Air France flight 5672

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Air France flight 5672
Bombardier CRJ-100ER, Air France (Brit Air) JP93282.jpg

The affected machine in May 2003
Accident summary
Accident type Controlled flight into terrain
place Saint-Divy , near Brest , FranceFranceFrance 
date June 22, 2003
Fatalities 1
Survivors 23
Injured 9 (including 5 difficult)
Aircraft
Aircraft type CanadaCanada Bombardier CRJ100
operator FranceFrance Brit Air for Air France
FranceFrance
Mark FranceFrance F-GRJS
Departure airport Nantes airport , FranceFranceFrance 
Destination airport Brest Airport , France
FranceFrance 
Passengers 21st
crew 3
Lists of aviation accidents

On the Air France flight 5672 (Flight number: AF5672 ) a serious air accident, when used occurred on June 22, 2003 Bombardier CRJ100ER the Brit Air to touch down at the airport Brest flown into the terrain was. In the incident, the flight captain was killed and nine people were injured.

machine

The aircraft involved in the accident was a Bombardier CRJ100ER , which was three and a half years old at the time of the accident. The machine with the serial number 7377 was finally assembled at the Bombardier Aerospace plant at Montréal-Mirabel Airport and completed its maiden flight with the test registration number C-FMLB . The machine was then first delivered to Brit Air on February 29, 2000, which approved it with the aircraft registration F-GRJS and operated it in the name and with a livery of Air France . The twin-engine regional transport aircraft was equipped with two Turbojettriebwerken type General Electric CF34-3A1 equipped. By the time of the accident, the aircraft had completed a total of 6,649 operating hours, which accounted for 6,552 take-offs and landings.

crew

There was a three-person crew on board the machine, which consisted of a flight captain, a first officer and a flight attendant:

  • The 53-year-old flight captain acquired his commercial pilot's license in 1976. In 1984 he was also qualified as a helicopter pilot. A Canadian commercial pilot license was issued in June 1990 and a French one on February 3, 1994. The captain had 16,000 hours of flight experience, of which he had completed 5,300 hours in Bombardier CRJ series machines.
  • The 38-year-old first officer had been a pilot in the French Air Force , where he had flown Dassault Falcon 10 , Nord 262 , Breguet Atlantic and Mudry CAP 10 machines . He obtained his commercial pilot's license on May 5, 1999. In October 2001 he was hired by Brit Air as first officer in Bombardier CRJ-100ER aircraft. The first officer had 4,800 hours of flight experience, 650 of which he had completed with machines of the affected type.
  • The 31-year-old flight attendant acquired her first flight safety and first aid certificates on September 8, 1994. It was initially trained by Brit Air in March 1995 for the aircraft types ATR 72 , ATR 42 and Saab 340 . In April and May 1997 she was additionally qualified for machines of the type CRJ-100.

Passengers

The regional domestic flight AF5672 from Nantes to Brest had 21 passengers on that day.

the accident

The flight from Nantes to Brest went smoothly up to the approach. At 9:48 p.m. the first officer deployed the buoyancy devices and the aircraft was stabilized for the approach at an altitude of 2,000 feet. Meanwhile, the wind was blowing from the northwest and caused the aircraft to deviate from its approach route to the left, which the crew did not notice. At 9:49 p.m., the pilots extended the flaps to their final landing position and worked through the landing checklist.

At 21:51, the aircraft's Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) sounded at an altitude of around 150 meters and issued the “Sink rate” warning . The captain then switched off the autopilot and the machine continued its descent. At 100 feet, the GPWS then requested the crew to pull the machine up (“Pull up!”) . The captain called for a go-around and the pilots gave full engine thrust.

At 21:51:22, the plane touched down at low speed on a meadow near the airport. The Bombardier CRJ-100 skidded across the meadow and hit a wooded dam. The machine then grazed trees, breaking the left wing tip. The left wing then caught fire. The machine then slid against a concrete wall, whereupon the right wing and one of the aircraft doors also tore off. The machine eventually came to a stop after hitting a mast.

evacuation

After the engine had come to a standstill, the fire spread quickly, initially on the left side. The passengers saw the fire spread over the side walls towards the cabin. The flight attendant opened the cockpit door and saw huge cracks in the fuselage in the cockpit area. She instructed the passengers to leave the plane through the right side exit where the door had been torn off.

During the evacuation, several passengers could not find the exit. Two passengers ran to the far end of the cabin. Another passenger later told them that there was no emergency exit at the back. A passenger who flew frequently on flight AF5672 and sat in the middle of the aircraft opened the left emergency door. He noticed that the left wing was on fire, but exited through this door anyway. The flames then entered the aircraft through the opened emergency exit. The copilot exited the machine through the hole that had been made in the cockpit upon impact. The flight attendant left the aircraft and helped with the evacuation from the outside, which was completed within less than a minute. The evacuation went well, as the cabin lights and the fire illuminated the machine well, which made it easier for passengers to find the exits on time.

Rescue operation

After radio contact with the aircraft was lost, the air traffic controllers in Brest alerted the airport fire brigade, which then began to look for the scene of the accident. At 9:56 p.m., the airport fire brigade called the Brest city fire brigade. Shortly afterwards, calls were received from passengers and crew members of the crashed machine, with the callers reporting that the machine had had an accident near the airport. The fire brigade arrived at the scene of the accident at 10:18 p.m. The first officer and a passenger were taken to a nearby hospital while the others were taken to the airport terminal. After being examined by doctors, a few more passengers were later taken to hospital for further treatment.

The captain was the only casualty. Nine other people were injured.

root cause

The Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de l'aviation civile (BEA) investigated the incident. The investigation revealed the following sequence of events:

At 21:44 the crew of the aircraft was instructed by approach control at Brest to fly holding patterns as the weather in the area was just worsening. A little later, clearance for the approach was given. The master began the approach by activating course mode in the flight control computer. He later changed the navigation source to VOR and then activated the ILS frequency. These actions may only be carried out if the approach mode is activated in the autopilot at the same time. However, even after selecting the ILS frequency, the pilots did not press the button for the approach mode. If the mode had been activated at this point, the machine would have followed the glide path. With the chosen setting, the wind caused the machine to deviate left off course. At 9:48 p.m. the machine left the glide path. While the crew tried to regain altitude, the machine deviated further from the planned route.

swell

Coordinates: 48 ° 27 '18.1 "  N , 4 ° 22' 6.4"  W.