AVIATION INCIDENTS | Airplane Accidents, Crashes, Missing

[Teach]

The crashed plane is Ryanair's former EI-CSW.

[hkskyline]

Crashed jet's flight recorders located off Lebanon


BEIRUT, Jan 27 (Reuters) - A U.S. navy vessel located on Wednesday the flight recorders from an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed off the coast of Lebanon two days ago with 90 people aboard, a security official said.

"The U.S. ship located the black boxes 1,300 metres underwater and 8 km west of Beirut airport," the security official told Reuters, adding that search teams now had to assess the best way to retrieve the recorders.

Flight ET409, a Boeing 737-800, was carrying mostly Lebanese and Ethiopian passengers and was heading to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

The plane apparently broke up in the air before plunging in a ball of fire into the Mediterranean during a thunderstorm early on Monday.

The security official said it was still too early to say whether the USS Ramage, brought in to help with the search, had also located the plane's fuselage.

"Theoretically the black boxes should be inside the plane's fuselage, but this is all speculation at the moment," he said,

Lebanese and international teams, including European and U.N. peacekeeping ships, helicopters, planes and divers have been scouring a search area 10 km (6 miles) out to sea and 20 km long for the plane's fuselage and more of its victims.

The search has been hampered by rough seas and because of the uneven depth of the sea bed.

The flight recorders should shed light on why the pilot did not respond to a request to change direction even though he acknowledged the control tower's commands.

Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi said the plane made a sharp turn before disappearing off the radar. He said it was too early to draw any conclusion of pilot error.

Only 14 bodies and some body parts have been recovered since and authorities have all but given up on finding survivors.

The eight-year-old plane last underwent a maintenance check on Dec. 25 and no technical problems were found.

The last fatal incident involving Ethiopian Airlines was in November 1996 when a hijacked Boeing 767 crashed off the Comoros Islands, killing 125 of the 175 passengers and crew.

[hkskyline]

Lebanese minister rules out explosion on Ethiopian plane and says it had no technical problems
11 February 2010

BEIRUT (AP) - The cause of last month's Ethiopian Airlines crash into the Mediterranean appears to be neither a technical problem nor an explosion, a top Lebanese official said Thursday, without elaborating on what it actually could be.

The Boeing 737 crashed on Jan. 25, just minutes after takeoff from Beirut during a fierce thunderstorm. All 90 people on board died.

Asked whether the reason behind the "catastrophe" was a pilot error, Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi said that no final conclusion could be reached until the cockpit voice recorder, retrieved Wednesday, is analyzed. He said the recorder is still missing a key part and divers are searching for it.

He said the data flight recorder, that was found on Sunday and sent to France for analysis, registered "information and is documented second by second."

His comments came a day after Ethiopian Airlines said in a statement it had not ruled out the possibility of sabotage but that it was "too early to conclude the cause" of the crash.

Within hours of the crash, Lebanese officials had said there was no indication of terrorism or sabotage on board Flight 409, which was headed for the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

"From the technical side, all the plane's systems were functioning properly until the moment of the crash," Aridi told reporters. "An explosion is ruled out."

A day after the crash, Aridi said the plane's pilot made a "fast and strange turn" minutes after takeoff from Beirut. He added then that the plane flew in the opposite direction from the path recommended by the control tower after taking off in stormy weather.

Days later, weather experts said lightning had struck in the plane's path around the time of the deadly crash.

The crash prompted a search and rescue operation that included U.N. peacekeepers, and U.S. and Lebanese navies. DNA samples were collected from relatives of the victims in Lebanon, Ethiopia and other countries to help identify bodies pulled out of the sea.

The black boxes are being analyzed by BEA, a French agency that specializes in assisting with technical investigations of air crashes.

[Henk]

A Trigana Air Service Aerospatiale ATR-42-300, registration PK-YRP performing flight TGN-168 from Berau to Samarinda (Indonesia) with 46 passengers and 5 crew, experienced an engine (PW120) failure prompting the crew to divert to Balikpapan. The crew however was forced to land in a field at Bone village, about 41 road kilometers from Balikpapan along the road Balikpapan-Samarinda and about 18nm from Balikpapan's Sepinggan Airport. One passenger received serious injuries (fractures), all other occupants escaped without injuries.

