Aviation
Aviation
21 August 2001, London, UK
French and British aviation experts met in Paris today to study changes made to the BAe/Aerospatiale Concorde to prepare the aircraft for a return to service following last year's crash. With speculation mounting that the aircraft will resume commercial services in the coming months, the working group of experts was due to review the changes carried out by British Airways and Air France to prevent accidents like last year's crash which killed 113 people. Air France grounded its fleet of five Concordes immediately after the July 2000 crash north of Paris. British Airways kept its seven aircraft flying until shortly before the aircraft's airworthiness certificate was withdrawn in mid-August last year. Before the Concorde fleet can fly again, civil aviation authorities in France and Britain must restore the certificate of airworthiness. Concorde's manufacturer submitted documents to aviation officials last Wednesday (August 15), explaining changes made to the aircraft. British Airways has said it hoped to resume commercial flights in late summer. Air France has said it wants to get back in the air by autumn. Last summer, an Air France Concorde crashed into a hotel near the town of Gonesse shortly after take-off from Charles de Gaulle Airport. All 100 passengers, mostly German tourists, were killed, along with the nine crew members and four people on the ground. Authorities believe a stray metal strip on the runway ripped one of the aircraft's tyres and rubber debris smashed into the fuel tanks, causing a leak and fire that brought the aircraft down. Since the accident, British Airways and Air France have made numerous changes to the aircraft, notably adding puncture-resistant tyres and lining the fuel tanks with Kevlar, a fibre used in bullet-proof vests. The modified aircraft have been tested on supersonic flights. British Airways has so far modified one of its seven aircraft. Two more are currently undergoing modifications. Initially, British Airways would resume one flight a day between New York and London, using three of its aircraft. The airworthiness certificate would be subject to a number of operational test flights, according to Kimon Phitidis, spokesman for British Airways. Four of the flights are to travel halfway across the North Atlantic before returning to Britain. One flight is to touch down at New York City's JFK Airport before returning.
16 January 2002 – A much-awaited French government report on the crash of an Air France BAe Concorde (F- BTSC) confirmed a long-held theory that a piece of debris from a Continental Airlines aircraft was a factor in the deadly accident. The 400-page report released today by France's Accident Investigation Bureau, or BEA, said the crash on July 25, 2000, could not have been foreseen. However, it also criticised what it said were some sloppy operations by Air France and Houston-based Continental. Continental today sharply denied any suggestion that it was responsible for the crash, which killed 113 people. The report said a Continental Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 shed a piece of metal known as a wear strip on to a runway that the Concorde later used for take-off. The strip caused a Concorde tyre to burst,propelling rubber debris into the fuel tanks and sparking a fuel leak and fire that brought the aircraft down. The loss of the metal piece "originated from a lack of rigorous maintenance," the report said. The report marks an end to the investigation into what caused the aircraft to crash minutes after take-off from Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris. An inquiry to determine legal responsibility for the crash is still under way. "We acknowledge the efforts of the BEA to establish the cause of the accident, but we disagree strongly with the findings in their report. We deny responsibility for the accident," said Continental spokesman Nick Britton. Britton said airports have a statutory duty to sweep runways and keep them free of debris and that, in any event, a burst tyre should never be the cause of the loss of an aircraft. He also said Continental has not been able to confirm that the wear strip came from the DC-10 that took off five minutes before the Concorde. "Even if it did come from our aircraft, the wear strip is not the root cause of the accident. That was the inherently unsafe design of the Concorde, which is vulnerable to catastrophic damage in tyre bursts." Britton also said BEA's recommendation that the US Federal Aviation Administration audit maintenance procedures at Continental Airlines was unnecessary. "All our maintenance has been in accordance with FAA regulations and manufacturer's procedures," he said. Britton noted the report said that Continental's overseas maintenance subcontractors also should be examined. He said the wear strip was installed on June 11, 2000, by a contractor, Israel Aircraft Industries, under Continental supervision. It was replaced July 9, 2000, by a Continental mechanic in Houston. "Once we discovered the wear strip was missing, we introduced supplemental procedures to ensure wear strip installation was secure in the future," Britton said. The report also cited a number of weaknesses in the way French air carrier Air France maintained its fleet of Concordes, although the report stressed that the deficiencies were not to blame for the crash. "The technical investigation brought to light various malfunctions relating to the operation of the aircraft,for example the use of non-updated flight preparation data, the absence of archiving of certain documents or incomplete baggage-inspection," the report said. Air France said that its faults cited in the report had been corrected."Although they did not contribute to the accident, the faults pointed out in the BEA report have been the object of detailed analysis and appropriate corrective measures," the French air carrier said in a statement. Concordes in the fleets of Air France and British Airways – the only two carriers to fly the supersonic jet – were grounded after the accident as changes were made to its design. Engineers say those changes have now made the Concorde safer. The aircraft has been fitted with fuel-tank liners of bulletproof Kevlar,a flameproof reinforced undercarriage and newly designed, extra-resistant radial tyres.
23 August 2001, Gulf Air, Flight 072
Gulf Air has reached a settlement and has begun compensating the Egyptian families of the airline's Flight 072, which crashed off the coast of Bahrain last August (2000), the airline's spokeswoman said today. "The matter is settled and their (Egyptian families) compensation payment is in progress now,"the Bahrain-based airline's spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity. Sixty-four Egyptians were among the 143 victims on board the airline's Airbus A320 aircraft. Last May, an Egyptian newspaper accused Gulf Air of offering Egyptians less compensation compared to other nationalities, a charge the airline denied. The agreement was reached in June following negotiations between the airline and a high-level committee headed by Egyptian Prime Minister Atif Obaid. Compensation of dlrs 130,000 for adults, dlrs 75,000 for under 18 and dlrs 30,000 for children under seven will be awarded to the Egyptian families and include the amount they had been awarded earlier, the spokeswoman said. Gulf Air had previously offered dlrs 125,000 for the families of adults killed. The airline declined to say if the same compensation would be paid to each of the 12 nationalities in the crash. Egypt's Ambassador to Bahrain, Mahmoud Abdel Jawad,confirmed a final compensation agreement had been reached. He had no further details.
3 September 2001, Moscow, Russia
Overloading and a lack of co-ordination among pilots caused the July 14 crash of a Russian cargo aircraft that killed all 10 people aboard, aviation officials announced today. The head of the state civil aviation authority, Deputy Transport Minister Alexander Neradko, announced the results of the crash probe at a meeting today with aviation officials from around the country, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. The four-engine 11-76 transport aircraft slammed into a forest shortly after taking off from a military air base near Moscow. The aircraft belonged to the Rus commercial aviation company and was being flown by a civilian crew, carrying a cargo of building materials and cosmetics, Russian media reported. It was believed to be carrying about 40 tons of cargo.
6 September 2001, SilkAir, 9V-TRF
A Singapore court hearing into the 1997 crash of SilkAir Boeing 737-300(9V-TRF) which killed 104 people was adjourned today for the judge to ponder the verdict. Families of six of the victims are suing the regional carrier for damages over the crash of the aircraft, which plunged into the Musi River on the Indonesian island of Sumatra en route from Jakarta to Singapore on December 19,1997. The case had resumed yesterday after an adjournment on July 18 following 13 days in court for both sides to prepare final written submissions. "Now the judge is going to retire to consider all the arguments and the evidence and he will let us know when he's going to deliver the judgement," Lok Vi Ming,SilkAir's lawyer said today. The plaintiffs' lawyer Michael Khoo, who had earlier painted a picture of an aircraft that was deliberately put into a nosedive, maintained his stance today saying there was "no evidence of mechanical failure." "There is no other reason why the aircraft came down," Khoo said. Air traffic controllers did not receive a distress call from the aircraft, which was cruising in clear weather and investigators found that the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder had stopped recording minutes before the aircraft went down –prompting rumours of pilot suicide. Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee said in its official crash report in December that the highly fragmented wreckage "yielded no evidence to explain the cause of the accident". Most families of the crash victims have accepted compensation from SilkAir amounting to $200,000 per victim which bars them from further legal action. The plaintiffs are seeking a higher level of compensation from SilkAir, a regional carrier belonging to Singapore Airlines.
