Aviation

Citation

(1999), "Aviation", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 8 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.1999.07308cac.008

Aviation

Aviation

Keywords Accidents, Air transport

27 May 1998 ­ Vientiane, Laos

A 40-seat Russian-built Yak-40 carrying senior military personnel from Vietnam crashed in Laos and all passengers were believed to have been killed, a Laos government official said today. The official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) quoted a Laos Defence Ministry statement as saying the aircraft carrying a delegation led by Lieutenant General Dao Trong Lich, chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army, had been missing since Monday (25 May). Details of the aircraft's route and take-off time given by VNA and the Laos official were the same, although VNA did not say if the aircraft had actually crashed. "All aboard the plane, mostly senior military delegates from Vietnam, are believed to be killed," the Laos official said by telephone from the Laotian capital Vientiane. It was unclear how many people were on board the aircraft and the Laos official. Lich, also one of several vice defence ministers in Vietnam, was leading a military delegation which left Vietnam for neighbouring Laos last Saturday. The Laos official said the aircraft left Vientiane on Monday for Xiang Khoang province in the country's north when it flew into a heavy rainstorm and crashed in jungle about 300km north of the capital. The wreckage was spotted late yesterday, added the official. "A rescue team from Laos flew out of Vientiane this morning to retrieve the wreckage and bodies," he said.

26 May 1998 ­ Ulan Bator, Mongolia

Mongolian rescue workers today, were searching for a small passenger Yun-12 aircraft (? Harbin Y-12 II) that went missing with 16 people on board, an aviation official said. The Chinese-built aircraft, belonging to Mongolian Airlines, left Erdenet, Mongolia's second largest city, at 09.17, local time, (02.17, UTC) and lost contact 13 minutes later, an official at the traffic control tower at Ulan Bator airport said. Two of the 16 people on board were children, he said. The aircraft, built in 1992, had been bound for Zavkhan province, the official said.27 May 1998 ­ A Mongolian airliner carrying 28 people, including 12 children, slammed into a snow-covered mountain and all those on board were feared dead, a government official said today. Rescue workers who landed by helicopter near the wreckage of the Mongolian Airlines Chinese-built Yun-12 aircraft, which went missing yesterday, had found bodies, said Oyundari Tsagaan, an official in the Prime Minister's office. "There's a very low probability of anybody being alive," she said. The aircraft is designed to carry 19 passengers and crew, according to its manufacturer. Tsagaan said the aircraft had broken up on impact, but she denied it was overloaded. The crash site was 2,800 metres above sea level on a barren stretch of rocky mountain, the commission official, Bukhbat, said. Another commission official, Natsagdorjiin Bairaa, said it was not clear whether the aircraft was equipped with a "black box" recorder that might reveal the cause of the crash.28 May 1998 ­ Government officials today confirmed that all 28 people on board the Mongolian airliner that crashed into a snow-covered mountain were killed. Rescuers landed by helicopter near the wreckage of the Mongolian Airlines Yun-12 and found the scattered remains of the victims, said an official with a government commission co-ordinating rescue efforts. "Only four to five bodies remained intact," said Oyundari Tsagaan, an official in the prime minister's office. The cause of the crash on Tuesday (26 May) was still under investigation. "The plane was like a empty can smashed," commission official Natsagdorjiin Bairaa said. The plane had broken up on impact, one official said.7 June 1998 ­ Mongolia has sacked its civil aviation chief and the head of national carrier Mongolian Airlines following a fatal plane crash last month, an official of the infrastructure ministry said today. The government dismissed Gongoriin Gangaatar as president of the Mongolian Civil Aviation Authority, said Gavaagiin Bathuu, head of the infrastructure ministry's transportation department. Huvaahuugiin Alesandr, president of Mongolian Airlines, was also sacked, he said, adding that the government had yet to find replacements for the two top aviation officials.

