AVIATION INCIDENTS | Airplane Accidents, Crashes, Missing

[GlasgowMan]

Originally Posted by siamu maharaj

Jamaica I think.

Yeah, Kingston in Jamaica. Kingston, Glasgow, Dortmund and now Nuremberg. Where did the other one come off?

[siamu maharaj]

I guess I counted them wrongly then.

[don diego 2000]

AFP -24 January 2010

An Iranian passenger plane caught fire while landing on Sunday in the northeastern city of Mashhad, injuring at least 46 people on board, state television reported.

Iranian officials told local news networks that the rear end of the Russian-built Tupolev 154 plane owned by Taban Airline caught fire as the aircraft was landing at Mashhad airport. "The plane caught fire while landing," state television quoted Javad Erfanian, head of disaster management of Khorasan Razavi province of which Mashhad is the capital, as saying. "Forty-six people have been injured, but most of them are not serious," he said, adding that emergency services evacuated the passengers after which the rear end of the aircraft broke up.

The English language state-owned Press TV said the plane, travelling from Abadan in southwest Iran to Mashhad, had 157 passengers on board. Erfanian said the plane also had 13 crew members on board. Reza Jafarzadeh, spokesman for Iranian civil aviation, said the plane had left Abadan on Saturday, but bad weather in Mashhad led to the aircraft landing in the central city of Isfahan for the night before it took off again for Mashhad early Sunday. "The captain had a critical patient on board and so had to do an emergency landing (in Mashhad) which is why the aircraft met with an accident," he was quoted as saying on the website of state television.

Iran, which has been under years of international sanctions, has suffered a number of aviation disasters over the past decade. Its civil and military fleet is made up of ancient aircraft in very poor condition due to their age and lack of maintenance. In its worst air accident, a plane carrying members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in February 2003, killing 302 people on board. In July last year, a Soviet-designed Tupolev had caught fire mid-air and plunged flaming into farmland northeast of Tehran, killing all 168 people on board. In December 2005, a total of 108 people were killed when a Lockheed transport plane crashed into a foot of a high-rise housing block outside Tehran. In November 2006, a military plane crashed on takeoff at Tehran's Mehrabad airport, killing all 39 people on board, including 30 members of Revolutionary Guards.

[KB]

Does the sanctions also restrict civilian aircraft parts? that is ridiculous if they do.

[KB]

Plane catches fire in Iran, injures at least 40

TEHRAN (Reuters) - At least 40 Iranians were injured when a Russian-made Tupolev aircraft caught fire as it landed in northeastern Iran on Sunday, state radio said.

"About 42 passengers, out of 157 aboard, were injured when the plane was landing at Mashhad city's airport," said Gholamreza Massoumi, head of Iran's emergency medical services.

There were no fatalities, said Iran's civil aviation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh.

The official IRNA news agency said the incident occurred when the rear end of the plane, which belonged to Iran's domestic Taban Airliner, caught fire while landing.

Mashhad is a popular destination for pilgrims among Iran's majority Shi'ite Muslims.

The cause of the incident was being investigated, IRNA said.

Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency said on Sunday it will investigate the reasons behind the fire and said "weather conditions and visibility problems were most likely behind the incident," state-run news agency RIA-Novosti reported.

"The airplane touched the ground with a large load, resulting in part of the runway being damaged," it said.

In the worst plane crash in Iran in the past six years, a Tupolev aircraft crashed in 2009 in Iran on its way to Armenia, after catching fire mid-air and crashing into farmland killing all 168 people on board.

Iran has suffered a string of crashes in the past few decades, many involving Russian-made aircraft.

U.S. sanctions against Iran have prevented it from buying new aircraft or spare parts from the West, forcing it to add to its aging fleet of Boeing and Airbus planes with aircraft from Russia and other former Soviet Union states.

[TEHR_IR]

You can check the Iran Aviation thread for pictures and more news

[KB]

[siamu maharaj]

How can American sanctions affect Russian crafts?

[hkskyline]

Can't they just buy the spare parts from the Russians since it's a Russian-designed plane?

[Cell.Phone]

Plane to Ethiopia crashes into sea near Beirut

A commercial airplane carrying 85 passengers has reportedly crashed into the Mediterranean Sea after taking off from an airport in Lebanon.