24 October 2001 – A Singapore court today dismissed a lawsuit against SilkAir by families of six of the 104 people killed in a crash in Indonesia four years ago. The families sued the regional carrier for damages after Flight MI 185 plunged into the Musi River on Sumatra while en route from Jakarta to Singapore on December 19, 1997. SilkAir is wholly owned by Singapore Airlines. "We won. No evidence of suicide or intentional pilot action, so the judge ruled in favour of the airline," Lok Vi Ming, SilkAir's lawyer,said today. "The plaintiffs' claim is dismissed with costs." No one was immediately available to comment for the plaintiffs. Most of the other affected families accepted compensation from SilkAir amounting to $200,000 per victim which barred them from further legal action. The plaintiffs' lawyer Michael Khoo had painted a picture of an aircraft that was deliberately put into a nosedive. Air traffic controllers did not receive a distress call from the aircraft, which was cruising in clear weather. Investigators found that the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder had stopped minutes before the Boeing 737-300 went down – prompting rumours of pilot suicide. Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee said in its official crash report that the highly fragmented wreckage "yielded no evidence to explain the cause of the accident". Lok said in court that the plaintiffs had not been able to prove the pilot or co-pilot intended to commit suicide or had been reckless with the aircraft.
13 September 2001, Yucatan, Mexico
A LET 410 carrying 19 people, most of them American tourists, on a visit to Mayan ruins crashed in Yucatan state yesterday, killing all on board,authorities said. Yucatan Governor. Patricio Patron said the majority of the victims were American, but he did not provide an exact figure or any identifications. Fernando Vargas, director general of Aero Ferinco, said that the passengers left passenger vessel Maasdam at Cozumel and were flying to visit the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. He said the LET 410 with 16 passengers, a Mexican guide and two pilots crashed at about 1700 hrs near the village of Tinum shortly after taking off from Chichen Itza on a return trip to Cozumel. "There were no indications of an emergency," Vargas said. The plane was flying at about 500 feet when it began turning onto a course requested by the air traffic controller, he added. "It did not stop turning" and suddenly plunged to the ground. "We don't know what happened," Vargas said, though Mexican federal aviation officials were investigating. Vargas said pilot Jose Luis Romero had 7,100 hours flying time and co-pilot Aurelio Perez Escalante more than 1,000. The airline, based on Cozumel, flies in the Yucatan Peninsula, to Guatemala and Cuba. It specialises in chartered air tours.
4 October 2001, Black Sea
A Sibir Airlines Tupolev TU-154 en route from Tel Aviv to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk has crashed into the Black Sea with at least 77 people on board. A Russian Emergencies Ministry spokesman said the aircraft, Flight 1812, had gone down 185 kms (114 miles) off the Russian coastal city of Adler. The water is understood to be about 90 metres deep at the scene of the crash. Russian President Vladimir Putin has put the secretary of the country's Security Council in charge of an investigation into the crash following a report that there was a blast on board the aircraft. An Armenian pilot in a nearby plane said he saw an explosion on the Russian aircraft before it crashed. Russian officials have said they are not ruling out the possibility of a terrorist attack. Israeli aviation officials say Flight 1812, a regular weekly charter flight, went through the same stringent security checks that are carried out on all planes travelling to or from the country. Emergency rescue crews have been sent to the scene by air and sea, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported. The Russian Emergencies Ministry has said there were at least 66 passengers and 11 crew on board. The plane went down at approximately 1335, Moscow time (0935, UTC), the agency said. It had made a stopover in Bulgaria, where it reportedly took on more passengers.
5 October 2001 – Rescue workers searched, today, for the bodies of up to 78 people who were on board an aircraft, flying from Israel to Russia,when it exploded and plunged into the Black Sea, while experts hunted for clues to the cause. Vladimir Rushailo, secretary of Russia's Security Council, is heading a commission to investigate yesterday's crash. N TV television said he had arrived in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, along with experts from the FSB domestic security service. Ukraine was quick to dismiss American suggestions that the Russian aircraft might have been accidentally hit by a missile test-fired by the Ukrainian military. "The mid-air explosion of the Sibir airlines Tupolev-154, on a scheduled flight from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk in Siberia, triggered fears of sabotage," Putin said. A US official in Washington noted that Ukraine had been test firing live surface-to-air missiles from the Crimea at the time. But Ukrainian military spokesman Konstantin Khivrenko said: "Neither the direction nor the range (of the missiles)correspond to the practical or theoretical point at which the plane exploded. So the Ukrainian military has no involvement, either practical or theoretical, in this accident." And Russian security sources said the Ukrainian exercises had been taking place more than 320 km from where the aircraft came down. The plane went down 190 km south of the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk in water about 1000 metres deep, an Emergencies Ministry official said. Official accounts of the number of passengers and crew on board varied between 74 and 78. An Emergencies Ministry official in Novosibirsk said the crew were all Russian but that most of the 65 or so passengers were Israeli citizens. The local Emergencies Ministry said 11 bodies – nine women and two men – had already been recovered from the crash site.
5 October 2001 – Rescue workers have found the cockpit of the Russian aircraft which exploded and crashed into the Black Sea with 76 people on board. The cockpit was found by one of the many rescue vessels sent to the site,and is being transported to Russia's southern port of Sochi for inspection. The vessel, bulk/c.c. Kapitan Vakula, is also carrying the 13 bodies found so far at the crash site.
5 October 2001 – Russia asked Israel and the USA today for help to unravel the mystery explosion and crash of an airliner carrying up to 78 people while launching a criminal probe into possible terrorism. Vladimir Rushailo, Russia's Security Council chief and head of a commission looking into the crash, said help would be needed to raise the black box flight recorder which experts say lies around one kilometre under the Black Sea. "We want to make requests to colleagues in the United States and Israel, and other countries who have experience at working at such depth, to help us investigate whether it is possible to lift the black box," he told a news conference. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has already said Israel will cooperate fully with Russia's investigations. The aircraft, most of whose passengers were Russian-born Israelis, plunged into the sea while flying from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk in Siberia. Leading theories for the disaster include a bomb blast, a catastrophic technical fault on the Tupolev-154 or an accidental strike by a missile from a Ukrainian military exercise in progress at the time. Ukraine has denied it was responsible. Records of the last conversations between the crew and the control tower could be a key piece of evidence for teams trying to explain the mid-air explosion of the Sibir airlines aircraft. At the crash site, 185 km off the Black Sea resort of Sochi, workers lifted corpses from the water. Luggage,documents and torn metal scraps floated across the sea. The chief prosecutor's office said earlier today that Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov had launched a probe under Article 205 of the criminal code, used to deal with terrorism. President Vladimir Putin said yesterday the crash might be a "terrorist act",but later called on the media not to "sensationalise" the disaster. Rushailo said ten vessels were trawling the crash site, while one aircraft circled and two helicopters hovered overhead, searching for evidence before the tide disturbed the wreckage. All 14 bodies recovered so far have been taken ashore, along with fragments of the front of the aircraft, Rushailo said. A door thought to belong to the cockpit was found with several small holes but Rushailo said only further investigation could say if they were caused by bullets. "Only a ballistics expert can decide," he told a news conference. "We can confirm the presence of an explosion but we cannot say whether it was a rocket or a terror act." Passengers' relatives arrived in Sochi from Novosibirsk today and were expected to be taken to identify the bodies. Ukraine insisted again today it had not shot down the aircraft, saying fresh checks showed its missile exercise could not have caused the crash as suggested by US officials. Ukrainian forces were test-firing surface-to-air missiles from the Crimean peninsula at the time of the accident. A US official said in Washington there was "every indication" a Ukrainian missile was to blame. US officials said a spy satellite had detected a missile's rocket plume. But a Ukraine defence ministry spokesman said: "The missiles were fired exclusively within a restricted zone, 30 km out to sea from the shore, and the tragedy with the aircraft occurred 250 km from the area where the exercises were taking place."Official accounts of the number of passengers and crew on board the Tupolev varied between 74 and 78. An Emergencies Ministry official in Novosibirsk said the crew were all Russian but that most of the 65 or so passengers were Israeli citizens.
