Kenya Airways Flight 431
| Kenya Airways Flight 431 | |
|---|---|
 The aircraft in its original paint scheme |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | controlled flight into terrain |
| place | off the coast of Ivory Coast |
| date | January 30, 2000 |
| Fatalities | 169 |
| Survivors | 10 |
| Injured | 10 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Airbus A310-304 |
| operator | Kenya Airways |
| Mark | 5Y-BEN |
| Departure airport |
Félix Houphouet Boigny Airport Abidjan , Ivory Coast |
| Stopover |
Murtala Muhammed Int'l Airport Lagos , Nigeria |
| Destination airport |
Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Nairobi , Kenya |
| Passengers | 169 |
| crew | 10 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On January 30, 2000 at 21:09:24 GMT, an Airbus A310-304 on Kenya Airways flight 431 crashed into the Atlantic two kilometers off the coast shortly after take-off from Abidjan Airport ( Ivory Coast ) . The Kenya Airways machine was to operate a scheduled flight from Abidjan to Nairobi ( Kenya ) with a stopover in Lagos ( Nigeria ). 169 of the 179 inmates were killed.
background
The Airbus A310 Kenya Airways with the air vehicle registration 5Y-BEN had a scheduled flight from the January 30, 2000 Nairobi via Lagos to Abidjan completed. Due to bad weather conditions, the pilots canceled the stopover in Lagos and landed in Abidjan at 15:15.
The return flight from Abidjan to Nairobi ( flight number : KQ 431) should start at 9:00 p.m. There were 169 passengers and ten crew members on board. The aircraft was 13 years and 211 days old at the time and had accumulated 58,115 flight hours on 15,026 flights. The 44-year-old captain had 11,636 hours of flight experience, the 43-year-old first officer over 7,295 hours.
the accident
The plane took off at 21:08 GMT. A few seconds after the start came a automatic warning because of a stall . However, it was a false alarm, the cause of which could not be traced. As a pilot flying, the co-pilot followed the guidelines of Kenya Airways and Airbus that were valid at the time and initiated a descent that was to be maintained until the warning automatically ended. The aircraft descended from 300 feet to 10 feet in about 15 seconds . According to the flight recorder, the warning lasted until the captain switched it off manually at 21: 09: 23.9 and the aircraft crashed into the sea a few moments later two kilometers from the coast. Several factors resulted in the pilots not noticing the approach to the ground. Due to the nightly departure over the Atlantic, there was no visual reference to the water surface and there was no acoustic warning from the Ground Proximity Warning System , as the on-board computer gave this a lower priority than the stall warning. Since stalling at takeoff is very unusual, the pilots were so surprised and stressed that they neither paid attention to their instruments nor to the automatic announcements of the radar altimeter until shortly before impact . When the master recognized the approach to the ground a second before the impact, the impact could no longer be prevented.
Of the 179 people on board, 169 died, all ten of whom were crew members.
| nationality | number |
|---|---|
 Nigeria
|
84 |
 Kenya
|
20th |
 India
|
8th |
| "Congo" (exact country unknown) | 5 |
 Uganda
|
5 |
 Madagascar
|
4th |
 Senegal
|
3 |
 Togo
|
3 |
 Canada
|
2 |
 Ivory Coast
|
2 |
 Ethiopia
|
2 |
 France
|
2 |
 Ghana
|
2 |
 Iran
|
2 |
 Mali
|
2 |
 Netherlands
|
2 |
 Philippines
|
2 |
.svg){kind=small} Rwanda
|
2 |
 United States
|
2 |
 Zambia
|
2 |
 Belgium
|
1 |
 Burkina Faso
|
1 |
 Burundi
|
1 |
 Chad
|
1 |
 Gambia
|
1 |
 Guinea
|
1 |
 Ireland
|
1 |
 Liberia
|
1 |
.svg){kind=small} Mauritania
|
1 |
 Spain
|
1 |
 Tanzania
|
1 |
 Zimbabwe
|
1 |
| Unknown | 1 |
| Total (33 nationalities) | 169 |
Most of the survivors were rescued from the sea by fishermen and motor boats, and a surviving Frenchman swam to the shore on his own. Twelve people survived the crash, but two of them later died from their injuries in hospital. Nine survivors suffered serious injuries and one person suffered minor injuries. In 108 of the 146 recovered bodies, multiple trauma is given as the cause of death, 15 of the dead drowned, and 22 died from a combination of both causes. In one of the deceased, the cause of death could not be determined. Alcohol tests on the bodies of the two pilots were negative.
See also
Web links
- Aircraft Accident data and report the crash in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Final report on the accident occurred on January 30, 2000. Retrieved May 8, 2013 .
- ↑ a b Accident which occurred on 30 January 2000. (pdf (25.7MB)) Retrieved on 8 May 2013 (English).
- ↑ Survivor's swim to safety. BBC News, January 31, 2000, accessed May 8, 2013 .
Coordinates: 5 ° 13 ′ 33.3 " N , 3 ° 56 ′ 11.7" W.