Flight

The twin engine aircraft departed Eskişehir Airport at 1103LT on a training flight, carrying one technician and two pilots. While flying in good weather conditions, the airplane struck the top of a snow covered mountain located in the region of Yalvaç, some 80 km northeast of Isparta. The wreckage was found at 1430LT. All three crew members were killed.

On 31 December 2017, at about 1045 Eastern Daylight-saving Time, five passengers arrived via water-taxi at the Sydney Seaplanes terminal, Rose Bay, New South Wales (NSW) for a charter fly-and-dine experience to a restaurant at Cottage Point on the Hawkesbury River. Cottage Point is about 26 km north of Sydney Harbour in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, a 20 minute floatplane flight from Rose Bay. At about 1130, prior to boarding the aircraft, the passengers received a pre-flight safety briefing. At about 1135, the pilot and five passengers departed the Rose Bay terminal for the flight to Cottage Point via the northern beaches coastal route, in a de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver floatplane, registered VH-NOO and operated by Sydney Seaplanes. The flight arrived at Cottage Point just before midday and the passengers disembarked. The pilot then conducted another four flights in VH-NOO between Cottage Point and Rose Bay. The pilot arrived at Cottage Point at about 1353. After securing the aircraft at the pontoon and disembarking passengers from that flight, the pilot walked to a kiosk at Cottage Point for a drink and food. At about 1415, the pilot received a phone call from the operator via the kiosk, asking the pilot to move the aircraft off the pontoon, which could only accommodate one aircraft at a time. This was to allow the pilot of the operator’s other DHC-2 aircraft (VH-AAM) to pick-up other restaurant passengers. The pilot of VH-NOO immediately returned to the aircraft and taxied away from the pontoon into Cowan Creek. The operator’s records indicated that VH-AAM arrived at the pontoon and shut down the engine at about 1419, and subsequently departed at about 1446. The pilot of VH-NOO returned to the pontoon after having taxied in Cowan Creek with the engine running for up to 27 minutes, while waiting for the other aircraft. During the taxi, closed-circuit television footage from a private residence at Cottage Point showed VH-NOO at 1444, with the pilot’s door ajar. After shutting down the aircraft, the pilot briefly went into the restaurant to see if the passengers were ready to leave, and then returned to the aircraft. The return flight to Rose Bay, scheduled to depart at 1500, provided sufficient time for the passengers to meet a previously booked water-taxi to transport them from Rose Bay to their hotel at 1545. At about 1457, the passengers commenced boarding the aircraft and at around 1504, the aircraft had commenced taxiing toward the designated take-off area in Cowan Creek. At about 1511, the aircraft took off towards the north-north-east in Cowan Creek, becoming airborne shortly before passing Cowan Point. The aircraft climbed straight ahead before commencing a right turn into Cowan Water. A witness, who was travelling east in a boat on the northern side of Cowan Water, photographed the aircraft passing over a location known as ‘Hole in the wall’. These photographs indicated that the aircraft was turning to the right with a bank angle of 15-20°. Witnesses observed the right turn continue above Little Shark Rock Point and Cowan Water. The last photograph taken by the passenger was when the aircraft was heading in a southerly direction towards Cowan Bay. At that time, the aircraft was estimated to be at an altitude of about 30 m (98 ft).Shortly after the turn in Cowan Water, several witnesses observed the aircraft heading directly towards and entering Jerusalem Bay flying level or slightly descending, below the height of the surrounding terrain. Witnesses also reported hearing the aircraft’s engine and stated that the sound was constant and appeared normal. About 1.1 km after entering Jerusalem Bay, near the entrance to Pinta Bay, multiple witnesses reported seeing the aircraft flying along the southern shoreline before it suddenly entered a steep right turn at low-level. Part-way through the turn, the aircraft’s nose suddenly dropped before the aircraft collided with the water, about 95 m from the northern shore and 1.2 km from the end of Jerusalem Bay. The aircraft came to rest inverted and with the cabin submerged. A number of people on watercraft who heard or observed the impact, responded to render assistance. Those people could not access the (underwater) aircraft cabin. The entire tail section and parts of both floats were initially above the waterline, but about 10 minutes later had completely submerged. The pilot and five passengers received fatal injuries.

On 23 December 2017, at 00:10 UTC (10:10 local), a Britten Norman BN-2A Islander aircraft, registered P2-ISM (ISM), owned and operated by North Coast Aviation, impacted a ridge, at about 9,500 ft (6°11'29"S, 146°46'11"E) that runs down towards the Sapmanga Valley from the Sarawaget Ranges, Morobe Province. The pilot elected to track across the Sarawaget ranges (See figure 1), from Derim Airstrip to Nadzab Airport, Morobe Province, not above 10,000 ft. The track flown from Derim was to the northwest 6.5 nm (12 km) to a point 0.8 nm (1.5 km) westsouthwest of Yalumet Airstrip where the aircraft turned southwest to track to the Saidor Gap. GPS recorded track data immediately prior to the last GPS fix showed that the aircraft was on a shallow descent towards the ridge. The aircraft impacted the ridge about 150 m beyond the last fix. There were no reports of a transmission of an ELT distress signal. During the search for the aircraft, what appeared to be the right aileron was found hanging from a tree near the top of the heavily-timbered, densely-vegetated ridge. The remainder of the wreckage was found about 130 m from the aileron along the projected track. The aircraft impacted the ground in a steep nose-down, right wing-low attitude. The majority of the aircraft wreckage was contained at the ground impact point. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces. The pilot, the sole occupant, who initially survived, was reported deceased by the rescue team on 27 December 2017 at 22:10. The pilot had made contact with one of the operator’s pilots at 16:15 on 23 December. The pilot’s time of death, recorded on the Death Certificate, was 10:40 am local on 24 December. Rescuers felled trees on the steep heavily timbered, densely vegetated slope about 20 metres from the wreckage and constructed a helipad.

