AVIATION INCIDENTS | Airplane Accidents, Crashes, Missing

[pietro-rj]

Accident: Passaredo E145 at Vitoria da Conquista on Aug 25th 2010, landed short of runway
By Simon Hradecky, created Thursday, Aug 26th 2010 08:51Z, last updated Thursday, Aug 26th 2010 08:51Z

A Passaredo Embraer ERJ-145, registration PR-PSJ performing flight P3-2231 from Sao Paulo Guarulhos,SP to Vitoria da Conquista,BA (Brazil) with 24 passengers and 3 crew, touched down short of runway 15 while landing in Vitoria da Conquista causing the entire landing gear to be ripped off the aircraft, that skidded on its belly onto the runway and veered off the runway again before coming to a stop at around 14:40L (17:40Z). The right hand engine caught fire that was quickly extinguished by airport fire fighters. Two passengers received minor injuries and were taken to a hospital, the other occupants remained uninjured. The airplane received substantial damage.

The airline said, that the crew was unable to extend the landing gear forcing a belly landing.

The airport said, that the airplane performed a normal approach but then touched down with the tail (tail strike) before the runway and went entirely out of control. Both engines were hit hard and received serious damage, one engine burst into flames which were doused by airport fire services.

Witnesses on the ground said, that the airplane appeared to conduct a normal approach with landing gear down before it landed short of the runway and went out of control.

TV pictures showed the gear struts distributed over the runway.

The airport features a runway 15/33 of 1775 meters (5800 feet) length.

Source: http://avherald.com/h?article=4301b307&opt=0

[Fatfield]

BA Crash Scare Error 'Terrifies' Passengers

12:24pm UK, Friday August 27, 2010
Ed Merrison, Sky News Online

A planeload of British Airways passengers feared for their lives when they were told they were going to crash - only to learn the warning message went out in error.


Airline apologised for the false alarm, which was caused by computer error

Travellers flying from Heathrow to Hong Kong heard the message: "This is an emergency. We may shortly need to make an emergency landing on water."
Cabin crew on the Boeing 747 had to quickly reassure passengers their worst nightmare was not about to come true, telling them the warning was a mistake and there was no emergency.
Michelle Lord, 32, of Preston, Lancashire, told the Sun newspaper: "People were terrified. We all thought we were going to die."
Another traveller said: "I can't think of anything worse than being told your plane's about to crash."
BA, which said the incident took place within the last seven days, apologised for the scare.
The airline explained that the message was an automatic one triggered by a computer.
A BA spokesman said: "We would like to apologise to passengers on board the flight for causing them undue distress.
"Our cabin crew immediately made an announcement following the message advising customers that it was played in error and that the flight would continue as normal."

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Bus...s_Out_In_Error

[hkskyline]

So what was the message that was intended for broadcast?

[hkskyline]

China's Henan tells crash airline not to use its name

BEIJING, Aug 28 (Reuters) - A poor central Chinese province has revoked the right of an airline which suffered a fatal crash earlier this week to use its name, saying the incident had tarnished its reputation.

The Henan Airlines plane crashed just short of the runway at a brand new airport in northeastern China late on Tuesday, killing 42 people in the worst aviation disaster in the country for six years.

Now Henan's provincial government has told the airline it can no longer be named after the province, state news agency Xinhua said.

The province was "justified by law to revoke any name change of a company which was either misleading or harmed the province's interest", Xinhua said, citing the local government.

Henan Airlines, a small regional carrier, was until last year known as Kunpeng Airlines. It was re-named Henan Airlines after moving its corporate headquarters to Henan's capital, Zhengzhou.

The Henan government had never invested in the airline, Xinhua added. The carrier is controlled by Shenzhen Airlines, itself part-owned by Air China.

The airline's name "misled the public and tarnished the province's image", Xinhua said.

Authorities are still investigating the crash, it added. The airline was grounded after the incident.

Underdeveloped and land-locked Henan, home to an estimated 100 million people, is the source of many of China's army of migrant workers who have fanned out across the country in recent years to work in factories and on building sites.

Henan is also where China's AIDS epidemic took off in the 1990s because of government-run commercial blood selling schemes that resulted in entire villages becoming infected.