8 October 2001 – Relatives of the victims of a Russian airliner crash started a long voyage across choppy Black Sea waters today to the site of the disaster as Ukraine prepared to speak out about its suspected role. The investigation into Thursday's (October 4) crash which killed 78 people has centred on a theory that a Ukrainian rocket was misfired during military exercises on the Crimean peninsula some 130 miles away. Russian investigators said they found debris at the crash site which did not belong to the aircraft,and Washington said a US spy satellite detected the rocket plume of a missile close to the area and discounted initial fears of terrorism. More bereaved relatives arrived in the Russian Black Sea port of Sochi late yesterday on a special flight from Tel Aviv. Weeping and hugging each other, they were checked into a hotel and then taken to the morgue in an effort to identify some of the 15 bodies pulled from the sea. So far just eight of the bodies, many faceless and burnt beyond recognition, have been identified. A group of 46 relatives left the port early today for the six-hour voyage to the crash site, where salvage workers say rough seas and strong winds are hampering efforts to recover more bodies and debris. Ukraine has appeared to backtrack from initial denials that its forces could have shot the aircraft down. Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh said the missile theory "had a right to exist". Analysts note Ukraine's military kept quiet for two to three days when a stray missile struck a residential block in the town of Brovary in Ukraine 18 months ago, killing four people.
9 October 2001 – Russian crash investigators said today they had discovered parts similar to components of S200 missiles in the wreckage of a Russian Tupolev Tu-154 which exploded and crashed over the Black Sea on Thursday(October 4). "A great number of metallic parts were found which are very similar to parts of the S200 rocket," Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, a member of the investigating commission told a news conference in the Black Sea port of Sochi,southern Russia. A second commission official said that a radio locating station had picked up an unidentified object flying towards the scene of the explosion. The Sibir Airlines aircraft, flying to Siberia from Israel, exploded at the time Ukraine's military was carrying out missile exercises on the Crimea peninsula,using S200 and other rockets. All 78 people on board died.
12 October 2001 – Senior Russian and Ukrainian security officials said today a missile was to blame for last week's Russian airliner disaster over the Black Sea in which all 78 passengers and crew died, Russian news agencies said. Interfax news agency quoted Vladimir Rushailo, head of Russia's advisory Security Council, as saying the aircraft was hit by the missile. RIA news agency quoted Evhen Marchuk, his Ukrainian counterpart, as saying that Ukraine agreed and the cause of the disaster could have been an unintended attack by a missile during Ukrainian exercises in Crimea.
22 October 2001 – Russia today said a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile brought down a Russian Tu-154 and killed all 78 people on board after streaking 154 miles in less than four minutes and exploding 15 yards above the passenger aircraft. The airliner was over the Black Sea on its way from Israel to Novosibirsk when it crashed October 4. Today marked the first time the Russians had specifically blamed the Ukrainians for firing the missile during air defense exercises in the Crimea and accidentally bringing down the aircraft. The report was issued by Security Council Secretary Vladimir Rushailo, chairman of' the commission investigating the accident. Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk, who at first denied one of his missiles hit the aircraft, said over the weekend that he never had any doubts the jetliner was hit by a S-200 missile. Ukrainian legislators want an inquiry into whether Kuzmuk and his top aides lied about the circumstances of the crash and should face criminal prosecution. President Leonid Kuchma says he will only fire Kuzmuk if Ukrainian investigators determine the minister was responsible. Ukraine's national security chief Yevhen Marchuk, who participated in the Moscow commission meeting today, said experts wanted to see further "facts and calculations" but noted that Kiev was "not disputing" the Russian version.
28 October 2001 – Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has promised that his country will compensate families of Israelis killed when a passenger aircraft was accidentally shot down by a Ukrainian missile, officials said today. The Tu-154 passenger jet of a Russian airline crashed into the Black Sea on October 4 on its way from Israel to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, killing all 78 people aboard. Most of the passengers had recently emigrated from Russia to Israel. Kuchma promised the compensation during a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Saturday (October 27), presidential spokesman Ihor Storozhuk said. Sharon thanked Kuchma for the words of regret and praised his decisions following the tragedy, the spokesman said. Kuchma ordered Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Oleh Dubyna to organize collection of the necessary funds, Storozhuk said, the Interfax news agency reported. The report did not say whether Kuchma also promised compensation for the non-Israeli victims' families. It was not immediately announced what form the compensation would take or how much each family would receive. Ukrainian military officials at first denied responsibility for downing the aircraft but later admitted it was hit by a missile fired during training exercises on the Crimean peninsula. Kuchma fired Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk and his top aides last week. Kuchma also ordered the military to suspend all missile launches during the investigation into the crash, to check all missiles and urged to accelerate army reform. Besides compensations to the victims' families, Ukraine faces demands to pay $10 million in damages to the Russian airline, Sibir.
8 October 2001, Linate, Milan, Italy
A Scandinavian Airlines System MD 87 aircraft rammed into a small building at Milan's Linate airport and caught fire after swerving to avoid a smaller Cessna aircraft on the runway. Italian news reports said 12 people were killed and 100 injured. The ANSA news agency said the bodies of 12 people were carried out into an airport hangar. It was not clear if the reported dead were from the SAS aircraft, which had 104 passengers and six crew members, or the Cessna, reports said. The pilot of the SAS aircraft reportedly swerved off the runway to avoid the Cessna as the larger MD87 was taxiing, and rammed into a small baggage deposit building. News reports said he did not avoid the Cessna altogether,however. SAS confirmed the fire from its offices in Stockholm. Spokeswoman Mimmi Hildebrandt said Flight 686 had been scheduled to take off at 0735 hrs for Copenhagen. Fire crews were extinguishing the fire.
8 October 2001 – A Scandinavian Airlines System MD-87, carrying 104 passengers and six crew, rammed into an airport hangar and caught fire after colliding with a small Cessna aircraft in heavy fog at Milan's Linate airport today, and a news agency said at least 100 people were killed. Police said the SAS flight SK 686 was preparing to take off for Copenhagen when it swerved in a vain attempt to avoid a Cessna, crashed into the airport's baggage handling hangar and was engulfed in flames. The local ANSA agency said airport and investigative sources were unable to give the exact death toll, but that 60 bodies had been recovered and more than 100 people had died. Witnesses said the nose of the SAS aircraft was charred from the fire that engulfed the aircraft when it struck the hangar. Other witnesses said the aircraft split into three after its thunderous impact with the building. – Reuters. Milan, October 8– All 114 passengers and crew on two aircraft that collided at Milan's Linate airport today died in the accident, Italian Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi said. Another four cargo handlers in a baggage zone that was hit by the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) jet are missing, he told a news conference at the airport. "The rescue teams went into action immediately but it was impossible to save anyone in the aircraft. They are all dead," Lunardi said. The SAS MD-87 jet with 104 passengers and six crew, bound for Copenhagen,crashed into a baggage hangar after colliding with a German Cessna aircraft with four people on board. Four cargo handlers were taken to hospital, Lunardi said. The Italian Interior Ministry said a combination of human error and bad weather were almost certainly to blame for the disaster. Terrorism was ruled out as a possible cause.
