American International Airways Flight 808
| American International Airways Flight 808 | |
|---|---|
,_Kalitta_AN0264411.jpg) An identical DC-8 from American International Airways |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Stall on approach for landing |
| place |
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base , Cuba
|
| date | August 18, 1993 |
| Fatalities | 0 |
| Survivors | 3 |
| Injured | 3 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Douglas DC-8-61F
|
| operator |
American International Airways
|
| Mark |
N814CK
|
| Departure airport |
Norfolk Chambers Naval Base , Virginia , United States
|
| Destination airport |
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base , Cuba
|
| Passengers | 0 |
| crew | 3 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On August 18, 1993, a Douglas DC-8-61F crashed on American International Airways Flight 808 (flight number K4 808 ) while approaching Guantanamo Bay Naval Base . All three crew members survived the potentially fatal accident, seriously injured, thanks to the fact that the cockpit section was torn off on impact and thrown far away from the plane that went up in flames. The unsuccessful, unnecessary performance of a difficult approach maneuver and extreme fatigue of the crew were found to be the cause of the accident.
plane
The aircraft used was a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61F , which was first delivered to Japan Air Lines as a Douglas DC-8-61 passenger aircraft after its final assembly at the McDonnell Douglas plant in Long Beach , California in February 1970 and was operated there with the aircraft registration JA8042 and the name Biwa . In November 1986 United Aviation Services (UAS) took over the machine from the United States. The leasing company then made the machine available to Trans International Airlines , which leased it to Air Algérie from July to September 1987 . From October 1989 the machine was leased to the Trans Continental Airlines . In 1991 the leasing return was converted into a cargo plane and leased to American International Airways from December 1, 1991. In May 1993 the airline bought the machine. The machine had the model serial number 46127, it was the 510th continuously produced Douglas DC-8. At the time of the crash, the machine was equipped with four Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B engines. At the time of the accident, the machine had completed 43,947 flight hours in 18,829 take-offs and landings.
crew
It was an extraordinarily experienced three-person crew, consisting of a master, first officer and flight engineer on board. The 54-year-old captain had 20,727 hours of flight experience, including 2,128 hours on the Douglas DC-8, while the 49-year-old first officer had 15,350 and 492 hours as captain and first officer on the DC-8. The 35-year-old flight engineer had 1085 hours of experience on this type of aircraft for a total of 5085 hours. Before the accident he had flown 1,500 hours as a pilot and 3,585 hours as a flight engineer.
the accident
The machine was originally cleared to land on runway 28, which could be approached comfortably from the east. During the approach, the captain suggested “just for the heck of it” to try an approach to runway 10 from a south-westerly direction “to see how it is”. He noted that if in doubt, you could still make a missed approach and land the machine on runway 28.
The runway threshold of runway 10 was only one kilometer from the Cuban border, so a complicated approach from the southwest was required. It was important not to penetrate Cuban airspace on approach, as otherwise there would be a risk of being shot down. The border line was marked by a beacon at the level of the runway .
On approach for landing, the crew kept an eye out for the beacon. The pilot made a tight right turn with the machine while all three men looked for the beacon. The first officer and flight engineer raised concerns about the approach by asking the master if he believed they could actually make the approach. The captain assured us that he had no doubts in this regard. All three crew members kept an eye out for the beacon. While the captain repeated a total of five times that he could not see the beacon, the first officer and the flight engineer pointed to a shimmer that they took to be the beacon. While the captain was fixated on seeing the beacon, he flew the curve ever tighter and tilted the engine more and more to the left. After the machine tilted 90 degrees, it stalled and the DC-8 fell to the ground.
Upon impact, the machine exploded in a large ball of fire and then burned out. The cockpit was torn off on impact and thrown far away from the rest of the wreck, which contributed significantly to the fact that all three crew members survived the accident, albeit with very serious injuries.
Victim
The injuries suffered by the three crew members were so severe that the rescue teams obtained special permission from the Cuban government to fly over Cuban airspace and fly the injured faster to a clinic in Miami , Florida .
The master suffered serious back injuries in the accident, due to which he could no longer work as a pilot. The first officer had one leg amputated. The flight engineer returned to the cockpit and trained as a captain.
Accident investigation
The accident investigation was conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board .
The investigators were initially confused by the crew's decision to conduct such a complicated approach with a machine the size of a DC-8 out of sheer curiosity. When they investigated the cause, they found that all three crew members suffered from chronic sleep deprivation.
It was found that the same master and first officer had flown together since August 16 at 23:00. Her shift began at Atlanta Airport and ended after 13 hours of duty and 5½ hours of flight time at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport at 12 noon on August 17th. The pilots were quartered in a hotel at Fort Worth Airport. The captain slept about five hours that afternoon, the first officer about seven.
At 11:00 p.m. on the same day, the two pilots began their next shift. They flew from Dallas-Fort Worth to Airport Saint Louis , then on to Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti , Michigan , where the machine at 03:25 local time landed. The pilots stayed there for three hours, during which the flight engineer finished his work shift and a new flight engineer joined.
The plane left Ypsilanti at 6:20 a.m. and arrived in Atlanta at 7:52 a.m., where the shift ended. A hotel room was made available to the flight engineer, while the captain and first officer were supposed to make their way home.
At 8:30 a.m., the American International Airways flight controller learned that the machine had been scheduled for another flight to Guantanamo. The flight director later testified that he was told that the shift would be completed within 24 hours of duty and that there were no legal obstacles as the flight to Guantanamo was considered an international flight. He testified that it was the airline's policy to avoid flight crews being deployed for more than 24 hours. The planned flight time according to the revised flight plan would have been 11 hours and 45 minutes. It consisted of a flight from Atlanta to the military airport in Norfolk , Virginia for loading, the onward flight to Guantanamo for unloading, and the return of the machine to Atlanta Airport .
The air traffic control officer was familiar with the flight crew and said he had contacted them numerous times in the past to inquire about overtime services that they would normally have accepted. The pilots stated that they accepted such offers out of concern for their jobs.
In the course of the investigation it also emerged that the beacon that the crew was looking for on their approach had not been in operation on the day of the accident. Neither the crew nor the air traffic control in Guantanamo was aware of this. A safe approach, taking into account the national borders, would hardly have been possible on that day anyway.
Ultimately, the NTSB found crew fatigue as the main cause. The immediate cause of the accident was a stall due to the excessive flight position on the approach.
Media reception
The accident was entitled Borderline practices ( Borderline Tactics ) in Episode 2 of Season 19 of Mayday - alarm in the cockpit filmed.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Accident Report DC-8-63F, N814CK Aviation Safety Network , accessed on March 31, 2019.
- ↑ Operating history of the N8079U Emery Worldwide Airlines Douglas DC-8-60 / 70. In: planespotters. Accessed March 31, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m accident report DC-8-63F, N814CK NTSB, accessed on March 31, 2019.
Coordinates: 19 ° 54'27.1 " N , 75 ° 13'20.7" W.