[hkskyline]

Crash investigators reassess aircraft braking -WSJ

Aug 31 (Reuters) - Crash investigators are re-evaluating the performance of aircraft braking systems in rainy conditions, following the overshooting of an American Airlines plane on the runway while landing in Jamaica last year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Boeing 737 aircraft, owned by American Airlines -- a unit of AMR Corp -- careened off the runway and broke into three parts on Dec. 22 after landing in rainy weather at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston.

Quoting people familiar with the details, the Journal said National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators were to challenge longstanding airline practices and technical assumptions regarding braking capabilities on wet runways.

By those criteria, the Boeing 737-800 should have been able to stop safely on the strip, the Journal said.

The safety board investigators were inclined toward drafting recommendations to reassess, and in some cases tighten, current safety margins for landing on wet runways, the Journal said.

Earlier this month, the U.S. government proposed to fine American Airlines $24.2 million -- the biggest ever fine against an airline proposed by the Federal Aviation Administration -- for alleged maintenance violations that led to thousands of flight cancellations two years ago.

Neither the NTSB nor American Airlines was available to comment.

[abbypan]

Passengers who fly in Developing World countries face 13 times the risk of being killed in an air accident as passengers in the First World. The more economically advanced countries in the Developing World have better overall safety records than the others, but even their death risk per flight is seven times as high as that in First World countries.

-Source: ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 2010)

[KB]

A Qantas Boeing 747-400, registration VH-OJP performing flight QF-74 (dep Aug 30th) from San Francisco,CA (USA) to Sydney,NS (Australia) with 212 passengers and 19 crew, was climbing through FL250 about 20 minutes into the flight, when the #4 engine (RB211, outer right hand) suffered an uncontained failure ripping a large hole into the outer engine cowling approximately abeam the turbine rotors. The crew shut the engine down, descended the aircraft to FL200, dumped fuel overhead the Pacific Ocean and returned to San Francisco for a safe landing about 80 minutes after departure.



Qantas said, the engine needs to be replaced.

The Australian Transportation Safety Board said, that the engine failure was mechanical in nature and uncontained, ejected materials puncturing a hole into the outboard engine nacelle and damaging the leading edge flaps. An investigation has been initiated.

http://www.avherald.com/h?article=4305467b&opt=0

[hkskyline]

Jumble of Air Safety Rules
24 August 2010
The New York Times

Aviation officials often cite the industry's low accident rate after a plane crash, and statistics back up their assertions: last year, there were about 2.5 accidents for every one million commercial flights worldwide.

But that is still about 90 accidents, 18 of them involving nearly 700 fatalities, and safety standards can vary widely among airlines. Yet passengers and companies responsible for employee travel have little information to evaluate a carrier's safety standards, or judge a particular country's commitment to safety, given the patchwork of organizations monitoring safety and the limits on what details are made public.

That issue has been in the spotlight ever since the Federal Aviation Administration downgraded Mexico from a category 1 rating to category 2 on July 30, meaning it does not comply with safety standards established by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency that the United States and other countries rely on for guidelines.

Those standards evaluate whether a country has adequate laws to oversee air carriers and a civil aviation authority with the expertise, personnel and procedures to enforce safety regulations. The F.A.A. typically does not disclose why a country's rating has been downgraded, leaving travelers -- and some industry officials -- in the dark about how to interpret the change.

''It's definitely worrisome,'' said William R. Voss, president and chief executive of the nonprofit Flight Safety Foundation, although he emphasized that the category 2 rating was an evaluation of the government's oversight capabilities, not individual carriers.

''It would appear that Mexico has had some problems with its work force of inspectors,'' Mr. Voss said. While Mexican airlines may be maintaining adequate standards, he added that ''it means that they're doing it of their own volition and the regulator is not standing above them and holding them to account.''

Mexico's transport ministry has said the downgrade was because of an insufficient number of aviation inspectors, a situation it is working to correct. In the meantime, the category 2 rating means that Mexican carriers cannot code-share with American carriers, or add new service to the United States, although existing flights between the two countries may continue.

About 20 countries have a category 2 rating, including Belize, Honduras, Indonesia, Israel, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Uruguay and many African nations.

Although the United States government does not evaluate individual airlines, the European Union maintains a list of carriers that are banned from flying to its airports; that blacklist includes more than 200 airlines, mostly from Africa, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The International Air Transport Association, a trade group representing 230 carriers, maintains a registry of airlines that have passed its operational safety audit; about 340 carriers have met hundreds of criteria, like ensuring crew members have been trained in procedures, like responses to wind shear.

