Aircraft accident involving a VFW 614 in Bremen

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Aircraft accident involving a VFW 614 in Bremen
VFW-Fokker VFW-614, VFW-Fokker AN1933574.jpg

A similar prototype of the VFW 614
Accident summary
Accident type Loss of control due to resonance vibrations
place Bremen , BR GermanyGermany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany 
date February 1, 1972
Fatalities 1
Survivors 2
Aircraft
Aircraft type Germany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany VFW-Fokker VFW.614
operator Germany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of GermanyNetherlandsNetherlands VFW-Fokker
Mark Germany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany D-BABA
Departure airport Bremen Airport , BR GermanyGermany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany 
Destination airport Bremen Airport , BR GermanyGermany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany 
Passengers 0
crew 3
Lists of aviation accidents

The accident involving a VFW 614 in Bremen occurred on February 1, 1972. A VFW-Fokker VFW.614 fell on a test flight of the VFW-Fokker after a loss of control, killing one person.

plane

The affected machine was the first prototype of the newly developed aircraft type VFW 614. The machine with the serial number G001 was built by the company VFW-Fokker. Its maiden flight on July 14, 1971 from Bremen Airport was also the maiden flight of this type of aircraft. The twin Kurzstreckenflugzeug was equipped with two Turbojettriebwerken type Rolls-Royce / Snecma equipped M45 H Mk.501. By the time of the accident, the machine had run for 30 hours.

Inmates

There were three crew members on board the machine who were entrusted with carrying out flight tests with the machine. The crew consisted of the 34-year-old flight engineer Leif Nielsen, the 39-year-old first officer Hans Bardill and the 32-year-old engineer Jürgen Hammer.

the accident

Since the first flight of the machine, there had been repeated irregularities with a flutter in the horizontal stabilizer. Various modifications have been made. For the test flight on February 1, 1972, the machine was equipped with vibration dampers. During the flight test, asymmetrical flutter occurred again at an altitude of 10,000 feet and at a speed of 220 knots. Unlike in previous tests, reducing the speed did not fix the flutter. The crew members jumped out of the machine with parachutes. First officer Hans Bardill, who had already rescued himself with a parachute from a crashing prototype of an airplane built in Germany in the flight accident of an HFB 320 Hansa Jet near Madrid , lost consciousness when he jumped and was unable to open his parachute . Bardill fell to the ground and died. The other two crew members were able to land safely on the ground with their parachutes. The machine fell to the ground in a vertical attitude. At 2:58 p.m. it hit a snow-covered meadow 200 meters from the runway threshold at Bremen Airport.

root cause

The cause of the crash was the anti-symmetrical resonance vibrations of the horizontal stabilizer, which were excited by the exhaust gas flow from the turbines .

consequences

After changing the angle of the V-position of both halves of the horizontal stabilizer, approval was granted by the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt on August 23, 1974. The machine performed well and its take-off and landing characteristics were particularly good. However, the machine did not become a commercial success. In addition to the three prototypes, only 16 machines were manufactured, and production was then discontinued in 1977.

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