The single engine airplane departed Arusha Airport on a charter flight to the Serengeti National Park, carrying 10 tourists and one pilot. While flying in marginal weather conditions, the aircraft impacted hilly terrain near Empakaai Camp and was destroyed upon impact. All 11 occupants were killed.

The twin engine aircraft departed Contamana Airport at 1128LT on a charter flight to Pucallpa, carrying 11 passengers and two pilots. Few minutes after takeoff, while climbing to an altitude of 4,500 feet, the right engine lost power and failed. The crerw decided to return to Contamana but was able to transfer fuel from the left tank to the right tank to restart the right engine. Decision was taken to continue to Pucallpa at an altitude of 13,500 feet. At a distance of 42 km from Pucallpa, the crew started the descent when the right engine failed again, followed shortly later by the left engine. The captain declared an emergency and attempted an emergency landing when the aircraft crashed in a wooded area. All 13 occupants were injured and the aircraft was destroyed.

The twin engine aircraft departed Dundo Airport at 1658LT on an ambulance flight to Luanda, carrying three doctors, one patient from South Africa and three crew members. About 15 minutes into the flight, the crew reported engine problems when one of them caught fire shortly later. The airplane went out of control and crashed in an open field located near Cuilo, about 170 km southwest of Dundo. All seven occupants were killed.

The twine engine airplane departed Almaty Airport at 1835LT on an ambulance flight to Shymkent, carrying two doctors, two pilots and one flight mechanic. About 22 minutes into the flight, while cruising by night and poor weather conditions, the crew encountered an unexpected situation and was forced to shut down the right engine. Shortly later, the aircraft crashed near the village of Mezhdurechenskoye, some 28 km northwest of Almaty Airport, bursting into flames. The aircraft was totally destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire and all five occupants were killed.

The commercial pilot and passenger departed on a local flight in the twin-engine airplane. According to a witness, the pilot took off from the private grass runway and departed the area for about 10 minutes. The airplane then returned to the airport, where the pilot performed a low pass over the runway and entered a steep climb followed by a roll. The airplane entered a nose-low descent, then briefly leveled off in an upright attitude before disappearing behind trees and subsequently impacting terrain. The pilot's toxicology testing was positive for ethanol with 0.185 gm/dl and 0.210 gm/dl in urine and cavity blood samples, respectively. The effects of ethanol are generally well understood; it significantly impairs pilot performance, even at very low levels. Federal Aviation Administration regulations prohibit any person from acting or attempting to act as a crewmember of a civil aircraft while having 0.040 gm/dl or more ethanol in the blood. While the identified ethanol may have come from sources other than ingestion, such as postmortem production, the possibility that the source of some of the ethanol was from ingestion and that pilot was impaired by the effects of ethanol during the accident flight could not be ruled out. Toxicology also identified a significant amount of diphenhydramine in cavity blood (0.122 µg/ml, which is within or above the therapeutic range of 0.0250 to 0.1120 µg/ml; diphenhydramine undergoes postmortem redistribution, and central postmortem levels may be about two to three times higher than peripheral or antemortem levels.). Diphenhydramine is a sedating antihistamine that causes more sedation than other antihistamines; this is the rationale for its use as a sleep aid. In a driving simulator study, a single dose of diphenhydramine impaired driving ability more than a blood alcohol concentration of 0.100%. The pilot had been diagnosed with memory loss about 8 months before the accident. It appears that he had some degree of mild cognitive impairment, but whether his cognitive impairment was severe enough to have contributed to the accident could not be determined from the available evidence. However, it is likely that the pilot's mild cognitive impairment combined with the psychoactive effects of diphenhydramine and possibly ethanol would have further decreased his cognitive functioning and contributed to his decision to attempt an aerobatic maneuver at low altitude in a non-aerobatic airplane.

The four engine aircraft departed Kinshasa-N'Djili Airport on a flight to Bukavu, carrying ammunition and two vehicles. Few minutes after takeoff, the crew reported technical problems and was cleared for an immediate return. Shortly later, the aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent and crashed in a prairie located in Nsele, about 20 km northeast of the airport, bursting into flames. The aircraft was destroyed and all 12 occupants were killed.

The twin engine airplane departed Příbram Airport Runway 06 at 0705LT on a charter flight to Gdansk, carrying one passenger and one pilot. About 30 minutes into the flight, while cruising at an altitude of 14,100 feet, the pilot was cleared to climb to FL180 when he declared an emergency and reported the failure of both engines. The aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent and crashed in a wooded area located 1,5 km northeast of Noviny pod Ralskem, bursting into flames. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire and both occupants were killed.