Air France A330 crash report

The Air France airliner that crashed into the Atlantic in 2009 was out of control for four minutes, investigators said, in a report raising questions about how crew handled a "stall alarm" blaring out in the cabin. Information gleaned from black boxes, and recovered almost two years after the disaster killed 228 people, confirmed that speed-readings in the Airbus cockpit had gone haywire, believed to be linked to the icing of speed sensors outside the jet. As Air France pilots fought for control, the doomed A330 dropped 38,000 feet, rolling left to right, its engines flat out but its wings unable to grab enough air to keep flying.

The plane crashed on June 1, 2009, en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Black boxes stopped recording at 0214 GMT. France's BEA crash investigation agency said in a detailed chronology of the crash that commands from the controls of the 32-year-old junior pilot on board had pulled the nose up as the aircraft became unstable and generated an audible stall warning. Aviation industry sources told reporters that this action went against the normal procedures which call for the nose to be lowered in response to an alert that the plane was about to stall.

This type of aerodynamic stall is nothing to do with a stall in the engines, both of which kept working as crew requested. "A stall is the moment at which a plane stops flying and starts falling," said David Learmount, operations and safety editor at the British aviation publication Flight International. An aircraft industry safety consultant said the standard guidance in the Airbus pilot manual called in this event for the pilot to lower the nose by pushing the control stick forward.

"The BEA is now going to have to analyze and get to bottom of how crew handled this event," said Paul Hayes, safety director at Ascend Aviation, a UK-based aviation consultancy. "The big question in my mind is why did the pilot flying (the aircraft) appear to continue to pull the nose up," he said. French investigators said the emergency began with the autopilot disengaging itself two and a half hours into the flight and the junior pilot, who had been in control at take-off, picked up manually and saying "I have control".

The autopilot appears to have responded to a loss of reliable airspeed information. This was accompanied moments later by the disembodied voice of a recorded "stall" alert. It is what happened next that is likely to fuel most theories on what preceded the crash, but Air France and its main pilots union insisted faulty speed probes were the root cause. In a passage likely to attract particular scrutiny, the BEA said the pilot "maintained" the nose-up command despite fresh stall warnings 46 seconds into the four-minute emergency.

"The inputs made by the pilot flying were mainly nose-up," the report added. The Airbus jet climbed 3,000 feet to 38,000 feet despite the crew having decided earlier against a climb, and then began a dramatic descent, with the youngest pilot handing control to the second most senior pilot a minute before impact. The captain returned after "several attempts" to call him back to the cockpit but was not at the controls in the final moments, according to information gleaned from black boxes.

By the time the 58-year-old returned, just over a minute into the emergency, the aircraft was in serious trouble: plunging at 10,000 feet a minute with its nose pointing up 15 degrees and at too high an angle to the air to recapture lift. The BEA did not provide extracts of the transcript for the last minute before the jet hit the water with its nose up. It promised a fuller interim report which could say more about the causes of the crash in July.

Passenger Jet crashes in Pakistan

Reports suggest that none of the nearly 152 people on board have survived this morning's plane crash in Islamabad.  This is Pakistan's worst-ever plane crash.  The passenger plane, an Airbus A321, operated by private airline AirBlue,with 146 passengers and 6 crew was headed from Karachi to Islamabad.  It went up in a haze of flames and white smoke close to 10 am in the heavily-forested Margalla Hills overlooking Islamabad. It was raining heavily in the region this morning and that, along with thick fog and the smoke from the crash made it tough for rescue helicopters to reach the crash site.  Rescue officials had to trek for close to an hour to reach the area. Through the day, Pakistani media carried conflicting reports on survivors, with some reporting that 45 people were alive.  Rescue officials reported that the plane's debris was spread over a huge area, and that dead bodies- charred beyond recognition -were strewn around the forest.

Lufthansa cargo plane crashes in Saudi airport

A Lufthansa MD11 cargo plane crashed at the Saudi capital's international airport on Tuesday but there were no casualties, the airline and the kingdom's civil aviation authority said. Two crew members were taken to hospital to undergo treatment for minor injuries. The firefighters have contained the fire, a spokesman for the General Authority of Civil Aviation reported. The two pilots exited the plane using emergency escape slides. There were no other crew members on board the aircraft. The MD-11 freighter carrying an 80-tonne load crashed at 1138 local time as it was arriving in Riyadh, Lufthansa Cargo said. The aircraft, which has been heavily damaged, was on its way from Frankfurt to Hong Kong via Riyadh and Sharjah. Europe's biggest cargo carrier said it was sending a team of experts to Riyadh to help investigate the cause of the crash. An airport official told Reuters the plane veered off the runway on landing: "It did not stop until the Royal Terminal runway. Soon after smoke started to emerge, followed by a fire". A local television channel earlier reported the cargo plane had split in half.

Kin's of the victim of Mangalore crash get legal help from US man

He is not a lawyer, not even an air crash investigator and he makes no claims to being an insurance expert. But world over, grief stricken families of air crash victims from the remotest corners of an Amazonian village to a Russian town know him by name, and share with him a "tremendous rapport", as he himself puts it and sometimes, even lunch.

