Pacific Western Airlines aircraft accident near Kisangani

Pacific Western Airlines aircraft accident near Kisangani
An identical Lockheed Hercules L-100-20 of the Pacific Western Airlines
Accident summary
Accident type	Controlled flight into terrain
place	Okasa near Kisangani , Zaire
date	November 21, 1976
Fatalities	5
Survivors	1
Injured	1
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Lockheed L-100-20 Hercules
operator	Pacific Western Airlines
Mark	C-FPWX
Departure airport	Ostend Airport , Belgium
Destination airport	Lubumbashi Airport , Zaire
Passengers	1
crew	5
Lists of aviation accidents

The air accident of Pacific Western Airlines in Kisangani took place on 21 November 1976. In the accident was a Lockheed L-100-20 Hercules of Pacific Western Airlines with the aircraft marks C-FPWX while attempting an emergency landing at the airport Kisangani Bangoka in Zaire flown against trees and termite mounds . Five of the six occupants of the machine died.

plane

The aircraft was a Lockheed L-100-20 Hercules with serial number 4361, which had made its maiden flight in 1969. The machine was registered with the Canadian aircraft registration C-FPWX on the Pacific Western Airlines. The four-engine transport aircraft was equipped with four Allison 501-D22A turboprop engines . It was the civilian version of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft . The freight consisted of assemblies for a power plant.

the accident

A cargo flight was carried out with the transport machine from Oostende in Belgium to Lubumbashi in Zaire , the former colony of the Belgian Congo and today's Democratic Republic of the Congo . On the way there was a return to Kisangani-Bangoka Airport.

Fog prevailed on the night approach to Kisangani. The machine had very little kerosene on board. The crew tried to make an emergency landing because there was not enough fuel on board to return to another airport.

At Eastville, the right wing brushed against a 30-meter-high tree. Parts of the wing were torn down. The machine continued to descend and collide with several other trees and small termite mounds until it finally hit a large termite mound.

Victim

Five of the six people on board died in the accident, only one crew member survived. Among the dead was pilot Dean McIagan, who on June 16, 1969, had been involved in a total write-off on June 16, 1969 when landing in fog with a Lockheed L-100 Hercules of Pacific Western Airlines in the Peruvian jungle.

swell

• Accident report L-100 Hercules C-FPWX , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 19, 2020.
• Condit, John (1984): Wings over the West: Russ Baker and the Rise of Pacific Western Airlines, Harbor Publishing ISBN 0-920080-49-9 .
• Hull, ND; Bowie, WR (1977): Operations Group report: Pacific Western Airlines Hercules L100-20 C-FPWX accident at Okasa, Republic of Zaire, November 21, 1976. Transport Canada, Air, Aviation Safety Bureau, Aviation Safety Investigation, 1977. Report , no. F60011.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Accident report L-100 Hercules CF-PWO , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 19, 2020.