9 October 2001 – Officials investigating a collision between two aircraft at Italy's Milan Linate airport which killed at least 118 people say fog, human error and a broken ground radar system were the most likely causes of the crash. Italy's Civil Aviation Authority blamed pilot error for the country's worst air disaster, but said it could have been avoided if the ground radar system was working. All 110 passengers and crew on board a Scandinavian Airlines SAS jet died when the aircraft hit a Cessna in heavy fog and ploughed into a baggage hangar. Four people on board the Cessna and four ground staff were also killed. The airport's ground radar system, which can track aircraft on runways,has been out of action for up to two years. Salvage work continued at the scene during the night, with smoke still rising from the Swedish SAS passenger aircraft. Relatives are expected at the scene this morning, but it is not yet clear whether they will be asked to identify the bodies. The Italian Government has ruled out terrorism as a cause. SAS insists that the pilot of the aircraft,which was bound for Copenhagen, Denmark, with 110 people on board, was not responsible for the crash. "Our flight, SK 686 was cleared for take-off,"said the SAS regional vice-president Bjoen Alegren. "Everything points in the direction of an accident at this point." The Swedish aircraft was thought to be travelling at about 200 mph when it hit the Cessna. It then careered for several hundreds of metres before hitting the baggage depot. The runway was cloaked in thick fog when the crash occurred at 0815, local time,yesterday morning. Italian authorities said the Cessna, piloted by two Germans and with two Italian businessmen on board, appeared to have taken a wrong turning when heading towards a position for take-off, bringing it onto the runway. "The instruction given by the flight controller would have taken the aircraft onto the correct waiting position for take-off," Italy's Civil Aviation Authority Enav said. The SAS aircraft, accelerating for its take-off,apparently swerved at the last minute as the pilot saw the Cessna, but was too late to avoid tragedy. Fifty-six of the SAS passengers were Italian, 16 were Danes, two were foreigners living in Denmark, and a further four were believed to be Finns. Officials are still working to confirm the identities of the others. Four airport workers were injured in the blaze, at least two of them seriously. SAS has offered compensation payments to the next of kin of those who died, and also reportedly arranged for two flights to take relatives to Italy.
9 October 2001 – Milan's Linate Airport, where 118 people were killed yesterday when a Scandinavian Airlines System McDonnel1 Douglas MD-87 exploded into flames in an accident, will not open before 1800 (1600, UTC)today, officials said. The MD-87, which was taking off in heavy fog yesterday morning, collided with a light aircraft, ploughed into a hangar and burst into flames. All on aboard both aircraft, as well as four ground staff, were killed. Airport director Vincenzo Fusco said the airport would not be able to open as quickly as he had hoped because cranes were still removing debris from the runways. Officials had originally hoped to re-open the airport this morning or by early afternoon. Since the disaster, flights bound for Linate have been diverted to Milan's largest airport, Malpensa, and an airport at the nearby city of Bergamo.
10 October 2001 – Milan's Linate airport has reopened after the crash which killed 118 people in a runway collision on Monday (October 8). Investigators are blaming thick fog and pilot error by the German Cessna crew– but unions say the disaster could have been prevented if the airport's ground radar system had been working. Victims' relatives have flown to Italy to help in the task of identifying the dead of SAS Flight SK 686. By yesterday evening all 118 bodies had been recovered, 38 of them identified, the Italian ANSA news agency said. DNA would have to be used for those burned beyond recognition, prosecutor Celestina Gravina said. The dead included 62 Italians,21 Swedes, 16 Danes, six Finns, three Norwegians, two Germans and a British national, officials said. Two "black boxes" from the SAS plane were recovered: the flight data recorder and an optional system that records equipment maintenance information. The Scandinavian airline, which described Monday as the worst day in its history, has announced that it will pay an initial $25,000 to the next-of-kin of each victim. "SAS is doing everything possible to help our passengers' and crews' relatives economically by offering such payments as may be necessary to meet their immediate needs," SAS said in a statement. Linate airport was closed after the crash, and was initially due to reopen yesterday. It finally starting operating again at 0600 hrs (0400, UTC)today. Following the disaster, flights bound for Linate were diverted to Milan's largest airport, Malpensa, and to the nearby city of Bergamo.
9 October 2001 – Investigators have traced Italy's worst airline disaster to a wrong turn taken by the pilot of a business aircraft which taxied into the path of a speeding jetliner. Investigators said today that communications recorded yesterday between the twin-engine Cessna Citation II aircraft and the control tower at Milan's Linate Airport indicated the pilot,steering on the ground through dense fog, was convinced he was on the R5 taxiway, which loops around the airport's only runway. Instead the Cessna taxied down the R6 taxiway, which leads directly onto the runway, Milan Chief Prosecutor Gerardo D'Ambrosio said. An SAS McDonnell Douglas MD-87 accelerating down the runway hit the Cessna, careened into a baggage handling depot and exploded, killing 118 people. "It is true there has been a human error,"D'Ambrosio said, "that the Cessna turned onto the wrong path, convinced he was on the right one. But we need to go all the way to see what may have had an influence on this error." The details emerged as rescue crews recovered the last of the bodies from the wreckage and attention focused on whether ground radar, out of service for months while a new system was being installed, could have prevented the catastrophe. The radar, which tracks the movement of aircraft on the ground, might have alerted controllers hampered by fog to the Cessna's mistake, experts said. The MD-87, bound for Copenhagen with 104 passengers and six crew members, was accelerating for take-off and had its nose wheel off the ground when the Cessna, with four people on board, taxied into its path. By this evening, all 118 bodies had been recovered, 38 of them identified, the ANSA news agency said. DNA would have to be used for those burned beyond recognition,prosecutor Celestina Gravina said. The dead included 62 Italians, 21 Swedes, 16 Danes, six Finns, three Norwegians, two Germans and a British national,officials said. Four of the Italian dead were airport workers in the baggage depot, and a fifth remained hospitalised in serious condition with burns over 80 per cent of his body. Experts from Italy, Sweden, Germany and the USA were helping with the investigation. Gravina and D' Ambrosio said investigators would look beyond the absence of ground radar and to other possible safety issues,including whether signs on the taxiways may have been hard to see. Two black boxes from the SAS aircraft were recovered – the flight data recorder and another device that records equipment maintenance information. The cockpit voice recorder has not been found, said Adalberto Pellegrino, a spokesman for ANSV,the national agency for flight safety. He said the Cessna did not have flight recorders.
19 October 2001 – Search crews have found the cockpit voice recorder of Italy's worst aviation disaster. It has been found after the SAS McDonnell Douglas MD-87 aircraft collided with a Cessna Citation aircraft and ploughed into a building in Milan's Linate airport, killing 118 people. The cockpit voice recorder had been buried under debris of the collapsed building and fragments of the aircraft. Adalberto Pellegrino, a spokesman for ANSV, the national agency for flight safety says it was found in debris removed from the site. He says the device is "in good shape" and will be examined over the next few days. The other black box, the flight data recorder, was found soon after the accident, along with a device that records equipment maintenance information. The Cessna business jet did not have recorders.
10 October 2001, Mediterranean Sea
Officials said a chartered aircraft bound for Algeria with ten people on board – eight of them Americans – disappeared off the eastern coast of Spain today. The aircraft carried eight Americans and two Spanish crew members,said Deborah Glasmann, press attaché of the US consulate in Barcelona. She declined to provide identities and hometowns. The aircraft, which belonged to the company Flight Line, vanished on its way from Barcelona to Oran, said a spokeswoman for Spain's Ministry of Development. The aircraft dropped off radar screens around 1040 hrs near the Columbretes Islands off the eastern Spanish coastal city of Castellon. In the last contact, the pilot asked for a change of route because of bad weather, the ministry spokeswoman said. Spanish air force rescue teams called off their search for the plane because of darkness and were set to resume the search tomorrow morning.
11 October 2001 – Searchers failed again today to locate a chartered aircraft carrying eight Americans and two Spanish crewmen that disappeared in bad weather en route from Spain to Algeria. The aircraft was carrying seven employees and a partner in Consolidated Restorations Systems Inc., a mechanical engineering company based in Fairfield, Conn, said James C. Stotlar, who also is a partner. The plane, owned by the company Flightline, was travelling from Barcelona to Algeria when it dropped off radar screens yesterday morning off the east coast of Spain. The search for the craft was suspended tonight, said Rafael Sancho, spokesman of Spain's Air Rescue Service. He said the hunt would resume tomorrow. "We have been searching non-stop in the area where the plane disappeared off the radars, without any result," Sancho said. In the plane's last known radio contact with Spanish aviation authorities,the pilot asked for a change of route due to bad weather, said a spokeswoman for the Public Works Ministry. Storms have raked the area during the last few days.
