Scheduled Revenue Flight

Shortly after takeoff from Santiago de Cuba-Antonio Maceo Airport, while climbing by night at an altitude of 500 feet, the aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent and crashed in the sea few hundred metres offshore. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and all 44 occupants were killed, among them six Spanish and two Brazilian citizens.

The flight was landing under special VFR conditions. Special VFR operations are permitted with a visibility of 1 mile, and clear of clouds. The airport was the pilot's base of operations. The flight had held outside the airport surface area for 26 minutes, waiting for a special VFR clearance. While outside the airport surface area, the pilot was required to maintain 500 feet above the ground and 2 miles visibility. While holding, the weather at the airport was reported as 300 feet overcast. The visibility decreased from 4 miles to 1 mile in mist. The pilot was new to the area of operations, having worked at the company for 24 days, during which he accrued 69 hours of flight time. Four minutes after receiving clearance to enter the surface area for landing, the airplane collided with a 260 feet tall radio antenna tower at 222 feet above the ground. The tower was located 3.85 nautical miles east of the airport. The radio tower was not considered by the FAA to be an object affecting navigable airspace, but was depicted as an obstruction on the VFR sectional chart for the area. The tower was equipped with obstruction lighting for night illumination, and was painted alternating aviation orange and white for daytime marking. One minute after the collision, the overcast was reported at 200 feet, and the visibility was 5/8 mile.

After takeoff from Tula Airport, while climbing, the crew noticed that the engine oil temperature increased while the engine pressure dropped. In such conditions, the captain decided to return to Tula Airport for an emergency landing and completed a turn when the engine failed. The aircraft lost speed and height then struck power cables and crashed. The captain and three passengers were killed while three other occupants were injured. The aircraft was destroyed.

On final approach to Mandalgov Airport, at a height of 30 metres, the aircraft nosed down and crashed short of runway threshold. Seven passengers were killed while five other occupants were injured.

Flight ROT 335, a BAC 111 coming from Bucharest, was about to land on runway 26 at Stockholm/Arlanda airport. The pilots had visual contact with the field and the landing was performed according to visual flying rules (VFR). The commander, who was pilot flying (PF), has stated the following. The approach was normal with occasional turbulence and wind gusts from the south. When the aircraft was on 8 nautical miles1 final, the air-traffic controller in the tower reported the wind 160°/13 knots. To begin with the aircraft was somewhat above the glide slope but was on the glide slope when it passed the threshold. The touchdown on the runway was in the normal touchdown zone on the left main gear and nose up. Shortly thereafter came a strong wind gust whereupon the right main gear touched down and the nose gear heavily hit the runway. The commander controlled the aircraft with rudder, reversed the engines and braked lightly. He did not notice anything special in the behavior of the aircraft at that point. When - after the speed had become so low that rudder steering was no longer possible - he reverted to nose wheel steering he noticed that it was not functioning. He continued the light wheel braking but could not prevent the aircraft from veering to the right. He then braked fully but the aircraft continued towards the right runway edge. It left the runway at a speed of around 60 knots out onto the grass field. The retardation was soft and the passengers disembarked through ordinary exit. The airport rescue service was speedily on the scene but no action was necessary. The accident occurred on 7 June 1997 at 1350 hours in position 5939N 1755E; 121 feet (37 m) above sea level.

The aircraft was transferred from the maintenance facilities to the main terminal by a technical crew when control was lost. The airplane collided with the USAir Terminal and the cockpit was destroyed.

Because of construction works on runway 35, the threshold at Porto was displaced by 760 metres. This was published in a Notam but during the flight preparation at Madrid-Barajas Airport, the crew was not informed about this notice. Following an uneventful flight, the crew was cleared to descent and received instructions for a landing on runway 35 but no information about the displaced threshold. On final approach, the controller realized that the aircraft was approaching too low and instructed the crew to 'overshoot please'. The crew did not react to this instruction and continued the approach when the aircraft undershot the displaced threshold and landed in the construction area. It struck several trenches which caused the undercarriage to be torn off and slid for few dozen metres before coming to rest on the runway. All 37 occupants were evacuated safely and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

The approach to Shenzhen-Huangtian Airport was completed in poor weather conditions with thunderstorm activity, heavy rain falls and turbulences. During the last segment, the aircraft was unstable but the crew continued the descent when the aircraft landed hard. The aircraft bounced and suffered undercarriage damages. Despite the situation, the captain decided to initiate a go-around procedure and increased engine power. During the second attempt to land, the crew encountered control difficulties as the aircraft suffered damages from the first missed landing. Also, weather conditions were poor so the aircraft was unstable on approach. After landing at an excessive speed, the aircraft went out of control, veered off runway and came to rest in a soft ground, broken in three and bursting into flames. Two crew members and 33 passengers were killed while 39 other people were injured.

On final approach to Paros Island Airport, the twin engine aircraft nosed down, lost height and struck the ground 1,3 metre short of runway threshold. On impact, the nose gear collapsed and the aircraft slid for 166 metres before coming to rest on the runway. All 20 occupants evacuated safely while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

On final approach to Tanjung Pandan-Buluh Tumbang Airport runway 36, at an altitude of 2,000 feet, the aircraft rolled to the left to angle of 80°, lost height and crashed in a coconut grove located about 1,500 metres short of runway. Fifteen occupants were killed, among them four crew members, while all other occupants were rescued.