Crossair flight 498

Crossair flight 498
	The crashed machine in 1998 in Zurich
Accident summary
Accident type	uncontrolled flight condition
place	near the place Nassenwil
date	January 10, 2000
Fatalities	10
Survivors	0
Injured	0
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Saab 340
operator	Crossair
Mark	HB-AKK
Departure airport	airport Zurich
Destination airport	Dresden
Passengers	7th
crew	3
	Lists of aviation accidents

The flight 498 of the Swiss airline Crossair was supposed to run from Zurich to Dresden on January 10, 2000 ; However, the aircraft, a Saab 340 , crashed after two minutes and 17 seconds near the town of Nassenwil, west of Zurich Airport , after the aircraft had been brought into a clockwise spiral unnoticed. All ten occupants, three crew members and seven passengers, were killed.

background

At the time of the accident there was a shortage of pilots on the Swiss labor market, and compared to other Swiss airlines, the pilot salaries paid by Crossair were relatively low. There was therefore a labor conflict between the pilots' association and Crossair. The Crossair Saab 340 fleet was also to be retired and replaced by the Embraer ERJ 145 family . The flight captain , who carried out the flight as a pilot flying , was a Moldovan citizen and was transferred to Crossair by Moldavian Airlines . He had been deployed on the Saab 340 for 2 years and 1,600 flight hours and had previously gained many years of experience with aircraft of Soviet design such as the Antonov An-24 . He had a basic knowledge of English and was able to take part in simple conversations. The first officer who was used as pilot not flying on the flight was a Slovak citizen and had a regular Crossair employment contract. His command of English was described as good.

Course of events

The aircraft had landed in Zurich at 16:00 UTC from Guernsey , where the crew changed and it was being prepared for the next flight. No irregularities were found. At 16:54 UTC, the Zurich tower gave take-off clearance after the cockpit crew had previously completely processed the checklist . After the take-off and the retraction of the landing gear , the flight director was activated on the command of the captain , but not the autopilot . At 16:55 UTC the air traffic controller instructed the crew to change course to the left to VOR Zurich East . The first officer made this change, but not compliantly and incorrectly, effectively changing course to the right. The display on the multifunction display showed the course change from 225 ° to 68 ° over the smaller angle and thus to the left, so that the master presumably assumed that he would continue to follow a left turn. The later investigation report assumes that he perceived the steering deflections to the right ordered by the flight director as a stabilization of the left turn. Since the captain followed the instructions of the flight director exactly, the aircraft quickly leaned to the right of 80 ° and the aircraft began to lose altitude, which was initially not noticed by the crew. The attitude indicators now showed significant changes, but since they are not optimally suited for extreme flight situations and also differ significantly from the Soviet indicators, which the captain was used to for a long time, no correct interpretation was possible. At 16:56 UTC the first officer noticed the wrong direction of rotation, but did not recognize the faulty programming as the cause. As a result, the first officer's voice recorder recorded an audibly heavy breathing as a sign of severe stress. Four seconds later the first officer urged the master to turn left, but the master was no longer in control of the flight situation and the aircraft hit a field near Nassenwil a further four seconds later.

examination

The final report of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau concluded that there was a collision with the site after the flight crew lost control of the aircraft. The reasons given in the report are that the first officer programmed the course change without orders from the master and incorrectly, that the master refrained from using the autopilot under instrument flight and during an intensive flight phase, that the master had lost his spatial orientation and the first officer took insufficient measures to prevent the crash.

A number of other factors may have contributed to the accident: The captain was possibly under the influence of the tranquilizer phenazepam and was therefore possibly limited in his ability to analyze and assess the situation. He remained one-sidedly fixated on perceptions that suggested a direction of rotation to the left and, under stress, resorted to previously learned heuristics . However, Crossair did not systematically familiarize him with Western systems and cockpit procedures. The crew set inexpedient priorities, for example the first officer always gave top priority to radio communications with the pilot.

consequences

The aircraft accident had far-reaching consequences for air traffic management around Zurich, the training of Crossair pilots and the use of pilots without a JAR-FCL license.

In October 2007, the Swiss Federal Prosecutor brought charges against six former Crossair officials, including Moritz Suter and CEO André Dosé . She accused them, among other things, of having been responsible for a “culture of fear” at the airline that led to the deliberate disregard of regulations. The proceedings were discontinued by the Federal Prosecutor's Office due to the statute of limitations and unproven breaches of duty of care .

There is now a memorial at the crash site.

Web links

Investigation report from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau into the plane crash in Nassenwil (PDF file; 946 kB)
Press releases ( Memento of February 10, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) - Crossair

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x Final report of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau on the accident involving the Saab 340B aircraft, HB-AKK, operated by Crossair under flight number CRX 498, of January 10, 2000 near Nassenwil / ZH . Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication. October 21, 2002. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
↑ Federal Prosecutor accepts Crossair judgment in: NZZ Online of January 26, 2009

47.470277777778 8.47Coordinates: 47 ° 28 ′ 13 " N , 8 ° 28 ′ 12" E ; CH1903: six hundred and seventy-seven thousand seven hundred and fifty-three / 258,233

[bericht-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x Final report of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau on the accident involving the Saab 340B aircraft, HB-AKK, operated by Crossair under flight number CRX 498, of January 10, 2000 near Nassenwil / ZH . Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication. October 21, 2002. Retrieved January 19, 2016.

[nzz-2] Federal Prosecutor accepts Crossair judgment in: NZZ Online of January 26, 2009