MK Airlines freighter hits trees after failing to get airborne in take-off attempt
Investigators have begun the task of trying to determine what caused an MK Airlines Boeing 747-200F freighter to crash on take-off at Halifax, Canada on 14 October with the loss of all seven crew. The accident is the UK-based airline's fourth hull-loss in 12 years and its second 747-200 crash involving fatalities.
The crash involved a 24-year-old Ghana-registered aircraft, 9G-MKJ, which was attempting to take-off from runway 06 at Halifax, Nova Scotia. It apparently failed to get airborne and crashed into trees beyond the runway, breaking up and burning fiercely.
The tail section detached from the main hull and came to rest close to the end of the runway. The rest of the wreckage is among trees hundreds of metres further on.
"The critical element is to determine the sequence of events of pre-impact versus post-impact," says Bill Fowler, a Canadian Transportation Safety Board investigator. He says the investigation has to find out whether the tail section separated before or after impact.
The aircraft had arrived on 14 October from Windsor Locks/ Bradley airport, Connecticut, USA carrying tractors, according to the Halifax airport authorities, and was making an intermediate stop to pick up a 50t cargo of fish for its destination at Zaragoza, Spain.
When the aircraft departed at about 04:00 local time the weather was reported good, but the area forecast for the time indicates there may have been a 5kt (9km/h) tailwind for runway 06 which, at 2,680m (8,790ft) was only just long enough for a heavily laden 747. Some witnesses reported that the aircraft's tail touched the runway, but the Halifax airport operators will not confirm whether the runway shows evidence of a tailscrape.
On 21 November 2001 MK lost a 747-200F, with one of its crew killed, at Port Harcourt, Nigeria; it lost a McDonnell Douglas DC-8 freighter in December 1996 also at Port Harcourt and another DC-8 at Kano, Nigeria in February 1992.
* A Pinnacle Airlines Bombardier CRJ440 operating a repositioning flight crashed near Jefferson City in Missouri, also on 14 October, killing the two pilots on board.
DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON
Source: Flight International