He is George Hatcher, a self-described air crash consultant and adviser who helps families take on colossal aircraft companies or airlines in US courts for damages after the loss of a dear one in a crash. Many families have won millions of dollars in settlements, he says and for many, the battle is still on. Hatcher, at 67, made his first ever trip to India last weekend and headed straight to the May 22 Air India crash site in Mangalore. He met families of the victims, spoke to young widows of Gulf-based Indian workmen even as their tiny tots played in the same room and convinced at least 10 of them that they deserved more than the mandatory compensation the airline was bound, under an international treaty, to give them. With him was Nishit Dhruva, partner of a Mumbai-based law firm M Dhruva & Partners who has joined hands with three large US law firms and setting the stage to sue Boeing, the American aircraft maker, in US courts for the biggest Indian air crash in decades.

Hatcher told, "You are a fare paying passenger. You need to be paid a compensation after any crash. The question is how much." That's where he comes in."I am just a bridge between lawyers and the clients," he said. But he doesn't knock on victims' doors unless he is sought. It is law firms that seek his help. In the US, law forbids law firms from chasing victims for the first 45 days after a tragedy.In India, now, Hatcher says he feels the families of the 170-odd victims, many of whom are poor, deserve to be placed on an equal footing to seek better damages.In India, though, he said Air India had a good flight record, experts in the field are pointing fingers at "a pilot error". But some, he added, "suggest turbine problems". With it being a US plane, what is being looked at is "multiple culpability" as this is the third 737 800 going down in recent times.As Hatcher says, "It is not enough to pay out one pay cheque, clear the wreckage, submit a report and say that we are even. Assess each victim based on parameters, including age, education, job, income, number of dependents, pain and suffering."

Exapt pilot's medical reqirments in India - a cause of worry

The crash of the Air India Express flight IX 812 at Mangalore International airport has brought the DGCA's medical requirement for expat pilots in the country is under the scanner. It seems like the Indian pilots are put under a very strict medical requirement to fly for airliners, on the other hand DGCA does not force the expat pilots to prove the medical fitness at the same standards as the Indian pilots are asked to do.
There have been few incidents involving expat pilots which is scary. There was a French national who was flying with Jet Airways and had collapsed at his hotel room just after his duty, in another terrifying case a first officer had to take control of the flight as the expat captain had become unconscious all in a sudden, lucky that the first officer was quick to act and he had landed the aircraft safely.
In another incident involving a South African pilot were he was arrested by the cops at Dubai, his wife had claimed that the pilot was suffering from hyper tension and diabetes which pose a high risk for pilots.
Was it something like this that caused the fatal Mangalore crash? Is DGCA gonna be sticking with the same relaxed requirement for expat pilots? Will there be another crash same as the Mangalore, if the captain's health had played a vital role in this crash. Will these questions be answered by the DGCA?

Crew highly experienced on flight 812 - AI chief

What went wrong with the Air India Express flight IX 812 is still a mystery as the DGCA has started probing into the accident. Expertise from Boeing and the NTSB  has been sought to help the investigation. There have been rumors that the pilots did have enough training to fly into the tricky runway of Mangalore. The Air India chief had called for press meeting earlier this evening and had clarified that those were just rumors.
He claimed that the Cockpit crew had enough rest as per the DGCA regulations and he had proof for the same. He also dismissed that the pilots did not have enough training, he said that the Captain had flown in and out of Mangalore several times and infact he had completed 19 successful landings at the same runway and the first officer had made 66 landings in the same runway. The crew was highly experienced, the Captain had more than 10,000 flying hours under his belt and the first officer had more than 3,000 hours of flying experience.

He refused to comment on the speculation that the aircraft might have touched down way beyond the touch down zone which made it hard for the crew to stop it within the available runway. He has asked the media "not to speculate any such thing as the investigation team is probing into the accident and lets wait patiently for them to come up with the cause of accident." The Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) will play a vital role in finding the cause for the fatal crash killing more than 150 with just 7 survivors, as the FDR can give important information on what the aircraft systems were doing during the final seconds and the CVR could explain what the crew was going through before the tragedy. This could explain was it a human error or a mechanical/electrical or any sort of catastrophic failure that had caused the crash.  

Passenger plane crashes in Afghanistan

A passenger plane carrying 44 passengers which include 6 foreign nationals has crashed in Afghanistan. Officials reported that it was a domestic flight and it had crashed in the Salang pass. There has been no official word on the casualties of the crash. It was reported that the aircraft was operated by Pamir Airways a private airlines in Afghanistan which had started its operation in 1995, since then it has been operating many domestic flight and flights to Dubai and Saudi Arabia for the Hajj pilgrims as well. The immediate cause of the accident is still unknown but aviation experts in Afghanistan suspect poor weather could have been the cause for the disaster. The crash site is 12,400 feet the Salang pass, it is expected that the search and rescue could have problems in reaching debris of the crashed aircraft.

