Lufthansa flight 2904
| Lufthansa flight 2904 | |
|---|---|
 Picture from the scene of the accident |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Roll over on landing |
| place | Warsaw Airport (WAW) |
| date | September 14, 1993 |
| Fatalities | 2 |
| Survivors | 68 |
| Injured | 62 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Airbus A320-211 |
| operator | Lufthansa |
| Mark | D-AIPN "Kulmbach" |
| Passengers | 64 |
| crew | 6th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
Lufthansa Flight 2904 was a scheduled flight of Lufthansa from Frankfurt International Airport to Warsaw . On September 14, 1993, the Airbus A320-211 deployed on that day crashed while landing at Warsaw Chopin Airport . A go-around maneuver should have taken place due to a chain of several factors , but the machine slipped over the end of the runway and went up in flames after colliding with an earth wall. Two people on board were killed.
Aircraft
The machine used was an Airbus A320-211 with the aircraft registration D-AIPN and the baptismal name "Kulmbach" , serial number 105. It was delivered new to Lufthansa on April 10, 1990 and operated continuously by Lufthansa until the accident a good three years later. After the accident, the largely destroyed machine was written off.
Course of the accident
After the A320 had a problem-free flight, the pilots were informed by approach control in Warsaw at 3:28 p.m. local time that other pilots were reporting about wind shear near the ground. Runway 11 with a length of 2,800 meters was planned for the landing .
The flight crew consisted of two captains, of whom the one seated on the left acted as " pilot flying " (PF) and the test captain seated on the right as "pilot not flying" (PNF).
The right main landing gear of the machine did not make contact with the ground until after 770 meters, the left landing gear after 1525 meters. The PF activated the wheel brakes as soon as the ground came into contact with the ground, but these did not apply due to the insufficient grip on the wet runway. The program of the fly-by-wire system only released the spoilers and the thrust reverser as braking aids after the left landing gear had been put on . The machine now had a speed of 154 knots (285 km / h ). The spoilers were only fully extended after 1,679 meters at 148 knots. The full thrust reversal could only be achieved after exactly 1900 meters at still 132 knots.
The remaining distance available was now neither sufficient for a go- around maneuver , nor was it possible, because of the wet runway, to bring the aircraft to a stop in front of the mound behind the end of the runway. The PF therefore pulled the machine to the right, so that it hit the left wing first at a speed of 58 knots (107 km / h). As a result, the machine partially slid over the earth wall, broke and went up in flames, as the left engine was destroyed. The test captain, who was on the right cockpit seat, was killed in the cockpit from internal injuries sustained when he hit the left armrest of his seat. One passenger died of smoke inhalation , probably because he was unable to save himself, being hampered by a fractured vertebra . Another 54 passengers were injured and taken to hospitals in the area. Eight people were treated on an outpatient basis.
causes
The investigation report records a combination of factors as the cause of this accident:
- One cause lies in several errors by the cockpit crew. Among other things, she had neither adequately considered nor discussed the sudden wind shear . In addition, the pilot in charge of the radiotelephone did not explicitly warn the flying pilot of the wind shear component of more than 10 knots , although the A320 operations manual recommends this. After touchdown (still within the landing zone of the runway), the crew did not initiate a go - around, although it would have been appropriate and possible.
- The crew of the tower in Warsaw is also charged in the accident investigation report. They did not have any current weather data, as the wind information only arrived at the tower with a delay.
- Furthermore, the inadequate description of the braking system in the instructions for operating the aircraft contributed to the failure of the landing: the pilots had chosen an automatic braking process before touching down, which only initiated the braking maneuver when the aircraft had come into contact with the ground. As far as the manufacturer's knowledge was at the time, ground contact was only considered to be achieved when the undercarriage was loaded with at least 12 t and the wheels of the main undercarriage were turning. Due to the thick film of water and the resulting aquaplaning , the machine touched down, but the wheels turned so slowly that the on-board computer assumed that the machine was not yet on the ground and therefore prevented any braking maneuvers. In addition, the machine touched down quite far back in the runway landing zone, so that valuable braking distance was wasted even before it hit the ground. When the systems finally allowed full braking (wheel brakes, spoilers and thrust reverser), the remaining length of the runway was no longer sufficient to bring the machine to a standstill in time.
Consequences
The software of the fly-by-wire system for all types of the Airbus A320 family has been revised and the landing gear required to release spoilers and thrust reverser has been reduced from 12 t to 2 t. Furthermore, the activation of the spoilers and the thrust reverser are no longer coupled to the wheel rotation, but the brake activation is still. This is to ensure that the aerodynamic and engine-side braking works in any case, even if the wheels are not turning sufficiently quickly.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ airfleets.net - Airbus A320 - MSN 105 (English) accessed on August 30, 2011
Coordinates: 52 ° 9 ′ 39 ″ N , 20 ° 59 ′ 7 ″ E