The airline reported, that the crew decided to divert to Balikpapan's Sepinggan International Airport (runway 07/25 2500 meters/8200 feet long) because of its better facilities compared to the regional Termindung Airfield of Samarinda (runway 04/22 1150 meters/3800 feet long).

Indonesia's Transport Ministry said, that one of the airplane's two engines had failed. The airplane was not able to reach Sepinggan International Airport for so far undetermined reasons and was forced to land in a field.

PK-YRP in the (dry) field (Photo: AFP/Fachmi Rachman):

AVHerald

[KB]

There have been many crashes in the past 12 months but I haven't read much about investigation reports. In fact all but Air France 447 didn't receive much follow on reports. Anyone knows some website that maintain data from investigation results of major crashes?

Some of the crashes were Turkish Airlines Flight 1951,Air France Flight 447,Yemenia Flight 626, Caspian Airlines Flight 7908, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409.

R.I.P.

[hkskyline]

The reports should be available on the respective national investigative board. I suppose the NTSB would be a good source since the Americans are involved when one of their Boeing jets crashes even if outside the US.

[hkskyline]

Ethiopian Airlines says all crash bodies recovered
23 February 2010

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's state carrier said on Tuesday all 90 bodies had been recovered from an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft that crashed off Lebanon last month, and insisted it was too early to say what caused the disaster.

The Boeing 737-800 crashed minutes after taking off from Beirut en route to Addis Ababa in stormy weather on January 25.

"All bodies of the victims from ET-409 accident have now been recovered and identified," the airline said in a statement. "Arrangement is being made to repatriate bodies of the Ethiopian and other nationals to their countries."

A source familiar with the investigation into the accident told Reuters earlier this month that the team had concluded pilot error was to blame. Lebanese media outlets echoed that report on Monday.

Ethiopian Airlines earlier this month said that it still had not ruled out sabotage.

On Tuesday, the airline said vital information and facts were still missing and any indication of cause of the crash would be "speculative, incorrect and misleading."

The Lebanese Army said the plane broke up in mid-air before plummeting into the sea. Witnesses described it as crashing in a ball of flame.

Lebanese, French and Ethiopian officials are in France analysing the flight data and cockpit voice recorders.

Lebanese officials say the pilot failed to respond to the control tower's instruction to change direction, even though he acknowledged the request.

The plane made an unexpected sharp turn before disappearing off the radar, the Lebanese transport minister said at the time.

The eight-year-old plane, carrying mostly Lebanese and Ethiopian passengers, last had a maintenance check on Dec. 25 and no technical problems were reported.

[Cosmin]

The Last Four Minutes of Air France Flight 447 (Der Spiegel)

[KB]

2.10: The auto-pilot and automatic throttle stop working
2.11: The pilot loose control of the aircraft (??? why??)

If auto pilot disengages, there is a warning and the pilot is supposed to take over by manually flying the plane. Sure you can't relax back and sip your coffee but why do you suddenly loose control?

Auto-pilot disengages if one of sensors (here presumed to be pitot tube) provide contradictory (false) data but a pilot has at least 3 independent speed guages and its pretty unlikely all the 3 stopped working (or provided false data) at the same time. At 10,000m there is enough time to try to recover even from a stall.

Did they release the automated messages sent by the plane prior to crashing to the public?

[siamu maharaj]

From Air Crash Investigations, it seems the most common reason for air crashes is faulty (or blocked or whatever) Pitot tubes. What I've always falied to understand is, when it's the most common problem, WHY HASN'T A SOLUTION BEEN FOUND? And how can something so simple can have faults, like icing problems? How hard is it to manufacture a Pitot tube that doesn't have flwas? While watching that program, this always used to baffle me.

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by siamu maharaj

From Air Crash Investigations, it seems the most common reason for air crashes is faulty (or blocked or whatever) Pitot tubes. What I've always falied to understand is, when it's the most common problem, WHY HASN'T A SOLUTION BEEN FOUND? And how can something so simple can have faults, like icing problems? How hard is it to manufacture a Pitot tube that doesn't have flwas? While watching that program, this always used to baffle me.

But that happened to a plane that sat idle for weeks.

[KB]

One reason could be because such problems occur due to a 'rare' xyz condition. Its not like every pitot tube flying out there thousands of time a day have icing problems. A lot of time things happen and we get the news 'we didnt know before that things like this could happen'.

