Loftleiðir flight 001
| Loftleiðir flight 001 | |
|---|---|
 A similar DC-8 from Loftleiðir |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Controlled Flight into Terrain |
| place |
Katunayake , Sri Lanka
|
| date | November 15, 1978 |
| Fatalities | 183 |
| Survivors | 79 |
| Injured | 32 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Douglas DC-8-63CF
|
| operator |
 Loftleiðir for Garuda Indonesia
|
| Mark |
TF-FLA
|
| Surname | Leifur Eiríksson |
| Departure airport |
Jeddah Airport (old) , Saudi Arabia
|
| Stopover |
Bandaranaike International Airport , Sri Lanka
|
| Destination airport |
Juanda Airport , Indonesia
|
| Passengers | 249 |
| crew | 13 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On November 15, 1978, on Loftleiðir flight 001 (flight number: LL001 ), a Douglas DC-8-63CF of Loftleiðir operated on a charter flight on behalf of Garuda Indonesia had an accident while approaching Bandaranaike International Airport in Sri Lanka. 183 of the 262 inmates were killed in the accident. At the time, it was the second worst accident involving a Douglas DC-8.
background
As the state airline of the world's largest Muslim country, Indonesia had to handle a steadily growing number of pilgrims during the Hajj season at the beginning of the 1970s . With the development of the large long-haul Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 passenger jets with spacious passenger cabins, it was possible to take a short trip to the holy places in Mecca from faraway Indonesia . More and more people willing to travel took up this offer. As the seasonal demand far exceeded the passenger capacity of the Garuda fleet, the airline hired external airlines to carry out the pilgrimage flights for the Hajj season. One of these airlines was Loftleiðir from Iceland , which among other things used their Douglas DC-8-63CF TF-FLA for the flights .
plane
The machine that crashed was a ten year and one month old Douglas DC-8-63CF, which was assembled at the Douglas facility in Long Beach , California and which was rolled out on October 20, 1968. The aircraft had the factory number 46020, it was the 415th Douglas DC-8 from ongoing production. The DC-8 was with the air vehicle registration number N8633 on the Seaboard World Airlines admitted. This leased the machine from July 3, 1975 to Cargolux Airlines International , where the machine with the new Icelandic license plate TF-FLA went into operation. From March 28, 1976, Loftleiðir leased the machine and leased it again to Cargolux from January 5, 1978, until the lease return went back to Loftleiðir on March 1, 1978. The four - engined long - range narrow -body aircraft was equipped with four Pratt & Whitney JT3D-7 engines. The machine was named Leifur Eiríksson at Loftleiðir .
Crew and passengers
There were 262 people on board. These consisted of 249 mainly Indonesian pilgrims and the 13-strong Icelandic crew. The three-person cockpit crew consisted of a flight captain, a first officer and a flight engineer, the cabin crew of 10 flight attendants. All crew members had Icelandic citizenship.
Flight history
The flight was intended to bring Indonesian pilgrims returning from Mecca from a Hajj to Surabaya . The flight took off from Jeddah Airport at 12:58 UTC and was supposed to go to Juanda Airport in Surabaya. A technical stopover was planned at the Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo , Sri Lanka , during which the machine should also be refueled. In addition, the crew should be changed in Colombo.
At 10:53 p.m. local time, the crew reported to air traffic control in Ratmalana. Thunderstorms and wind shears have been reported. The pilots were informed that their aircraft was scheduled to land on runway 04. The pilots asked for an alternative ILS landing permit for runway 22, which they received shortly afterwards. District Control lowered the machine from its original altitude of 33,000 feet (approximately 10,058 meters) to 22,000 feet (approximately 6,706 meters) when it was 90 miles (approximately 150 kilometers) from Colombo Airport.
the accident
The machine was then passed on to the radar control at 23:06 local time. This instructed the pilots on the descent to 2000 feet (approx. 610 meters) and instructed them to follow the further instructions for a landing on runway 22. The air traffic controller also asked the crew to report as soon as they passed the beacon . The pilots only confirmed receipt of the radio message, but not their consent to the proposed procedure. The air traffic controller from radar control informed the crew of the altitude and the distance to the runway. The last radio message from the air traffic controller was at 23:27:26: "Lima, Lima 001, slightly left of the center line, very slightly left of the center line, two miles from the runway, altitude 650 feet, cleared to land." : 27: 37 o'clock the crew confirmed with "Roger".
When the air traffic controller from approach control saw the aircraft, he saw that it was descending too steeply and was heading into the area in front of the runway. He warned the crew over the radio, but received no answer because the crew communicated with the radar control on a different frequency than the one used by the approach control radio. The air traffic controller lost sight of the machine and finally saw an explosion over the area where he had last seen it.
The aircraft flew at 23:28:03 AM in a plantation of rubber trees and coconut palms . The scene of the accident was 1.1589 miles (1.8651 kilometers) off runway 22 and 103.15 feet (approx. 31.44 meters) to the right of the approach line.
Rescue operation
As the first witness of the accident, the air traffic controller from approach control immediately informed his colleagues. Five fire engines reached the scene of the accident within half an hour of the accident. The rescue operation was hampered by a large number of coconut palms, which hampered the advance of large rescue equipment, but it was later described as satisfactory.
Victim
183 people were killed in the accident, including 175 pilgrims and 8 crew members. Of the survivors, 32 people, including 24 passengers and 8 crew members, were injured, while 47 people, including 46 passengers and one crew member, were uninjured.
meaning
At the time, it was the second worst accident in Sri Lanka and the second worst accident involving a Douglas DC-8. In both respects, the accident from Martinair Flight 138 was exceeded with 191 fatalities.
Parallels to the Martinair accident in 1974
On December 4, 1974, a Douglas DC-8 had an accident on Martinair flight 138 , which also carried out a pilgrimage on behalf of Garuda Indonesia on the same route, but in the opposite direction. It was also a controlled flight into terrain , which in this case had taken place against a rock face. The cause here was also a misunderstanding between the aircraft crew and air traffic control. The flight was operated by the Dutch airline Martinair , the machine used was in the meantime leased to Loftleiðir in its operating history. Ironically, the airline had given this machine the baptismal name Leifur Eiríksson .
swell
- Final report of the Commission of Inquiry , October 30, 1979.
- Aircraft accident data and report Douglas DC-8-63CF TF-FLA on the Aviation Safety Network , accessed August 4, 2019.
- Operating history of the machine on planespotters.net