing presence of STS ‘Sam’ with its associated strong winds and heavy precipitation. The flight departed from Bangkok on schedule with 300 passengers and 15 crew on board, with an estimated time of arrival (ETA) of 1038 hour (hr) in Hong Kong. The commander had elected to carry sufficient fuel to permit a variety of options on arrival – to hold, to make an approach, or to divert. If an immediate approach was attempted, the aircraft would be close to its Maximum Landing Weight (MLW) involving, in consequence, a relatively high speed for the approach and landing. Throughout the initial stages of the flight and during the cruise, the commander was aware of the crosswind component to be expected in Hong Kong and reviewed the values of wind direction and speed which would bring it within the company’s crosswind limit as applicable to wet runways of 24 kt. In the latter stage of the cruise, the crew obtained information ‘Whisky’ from the Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) timed at 0940 hr, which gave a mean surface wind of 320 degrees (º) / 30 knots (kt) maximum 45 kt in heavy rain, and a warning to expect significant windshear and severe turbulence on the approach. Although this gave a crosswind component of 26 kt which was in excess of the company’s wet runway limit of 24 kt, the commander was monitoring the gradual change in wind direction as the storm progressed, which indicated that the wind direction would possibly shift sufficiently to reduce the component and thus permit a landing. Hong Kong Area Radar Control issued a descent clearance to the aircraft at 1014 hr and, following receipt of ATIS information ‘X-ray’ one minute later, which included a mean surface wind of 300º at 35 kt, descent was commenced at 1017 hr. Copies of the information sheets used by Air Traffic Control (ATC) as the basis for ATIS broadcasts ‘Whisky’ and ‘X-ray’ are at Appendix 1. The approach briefing was initiated by the commander just after commencing descent. The briefing was given for an Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach to Runway 25 Right (RW 25R) at HKIA. However, the active runway, as confirmed by the ATIS was RW 25L. Despite the inclusion in the ATIS broadcasts of severe turbulence and possible windshear warnings, no mention was made in the briefing of the commander’s intentions relating to these weather phenomena nor for any course of action in the event that a landing could not be made, other than a cursory reference to the published missed approach procedure. The descent otherwise continued uneventfully and a routine handover was made at 1025 hr to Hong Kong Approach Control which instituted radar vectoring for an ILS approach to what the crew still believed was RW 25R. At 1036 hr, after having been vectored through the RW 25L localizer for spacing, CI642 was given a heading of 230º to intercept the localizer from the right and cleared for ILS to RW 25L. The co-pilot acknowledged the clearance for ILS 25L but queried the RVR (runway visual ranges); these were passed by the controller, the lowest being 1300 m at the touchdown point. The commander then quickly re-briefed the minimums and go-around procedure for RW 25L. At 1038 hr, about 14 nautical miles (nm) to touchdown, the aircraft was transferred to Hong Kong Tower and told to continue the approach. At 1041 hr, the crew were given a visibility at touchdown of 1600 metres (m) and touchdown wind of 320º at 25 kt gusting 33 kt, and cleared to land. The crew of flight CI642 followed China Airline’s standard procedures during the approach. Using the autoflight modes of the aircraft, involving full use of autopilot and autothrottle systems, the flight progressed along the ILS approach until 700 ft where the crew became visual with the runway and approach lights of RW 25L. Shortly after this point the commander disconnected the autopilot and flew the aircraft manually, leaving the autothrottle system engaged to control the aircraft’s speed. After autopilot disconnect, the aircraft continued to track the runway centreline but descended and stabilized slightly low (one dot) on the glideslope. Despite the gustiness of the wind, the flight continued relatively normally for the conditions until approximately 250 ft above the ground at which point the co-pilot noticed a significant decrease in indicated airspeed. Thrust was applied as the co-pilot called ‘Speed’ and, as a consequence, the indicated airspeed rose to a peak of 175 kt. In response to this speed in excess of the target approach speed, thrust was reduced and, in the process of accomplishing this, the aircraft passed the point (50 ft RA) at which the autothrottle system commands the thrust to idle for landing. Coincidentally with this, the speed decreased from 175 kt and the rate of descent began to increase in excess of the previous 750-800 feet per minute (fpm). Although an attempt was made to flare the aircraft, the high rate of descent was not arrested, resulting in an extremely hard impact with the runway in a slightly right wing down attitude (less than 4º), prior to the normal touchdown zone. The right mainwheels contacted the runway first, followed by the underside of the right engine cowling. The right main landing gear collapsed outward, causing damage to the right wing assembly, resulting in its failure. As the right wing separated, spilled fuel was ignited and the aircraft rolled inverted and came to rest upside-down alongside the runway facing in the direction of the approach. The cockpit crew were disorientated by the inverted position of the aircraft and found difficulty in locating the engine controls to carry out engine shut down drills. After extricating themselves, they went through the cockpit door into the cabin and exited the aircraft through L1 door and began helping passengers from the aircraft through a hole in the fuselage. Airport fire and rescue services were quickly on the scene, extinguishing the fuel fire and evacuating the passengers through the available aircraft exits and ruptures in the fuselage. As a result of the accident, two passengers were found dead on arrival at hospital, and six crew members and 45 passengers were seriously injured. One of the seriously injured passengers died five days later in hospital.