12 October 2001 – Spanish rescuers said today they believed they had found the remains of a small aircraft which disappeared on Wednesday(October 10) over the Mediterranean Sea with at least nine people on board, an official said. "We have found a side panel which coincides with that model and with its numbering," a spokesman for Spain's air rescue service in Palma de Majorca said. So far, there had been no trace of the missing passengers or crew and the chance of finding any survivors was low, he said. The debris was located between Spain's eastern coast, off the city of Castellon, and the Balearic Islands. Seven or eight US oil workers and two pilots were on the aircraft, which went missing as it flew from Barcelona in Spain to Oran in Algeria. Officials have said bad weather was the most likely cause of what appears to have been an accident. Air traffic controllers in Valencia said on Wednesday they had received a request from the aircraft to change route to avoid a storm shortly before it lost contact with the airport.
1 November 2001, ValuJet (1996)
A federal appeals court overturned all but one of nine convictions against a defunct aircraft repair company that was blamed for the 1996 ValuJet CMcDonnell Douglas DC-9 N904VJ) crash in the Everglades. In a ruling yesterday, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturned eight convictions against SabreTech for transporting hazardous materials. The reason: federal law in place at the time of the crash did not support the company's conviction, the court said. "This was a tragic accident," Judge Joel Dubina wrote. "However,the record is clear that SabreTech and its employees did not intend to kill these people." SabreTech was convicted in 1999 for recklessly supplying the hazardous oxygen generators blamed for the cargo hold fire that caused the Miami-to-Atlanta flight to crash on May 11, 1996, killing 110 people. It was the first time an aviation company had been convicted in a US air disaster. SabreTech was fined $11 million. The appeals court upheld the company's conviction on charges of willfully failing to train its employees according to federal hazardous material regulations. SabreTech will be re-sentenced on that count, which carries a maximum fine of $500,000. "We are very pleased with the decision to dismiss eight counts, but we are disappointed that the court left the last count untouched," SabreTech attorney Martin Raskin said. He added that SabreTech employees "committed mistakes, but they did not commit crimes." Prosecutors in Florida announced last week that state murder charges against the company would be dropped under a plea bargain requiring its parent, Sabreliner Corp., to spend $500,000 on aviation safety. A hearing on the plea bargain is set for December 7.
7 November 2001, Concorde, London/Paris
More than 15 months after an Air France BAe Concorde (F-BTSC) crashed in a ball of flames, the world's only supersonic jetliner returned to service today. Revamped to address safety concerns, the Air France Concorde, with 92 passengers on board, took off from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport at 1047 hrs for the three hour, 55 minute-flight to New York. To show their confidence, French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot and Air France chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta were on board the passenger flight –the first since the July 25,2000, crash that killed 113 people outside Paris. About an hour later, British Airways, the other airline that flies the Concorde, planned an invitation-only flight from London; its fare-paying flights to New York resume on Friday(November 9). In a third Concorde flight today, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was taking a special charter to Washington to meet with President Bush. The new Concorde has been fitted with fuel-tank liners of Kevlar, a flameproof reinforced undercarriage and extra-resistant radial tyres. The tyres, designed by French firm Michelin, passed rigorous tests, including one that revved the wheel faster than 250 mph – the Concorde's speed at take-off – and injected it with a titanium blade. The July, 2000, crash has been widely blamed on a ruptured tyre which sent debris flying into a fuel tank, though officials have not yet named a cause. "We have never been able to make this tyre blow up, under any circumstance," Pierre Desmarets, chief executive of Michelin Aircraft Tyre Division, said. Service is being scaled back – British Airways and Air France have each modified three Concordes, allowing for leeway to determine customer demand. Investigators are expected to make their report on the cause of the crash public by early next year. Officials have theorised that as the aircraft accelerated down the runway, it hit a metal strip which ruptured a tyre and sent debris hurtling toward a fuel tank, triggering a fire and a fuel leak. The metal strip is believed to have come from another aircraft.
12 November 2001, Siberia, Russia
Emergency officials say 11 people are feared dead after a Mi-8 helicopter crashed in eastern Siberia. The aircraft has been missing since Friday (November 9). Officials say emergency crews found the wreckage early yesterday about 100 kilometres from the town of Chulman in the remote Yakutia region. They say eight passengers and three crew members are believed to be dead. A rescue team and investigators have been dispatched to the crash location. The Interfax news agency says the helicopter was on a routine flight taking the eight shift workers to a scientific research station in Itymdzha when it crashed. The cause of the mishap is not known.
13 November 2001 – Rescue work will be continued at the helicopter crash site in Yakutia today, Yakutia's Emergency Situations Ministry told Interfax. It is planned to retrieve the bodies of three crew members and five passengers found inside the helicopter. The bodies of the other three passengers have not yet been found. It is assumed that they will be found under the helicopter debris. The helicopter was flying at an altitude of 1,600 metres when it hit a 1,620 metre hill. Employees of the Transport Prosecutor's Office are working at the accident site. A criminal case has been opened.
12 November 2001, New York, USA (N14053)
An American Airlines Airbus A-300, flight number 587, with 246 passengers and nine crew, crashed in New York at 0915, ET. The aircraft was leaving JFK Airport bound for the Dominican Republic when it came down in the borough of Queens. Reports state that a number of buildings in the Rockaway Beach area are ablaze.
13 November 2001 – Investigators today combed the wreckage of an American Airlines Airbus A300 crash in New York which killed up to 269 people,searching for clues to a possible mechanical failure that might have brought down the Dominican Republic- bound aircraft. Flight 587, bound for Santo Domingo, crashed yesterday in a residential neighbourhood in the borough of Queens less than two minutes after take-off from John F. Kennedy Airport,killing 251 passengers and nine crew and leaving up to nine people missing on the ground. While officials refused to rule out any possible causes, the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation, said early indications pointed to an accident. "All information we have currently is that this is an accident," said NTSB Chairwoman Marion Blakey. The Federal Aviation Administration, law enforcement authorities and the White House made similar statements. City and state authorities quickly closed major airports in the area as well as bridges and tunnels. They were reopened hours later when security concerns eased. Blakey said the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder had been recovered, but the flight data recorder, which could also provide critical clues to the cause, was still missing. The safety board sent an investigative team from Washington to the crash site. "Right now we don't believe it is a terrorist incident because we don't have any information indicating that it is," FBI spokeswoman Tracy Ballinger said. The aircraft crashed about two minutes after taking off at 0914, EDT (1414, UTC), from JFK,and eyewitnesses said they saw debris falling from the aircraft before it crashed in a residential neighbourhood in Rockaway, on a barrier island between Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
New York Governor George Pataki said the pilot was believed to have dumped fuel just before the crash, indicating that he knew the aircraft was in serious trouble. Wreckage was scattered over a wide area, including parts of the bay,where a large section of the aircraft's tail was pulled from the water late yesterday. First Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Dunne said 265 bodies had been recovered. Police were asking family members for DNA samples to help in the identification process. About a dozen houses were damaged or totally destroyed by the crashed aircraft. Many of them caught fire, sending flames and smoke billowing from the neighbourhood. Witnesses said the aircraft split apart and hit the ground nose first. Hundreds of fire-fighters and police converged on the suburb, cordoning off a ten-block area to search for survivors among the wreckage. One engine fell at a gas station just feet from the pumps, where a worker put out the fire with a hose, while the other was found blocks away. Hospital officials said they treated about 60 people injured on the ground,including about 40 fire-fighters and police officers, for smoke inhalation. The Red Cross set up shelters for displaced residents. At least 150 Dominicans were believed to be on the aircraft. American Airlines issued a partial passenger list early today which indicated that almost all those on board were from the USA or the Dominican Republic.