27 May 1998 ­ Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Pilot error was responsible for the crash last year of a Vietnam Airlines Tupolev TU-134 in which all but two of 66 people aboard were killed, the chief investigator into the crash said. Sok Sambaur, chairman of the accident investigation committee, said pilot Pham Van Tieu did not listen to instructions from the Phnom Penh control tower to change runways due to poor weather as his plane came in to land on 3 September. A report into the accident said an "impulsive" Tieu executed an improper landing procedure and despite urging from his crew to abort the approach, tried to land but clipped a palm tree, stalled and crashed. According to the cockpit voice recorder both the first officer and the flight engineer urged the captain to abort the landing. By the time the pilot realised he had to pull up it was too late, one of the two engines had stalled and it was unable to gain altitude, the report said. Officials at Vietnam Airlines in Phnom Penh declined to comment.

4 June 1998 ­ near Liaroka, East Timor

Most of Indonesia's senior military officers based in the troubled territory of East Timor died today in a helicopter crash in which there were no survivors, military officials said. Eleven people on board the Beli 205 helicopter were killed in the crash in heavy rain, and a lone survivor died in hospital in Baucau before he could be transported to the capital Dili, they said. Lieutenant-Colonel Supadi, chief-of-staff of the East Timor military region, blamed the crash on the bad weather. A military official involved in the rescue said the helicopter crashed after clipping trees in the hills near the village of Liaroka near Viqueque, about 200km south-east of Dili. "The head of the Udayana military command Major-General Yudomo was one of the victims. The East Timor army chief Colonel Slamet Sidabutar was also killed," Supadi said. The dead included Sidabutar's assistants for intelligence and operations, the commander of the territory's eastern sector, the head of operations at the local military district, Yudomo's adjutant as well as the helicopter's pilot, co-pilot and two support crew. Supadi blamed the crash on bad weather and said the helicopter exploded into flames after hitting a mountain while travelling from the north coast town of Baucau across the rugged interior to Viqueque on the island's south coast. The helicopter had left Dili on an island-wide tour in the morning, he said. "The weather was bad and it crashed into the side of the mountain and burst into flames. Only the tail was left," he said, adding that the crash site was remote and only accessible after an hour's hike from the nearest road.

18 June 1998 ­ Montreal, Canada

Twelve people died this morning when a Propair Inc. Beechcraft King Air made a forced landing at Montreal's Mirabel Airport around 07.35, EDT, police said. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that ten passengers and two crew members were dead after a crash near one of the runways at the airport north of Montreal. "There were technical problems. There was smoke inside the cabin that forced the landing at Mirabel," said Sgt. Marcel Parent. The twin-engine commuter plane owned by Rouyn-Noranda-based Propair Inc. left Dorval Airport in Montreal destined for an undisclosed city in Ontario, local television said. Parent said the plane was full and everyone on board was dead. Television images showed at least ten emergency vehicles at the end of Mirabel's runway 24 east. Black clouds of smoke billowed above the scene.18 June 1998 ­ The pilot of a Propair Inc. Beechcraft King Air attempted to bring his burning aircraft in for an emergency landing at Mirabel Airport near Montreal today, but the aircraft exploded on landing, killing him and ten others on board. Flight 420 was on a chartered flight, carrying nine General Electric engineers to Peterborough, Ontario, when the crash occurred at 07.28, EDT, today. The pilot called the control tower in Mirabel minutes after the aircraft took off from Montreal Dorval International Airport at 07.01 hrs, saying one of the aircraft's engines was on fire. He asked for emergency landing procedures, which were immediately put in place. Ray Monette, Mirabel's airport manager, said the aircraft flipped over after touching down, exploded and slid off the runway. Witnesses said three bodies were thrown from the aircraft when it exploded. One wing was separated from the rest of the aircraft, which came to rest in an overturned position, with flames leaping up from the wreckage. The wreckage remained ablaze for more than an hour after the explosion, and firefighters eventually doused the flames with foam. Transportation Safety Board inspector Benoit Bouchard, who arrived at Mirabel with two other investigators shortly after the crash, said a probe was launched immediately. Jean Desjardins, chief accident investigator at the site, said the pilot reported a hydraulic problem in the landing gear at about 07.10 hrs but decided not to turn back to Dorval. Ten minutes later he reported one engine was on fire, saying there was smoke in the cabin. Investigators said the hydraulic problem, engine fire and smoke in the cabin together made for extremely difficult conditions for the pilot as he landed.