The RégionnAir flight took off from Port-Menier at 23:34 for an IFR flight to Seven Islands. The crew decided to carry out a straight-in GPS approach to runway 31. However, there is no published GPS approach for that runway. The descent from cruise flight into the airport was started late, and the aircraft was high and fast during the approach phase to the NDB. From an altitude of 10 000 feet at 9 nm from the NDB, the rate of descent generally exceeded 3000 fpm. The aircraft crossed the beacon at 600 feet asl. For the last 30 seconds of flight and from approximately 3 nm from the threshold, the aircraft descended steadily at approximately 850 fpm, at 140 to 150 knots indicated airspeed, with full flaps extended. The captain coached the first officer throughout the descent and called out altitudes and distances. The GPWS "Minimums" activation sounded, consistent with the decision height selection of 100 feet, to which the captain responded with directions to continue a slow descent. The last call was at 30 feet, 1.2 seconds before impact. Eight seconds before impact, the GPWS voice message "Minimums, Minimums" activated. The aircraft continued to descend and struck trees in a near-level attitude, in an area of rising terrain. A post-crash fire destroyed the wings, the right engine, and the right midside of the fuselage. The cabin area remained relatively intact, but the cockpit area separated and was crushed during the impact sequence. The Beechcraft in question was a brand new aircraft, registered just 2 months earlier. This accident was RégionnAir's second Beech 1900 loss in 1999; on January 4 an accident happened on approach to St. Augustin River. No one received fatal injuries in that accident however.

The schedule service from São Pedro to Ponta do Sol was normally operated by a Twin Otter from TACV - Transportes Aéreos de Cabo Verde. As the aircraft was unserviceable due to technical problems, TACV leased the Dornier DO228 from the Cabo Verde Coast Guards (Guarda Costeira de Cabo Verde). The aircraft departed São Pedro Airport on a 13 minutes flight to Ponta do Sol-Agostinho Neto Airport located on the north coast of the Santo Antão Island. While approaching the destination, the crew was informed about the poor weather conditions. Because the visibility was below minimums, the crew decided to return to São Pedro Airport. Few minutes later, while cruising in limited visibility due to rain falls, the aircraft struck the slope of a mountain located in the center of the Santo Antão Island. The aircraft was destroyed and all 18 occupants were killed, among them three Austrian and two French citizens.

The twin engine aircraft departed Suva-Nausori Airport at 0525LT on a regular schedule service (flight PC121) to Nadi, carrying 15 passengers and two pilots. The crew continued to climb via route 28 Golf in relative good weather conditions. At 0532LT, the pilot reported 5,500 feet 22,4 km from the airport. One minute later, he reported at 6,000 feet when the aircraft disappeared from radar screens, eight minutes after takeoff. The wreckage was found at an altitude of 540 metres in a wooded an mountainous area located in the Mataicicia Mountain Range, 35,2 km west of Nausori Airport, south of the village of Nasirotu. The aircraft was totally destroyed by impact forces and all 17 occupants were killed, among them nine Fidjians, five Australians, one New Zealander, one Chinese and one Japanese.

The single engine aircraft departed Managua-Augusto C. Sandino Airport in the morning on a flight to Bluefields, carrying two pilots and 14 passengers, most of them members of a development aid organization. While approaching the destination, the crew initiated a VFR descent to Bluefields in marginal weather conditions. At an altitude of 2,000 feet, the aircraft struck the slope of Mt Silva located in the Zelaya Central Mountain Range. The wreckage was found about 50 km west of Bluefields and all 16 occupants were killed, among them a Swiss citizen.

The twin engine aircraft departed Lae-Nadzab Airport at 0820LT on a flight to Goroka, carrying 15 passengers and two pilots. While descending in marginal weather conditions at an altitude of 8,500 feet, the aircraft struck the slope of a mountain located 20 km east-southeast of the airport. The aircraft was destroyed upon impact and all 17 occupants were killed, among them two Dutch citizens.