13 November 2001 – Insurers face $200 million in claims from yesterday's crash of an American Airlines Airbus A300 in New York City, sources said. The overall insurance bill from the crash was estimated by one analyst at around $1 billion. While insurers would directly cover $200 million in liabilities, the remainder was likely to have been offset with policies taken out with re-insurers. "`An aircraft coming down is not good, but you're not talking more than $1 billion overall and that's not going to lead to trouble in the reinsurance industry worldwide," a Sydney-based insurance analyst said. The loss of the aircraft itself would cost insurers about $60 million, industry sources said, with liability claims possibly adding a further $100 million. The aircraft, bound for the Dominican Republic, hit the Rockaway section of Queens,New York, near John F. Kennedy Airport, shortly after take-off yesterday morning. Based on past experience, the expected insurance loss was seen as less than some recent US commercial air crashes because the passengers, mostly Dominican citizens, may not achieve high compensation awards relative to citizens from some other countries, industry sources said. American and European passengers – with a relatively high net worth and backed by aggressive lawyers – tend to fetch $3-4 million in compensation each, an airline insurance broker said. The families of passengers killed in Monday's crash would likely receive only a fraction of that, sources said. If the crash is found to be a result of mechanical failure, as investigators said early evidence suggested, insurers are liable for all claims. Terror and war exclusions brought in by insurers shortly after the Sepember 11 attacks would not apply. Insurers of American Airlines also face some third-party liability claims for the damage caused on the ground in New York when the aircraft crashed. Six people were reported missing in Rockaway, and several houses were destroyed. The insurance risks of American Airlines' parent, AMR Corp are spread widely around international insurance markets, with coverage arranged primarily by brokerage Aon Corp. French insurer AXA said it expected $30 million in claims, after reinsurance, if the insurance bill for the crash reached $1.5 billion – the usual limit insurers put on liability for air crashes. Swiss Re also said it expected $35 million in losses, at most, based on its 2 per cent share of coverage for the airline. Australia's QBE Insurance Group Ltd estimated its net exposure after reinsurance recoveries at $2 million.
13 November 2001 – Following received from Airbus Industrie,dated today: Airbus A300-600 N14053, operated by American Airlines, crashed at 0915, local time, yesterday, shortly after take-off from New York John F. Kennedy Airport for a flight to Santo Domingo. A team of specialists from Airbus is being dispatched to the US.
14 November 2001 – A preliminary inspection of the engines from doomed American Airlines flight 587, N14053, showed no evidence of internal failure, investigators looking into what caused the airliner to crash, killing up to 265 people, say. "Initial inspection shows no evidence of any sort of internal failure of engines. They all appear to be in one piece," National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) member George Black said at a news conference. NTSB investigators have been looking very closely at the aircraft's two General Electric CF680C2 series engines for clues to what caused the airliner to suddenly drop from the sky yesterday, minutes after taking off from New York's Kennedy airport bound for Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. At the news conference, Black said initial analysis of the cockpit voice recorder revealed that the aircraft rattled loudly twice before pilots lost control. Pieces of the aircraft were pulled out of the water in nearby Jamaica Bay and two engines separated from the fuselage, indicating the aircraft broke up soon after takeoff, the NTSB said.
14 November 2001 – Investigators probing the cause of Monday's(November 12) crash of an American Airlines Airbus A300-600 (N14053) which killed up to 265 people have identified all of the aircraft's major parts including its engines, which appeared to be in one piece and showed no sign of having failed. Investigators said evidence from the aircraft and the cockpit voice recorder yielded no signs of engine failure or of any criminal act. Early suspicion had focused on engine failure as a possible cause for the crash in the Rockaway section of the New York borough of Queens but George Black, an investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board which is heading the probe, said yesterday that the engines did not appear to have failed. "Initial inspection shows no evidence of any sort of internal failure of engines,"Black told a news conference, adding that they would be sent soon to an American Airlines maintenance base in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for more detailed examination. Black said there was no evidence that the crash was caused by birds being sucked into the aircraft's engines. Another area of intense interest to investigators is the aircraft's vertical tail and its rudder, both of which were found more than half a mile from the impact site, in nearby Jamaica Bay. "We are looking at them more carefully," Black said. Most of the control surfaces,like elevator tabs and wing flaps, were still on the aircraft when it crashed,except for the fin, the NTSB said. Experts will begin studying these pieces today, scrutinizing them for clues like corrosion or unusual wear. Investigators also want to re-evaluate the position of the rudder. Earlier the NTSB said the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder contained the sound of the aircraft rattling loudly twice before the pilots lost control shortly after take-off from John F. Kennedy International Airport. Also yesterday, officials found the aircraft's flight data recorder, which is being analysed in Washington. It should give valuable insight into the performance of engines and flight systems. But the NTSB said that so far evidence from the aircraft, the two recorders and the crash site had yielded no signs of internal engine failure or a criminal act. The aircraft, bound for Santo Domingo, split apart and crashed nose first about two minutes after take-off, setting fire to a dozen homes in Rockaway, a middle-class seaside neighbourhood. The crash killed 251 passengers, nine crew members and at least five people on the ground. Four more residents were reported missing. Black said that the cockpit voice recorder showed the rattling of the aircraft's frame 107 seconds after the pilots powered up the engines and again 14 seconds later. The timing of the shaking still must be matched with the flight data recorder and with radar data to get a better understanding of its meaning, investigators said. Midway between the two rattling sounds, the captain was heard remarking that he was encountering the wake of an aircraft ahead of him. That aircraft was a Japan Airlines Boeing 747, which took off about 2.5 minutes before Flight 587, Black said. Two minutes is the normal time span between departures. There have been some instances where wake turbulence causes structural damage, according to an FAA brochure for pilots. The FAA requires that these types of aircraft must be four miles apart. Aviation sources said they believed the aircraft in question were further apart, but the NTSB did not give the distance. After the second rattling, the co-pilot can be heard asking for maximum power, Black said. Then there were "several comments suggesting a loss of control" of the plane. Twenty seconds passed between the sound of the first rattle and the loss of control. The tape ended 17 seconds later, only 144 seconds after the engines were first heard. Asked how loud the rattling was,Black said, "It was significant enough for them to make note of it." The voice recorder tape is 30 minutes and 38 seconds long and of good quality, he said. Most of the aircraft's 251 passengers were Dominican citizens or Dominican-Americans, many headed home for the start of the holiday season. Police said 265 bodies had been found, believed to be those of the 260 passengers and crew and five people on the ground.
15 November 2001 – American Airlines has begun an inspection of the tailfins of all its remaining A-300 airbus fleet following Tuesday's(November 13) crash in New York which killed more than 260 people. Crash investigators say they have now started an analysis of the damaged flight data recorder. American Airlines has voluntarily agreed to inspect the tailfins and rudders of its 34 remaining airbuses, but the aircraft will not be grounded. The inspections have been ordered because the tail assembly of flight 587 from New York apparently sheered off in the seconds before the crash. Both the aircraft's engines also sheered off shortly afterwards. Investigators who have still not ruled out the possibility of sabotage, are also looking at whether the aircraft was a victim of so-called "wake turbulence" for another aircraft. A Japan Airlines jumbo jet took off one minute and 45 seconds before the airbus– less than the two minutes separation recommended between takeoffs.
15 November 2001 – Moving quickly in the early stages of their probe into the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, investigators hoped to have a clearer picture today on what the key systems on board the Airbus A300-600 (N14053) were doing when the aircraft fell from the sky, killing at least 265 people. While a major question centred on why the aircraft's vertical tail fin and other major parts fell off during the flight which only lasted minutes, National Transportation Safety Board inspectors were eager to examine information from the badly damaged flight data recorder. "The data recorder is a good one, which means it has good data, not a noisy one. It has a good wealth of data," NTSB investigator George Black said about a preliminary assessment of its contents late yesterday. "We will have more today,"said Marion Blakey, the safety board's chairwoman. The data recorder collects key information on the performance of the aircraft's mechanical and flight systems. Investigators want to match its contents with cockpit voice recordings and radar readings. The safety board is looking at a range of potential causes for the crash soon after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, but is paying particularly close attention to the tail components on the aircraft. Two of the agency's most senior officials have scrutinised a 20-foot section of the rear fuselage that broke off and landed on a street near the main wreckage. This section of the aircraft was attached to the vertical stabiliser, the tail fin, which was recovered in Jamaica Bay along with the rudder. The cockpit voice recorder captured the sound of the aircraft loudly rattling twice before the pilots lost control of the aircraft more than two minutes into the flight. Black said witnesses saw the aircraft wobble before falling into a steep spiral and crashing. He also said a business jet witnessed the crash and investigators hoped to interview the pilot of that aircraft. A nearby bridge surveillance camera also may have captured the final moments of the flight. Black raised questions about mountings that hold the tail fin to the fuselage. One of the six fittings had failed and was reinforced during repair before the aircraft was delivered to American 13 years ago. However, it appeared from the wreckage that the fin separated from the aircraft above the point where it attached to all six fittings, raising more questions about whether the mounts failed or whether the composite material of the tail gave way. The fittings are inspected every five years, the last round occurring in 1999, the safety board said. Experts have begun a detailed evaluation of the tail and rudder, examining their makeup of metals and composites. The NTSH, which has less expertise in composite analysis than it does on metal evaluation, has called in a technical adviser from the Federal Aviation Administration to help in their investigation of the tail. The safety board said there was nothing in its records to indicate failure of the entire vertical stabiliser ever causing a commercial airline crash. The NTSH has also requested engineering data from Airbus on the tail section of the A300s,the safety board said. The A300's two General Electric engines continued to run after the crew reported having problems controlling the aircraft, a second indication in as many days that pointed away from potential problems with the engines. Investigators also said the aircraft's maintenance log book found in the wreckage raised no red flags about its servicing. The safety board, in addition, was paying close attention to the aircraft's flight path and whether or not Flight 587 was seriously affected by turbulence from a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 passenger flight that took off just before it. The crew noted that the plane had encountered "wake turbulence." Investigators said the two aircraft were the required distance apart, but said weather experts were looking at winds and other factors that might have affected wake conditions.
