Aero O / Y flight 311
| Aero O / Y flight 311 | |
|---|---|
 Flight route of the Aero O / Y DC3 |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Loss of control |
| place | Korsholm , Finland |
| date | January 3, 1961 |
| Fatalities | 25th |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Douglas DC-3C |
| operator | Aero O / Y |
| Mark | OH-LCC |
| Departure airport | Kronoby airport |
| Destination airport | Vaasa airport |
| Passengers | 22nd |
| crew | 3 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
The Aero Flight 311 ( AY311 ) was one of the airline Aero O / Y (now Finnair carried out) scheduled flight between Kronoby , Finland and Vaasa . The aircraft, a Douglas DC-3C , crashed on January 3, 1961 around 10.5 km from the destination airport near the municipality of Korsholm ( Mustasaari in Finnish ). All 22 passengers and the three crew members were killed in this aircraft accident. Even today it is the worst air accident in the history of Finland . The incident also received significant attention because both pilots were heavily drunk at the time of the accident.
procedure
As a result of a delay in handling, the aircraft at Kronoby Airport took off at 07:16 a.m. instead of the scheduled 07:00 a.m. Air traffic control gave the pilots of flight 311 permission to freely choose the altitude, so that only the minimum safety altitude prescribed on the Kruununkylä – Vasa flight route had to be observed. On the last 40 kilometers of the flight route, however, this instruction was no longer followed by the pilots and they fell below the height of 330 feet (corresponds to 100 m).
In the last radio message, the pilots confirmed the weather information from air traffic control and reported the imminent flyby of the Seppä lighthouse. They had already started preparing for landing and had now sunk to a height of less than 50 meters. After a sudden left turn, the aircraft lost speed. Despite attempts to make up for this loss with full thrust, the aircraft began to spin . Eyewitnesses reported that the pilots turned on the landing lights before the plane ultimately crashed at an angle of 70 ° in a forest at 7:40:30 a.m.
The plane caught fire and was destroyed by the impact and fire. When the first people reached the scene of the accident about ten minutes after the crash, no rescue attempts could be made because of the fire.
examination
The investigation revealed that the aircraft was in a completely airworthy condition and that the cause of the accident was probably due to a pilot error during the left turn. The location of a passenger's body also allowed the pilots to be disturbed by the passenger. No indications of technical failure, an explosion or the collision of the aircraft with trees were found. Although the aircraft could freeze on this cold winter day, according to the investigation report this is unlikely due to the course of the flight. In addition, the functional wing, which had been removed from the main part of the aircraft debris, did not show any ice formation, nor had the pilots reported any icing by radio.
According to the accident investigation report, Captain Lars Hattinen and his first officer Halme were in a debilitated condition because they had not slept the day before and had consumed not inconsiderable amounts of alcohol. The autopsy finally showed that Hattinen had a blood alcohol concentration of 2 ‰, while in Halme's blood 1.56 ‰ could be detected. Thus, Hattinen and Halme disregarded their responsibility for the safety of the passengers and should not have been allowed to fly on that day , both according to the Convention of the International Civil Aviation Organization and according to the provisions of their employment contract.
Comparable accidents
Other flight accidents in which alcohol consumption by the pilots played a role included: a .:
Web links
- AirDisaster.com account of the crash
- Official report by the Accident Investigation Board Finland ( Memento of February 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (Finnish, PDF, 119 KiB)
- Accident report DC-3 OH-LCC , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 31, 2019.