Polar 3
| "Polar 3" | |
|---|---|
 The identical "Polar 2" |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Launch |
| place | |
| date | February 24, 1985 |
| Fatalities | 3 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Dornier Do 228 |
| operator | Alfred Wegener Institute |
| Mark | D-IGVN |
| Surname | Polar 3 |
| Departure airport | Antarctic |
| Stopover | Dakar |
| Destination airport | Germany |
| Passengers | 0 |
| crew | 3 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
Polar 3 was a Dornier Do 228 research aircraft from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI).
Polar 3 was part of a fleet of four twin-engine aircraft of the same type that the AWI had operated since 1983. All aircraft are cold-proof and equipped with special equipment. They were built by the Dornier company . Since Polar 3 was shot down south of the town of El Argoub over the Sahara in February 1985 , only Polar 2 has been in use. In Antarctica, the Polar 3 peninsula was named after the aircraft.
Like its three sister aircraft , the Polar 3 was equipped with wheeled ski undercarriages, special aeronautical equipment, reinforced generators, additional tanks, de-icing systems on propellers and wings, as well as insulation for the interior designed for arctic temperatures. Modern navigation systems make it possible to fly blind and land under so-called whiteout conditions, in which the entire field of vision is white.
Launch
On February 24, 1985, Polar 3 was on the return flight from Antarctica to Germany together with the identical Polar 2 aircraft . After a stop in Dakar (Senegal), the planes were on their way to Arrecife , Lanzarote (Canary Islands) when the Polar 3 was shot down by armed forces of the Sahara Democratic Arab Republic with a rocket from a height of 2,750 meters. In the crash, the captain Herbert Hampel, the copilot Richard Möbius and the mechanic Josef Schmid were killed.
The Frente Polisario later called the shooting down "an unfortunate oversight". The aircraft is said to have been mistaken for a Moroccan reconnaissance aircraft of a similar type. It remained unclear why air traffic control in Dakar, which is responsible for the airspace over Western Sahara in the area in which the aircraft was shot down, had not assigned a different route to the two aircraft by the AWI.
Web links
- Alfred Wegener Institute: Former Airplanes
- World of physics: "Polar 5" research aircraft
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jens Kube: "Polar 5" research aircraft weltderphysik.de, accessed July 30, 2019.
- ^ Criminal Occurrence. Aviation Safety Network , accessed July 19, 2014 .
- ↑ a b 1984/85 GANOVEX IV. Antarktis.ch, accessed on July 19, 2014 .
- ^ Rebels shoot down Thursday 228. In: Flight International . March 9, 1985, accessed July 19, 2014 .
- ↑ Modern Limes. In: Der Spiegel 12/1985. March 18, 1985. Retrieved July 18, 2014 .