15 November 2001 – Preliminary flight data released today from American Airlines Flight 587 showed the Airbus A300-600 (N14053) was buffeted twice by turbulence from another large aircraft seconds before it began its final disastrous descent. Safety investigators said at a briefing the final turn to port occurred even as crew controls were set to starboard, suggesting the aircraft was no longer responding to pilot commands several seconds after the second bout of turbulence and just before crashing on Monday (November 12),killing all 260 on board and at least five on the ground. National Transportation Safety Board officials said there was movement noted on the flight data recorder that was consistent with two similar turbulence encounters caused by the wake of another aircraft. However, it remained unclear if the force of the wake turbulence – presumably from a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 that took off just before the American Airlines plane – was enough to throw the A300, more than four miles behind it, out of control. "We are also looking at other events that went on," Thomas Haueter, the safety board's deputy director of aviation safety, said at a briefing tonight. These include various stresses that could have been placed on the tail. Investigators also noted three separate rudder movements – two to starboard and one to port– that correspond to three increasingly violent lateral movements seconds after the turbulence and before the aircraft fell into a final dive. Investigators had yet to conclude the rudder movements were commanded by the pilot, but no data had suggested otherwise. They were also checking procedures at American to see if rudder applications are part of the prescription for wake turbulence, which investigators said was a common occurrence. The investigation has centred on the aircraft's vertical tail fin and rudder, both of which separated from the aircraft during its flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport and fell into Jamaica Bay. Flight data and cockpit voice recordings indicate the rudder movements occurred within 28 seconds of the crash, but the conditions of the tail fin and rudder at that point remain under investigation. Other tail components showed no signs of malfunction, investigators said. Investigators tracking the path of Flight 587 believe the fin and rudder fell off the aircraft before the two engines, which also separated but each landed closer to the wreckage of the fuselage. Witnesses have told investigators that the aircraft wobbled before spiralling to the ground. A JetBlue Airways pilot waiting for take-off at Kennedy saw Flight 587, which had been bound for Santo Domingo, as it fell from the sky accompanied by smoke and a smaller piece of the aircraft, according to an internal report. The piece was not identified as the vertical tail stabiliser or rudder. Responding to the Flight 587 crash, US aviation regulators said today they expected to require inspections of the tail fin and its composite construction on all 90 Airbus A300 aircraft used by US carriers. The three US carriers flying the aircraft are American, FedEx Corp and United Parcel Service Inc. American said it was making plans to inspect its 34 A300s, while the two cargo carriers said they had already begun their checks.
18 December 2001 – Two components which help pilots control an aircraft did not work during a pre-flight check of American Airlines Flight 587,the National Transportation Safety Board reported today. The aircraft crashed last month soon after taking off from New York John F. Kennedy Airport. The maintenance log reported problems with the pitch trim, which helps keep the nose in an up or down position, and the yaw damper, which uses the rudder to keep an airplane from swaying. The problem was corrected when a mechanic reset the computers that control the components, according to the log. Aviation consultant Jim McKenna said safety investigators will focus on those components of the crashed Airbus A300-600 (N14053). "This is drawn from things that we handed over to them, so it's something we knew about," American Airlines spokesman Tim Kincaid said. "We're cooperating fully with the investigation." The NTSB said that the vertical stabiliser and the attached rudder fell off the aircraft, as did both engines. The Nov 12 crash killed all 260 people on board and five on the ground. Following the accident, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered inspections of the tail, which is made from lighter-weight, non-metallic composites. The NTSB is conducting ultrasound and other inspections of the vertical stabiliser and rudder, and is developing a plan for additional tests of the composites. Maintenance records showed that the vertical stabiliser and rudder were last inspected visually in December, 1999,and no problems were reported, the NTSB said. Board investigators reported that they found no evidence that the engines broke apart, sending shrapnel into nearby control systems, nor any evidence of a collision with a bird. There was also no evidence that there was a fire or a malfunction. NTSB investigators again reported that they had found no evidence of a terrorist attack. All the evidence continues to indicate that the crash of Flight 587 was an accident, the board said.
17 January 2002 – US Federal safety investigators said they have discovered internal damage in the tail fin of the American Airlines jet that crashed last November in New York, but further testing is needed to determine if it occurred before or after the accident. The National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday (January 15) NASA scientists examining the 27-foot tail fin found that some layers of the advanced composite material used to build it had peeled apart from each other, a phenomenon known as "delamination".
It was the first tentative indication of possible flaws in the material. The tail fin of the Airbus A300 jet broke off shortly after take-off from John F. Kennedy International Airport, and Flight 587 crashed into a nearby neighbourhood, killing all 260 on board and five people on the ground. The crash was the first civil aviation disaster involving the failure of a major component built with composites, which are lighter and stronger than most metals. Composites are built of many layers of carbon fibres embedded in a special resin and moulded together under heat and pressure. They lose their strength when delamination occurs. The NTSB said its investigators are continuing their search for a mechanical malfunction or structural defect that may have caused or contributed to the accident. However, they have not come across any evidence of an in-flight explosion or fire that might indicate sabotage. "Some delamination has been noted," the NTSB said in a statement, referring to the internal damage found in the tail fin. "But at this time, it is not known whether this occurred before impact or as a result of impact." An Airbus spokesman declined to comment. The NTSB said tests at NASA's Langley Research Centre in Virginia will "take many more months." Up to now, the tests have been conducted with ultrasound and other scanning devices. New tests will be "more extensive and intrusive," the NTSB said.
20 November 2001, Yaroslavl region, Russia
Russian rescue workers combing the snow-covered site where an aircraft ploughed into woods north-east of Moscow have recovered ten bodies and three flight recorders, the Emergencies Ministry said today. The ageing Ilyushin Il-18 was en route to Moscow's Domodedovo airport from Khatanga in Siberia yesterday evening when it crashed in Yaroslavl region, 155 miles north of the Russian capital. It was carrying 18 passengers and nine crew. "Pieces of the aircraft are spread over an area of 1.5 miles," an Emergencies Ministry official said. "We have found the scattered remains of ten people." The aircraft clipped treetops and summer cottages in the forest before crashing in an area dotted with villages.
The official said there were no casualties on the ground. A total of 137 rescue workers were taking part in the operation. The noisy turboprop Ilyushin Il-18 was designed in 1955, with a capacity for 120 passengers. The ageing four-engine aircraft, a workhorse of Soviet air travel, remains in service even though mass production ceased in 1970. But Russian news agencies said local authorities did not rule out a "terrorist act". RIA news agency quoted Viktor Osilov, head of the air transport department in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region, where the flight originated, as saying the crew had sent no alarm signals. "This is one of many versions so far and we cannot rule it out,"the agency quoted him as saying. The aircraft disappeared off the radar shortly before 1830, UTC, Interfax news agency said, after which residents heard a loud noise and saw flames light up against the night sky.