While the registry is considered valuable, it has some limitations. Many of its provisions defer to national regulations on things like pilot rest, meaning a carrier simply must demonstrate it abides by local rules, which can vary. Other criteria are suggestions, not requirements.

''It's the industry policing itself,'' said Bruce McIndoe, president of iJet, a company that provides risk intelligence services to corporate clients, including airline safety. Mr. McIndoe said his primary concern was aircraft maintenance, particularly given the growth in global air travel and the pressure to find qualified workers -- and properly certified (not black market) parts.

''Where are all these parts coming from and where are all these people coming from?'' he asked. ''There are huge opportunities for abuse, and abuse leads to safety failures.''

That is a message Bonnie Rind has been trying to spread ever since her brother died in Thailand in 2007. His One Two Go Airlines flight from Bangkok to Phuket crashed while trying to land, killing 90 of the 130 people on board.

Reports issued by Thai investigators and the National Transportation Safety Board found several pilot errors. Both pilots had exceeded their duty time limits, had insufficient rest before the flight and had not received required training.

Ms. Rind, an engineer who has some flight experience, did her own investigation, using the Internet to connect with Western-trained commercial pilots working in Thailand. She said she had found evidence of a broader pattern of lax oversight of airlines in Thailand (posted at investigateudom.com), and met with representatives from the F.A.A. to press for a more thorough review of the country's safety standards.

''I showed them what I had collected and asked them how it was possible Thailand was a category 1 country,'' Ms. Rind said. ''They told me that they couldn't answer specific questions about Thailand or any other review.''

Laura J. Brown, a spokeswoman for the F.A.A., said the agency could not comment on its decisions about Mexico or Thailand, citing confidentiality agreements with other countries.

Ms. Rind views that as a disservice to Americans who increasingly travel to remote corners of the globe, not necessarily understanding the disparities in aviation safety.

''What troubles me is that travelers cannot evaluate this issue. The information is not available to them,'' she said.

[AltinD]

A UPS 747-400 cargo plane crashed in or near a highway in Dubai, just after take-off. The crew is believed dead and perhaps more casualties on the ground.

[AltinD]

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/me...yfdj&wom=false

[Cosmin]

Yeah, just heard it. RIP.

I read that there might have been so much smoke in the cockpit that the crew couldn't even see the instruments. This reminded me of the tragic Swissair Flight 111.

[toddhubert]

sad news

[KB]

it appeared to have crashed close to DSO and many people on other forums report the plane was dumping fuel till the end (many got wet or had jet fuel all over).

I hope the damage is minimum particularly on ground.

People claim fire on board and (probably so much smoke) the crew had difficulty reading their own instruments (or they broke down) and were constantly asking ATC for distance,heading and altitude.

sad news


ANyone knows how old was the plane?

[SA BOY]

Belive it crashed in the military base next to DSO

Dubai plane crash kills twoTwo crew members from UPS cargo plane believed dead after crash near Dubai airport
(18)Tweet this (9)Jo Adetunji and agencies guardian.co.uk, Friday 3 September 2010 20.07 BST Article historyTwo crew members aboard an American UPS cargo plane are believed to have been killed after the aircraft crashed in Dubai today.

According to a United Arab Emirates official who appeared on local television station al-Arabiya, the plane was attempting to land at Dubai International Airport when it crashed due to technical problems. Witnesses reported seeing the aircraft setting fire to vehicles as it crashed and going up in a fireball. Some witnesses told Al-Jazeera that they had seen a fire on the aircraft before it crashed.

UPS spokeswoman Kristen Petrella said the Boeing 747-400 went down at about 8pm and was en route to the UPS hub in Cologne, Germany. Although the company has not officially confirmed casualties, it said two crew members were on board. "This incident is very unfortunate and we will do everything we can to find the cause. Our thoughts go out to the crew members involved in the incident and their families," UPS said in a statement.

Although local reports said the plane had come down near a busy highway intersection south-east of the airport, posters on the Professional Pilots Rumour Network (PPRN) suggest the aircraft went down near an area known as Silicon Oasis. The state news agency, Wam, reported the crash in an unpopulated desert area.