How many planes have crashed due to pitot type icing problem to date?

[hkskyline]

A call for black box data to be sent during flights
5 March 2010
International Herald Tribune

Investigators of a French airline accident and aviation agencies from other European countries plan to ask the International Civil Aviation Organization to change the way planes transmit information while flying over oceans. The hope is to prevent airliners from vanishing without leaving clues about what happened.

Since the disappearance last June of Air France Flight 447, carrying 228 people on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, two searches of the Atlantic have failed to find the flight data and cockpit voice recorders. Without that data, investigators cannot determine why the plane, an Airbus 330, crashed.

Investigators from the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la Sécurité de l’Aviation Civile in France and other Europeans want the international aviation group to consider requiring commercial airliners to regularly send basic flight information like direction, altitude, speed and location to some receiver off the airplane.

Over the past 20 years, aircraft in flight have been sending out increasing amounts of information. But transmitting a great deal more data and equipping older airplanes with the technology to do so would be expensive.

The recommendations are ‘‘absolutely feasible,’’ said David Coiley, aeronautical business director for the satellite communication company Inmarsat, which provides aviation communications. The company participated with the working group on flight data technology that helped develop the investigators’ recommendations. In an e-mail message, Mr. Coiley said, ‘‘There is an argument for the augmentation of stored data sources with some degree of live data feeds.’’

The French investigators’ report, which was obtained by Air Transport Intelligence, a news agency that covers the industry, also recommends that the international aviation group change the standards for black boxes so that their locator beacons have a wider range and a functioning life of three months rather than the current one month.

Underwater searches were required for 26 aviation accidents over the past 30 years, according to the French investigators.

The searches lasted anywhere from three days, in the case of Alaska Airlines Flight 261, which crashed in the Pacific in January 2000, to 77 days needed to find the black boxes from an Australian charter flight that crashed in the Pacific in April 2008.

Air France Flight 447 is the only commercial airplane crash in which neither recorder has been found, despite an estimated $40 million spent on searches involving the navies of France, Brazil and the United States.

[KB]

First implement a goddamn GPS based system so planes know exactly where they are going and authorities know exactly where the planes are.

It took them a while just to figure out where the plane crashed FFS.

[gladisimo]

Maybe they can improve the blackbox design too, they're designed to survive to a few thousand g's (I think) surely some design changes could be made to make it even better.

And how about 2 transmitters, both self-contained, 1 a high powered transmitter that can transmit for 3-7 days, and a secondary one that can sustain transmission for 60-90 days, or if they can be programmed to transmit at different powers, then they can have a high and low mode.

I really thought technology would make it possible, as KB says, to make planes that have GPS that serves both as a back up system for the pilots (it can relate ground speed and position), and have those coordinates transmitted to the airline.

Pitot tubes are supposed to have heating elements that prevent them from icing over, and there are supposed to be at least 2 on each plane, so pilots would be alerted if there's a discrepancy between the pilot and co-pilot's readout. Otherwise they're suitable because they're so reliable and relatively simple. But I don't know if something that can be freeze-proof can be implemented as a secondary device for the pitot tube...

So has the investigation on the Air France flight concluded? I've been waiting for news of it for a while...

[gladisimo]

Originally Posted by KB

2.10: The auto-pilot and automatic throttle stop working
2.11: The pilot loose control of the aircraft (??? why??)

If auto pilot disengages, there is a warning and the pilot is supposed to take over by manually flying the plane. Sure you can't relax back and sip your coffee but why do you suddenly loose control?

Auto-pilot disengages if one of sensors (here presumed to be pitot tube) provide contradictory (false) data but a pilot has at least 3 independent speed guages and its pretty unlikely all the 3 stopped working (or provided false data) at the same time. At 10,000m there is enough time to try to recover even from a stall.

Did they release the automated messages sent by the plane prior to crashing to the public?

Everything you've said is true, the time frame implies that the plane just nosedived straight down, otherwise there's no way it can go 10,000 meters in 5 minutes. Even if the pitot tubes didn't work, the artificial horizon shouldn't have failed, and knowing the approximate throttles, the pilots may have strayed off course, but shouldn't have just plunged and crashed.

