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Aviation History
2004
2004-00 - 0009.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT SAFETY DAVID LEARMOUNT/ LONDON Africa tops fatal accident league after UTAG crash Last year was on course to be the safest by far, but Benin 727 loss reduced margin Shortly before Flight International closed for press on 30 December, the year's worst fatal airline accident occurred in Benin, western Africa. At least 140 people were killed when a Boeing 727 crashed on 25 December. The aircraft, a Union des Transports Africains de Guinea (UTAG) 727-200 Adv, came down after taking off from Cotonou. Including the UTAG crash, all three of the 2003 airline accidents that killed over 100 people occurred in African states. The other two both involved 737-200s; one on 6 March operated by Air Algerie, the other on 8 July flown by Sudan Airways, causing 102 and 116 fatali ties respectively. The year, based on accident rates and fatalities, was shaping up to be the safest ever, but now the margins have been eroded. The 727 (3X-GDM), with 161 people on board, was a 26-year-old ex-American Airlines' aircraft that had been hushkitted and was leased by UTAG in March. The aircraft struggled to get airborne from Cotonou's 2,400m (7,870ft)-long runway 24 and hardly gained height, hitting the roof of a building with its undercarriage and smashing through the airfield boundary fence. Cotonou was an intermediate stop en route from Conakry, Guinea to Beirut, Lebanon. Visibility was good, wind 170° at 6kt (llkm/h), and temperature 32°C (90°F). The airfield is at sea level, but the aircraft was full. US aviation specialists are partici pating in the investigation, with a senior representative of the US National Transportation Safety Board heading a team that includes experts from Boeing, the Federal Aviation Administration and Pratt & Whitney. • Frozen pitot and static ports rob bing the aircraft of airspeed and altitude information has been determined by Turkish investigators as a primary cause of a THY Turkish Airlines crash on a flight from Adana, Turkey on 7 April 1999. The investigation says the pilots failed to switch on their pitot/static heat ing systems and the Boeing 737- 400 entered icing conditions not long after leaving on a flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. There were only two pilots and four cabin crew on board the aircraft because it was being positioned to pick up Hadj pilgrims. The report cites inatten tion by the crew, who were talking to two of the cabin crew on the flightdeck at the time the flight entered icing conditions. FLIGHT INTERNATIONALS AIRLINE SAFETY CENSUS WILL BE PUB LISHED ON 20-26 JANUARY INCIDENT JACKSON FLORES/ RIO DE JANEIRO Gol 737-700 damaged in overrun Brazilian low-fare carrier Gol Transportes Aereos has registered its first major mishap in its nearly two years of operation after one of its Boeing 737-700s (PR-GOO) was severely damaged after overrunning on landing after a domestic flight. The incident happened on 20 December during a scheduled flight between Sao Paulo's Congonhas air port and Porto Alegre. Having left Sao Paulo at 10:24, the aircraft exe cuted a scheduled intermediate stop nearly an hour later at Navegantes in heavy rain showers with a gusting wind. After a routine approach and touchdown on Navegantes' 1,700m (5,570ft) runway (07/25), the aircraft experienced what pas sengers described as a "heavy impact". The aircraft then slid along and overran the runway, striking a perimeter wall 200m away from the threshold of runway No-one on board was injured, but the aircraft suffered substantial damage 25. The Brazilian DAC's accident investigation board is examining a possible nosegear failure on land ing as one of the prime causes of the incident. Although there were no injuries among the 141 passengers and seven crew on board, the aircraft was substantially damaged. Both engines, nacelles and wings were severely damaged and the fuselage was punctured in several places. COLLISION AVOIDANCE Downlinked advisory tests prove successful Recommendations on downlink ing airborne collision avoidance system (ACAS) resolution advi sories (RA) directly to air traffic controllers will be published at the end of February, says Eurocont- rol, having completed exploratory trials on the concept. Such a datalink system might have prevented the 1 July 2002 collision over southern Germany between a Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 and a DHL Boeing 757. The trials have so far been exploratory, but the report is expected to say the potential benefits revealed suggest more thorough tests are worthwhile. Pilots often do not have time to tell controllers that they are reacting to an ACAS RA, even though procedures suggest they should. In the case of the Bashkirian/DHL crash the DHL pilot told the controller he was descending according to advice from an ACAS RA, but the Bashkirian pilot said nothing even though he had received an ACAS RA to climb and was in fact continuing a descent, still following the last instruction he had from air traffic control. The trials involved 30 con trollers from 10 different European area control centres. They were presented with 15 dif ferent simulated radar traffic scenarios, all based on real events that triggered ACAS RAs, with the same spoken radio mes sages, which they observed "as if they were watching an on-the-job trainee controller". The difference was that, in this case, the information about pilot reaction to ACAS RAs was down linked to them. The controller reaction was universally favourable, all saying that the downlinked data increased their situational awareness and helped them take decisions, particularly about third party aircraft that might be affected. www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 6-12 JANUARY 2004 7
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