One poster on the PPRN said: "Just five minutes ago. I heard and saw an aircraft, possibly an airliner going down in Dubai near Silicon Oasis. It has just over-flown my house and [there was] a big fireball."UPS, a courier company based in US city of Atlanta, confirmed in a statement that one of its cargo planes had been involved in an accident in Dubai and said it was working to obtain more details.MrMachfivepointfive wrote on PPRN: "UPS. Declared Mayday. Was on approach 30L and then veered off course. Last radar hit showed descending through 500' doing 250kts."

In October 2009, a Sudanese Boeing 707 cargo plane crashed in the desert outside Dubai, killing six crew members. Emirati regulators have since banned Azza Transport, the plane's Sudanese owner, from operating in the country.

[Dubaiiscool:)]

An official at Dubai International airport said the crew had reported fire on board and was attempting to turn around to the airport when the plane went down.

http://www.emirates247.com/news/emir...09-03-1.287091



On the bright side, it didn't hit any structures.

[Cosmin]

Originally Posted by KB

ANyone knows how old was the plane?

N571UP, the aircraft that crashed, was built in 2007 and delivered to UPS in the same year. Had it's first flight on September 21, 2007.

[Dubaiiscool:)]

Originally Posted by SA BOY

Belive it crashed in the military base next to DSO.

In the VILLA THREAD in the UAE section.

Originally Posted by Ranthe

NB Pretty scary with the 747 plane crash yesterday. Had it gone an extra mile or two it could have been devastating for the Villa. Lots of fire and blue lights from our balcony...

So it is behind or in the military base that can be seen in the link below.

Google Maps Location: http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&hl=e...,0.038452&z=15

[KB]

Originally Posted by Cosmin

N571UP, the aircraft that crashed, was built in 2007 and delivered to UPS in the same year. Had it's first flight on September 21, 2007.

Wow, thats pretty new!

I hope the 747 engine issue isn't (partly) to blame for reports of "low power setting", although that doesn't explain the intense fire on board.

There are also reports that the pilots issued a mayday at about 120miles from DXB... (if true) ain't there any closer airport? Rumors (including of those claiming to be pilots flying there and overhearing the whole conversation) points to an estimated 20-25 mins flying before crashing. That's a lot of time for a fire to grow and burn down precious electrical systems, in addition to causing severe visibility problem.

If rumors are to be believed, they were near Bahrain and I wonder if choosing a closer airport wouldn't have been a wiser decision (unless there are other factors preventing that).

[Dubaiiscool:)]

Zoi Constantine

September 04. 2010


Smoke rises from the crash scene where a cargo plane owned by UPS came down at a military base in Dubai, killing the two pilots. Karim Sahib


Investigators have so far only found the body of one of two pilots who were on board a cargo plane that crashed inside a military camp in Dubai last night.

The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has begun investigating the crash of United Parcel Service (UPS) Flight 6, at around 7.45pm, but officials said it is too early to speculate about a cause.

Saif al Suwaidi, the GCAA director general, said today investigators have also located one of the plane's black boxes, containing voice recordings, among the wreckage of the 747-400.

“We have started the investigation and have managed to retrieve one of the bodies,” he said. “The other has still not been retrieved.”

The plane crashed inside the Nad al Sheba Military Camp shortly after taking off from Dubai International Airport en route to Cologne, Germany.

The base was closed to outsiders yesterday and the wreckage could not be seen from the exterior. Mr al Suwaidi said there was only "slight damage" to some "empty buildings" on the base.

GCAA officials are gathering eyewitness statements from areas near to the crash site, which is close to the Emirates Road and Al Ain Road intersection, opposite Silicon Oasis.

Included among the cargo plane's load were “children’s toys and computer accessories”, said Mr al Suwaidi.

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs..../1001/BUSINESS

zconstantine@thenational.ae

[Dubaiiscool:)]

Originally Posted by KB

There are also reports that the pilots issued a mayday at about 120miles from DXB... (if true) ain't there any closer airport? Rumors (including of those claiming to be pilots flying there and overhearing the whole conversation) points to an estimated 20-25 mins flying before crashing. That's a lot of time for a fire to grow and burn down precious electrical systems, in addition to causing severe visibility problem.

If rumors are to be believed, they were near Bahrain and I wonder if choosing a closer airport wouldn't have been a wiser decision (unless there are other factors preventing that).

I don't think that's true since the aircraft was flying away from Dubai's Airport when it crashed.