Linjeflyg flight 618

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Linjeflyg flight 618
Skyline Vickers Viscount Soderstrom.jpg

A Vickers Viscount of the Skyline, similar to the accident machine
Accident summary
Accident type Loss of controllability after icing in flight
place Kälvesta , Hässelby-Vällingby , Stockholm , SwedenSwedenSweden 
date 15th January 1977
Fatalities 22nd
Survivors 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type United KingdomUnited Kingdom Vickers 838 Viscount
operator SwedenSweden Skyline for Linjeflyg
SwedenSweden
Mark SwedenSweden SE-FOZ
Departure airport Malmo-Sturup Airport , SwedenSwedenSweden 
1. Stopover Kristianstad Airport , SwedenSwedenSweden 
2. Stopover Växjö Smaland Airport , SwedenSwedenSweden 
3. Stopover Jonkoping Airport , Sweden
SwedenSweden 
Destination airport Stockholm / Bromma Airport , SwedenSwedenSweden 
Passengers 19th
crew 3
Lists of aviation accidents

On January 15, 1977 on Linjeflyg flight 618 (flight number: LF618 ), a Vickers 838 Viscount , which was operated by the Skyline for Linjeflyg on a domestic scheduled flight , crashed near Kälvesta , Stockholm . All 22 people on board were killed in the accident. The crash was caused by icing.

machine

The crashed Vickers Viscount 838 with the serial number 372, which made its maiden flight on October 7, 1961 at Hurn Airport in Bournemouth , Hampshire , England , was originally built for Ghana Airways , to which it was delivered on October 21, 1961 with the Aircraft registration number 9G-AAW was delivered. The airline left the machine on July 15, 1965 from London Gatwick Airport to Field Aircraft Services Ltd. at Wymeswold Airfield in Leicestershire for a major overhaul. From there she returned to Gatwick on September 10, 1965. On September 14th, the machine was supposed to be used for a flight from Gatwick via Málaga to Accra , but shortly afterwards the machine had to return to the departure airport due to a technical problem. It moved to London Heathrow Airport during the day and then back to Field Aircraft Services Ltd. flown out to eliminate the technical defect. In November 1967, the plane was painted in addition to its own livery and Nigeria Airways lettering . Ghana Airways phased out the aircraft in June 1975 and stored it at Accra Airport ; the aircraft was spotted the following month with the propellers and cockpit windows removed. On November 3, 1975 the Viscount was sold to Field Aircraft Services Ltd. sold and registered with the new aircraft registration G-BDKZ , the delivery to the new owner took place on November 9th at East Midlands Airport , Castle Donington , Leicestershire, England. In the following months, Field Aircraft Services Ltd. sold the machine to Mandala Airlines , but the deal was ultimately not closed. During this time, test flights were carried out with the Viscount under the new Indonesian aircraft registration number PK-RVO . On August 23, 1976, the Swedish Skyline Drangel Och Nordstrom AB , named after its two owners Lennart Nordstrom and Christoffer Drangel, bought the machine. The machine was immediately leased to Linjeflyg. The four-engine medium-range aircraft was equipped with four turboprop engines of the type Rolls-Royce Dart 525F equipped and had up to the time of the accident completed 12,208 hours of operation.

Passengers, crew and flight plan

With the machine, a flight from should Airport Sturup to Airport Stockholm / Bromma be performed. There were three stops on the Kristianstad Airport , the Vaxjo Airport and Jönköping Airport performed. There was a crew of three on board. On the last flight segment on which the accident occurred, 19 passengers were sitting in the plane, including the well-known table tennis player Hans Alsér .

context

Linjeflyg ordered several Fokker F28-4000 machines in the mid-1970s , but their delivery was delayed. For this reason the company leased three Vickers Viscounts to the skyline. In the area of ​​the aircraft nose, a sticker was affixed to the starboard side with the note INHYRT AV LINJEFLYG (“rented by Linjeflyg”). The machines were operated in wet lease , Skyline carried out the flights with their own machines and provided the crews, the flights were carried out under the name and with the flight numbers of Linjeflyg, namely under the Air Operator Certificate of the Skyline.

Flight history

The flight from Malmö to Stockholm, which took off in the dark on January 15th, initially went without any particular incident. The machine managed the flight sections from Malmö to Kristianstad , from Kristianstad to Växjö and from Växjö to Jönköping , where passengers got on and off and luggage was loaded and unloaded, without major problems. The fourth and final segment of the flight from Jönköping to Stockholm was the longest, but was flown after sunrise around 8:30 a.m. in daylight.

the accident

At 9:05 a.m. the aircraft was just approaching Stockholm and already over an inhabited area in Hässelby-Vällingby , northeastern district of the capital, when the pilots were surprised by a sudden stall at an altitude of 1150 feet (approx. 350 meters) were. The Viscount turned into a vertical attitude and crashed into a residential area. She hit a parking lot in a residential area in the Kälvesta district of Hässelby-Vällingby . The plane was completely destroyed in the impact, and all 22 occupants died instantly. The parking lot into which the plane crashed was surrounded on three sides by residential buildings. The houses were only 20 meters away from the point of impact. There were no people in the parking lot at the time of the impact, so that miraculously nobody suffered physical damage on the ground. The crash site was 4.5 kilometers from the runway threshold at Stockholm / Bromma Airport. About a dozen cars were destroyed in the accident, and there was also fire damage to the surrounding house facades.

root cause

The Swedish government ordered an aircraft accident investigation immediately after the incident . It was found that the engine no. 2 and 3 of the machine were operated during the flight for a longer period of time with a reduced power. As a result, the de-icing system, which was powered by the engine power, did not function properly. As a result, ice formed in the area of ​​the tail fin. The ice formation caused the angle of attack on the horizontal stabilizer to reach supercritical values. When the pilots extended the landing flaps to their final position on the approach to Stockholm, the center of lift shifted backwards. So the machine lowered its nose and took a dive. Because of the low altitude, she could no longer be intercepted from the vertical flight position.

The pilots were not informed that the aircraft type was susceptible to this form of icing, which occurs frequently in northern Europe in winter. In 1963, two Vickers Viscounts had crashed under almost identical circumstances in the Nesøya accident and on Continental Airlines Flight 290 .

consequences

As a result of the accident, the business relationship between Linjeflyg and Skyline was also criticized. As a small airline, Skyline did not have the resources to take the necessary action after such a serious accident. Because of this, Linjeflyg essentially took care of the incident.

As a replacement for the destroyed aircraft, Skyline leased a Viscount 814D (G-AZNH) to Linjeflyg, the former D-ANUR of Lufthansa. The leasing contract was continued for a few months and finally terminated after the ordered Fokker F28 machines were delivered. Shortly thereafter, in 1978, Skyline filed for bankruptcy.

swell

Coordinates: 59 ° 22 ′ 54 ″  N , 17 ° 51 ′ 56 ″  E