Aeronica accident in Greenland
| Aeronica accident in Greenland | |
|---|---|
_at_Auckland_Airport.jpg) An Air New Zealand Fokker F27-100 machine. The affected machine was also previously in use by this operator. |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Loss of control |
| place | 180 km west of Isertoq , Greenland
|
| date | April 20, 1985 |
| Fatalities | 2 |
| Survivors | 3 |
| Injured | 3 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Fokker F27-100
|
| operator |
 Aeronica
|
| Mark |
YN-BZF
|
| Departure airport |
Sanaa Airport , North Yemen
|
| Stopover |
Jeddah Airport (old) , Saudi Arabia Cairo International Airport , Egypt Athens Ellinikon Airport , Greece Genoa Airport , Italy Glasgow Prestwick Airport , United Kingdom Stornoway Airport , United Kingdom Reykjavík Airport , Iceland |
| Destination airport |
Kangerlussuaq Airport , Greenland 1
|
| Passengers | 0 |
| crew | 5 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
The air accident of Aeronica in Greenland occurred on April 20, 1985. A Fokker F27-100 airline Aeronica from Nicaragua with five crew members on board, with an intercontinental delivery flight was flown, collided on that day with the Greenland ice sheet . Two of the five crew members were killed in the accident.
plane
The aircraft was a Fokker F27-100 with the factory number 10118 , which was built in 1959 at the Fokker plant in Schiphol . The machine was registered with the manufacturer with the test identification PH-FAN and completed its maiden flight on April 9, 1959. On May 6, 1959, the machine was delivered to Aer Lingus and with the aircraft identification EI-AKF and the name St. Finian / Finghin put into operation. In January 1966 the machine was returned to the manufacturer and was re -approved as a PH-FSA . In the same month the machine was delivered to the New Zealand National Airways Corporation and went into operation as ZK-NAA . After a merger with Air New Zealand , the latter was the new operator of the machine from April 1974. From March 1983 the Fokker was in service with Tunisavia with the registration TS-LVB , in 1984 it was put into operation with Maldives International Airlines as the 8Q-CA002 . Subsequently, a deployment with the air forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Yemen with the military aircraft registration number 204 was planned, but the machine did not go into operation with them. The machine stored at this point in North Yemen was finally sold to Aeronica from Nicaragua and provided with an additional tank system and the registration YN-BZF for the transfer to Central America . The twin-engine short-range aircraft was equipped with two turboprop engines of the type Rolls-Royce Dart 528 equipped. By the time of the accident, the machine had completed 45,225 operating hours, which accounted for 58,384 take-offs and landings.
The machine was to be used in Nicaragua for pilot training and for flights between the capital Managua and the Atlantic coast. The question of why the machine was bought so far away, explained a spokesman for Aeronica with the low purchase price.
Inmates
There was only a five-person crew on board the machine, whereby the various crew members were supposed to take turns on the long flight route in order to comply with the operating regulations regarding rest times. The crew members included an American , an Indian , a Filipino , a Jordanian and an Israeli .
the accident
The machine was acquired by Aeronica and was on a transfer flight from Northern Yemen to Nicaragua. To increase the range of the short-haul aircraft to be transferred, two additional fuel tanks with a capacity of 200 gallons were installed in the cabin. The machine was flown on April 11, 1985 from Sanaa via Jeddah and Cairo to Athens . The transfer flight was continued from April 19, 1985, while the machine was flown from Athens via Genoa to Glasgow .
On April 20, 1985 the flight was continued from Glasgow via Stornoway to Reykjavík , where the mesh arrived at 3:48 pm. Since the crew was unable to obtain fuel from the additional tank system on the previous segment of the flight, they checked the system during the stay in Reykjavík and found that the system was functional. An additional check was carried out by experienced Icelandic soil engineers. In the opinion of the ground engineers, the auxiliary fuel system looked “not very professional”, the men “had the feeling that the crew did not know how to operate it”. The ground engineers explained to the crew of the Fokker once again how the additional tank system works and carried out a test run of the same in ground operation to check the functionality of the tank system.
After receiving the weather information and clearance from air traffic control, the aircraft took off at 17:21 in the direction of Kangerlussuaq Airport . At 6:32 p.m. the pilot in command sent a message to Icelandic air traffic control. He asked the air traffic controller on duty to thank the Icelandic ground technicians for the crew. He stated that the additional tank system was working properly. At 7:35 p.m. Kulusuk was overflown. During the flight from Iceland to Greenland, the crew reported that there were again problems with drawing fuel from the auxiliary tank system. At 7:50 p.m., about 50 nautical miles west of Kulusuk, the crew of the BIG GUN radar station reported fuel problems. The pilots had found that the pumping of the fuel from the additional tank system did not work after all. As this problem reduced the available fuel reserves, the pilots decided to return to Kulusuk Airport . As the weather conditions deteriorated significantly in the meantime, the pilots could not find the airport. The machine then turned west to make an emergency landing at the SOB STORY radar station . During the approach, 50 kilometers east of the radar station, control of the machine was lost, and the Fokker then collided with the Greenland ice sheet , on which it was supposed to make an emergency landing.
Rescue operation
After the accident, a Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft of the Air National Guard with landing skids moved out at around 8:00 p.m. to search for the crash site, but could not find it in the dark. The rescue aircraft's crew was on a transport mission to deliver fuel from Sondrestrom Air Base to various radar stations when they received a request to participate in the rescue operation. The next morning, around 4:15 a.m., two Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport planes took off and looked for the machine again. The rescue teams found the scene of the accident when they saw a man on the ice waving his shirt to the rescue teams. The debris trail was straight. The Filipino crew member was killed in the impact, the Jordanian crew member later died in the cold from his injuries. The temperatures on the ice sheet had been −13 ° C at night. The rescue aircraft recovered the injured crew members. The injured were taken to Sondrestrom Air Base and transported from there to hospitals. The Israeli crew member, who was in need of more medical help because of his more serious injuries, was flown to Copenhagen .
causes
The investigation of the incident conducted by the Danish Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority revealed that the crew was properly certified for the flight. According to the information provided by the crew, with the exception of the flight data recorder and the electrical de-icing system for the right windshield of the cockpit, the aircraft components functioned normally, which was also confirmed by the on-site investigation. The auxiliary tank system was not working properly. The cause for this could not be finally clarified. The crew had not carried out a proper functional test of the auxiliary fuel system in the air to ensure that it was available prior to its deployment. Investigators believed that the procedures established for the transfer flight had played a significant role in the accident. The poor visibility during the nocturnal approach and the lack of visual reference points in the unpopulated area along the route as well as the resulting difficulty in assessing the nature of the terrain by the aircraft crew were found to be contributing factors. In this context, the difficult weather conditions in the region also played a significant role.
Remarks
swell
- Accident report F27-100, YN-BZF , Aviation Safety Network
- Richard Halloran: US RESCUES FLIERS IN GREENLAND CRASH OF NICARAGUA PLANE , New York Times , April 27, 1985. Page 1.
- Crash of a Fokker F27 Friendship 100 in Greenland: 2 killed , B3A - Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives
- Company history and production list , rzjets.net
Coordinates: 65 ° 12 ′ 0 ″ N , 42 ° 45 ′ 0 ″ W.