The alternative explanation would be that all the redundant systems failed, or the autopilot failed to recognize an error until it's too late. Within a storm, it's possible for even the most experienced pilots, especially if they're not expecting trouble or are distracted, to lose situational awareness, and by the time the autopilot disengaged the plane might've been in an unrecoverable position already...

Originally Posted by siamu maharaj

From Air Crash Investigations, it seems the most common reason for air crashes is faulty (or blocked or whatever) Pitot tubes. What I've always falied to understand is, when it's the most common problem, WHY HASN'T A SOLUTION BEEN FOUND? And how can something so simple can have faults, like icing problems? How hard is it to manufacture a Pitot tube that doesn't have flwas? While watching that program, this always used to baffle me.

You have a point, the pitot tube principle has been around for a couple hundred years, and haven't. They use it mostly because it's so simple, and thus have a low failure rate, but surely a secondary system can be installed not based on the pitot tube, and not having the same potential problems.

I think in the case of this, they found later that the heating element is not strong enough to melt the ice on it. The amount of airflow, moisture, and temperature at that point might just have been more than what the designers anticipated were possible.

[siamu maharaj]

Originally Posted by gladisimo

Maybe they can improve the blackbox design too, they're designed to survive to a few thousand g's (I think) surely some design changes could be made to make it even better.

And how about 2 transmitters, both self-contained, 1 a high powered transmitter that can transmit for 3-7 days, and a secondary one that can sustain transmission for 60-90 days, or if they can be programmed to transmit at different powers, then they can have a high and low mode.

I really thought technology would make it possible, as KB says, to make planes that have GPS that serves both as a back up system for the pilots (it can relate ground speed and position), and have those coordinates transmitted to the airline.

Pitot tubes are supposed to have heating elements that prevent them from icing over, and there are supposed to be at least 2 on each plane, so pilots would be alerted if there's a discrepancy between the pilot and co-pilot's readout. Otherwise they're suitable because they're so reliable and relatively simple. But I don't know if something that can be freeze-proof can be implemented as a secondary device for the pitot tube...

So has the investigation on the Air France flight concluded? I've been waiting for news of it for a while...

They haven't even found the black box yet (search to resume in the summers). The investigation (if the black box is found) will probably take a year or so.

[don diego 2000]

Air Transport Intelligence news - 22 Mar 10

All the crew members on board a Russian-operated Tupolev Tu-204 have survived after the twin-jet crashed outside of Moscow.

The aircraft, from the fleet of Aviastar-Tu, was attempting to land at Moscow Domodedovo Airport when the accident occurred at 02:35.
No passengers were travelling on the jet at the time.

Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) has identified the jet as being registered RA-64011. The aircraft was powered by Aviadvigatel PS-90 engines.

MAK says the aircraft was destroyed in the accident. Flightglobal's ACAS database lists it as a 17-year old example.
Eight crew members were on board the aircraft, says MAK, who received injuries of "varying severity".

MAK has opened an inquiry into the accident. The aircraft was reportedly returning from the Egyptian city of Hurghada.

[cyberManHere]

Inspector found that ET 409 recorded segment of several minutes was deleted by Lebanese


Despite a consistent position that there will be no statements given by the Ethiopian side regarding the investigations into the causes of the crash of ET-409 off the coast of Lebanon, one thing though has been made clear by officials here - that nothing has yet been ruled out—including sabotage.

An investigation by The Reporter has revealed that in addition to breaching the “gag agreement’ between high officials of both countries, the Lebanese side has also been committing a series of deliberate tampering of evidence, withholding of information and preventing access to Ethiopian investigation teams sent to Beirut.

A 13-member Ethiopian team, comprising senior pilots, medical personnel and other professionals, went to Beirut on January 26.

Reliable sources have disclosed to The Reporter that the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) was tampered with by the Lebanese. The professionals that went to inspect the CVR are said to have found that recorded segment of several minutes was deleted.

Usually, the CVR records for 30 minutes and then deletes that and begins to record another 30 minutes segment. In case of an accident, regardless of the extent or type the CVR is built to retain the voice recorded in the cockpit for the last 30 minutes before a crash. The CVR records all the conversations made in the cockpit.

While the estimated flight time of the plane has so far been put at four minutes, The Reporter has learned that Ethiopian professionals were given only two minutes’ segment of the recording to listen.

