TAROM flight 371
| TAROM flight 371 | |
|---|---|
 YR-LCC |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Loss of control due to thrust asymmetry and medical emergency |
| place |
Baloteşti , Romania
|
| date | March 31, 1995 |
| Fatalities | 60 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Injured | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Airbus A310-324 |
| operator |
TAROM
|
| Mark | YR-LCC |
| Surname | Muntenia |
| Departure airport |
Bucharest Otopeni Airport , Romania
|
| Destination airport |
Brussels-Zaventem Airport , Belgium
|
| Passengers | 49 |
| crew | 11 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
The TAROM flight 371 (flight number also ROT 371 ) was an international scheduled flight of the Romanian airline TAROM from Bucharest to Brussels , on which an Airbus A310-324 crashed on March 31, 1995 shortly after take-off. In this worst accident in Romanian aviation history 60 people were killed.
plane
The aircraft involved in the accident was an Airbus A310-324, which was 7 years and 10 months old at the time of the accident. The aircraft had the factory number 450. The aircraft was finally assembled at the Airbus plant in Toulouse and completed its maiden flight on June 12, 1987, before being delivered as the N814PA on August 14, 1987 to Pan American World Airways , where it was the Named Clipper Liberty Bell . After the airline was liquidated, the machine was transferred to the parent company Delta Air Lines on November 1 , before it was sold to TAROM on April 10, 1994, where it went into operation as YR-LCC with the name Muntenia . The twin- engine, wide - body aircraft was equipped with two Pratt & Whitney PW4152 engines. By the time of the accident, the machine had completed a cumulative operating performance of 31,092 operating hours with 6216 take-offs and landings.
crew
The crew of eleven consisted of a master, a first officer and nine flight attendants. For the flight to Brussels, 49 passengers were seated in the plane.
The captain was 48-year-old Liviu Bătănoiu. He had 14,312 hours of flight experience, including with the Boeing 707 , the BAC 1-11 and various Soviet- made aircraft . Bătănoiu had completed 1735 hours on the Airbus A310. He had obtained his pilot's license in 1969 from the Aurel Vlaicu Military Aviation Academy. Before flying to Brussels, he was assigned to a flight from Bucharest to Tel Aviv. Bătănoiu had his last training on the A310 on November 12, 1994 at a Swissair facility in Zurich .
First officer was the 51-year-old Ionel Stoi, who had 8988 hours of flight experience, 650 of them with the Airbus A310. He had obtained his pilot's license in 1968 from the Aurel Vlaicu Military Aviation Academy. Before flying to Brussels, he had been assigned a flight from Chicago to Shannon. Stoi had completed his last training session in the A310 flight simulator on September 21, 1994 at a Swissair facility in Zurich.
the accident
The machine took off from Bucharest-Otopeni Airport and crashed into a field near Baloteşti after just two minutes , after having flown a 180-degree turn instead of a 90-degree turn after take-off. All 60 people on board were killed in the accident. In addition to the 11 crew members, there were 49 passengers: 32 Belgians, 10 Romanians, three Americans, two Spaniards, one French and one Thai.
root cause
In the course of the investigation, it was found that the affected machine had been affected by a sporadic problem with the automatic thrust control (ATS), in which, after lifting off, one of the two throttle controls moved backwards beyond the required extent and the engine idled switched. The crash report attributes the behavior to stiff thrust lever bearings, a problem that is widespread in Airbus A300 and A310 aircraft and known to pilots. As a countermeasure, the corresponding thrust lever was held by hand to ensure symmetrical thrust.
The problem was also known to Captain Bătănoiu. While the first officer Stoi was entrusted with carrying out the take-off, Bătănoiu announced that he would take care of the throttle controls. After the start, Stoi Bătănoiu instructed to retract the buoyancy aids , which the latter did immediately. When he asked him to retract the slats five seconds later, the captain did not react. Stoi then asked Bătănoiu whether it was okay. Another six seconds later, a high-pitched human cry of pain could be heard on the recording of the cockpit voice recorder . The investigators concluded that Bătănoiu suffered a serious heart attack at the time , from which he may even died immediately. The thrust lever for the left engine slipped out of his hand and shifted backwards into the idle position due to the problem with the thrust regulation. As a result of the thrust asymmetry, the aircraft, which was just flying through a cloud cover, which is why the first officer lacked crucial visual reference points, turned uncontrollably to the left until it had reached a roll angle of 170 degrees and then crashed from an almost vertical attitude. All 60 people on board died in the massive impact.
The final report of the aircraft accident investigators identified three factors as the causes of the accident:
- the asymmetrical thrust
- the captain's unconsciousness
- the inability of the first officer to offset the effects of the first two factors
However, the first officer was not blamed too much on the latter point. He was simply overwhelmed by the two problems that occurred in the cockpit at the same time.
Flight number
While flight numbers are usually changed after fatal aircraft accidents, the TAROM flight connection from Bucharest to Brussels is still operated under flight number 371.
Media reception
The accident was filmed under the title Dangerous Climb ( Fatal Climb ) in episode 4 of season 19 of Mayday - Alarm im Cockpit .
Web links
- Investigation Report (English)
- 15 ani de la cea mai mare catastrofă aeriană din istoria României (Romanian)
- TRAGEDIA DE LA BALOTEŞTI: 20 de ani de la cel mai grav accident aviatic din România (Romanian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Accident report Airbus A310 YR-LCC , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on November 27, 2016.
- ^ Romanian Air Transport Authority : Crash Report Tarom Flight 371 Airbus 310-324. Romanian Civil Aviation Inspectorate / Romanian Air Transport Authority, September 21, 2000, accessed June 23, 2019 .
Coordinates: 44 ° 35 ′ 54.5 " N , 26 ° 6 ′ 23.2" E