20 November 2001 – Rescuers recovered flight recorders and the scattered remains of some of the 27 feared killed when an aircraft ploughed into snowy woods north-east of Moscow overnight, the Emergencies Ministry said today. The ageing Ilyushin-18 was en route to Moscow's Domodedovo airport from Khatanga in Siberia yesterday evening when it crashed near the town of Yaroslavl. Alexander Anikin, prosecutor for the Tver region, said specialists would now examine the aircraft's flight recorders. "We haven't reached any conclusions, we are waiting for specialists," he told TV6. "We have started legal proceedings, given the possibility flight safety regulations were violated." Itar-Tass news agency said the aircraft, on a charter flight,belonged to Irs-Aero airline company.
25 November 2001, Zurich, Switzerland
An airliner carrying about 30 passengers and crew has crashed near Zurich airport. Crossair Flight LX3597 from Berlin came down in woodland on its final approach to the airport. Local police said at least ten people had died and nine were seriously injured. The cause of the crash is not known, but officials said the weather at the time was wintry and bad. The flight recorders have been recovered. The small four-engined aircraft, an 82-seater, is said to have crashed shortly after 2200 hrs (2100, UTC). A fireball engulfed the middle part of the aircraft after the crash, but the cockpit and tail areas were left largely unscathed, local police and airport officials said. Authorities launched a huge rescue operation, with dozens of emergency workers combing the woods for survivors, and issued an urgent appeal for local people to join in. Police are worried that dazed survivors could be wandering around in the dark. The plane was approaching runway 28, a new night landing strip which was only brought into operation four weeks ago.
26 November 2001 – Pop singers and academics were among 24 people who died when a Crossair Avro RJ-100 crashed just short of Zurich airport on Saturday night. Swiss police, who have retrieved both flight recorders from the aircraft said it was unlikely that the aircraft crashed as a result of a terrorist attack. The aircraft was coming in to land in bad weather after a 90-minute flight from Berlin. Police said that they had rescued nine people from the wreckage, three of whom were seriously injured. The survivors were pulled out through the tailpiece, which had been severed in the crash. All had suffered burns. The American pop singer Melanie Thornton, on tour to publicise her solo album Ready to Fly, was among those who died. "It is true that Miss Thornton was on the passenger list. She is not among the survivors," Karl Steiner, a Zurich police spokesman, said. Ms Thornton's latest single, Wonderful Dream,features in a new Coca-Cola commercial. The girl group Passion Fruit were also on board the aircraft. At least one of the trio was believed to have survived the crash, police said. Three prominent Israelis, two doctors and a city official, were also among those presumed dead, along with Germans, Austrians,Dutch and Canadians. Among the missing were Yaakov Matzner, Dean of the Hebrew University school of medicine, Amiram Eldor, another leading Israeli doctor, and Avishai Berkman, a Tel Aviv city official. The passengers who died, and according to the passenger lists, the missing 14, were seated in the middle of the aircraft, which was consumed by a huge fireball shortly after impact. The flight crew were Swiss and it is possible that they were among the survivors. The cockpit was largely undamaged. Zurich police called off their search late last night after the remaining passengers were presumed to be dead. The police hoped to find people walking or lost in the woods near by when they had resumed their search at first light yesterday. The British-designed aircraft had almost no fuel left when it hit the ground, ensuring that the fire on board did not spread. The pilot, with ten years experience, managed to bring the aircraft down at a fairly straight angle; this too may have helped to save lives. Visibility was said to have been satisfactory, about 4,000 metres, in spite of the hail and snow. The control tower was given no indication of a problem in the minutes before landing; the aircraft simply disappeared from the radar screen. The crash could not have come at a worse time for Crossair, which was the subsidiary of the financially troubled Swissair group. Swissair filed for bankruptcy two months ago and Crossair, which has a fleet of 77 aircraft with an average age of less than six years, was due to take over two-thirds of its operations next spring.
30 November 2001 – Flight recorders from a Swiss airliner that crashed, killing 24 people, showed the pilots were trying to scrub their landing attempt to make a new approach, investigators said today. Nine people survived the crash of the Crossair flight from Berlin to Zurich. On the cockpit voice recording, the pilot is heard ordering the co-pilot to pull up, followed by a signal indicating the automatic pilot was being turned off, said a statement from Switzerland's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau. The co-pilot immediately said he intended to pull up, but a second later sounds of the crash could be heard, the bureau said. A short time later the recording stopped, it said.
2 December 2001, Okhotsk area, Russia
An Ilyushin-76 aircraft belonging to Russia's Border Guard Service has crashed in the Khabarovsk region of Russia's Far East, killing all 17 people on board. Russia's Emergency Ministry said the aircraft, en route from Bratsk to Andir, was flying at 29,530 feet today when a fire broke out. The aircraft dropped to 24,610 feet and lost communication. The aircraft tried to make an emergency landing near the village of Novaya Inya, located 63 miles to the east of the town of Okhotsk, but broke apart when it hit the ground. The aircraft was carrying 17 people, including eight crew members, and was travelling with 36 tons of cargo. Rescue officials flying over the crash site in a helicopter said they had spotted the wreckage of the Ilyushin-76, which had broken up into three parts. With darkness having already fallen rescue work was suspended until daylight, and there was little hope of pulling anyone alive from the wreckage,the Itar-Tass news agency quoted Emergency Ministry officials as saying.
3 December 2001 – Salvage workers have found ten bodies at the site in Russia where a military cargo aircraft crashed. Two black boxes have also been found at the scene. All 18 people on board died after the Il-76 went down yesterday near the village of Novaya Inya, near the eastern city of Okhotsk. It crashed while attempting an emergency landing after a fire broke out on board. The aircraft was carrying eight crew members, ten cargo handlers and 33 metric tons of cargo. The aircraft from the Russian Border Guards Service was en route from Moscow to Anadyr, a city on the Bering Sea, with a stopover in the city of Bratsk. Viktor Beltsov, an Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman, said that salvage workers had found the remains of ten people and two black boxes. Investigators have not yet determined what caused the fire to break out on the aircraft.
9 December 2001, Farkhar area, Afghanistan
A helicopter has crashed in northern Afghanistan killing 22 people, including three anti-Taleban military commanders. The reason for the crash, near the town of Farkhar in the mountainous province of Takhar, is not immediately clear. One of the dead, identified as Mohammed Mustafa, was the commander of a Northern Alliance unit which had guarded the late guerrilla commander Ahmad Shah Masood. Two others – Arbab Mohammed Hashim and Mirza Ghulam Nasiri – were well-known ethnic Pashtun leaders thought to have defected from the Taleban during the militia's defeat in Kunduz province last month. The Pakistan-based news agency, Afghan Islamic Press, reported that Hashim's supporters were alleging that their leader was deliberately killed, but the Northern Alliance said it was an accident.
16 December 2001, Medellin area, Colombia
Fourteen Colombian passengers and two crew members were killed when a small,twin-engine aircraft crashed into a mountain today, killing everyone on board,authorities said. The Czech-made Let 410 aircraft crashed just five minutes after take-off from the city of Medellin. An official at charter operator Heliandes, which owned the aircraft, blamed the accident on heavy rains. "We found the aircraft on a hill near the city of Medellin. There are no survivors. Unfortunately, everyone on board died," a Heliandes official said. According to local radio reports, which could not be immediately confirmed, the passengers were family members flying to the capital of Choco province to meet other relatives for the Christmas holidays. The reports counted three children among the victims.
17 December 2001, Bengo Province, Angola
A total of 40 people including government officials, businessmen and soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash in the Angolan province of Bengo on Saturday(December 15), state-run radio said today. The government declared a national day of mourning on Tuesday in memory of those who died, it said. It did not reveal the identities of the victims of the accident, which it said happened during a flight chartered by the army between the cities of Uige and Luanda. Civil aviation director Helder Preza told the radio that the government had sent a team of investigators to the site of the crash to search for the helicopter's flight data recorder. Some of the bodies were recovered and taken back to Uige,about 220 miles south of Luanda, while authorities continued to search for others, the radio said. It said the helicopter had been chartered from a private company but gave no further details.