No traces of fire before the crash - Tripoli crash

The plane that crashed on landing in Tripoli did not catch any fire or there wasn't any sort of explosion before the it crashed, reports suggest. The A330 with more than 100 people on board, killing all and leaving a sole survivor a nine year old Dutch boy who lost his family in the crash.
The reports also suggest that the pilot did not report any sorts of trouble to the air traffic controller. The black box and the flight data recorder are expected to be sent to Europe or USA for decoding the data and the conversation that happened during the final seconds of the fatal crash.

Aircraft crashes minutes before landing killing more than 100 on board

An Airbus A330 bound to Tripoli from Johannesburg has crashed just minutes before making it to the runway. The cause of the crash is yet to be determined, but there have been reports that suggest that there could have been an explosion just before the aircraft crashed. The aircraft was owned by Afriqiyah Airways, most of the passengers on board were Dutch people who were flying to other European countries connecting from this flight.
It was reported that the rescue team had rescued one 8 year old boy alive. The rescue team are are still doing their best to find few more alive. It is also believed that the Airbus officials have rushed a team to the crash site to find out what could have gone wrong.

Hunt for the crashed Air France jet extended

The French investigators on Tuesday said that the under water hunt for the wreckage of the crashed jet, an A330 killing all 228 people on board has been extended through late May. But the hunt will resume with fewer resources, the French accident investigation agency BEA is still confident enough to zero in on the location of the crash site. The BEA also confirmed that only one of the previous two ships will hunt for the black box as one vessel is carrying US Navy owned equipment and is unavailable. Air France and Air Bus the manufacturer of jet will sponsor euro 1.5 million each for the search operation that will carry on until May 25th.

Southwest jet and a Copter on collision path in Houston

A Southwest jet that just took off from the Houston airport had almost collided with a helicopter. The jet which just took off was at 100 feet AGL when the pilot spotted a helicopter on collision path. Both the pilot's had to take evasive action to avoid a crash. The Southwest jet's pilot eased back on the power and slowed down the rate of climb and the helicopter pilot had to bank very steeply to stay away from flight path of the jet. The jet and the helicopter missed each other by 100 feet vertical and 125 feet lateral distance. FAA has probed an investigation.

NASA space balloon crashes

A NASA space balloon has crashed on take off, tipping over a car and destroying its pay load. The multi million dollar space balloon crashed despite calm conditions at the Alice Springs airport. A eye witness of the crash was reported saying that the space balloon carrying scientific equipment hit the fence before hitting a stationary car. It was reported that no one was injured in this crash. NASA's balloon launching center has reported that it will go ahead with another launch of a space balloon by the end of May.

Pilot error cause for the 2007 Cameroon crash

Investigators have found the probable cause for the May 2007 crash of a Kenyan Airways B737 in Cameroon. The aircraft with 114 passengers on board crashed on a stormy night just after take off from Douala en route to Nairobi. The investigation team has ruled that the aircraft crashed due to loss of control of the crew due to spatial orientation. The report said that the after a long slow roll during which no instrument scanning was done by the crew and with no external visual reference in a dark night the aircraft crashed. The report said that the crew had failed to notice that the aircraft was banking slowly to the right as it gained altitude and just as the alarm sounded to warn the crew the Captain grabbed the controls and made erratic movements of the control column, putting the aircraft into a steeper bank of more than 90 degrees. The CVR had the final moments of the cockpit in which the first officer was calling 'left left captain' as it just hit the ground. 

Air France flight 447 still a mystery

The three week search for the Air France jet that crashed June last year in the Atlantic proved to be unsuccessful. The AF 447 an A330 with 228 passengers crashed due to bad weather on-route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil killing all passengers and crew on board. The investigators are still in the hunt for the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) that could possibly explain how the plain went down.
It has been estimated that so far the French Government, Air France and Airbus have together spent nearly $40 million in search of the wreckage, where they have been searching approximately 1,200 square miles.

Black Box reveals break in communication language protocol

The black box of the crashed Polish President's plane reveals that the communication between the Air Traffic Controller (ATC)  and the pilot where in Russian and not in English. Meanwhile a senior air traffic controller at the air base has claimed that the Polish crew did not give the controller with enough information and when asked to divert to another airport they had refused to do so and expressed intention to land at the same airport where the weather was too bad to attempt a landing.

Polish President and Army Chief Killed in a crash in Western Russia

The plane carrying the Polish President  Lech Kaczynski,his family, and other senior officials from Warsaw had crashed on approach to Somolensk airport in Western Russia. Polish State Agency reported that there were no survivors killing all 130 onboard.The plane reportedly caught fire after the crash.

4 die as an United States Air Force aircraft crashes in Afganistan

An U.S Air force aircraft crashed killing all four on-board. It was reported that 3 where American service members and one was a civilian, and the aircraft was a CV-22 Osprey which is a hybrid aircraft with rotors. It can land and take off as similar as an chopper would do as well as like a fixed wing. The cause for the crash is still unknown.