According to The Reporter’s sources, the recording should have included segments from the time the chokes were removed from underneath the wheels. According to the sources, however, some parts before the two minute recording available and after it were missing.

“There is only recording of the conversation during take off. And you can hear what the pilots were being told by the tower control. The clearance that has been given to the pilots while flight ET-409 was taxiing is missing. The conversation made some time after the plane took off is also missing. When the Ethiopian professionals asked to listen to the tape for the second time the Lebanese authorities refused.”

When the Ethiopian delegation asked how some parts of the recorded material was missing the Lebanese authorities are reported to have declined to give explanations.

When Ethiopian team arrived in Beirut on the 26th, the director general of the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority briefed them about the rescue efforts. During the briefing the director general told the Ethiopian delegation that 25 bodies had been recovered.

The Ethiopian delegation had passed this information to the concerned authorities and the media at home. At the Rafiq Hariri Hospital morgue, however, the Ethiopians found 14 bodies. When they asked the physicians where the rest of the remains were they were told that the hospital received only 14 bodies. When they asked the director general about the situation he only said it was a mistake.

According to the sources, bodies are part of the major sources of clue to the cause of a crash. The injury inflicted on bodies is important in identifying the type and cause of an accident.

“Was there a fire on the plane? Was there an explosive or was the plane shot down? The information investigators gather from bodies is crucial.”

Only recently have the Lebanese authorities announced they have recovered and identified all the remains of the 90 victims. In addition, some bodies of the Lebanese passengers were handed over to their families before the investigation process got underway.

“The Ethiopian delegation was not given access to those bodies. It was also not allowed to talk to families of the victims.”

If not for investigation purposes, it is mandatory that representatives of Ethiopian Airlines meet and talk with families regarding insurance.

The delegation, according to The Reporter’s sources, was not even allowed to have the victims’ families (Lebanese) fill out certain insurance related forms.

The director general reportedly refused to let the delegation talk to the families saying that Lebanese people were violent and could take any action against the Ethiopian delegation.

The director general also said Lebanese men marry four to five wives, making it difficult to determine which one the delegation ought to talk to.

The Ethiopian delegation was not allowed to visit the crash site and make a firsthand observation of the rescue and search operation.

“They did not want the Ethiopians to see the bodies as they were being retrieved. Why did they not want them to see the bodies? There are a lot of questions that need to be answered,” the sources said.

The other big mystery has to do with a witness that vanished into thin air. Officials of the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority on the first day of the accident conducted an interview with an army officer who said he saw the plane explode into a ball of fire and plunge into the sea.

And when American and the French investigators came to Beirut the Lebanese officials are reported to have told them that they had this interview on record.

But when later they were asked for the recording of the interview, they failed to provide it. The witness also could not be available.

Ninety two percent of the plane’s body still remains under sea. The Lebanese authorities took some parts of the wreckage and are said to have locked it up.

“The Lebanese authorities recently announced that the fuselage, the main body of the aircraft, was found. How can it take so long to locate this?

The same thing happened to the black box.

Reports from Lebanon and official statements had indicated that it was located on January 29, adding that it would only take eight hours to send divers and bring it up.

Officially, though, the Lebanese said it was retrieved on February 14, fifteen days after they said they detected the signal from the black box.

The Ethiopian team was also told that the memory chip of the CVR was missing when they arrived in Paris. When the Lebanese were asked for permission to inspect the CVR as soon as it was retrieved in Beirut, they are reported to have refused claiming that they could not unseal the container.

Despite all these, however, the Lebanese have persistently been trying to imply that the crash was caused either by technical failure or human error.

[KB]

Hand-held GPS used in crash landing

In Russia, an air crew which used a hand-held GPS to find an airport, has been involved in a crash landing.

The incident, which occurred as the plane was due to land in Moscow, happened during heavy weather.

The crew of the plane made a belly landing in the Tu-204 plane operated by the state-controlled Aviastar.

The plane, which was returning from a flight to Egypt made the emergency landing, during heavy fog, crashing the craft in the woods near Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport

All eight crew members were injured and the aircraft was heavily damaged.

The navigation method used by the crew is now being investigated as the plane was fitted with a special navigation system that allows a plane to land during the most difficult weather conditions.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/89250237.html