The aircraft disappeared from radar screens about five minutes after taking off at 3.10am local time (10.10am AEST) from Beirut's international airport earlier today, according to reports.

The Boeing 737 was en route to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

The passengers on board included about 50 Lebanese nationals; most others were Ethiopians, Reuters reports.

There were also about seven crew members.

Residents on the coast reportedly saw a plane on fire crashing into the ocean.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/100...es-near-beirut

[PlayasCity]

How bad... Seems we cant avoid them falling...

My condolences...

[KB]

Originally Posted by hkskyline

Can't they just buy the spare parts from the Russians since it's a Russian-designed plane?

Well a lot of the soviet era companies are in big time trouble since under the soviet policy, the company was set up in different states/provinces/republics whatever you want to call them.

After the disintegration, both lack of revenue and the splitting of these firms means that there is no one central company responsible or that can supply everything. Some might have even shut down though I am not sure. So if the wing section was being produced in uzbekistan and it shut down, means I cannot find spare parts anymore. For the same reason, some of these planes are not manufactured anymore.

[Oasis-Bangkok]

image hosted on flickr


Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800

[eomer]

Originally Posted by Cell.Phone

Plane to Ethiopia crashes into sea near Beirut
The aircraft disappeared from radar screens about five minutes after taking off at 3.10am local time (10.10am AEST) from Beirut's international airport earlier today, according to reports.

Engine failure during take-off...a heavy aircraft with full tanks ?
That's the worst thing that can happen...that's sad but I think there is no hope to find people alive.

[hkskyline]

Crashed jet was 8 years old, leased from U.S. firm

ADDIS ABABA, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The Ethiopian AirlinesBoeing 737-800 that crashed after taking off from Beirut on Monday was eight years old and had been leased from a division of U.S. financing company CIT Group, the airline said.

"The aircraft was maintained. The last maintenance was on Dec. 25 -- it was a normal check. It has no technical problems at all," Ethiopian Airlines Chief Executive Girma Wake told a news conference in Addis Ababa. "It departed from here yesterday with no remarks at all. It left Beirut with no remarks at all," he added.

The plane with 90 people on board crashed into the sea minutes after taking off from Beirut in stormy weather early on Monday and there were no reports of survivors.

Ethiopian Airlines said the Boeing 737-800, a recent version of Boeing's best-selling model, had left the U.S. planemaker's factory in 2002.

The airline said it had leased the aircraft in September 2009 from CIT Aerospace, part of commercial lender CIT Group.

CIT, a bank holding company and a lender to mainly small and medium-sized businesses, recently emerged from bankruptcy in the United States triggered by the financial crisis. Neither CIT nor Boeing was immediately available for comment.

CIT is a well-known name in the aviation industry and manages a fleet of more than 300 aircraft. It provides leasing and financing to more than 100 airlines, according to its website.

The aircraft was one of two Boeing 737-800s being operated under lease by Ethiopian Airlines, which said last week it had ordered 10 more to broaden its network.

[hkskyline]

Pilot in Beirut crash didn't follow tower's advice
26 January 2010

BEIRUT (AP) - The pilot of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed into the sea flew in the opposite direction from the path recommended by the control tower after taking off from Beirut in thunderstorms, Lebanon's transportation minister said Tuesday.

All 90 people on board were feared dead after the plane bound for the Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, went down in flames minutes after takeoff at around 2:30 a.m. Monday.

Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi said the pilot initially followed the tower's guidance, but then abruptly changed course and went in the opposite direction.

"They asked him to correct his path but he did a very fast and strange turn before disappearing completely from the radar," Aridi told The Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear why the pilot veered off the recommended path. Like most other airliners, the Boeing 737 is equipped with its own onboard weather radar, which the pilot may have used to avoid flying into thunderheads rather than following the flight tower's recommendation.

"Nobody is saying the pilot is to blame for not heeding orders," Aridi said, adding: "There could have been many reasons for what happened. ... Only the black box can tell."

Ethiopian Airlines Chief Executive Girma Wake said the Lebanese minister's comments were premature.

"Rushing remarks, I don't think that helps anybody," Wake said in Addis Ababa.

Lebanese officials have said there is no indication of terrorism or "sabotage."

A senior security official involved in the crash investigation said the black box would provide more definitive answers, but he noted that other factors -- including weather conditions -- are more likely culprits than anyone bringing the plane down on purpose.

