Berlin

The aircraft departed Berlin-Schönefeld Airport on a local 35-minute sightseeing flight over Berlin with 25 passengers and three crew members on board. Shortly after takeoff, while in initial climb, the pilots encountered technical problems with the right engine and elected to make an emergency landing. The aircraft struck the airport boundary fence then crash landed on its belly with its right wing partially torn off. All 28 occupants escaped uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Interflug flight 102, an Ilyushin Il-62M, was destroyed following a runway excursion accident on takeoff from Berlin-Schönefeld Airport, East Germany. Of the 113 occupants, 21 were killed. At 06:20 hours local time the engines were started. Immediately thereafter, the flight control surfaces were unlocked, a process which, according to the cockpit voice recorder, was not completed. The crew did not carry out the necessary check of the warning panel on the condition of the elevator. While taxiing for departure, the captain checked for the second time the movement of the elevators but failed to notice they were locked. The aircraft was cleared for takeoff from runway 25L and the engines were adjusted to rated power due to the low take-off mass of 113 tons. At 06:28:05 the aircraft reached VR. The captain pulled the control column during VR, but the aircraft did not respond. Four seconds later he called out to abort the takeoff. At this time the aircraft had attained a speed of 293 km/h. Instead of using reverse thrust, the flight engineer shut down all four engines. The speed at this time was 303 km/h and the remaining distance to the end of the runway was about 940 meters. The aircraft rolled over the end of the runway at a speed of 262 km/h and slightly to the left of the centerline. During the emergency braking five tires of the main landing gear had been destroyed. The airaft crossed an excavation pit of 40 cm deep, causing the the right main landing gear to collapse. It then collided with a water tank, concrete piles of the airport fence, a road embankment and six trees. At 06:28:37 the aircraft came to rest and burst into flames. Within two minutes, 82 passengers could be rescued alive from the fuselage, which had been broken into three parts. All 10 crew members survived.

Originally, flight SU892 was a direct service from Minsk to Berlin but due to poor weather at Berlin, the flight was diverted to the alternate Airport of Prague-Ruzyne. Following an uneventful flight from Prague, the crew started the descent to Berlin-Schönefeld Airport. At that time, weather conditions were marginal with limited visibility to 900 meters and a ceiling down to 60 meters. After the crew was cleared for an ILS approach to runway 25L, ATC turned on the runway 25R lighting system while informing all crews that runway 25R was closed to traffic due to work in progress. These transmissions being done in english, a misinterpretation of the situation conducted the crew to continue the approach to runway 25R. On short final, ATC realized the wrong position of the aircraft and instructed the crew to make a left turn to reach the runway 25L approach path. With flaps down at 38° and at a speed of 263 km/h, the captain initiated a left turn and descended below the glide. With a rate of descent of 7 meters per second, the aircraft struck tree tops then stalled and crashed in a wooded area located 3 km short of runway threshold, bursting into flames. Twelve passengers were seriously injured while 70 other people were killed. Two weeks later, two of the survivors died from their injuries.

The approach to Berlin-Schönefeld Airport runway 25L was completed with the autopilot activated. At a height of 120 meters, the crew was supposed to switch off the autopilot but the captain decided to continue in such configuration, using elevator to counter the autopilot. During the last segment, the rate of descent increased to 6-8 meters per second when the airplane struck the runway surface. Upon impact, the left wing was torn off. Out of control, the airplane veered off runway and came to rest upside down in a grassy area, about 400 meters from the initial impact. All 74 occupants were evacuated, eight of them were seriously injured. The aircraft was destroyed.
Photos via www.interflug.biz

Few minutes after takeoff from Leipzig-Halle Airport, en route to Kraków, Poland, the pilot informed ATC about technical problems and was cleared to divert to Berlin-Schönefeld Airport. The airplane landed hard on runway 25L and after touchdown, was unable to stop within the remaining distance. It overran and came to rest. There were no casualties but the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

The crew was completing a local training flight at Berlin-Schönefeld Airport when an unidentified technical problems occurred in flight and forced the crew to attempt an emergency landing. The aircraft crash landed and came to rest in flames. While all three crew members escaped uninjured, the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Pan Am's scheduled cargo flight 708 from Frankfurt to Berlin usually lands at Tempelhof Airport. However because of resurfacing of the runways at Tempelhof, Pan Am operated in and out of Tegel Airport since the evening of November 13th. Flight 708 departed Frankfurt at 02:04 and climbed to the cruising altitude of FL90. At 02:35 the flight reported leaving this altitude for FL30. Three minutes later Berlin Control cleared the flight to "turn left heading zero three zero, descend and maintain two thousand". When 6,5 miles from the Outer Marker, the controller cleared the flight to "turn right heading zero six zero cleared ILS runway eight right approach". Immediately after the acknowledgment from the flight crew, the aircraft struck the ground and crashed about 10 miles from the airport in the Soviet occupation zone. Weather was poor with 2,6 km visibility in snow; cloud coverage 3/8 at 500 feet and overcast a 600 feet with a temperature of -1deg C. The Soviet authorities returned about 50 percent of the wreckage. Some major components were not returned which included the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, flight control systems, navigation and communication equipment.

While approaching Berlin-Schönefeld Airport, the airplane was too low and struck the top of the Bohnsdorf church, crashed and burst into flames three km from the airfield. Three crew members were killed and three others were injured. For undetermined reason, the crew was approaching the airport at an insufficient altitude.

Two takeoff attempts were aborted for unknown reason. After the third takeoff roll, while in initial climb, the pilot informed ground about an engine failure and elected to return for an emergency landing. While completing a last turn to the right to reach the approach path, the aircraft banked right, stalled and crashed in flames in a wooded area located two km short of runway threshold. The aircraft was destroyed upon impact and all seven occupants were killed.

The crew was performing a cargo flight from Northolt to Berlin-Tempelhof and the approach was completed in low visibility due to foggy conditions. On final, the twin engine aircraft stalled and crashed on a railway road located few hundred yards from runway 09R threshold. Both pilots were rescued while the aircraft was destroyed.