 |
Links Media Travel Airports Maps Weather Slides Archive
Plane carrying 71 people crashes, catches fire in Kathmandu |
|
||
|
12.03.2018/ 08:18 UTC
Nepal/ Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport US-Bangla Airlines flight BS211, a DHC-8-Q400 (S2-AGU), crashed while approaching to land at Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport, Nepal. At least 51 occupants of the 71 people on board had died and 20 had been injured. US-Bangla spokesman K. Islam said the plane was carrying 32 passengers from Bangladesh, 33 from Nepal and one each from China and the Maldives. The captain was Abid Sultan, a former Bangladesh Air Force pilot. The first officer was Prithula Rashid, the first female pilot of the airline. Sultan had 22 years of flying experience, was one of the experienced pilots of the airline, and had accumulated 1700 hours in the aircraft type. According to the airline, he had flown to Kathmandu more than 100 times. He survived the accident but died of injuries a few hours later. Rashid, 25, joined the airline in July 2016. She survived the accident but died of her injuries. According to details of the official investigation led by the Nepal government, Captain Abid Sultan was going through tremendous personal mental stress and anxiety, and a series of erroneous decisions on his part led to the crash of the Flight BS211. The US-Bangla Airlines Flight BS211 flight departed from Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka, at 12:30 pm. About an hour later, the flight crew began preparations to land at Tribhuvan International Airport. At 1:50 pm, the plane started its descent and the controls were handed over to the Kathmandu’s airport air control room, which directed the flight to descend to 13,500 ft, and cleared the aircraft to hold over a point named “Guras.”
At 2 pm, the airport control tower instructed the flight to reduce its
speed and descend to 12,500 ft. The control tower cleared BS211 to
approach the 02 runway (from the Koteshwor side).
When the crew did not follow the control tower's instructions, the
approach controller at TIA asked the pilots why they were not holding
over Guras. At this time, based on the cockpit voice recordings, Sultan
responded: “Holding will not be required in this case."
According to the report, Sultan then lit a cigarette, when the aircraft
had just under three minutes to start their initial approach. This, the
report says, demonstrated complacency and gross negligence of procedural
discipline on the pilot’s part.
At this time, the aircraft had lost its use of the plane’s auto-flight
guidance system control. And strong westerly winds, blowing at an
average of 28 knots, pushed the aircraft to the east.
The tower informed the crew that they were clear to land via the 02 side
of the runway, but instead the aircraft seemed to be headed for 20 (on
the Boudha side). The report said that at this stage, there was a
complete loss of situational awareness on part of the flight crew.
That is when another supervisor controller from the airport tower took
over the microphone and cleared the flight to land via 20, assuming that
it was the crew’s intention to land from the Boudha side. The aircraft,
however, was struggling to locate the runway and continued flying
northeast. When the aircraft descended to around 175 ft above ground
level, a ground proximity warning system alarm went off.
The tower immediately asked the flight crew about their intention.
Sultan radioed his intention to land via 02. Then the air traffic
control, while also handling the landing of another aircraft--a Buddha
Air aircraft that was approaching from 02, cleared BS211 to land at 02.
The information was relayed to BS211 to caution them that there was
traffic ahead of them.
The aircraft then started to gain altitude. At this point, according to
the report, the captain admitted to his co-pilot that he had made a
mistake. Local pilots, who had been monitoring the development on the
radar at the airport premises, raised concerns with the tower that the
US-Bangla pilots appeared to be disoriented and lost. The tower then
issued a landing clearance to the flight for either 02 or 20.
The CVR revealed that both pilots made several statements that reflected
that they had completely lost their orientation of the runway, but the
issue was not communicated to the ATC.
A few seconds later, the co-pilot reported sighting the runway. The
captain, however, still appeared confused. Despite the runway in sight,
the co-pilot made no callouts to discontinue the manoeuvre. Alarmed, the
control tower hastily cancelled the landing clearance by saying “takeoff
clearance cancelled.”
The ground proximity warning alarm sounded continuously in the cockpit
while the aircraft flew as low as 45 feet, right over the domestic
terminal building. Nepali airline officials at the time had expressed
horror watching the plane fly so close to the tower and had praised the
pilot for skillfully avoiding hitting the tower and at least half a
dozen fueled planes parked at the international airport’s parking bay.
Airport officials at the control tower had described the scene that
afternoon, before the crash, as “something like a war film” - a complete
suicidal attempt that nearly blew the tower.
The aircraft then finally touched down on the ground, with only its
right landing gear hitting the runway, and skidded to crash through the
airport’s periphery before coming to a halt onto a nearby field.
The impact started a fire within six seconds because the aircraft had
2,800kg of fuel onboard.
The investigation commission said that because the crash had a low
impact, passengers had high chances of survival, but the rapidly
spreading post-crash fire prevented passengers from escaping.
При крушении самолета Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 (S2-AGU), авиакомпании US-Bangla Airlines рядом с международным аэропортом Катманду погибли 51 человека, 20 были рьнены. Всего на борту находились 67 пассажиров и четыре члена экипажа. Всего рейсом BS211 из столицы Бангладеш
Дакки летели 71 человека.
12.03.2018/ 08:18 UTC
|
||||
|
Още по темата: |
||||
|
Връзки
Медии
Пътуване
Летища
Карти
Време
Слайдове
Архив |
   |
|||
|
12.03.2018 - AircrashConsult |
||||
12.03.2018/
08:18 UTC