"The probability of sabotage in these circumstances is much less than all other probabilities," he said, asking that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

No survivors had been found more than 24 hours after the crash. Emergency workers have pulled bodies from the sea; the numbers reported so far range from a dozen to more than 20. Several officials have revised their numbers, saying they miscounted.

"We hope they will find trapped bodies in the fuselage," Wake said.

The Lebanese army and witnesses say the plane was on fire shortly after takeoff. A defense official also said some witnesses reported the plane broke up into three pieces.

Searchers were trying to find the plane's black box and flight data recorder, which are critical to determining the cause of the crash.

On Tuesday, rescue teams and equipment sent from the U.N. and countries including the United States and Cyprus were helping in the search. Conditions were chilly but relatively clear -- far better than Monday, when rain lashed the coast.

Pieces of the plane and other debris were washing ashore, and emergency crews pulled a large piece of the plane, about 3 feet (1 meter) long, from the water. A rescue team member, Safi Sultaneh, identified it as a piece of a wing.

An aviation analyst familiar with the investigation said Beirut air traffic control was guiding the Ethiopian flight through the thunderstorms for the first two to three minutes of its flight.

The official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, said this was standard procedure by Lebanese controllers to assist airliners departing from the airport in poor weather conditions.

It is unclear exactly what happened in the last two minutes of flight, the official said.

Patrick Smith, a U.S.-based airline pilot and aviation writer, said there were many possible causes for the crash.

"Had the plane encountered extreme turbulence, or had it suffered a powerful lightning strike that knocked out instruments while penetrating strong turbulence, then structural failure or loss of control, followed by an in-flight breakup, are possible causes."

Ethiopian Airlines said late Monday that the pilot had more than 20 years of experience.

At the Government Hospital in Beirut, somber families gathered outside, eager for any news of loved ones.

"We don't have much hope left," said Adnan Bahr, a relative of 24-year-old Yasser al-Mahdi. "They're all gone with the sea."

------

Associated Press writers Elizabeth A. Kennedy in Beirut, Slobodan Lekic in Brussels and Katharine Houreld in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia contributed to this report.

[ruifo]

http://momento24.com/en/2010/01/26/b...shes-two-dead/

Lat Am
Brazil: twin-engine plane crashes, two dead

Posted on26 January 2010 at 10:41. Tags: accident, bandeirante, belem, brazil, crash, para, plane



In the northern Brazil state of Para, a twin engine aircraft with 10 passengers on board fell to ground on Monday, two of the occupants died.

The plane, a Bandeirante used by an air taxi company, crashed in the town of Senador Jose Porfirio, southwest of Para, some 450km from the city of Belem.

Spokesmen for the Fire Department, reported that “there were at leasttwo dead.”

Although the aviation authorities, spoke only of the survivors.
Rescue teams were in the area of the incident and Air Force officials opened an investigation to find the causes of the accident.

[hkskyline]

Ryanair says might have once flown Ethiopian jet

ROME, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday he believed the Ethiopian AirlinesBoeing 737-800 that crashed off Lebanon on Monday was operated by his airline until April last year.

He said Ryanair sold the plane in April 2009, without specifying the buyer.

"I think they had it in maintenance, they did some work on it, between April and May. I think they leased it to Ethiopian in September, and something happened to it. We are not sure yet, but it may have been that aircraft that was involved in the accident yesterday".

"What happened we don't know. It's a bit like you selling your car and 11 months later the new person driving it has a crash. It had nothing to do with us," the Irish airline's CEO told Reuters after a news conference in Rome.

Ethiopian Airlines says the eight-year-old plane was leased from a division of U.S. financing company CIT Group and had its last routine maintenance on Dec. 25.

The plane crashed into the sea with 90 people on board minutes after taking off from Beirut in stormy weather early on Monday and there were no reports of survivors.

Ethiopian Airlines said the Boeing 737-800, a recent version of Boeing's best-selling model, left the U.S. factory in 2002. The airline said it leased the aircraft in September 2009 from CIT Aerospace, part of CIT Group.

[siamu maharaj]

What does he mean 'it might be'? How hard is it to get the plane's registration?

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by siamu maharaj

What does he mean 'it might be'? How hard is it to get the plane's registration?

The registration can change by moving airlines / countries.