Air Fiji Flight 121
| Air Fiji Flight 121 | |
|---|---|
 An identical Embraer EMB-110 from Air Fiji |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Controlled flight into terrain |
| place | Nasevou, Delailasakau , Fiji
|
| date | July 24, 1999 |
| Fatalities | 17th |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
.svg){kind=small} Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante
|
| operator |
Air Fiji
|
| Mark |
DQ-AFN
|
| Departure airport |
Nausori Airport , Fiji
|
| Destination airport |
Nadi Airport , Fiji
|
| Passengers | 15th |
| crew | 2 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On the Air Fiji flight 121 (flight number IATA : PC121 , ICAO : FAJ121 ) took place on 24 July 1999, a serious air accident, as one Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante airline Air Fiji by a under the influence of drugs pilots against a mountain flown has been. All 17 people on board were killed in the incident.
machine
The aircraft concerned was an Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante built in 1983 with the serial number 110416. The aircraft had the aircraft registration DQ-AFN . The twin-engined regional aircraft was 2 turboprop engines of the type Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-34 equipped. By the time of the accident, the machine had completed a total of 13,563 operating hours, which accounted for 22,411 take-offs and landings.
Crew and passengers
The flight from the airport Nausori to Nadi Airport had begun 15 passengers. There was a two-person crew on board, consisting of a 27-year-old captain Kitione Galuinadi and a 26-year-old first officer Filipe Racule. No flight attendants were provided on the regional flight. The occupants of the machine come from five different countries:
| nationality | Passengers | crew | total |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Fiji
|
7th | 2 | 9 |
 Australia
|
5 | - | 5 |
 Japan
|
1 | - | 1 |
 People's Republic of China
|
1 | - | 1 |
 New Zealand
|
1 | - | 1 |
| total | 15th | 2 | 17th |
the accident
The flight was carried out at the early hour. About 15 minutes after take-off, shortly after sunrise, the machine was flown into a mountain flank near Delailasakau. The police received the first emergency call at around 8:40 a.m., when the caller announced that a loud crash was heard in the hills north of the village of Nasevou. Witnesses said they saw the plane fly low and into the mountain flank shortly afterwards. One man said he heard a loud bang. Then he looked up and saw parts of the machine's tail unit falling down.
Rescue operation
The authorities dispatched a search party after the crash. Shortly afterwards, a helicopter discovered the wreck of the machine. There were no survivors at the scene of the accident. Most of the bodies were badly mutilated. Witnesses reported internal organs scattered around the scene of the accident. The accident occurred in a remote area, so the rescue teams had to remove the remains of the victims on foot.
Accident investigation
The Fiji Civil Aviation Authority (CAAF) investigated the accident with the assistance of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Witnesses said that before the plane crashed, parts of its tail and wings fell on the forest, initially indicating a possible structural failure. The debris of the tail unit was 300 meters to the left of the airline. This was consistent with a pre-impact structural failure. Further investigations later revealed that the captain Kitione Galuinadi may have been drunk. Galuinadi's brother stated that the captain of the flight had been drinking alcohol four hours before the crash. The investigation also found that the captain did not get enough sleep before the flight and had taken a high dose of antihistamines , which have a sedative effect, before the flight . Air Fiji's operating instructions were also found to be inadequate.
The structural failure was the result of a controlled flight into terrain after the pilots had allowed the aircraft to drop below the safe altitude of 1,600 meters. The right wing then touched a ridge at a height of 400 meters. The machine then began to break apart and hit the slope of another mountain ridge 1.3 kilometers further. The tail unit and the right wing were found 150 meters from the main wreck.
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b 17 killed in Fiji plane crash , amarillo.com , July 25, 1999.
- ^ Robert Keith Reid, Plane Crash in Fiji kills 17 , Associated Press , July 24, 1999.
- ↑ World: Asia-Pacific Fiji plane crash kills 17 , BBC News , July 24, 1999.
- ^ Drinking alleged before Fiji crash , Flightglobal , August 4, 1999.