Plane Crash Diaries

Latest Episodes:

Episode 15 - The first jetliner crash, Comair flight 5191 on the wrong runway & a crocodile in a bag May 11, 2020

Show notes

This is episode 15 and its all about unusual accidents including one that most likely involved a crocodile. But let’s start with what was called the first ever jetliner crash in 1953.That was an incident involving a de Havilland DH-106 Comet 1A registration CF-CUN operated by Canadian Pacific Airlines at Karachi-Mauripur RAF Station (OPMR) in Pakistan. The plane was a scant two months old when it crashed on take-off carrying eleven people, five crew and 6 passengers. The Comet aircraft was named "Empress of Hawaii" and was being delivered to Canadian Pacific Air Lines. The operator planned to use Comet to start a service between Sydney in Australia and Honolulu in Hawaii. ON April 28th 1953 it was being flown to Sydney after the flight crew had completed Comet Jet conversion training in the United Kingdom. It’s next phase of the long haul was supposed to be a hop from Karachi to Singapore. Another example of pilot error that has led to thousands of pages of legal documents changing hands was an accident on 27 August 2006 involving a CRJ-100ER jet operating as a Delta Connection Comair Flight 5191 scheduled to fly between Lexington in Kentucky and Atlanta in Georgia. The issue here was two runways side by side – but they are not parallel. Runway 22 and Runway 26. What that means is that they face 220 degrees, which is South West, and 260 degrees – which is west south west. This had confused pilots before, and was particularly confusing at night. The signage was also not satisfactory. Finally one of the more bizarre accidents in 2010 at Bandundu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which involved a crocodile. The aircraft was a 1991-built Let L-410 Turbolet, registration 9Q-CCN. On 25 August 2010, the jet Filair crashed on approach to Bandundu Airport in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing all but one of the 21 people on board. The aircraft had been operated as a round-robin domestic flight from Kinshasa the DRC capital, and doing a milk run stopping at Kiri, Bokoro, Semendwa and finally Bandundu. At 13:00 local time while on final approach to Bandundu Airport, the aircraft crashed into a house 1 kilometre short of the runway.

Episode 14 - Covid-19 crashes Global Aviation but here are the likely future scenarios Apr 15, 2020

Show notes

This is episode 14 and I was expecting to continue with the planned series but I’m afraid the world has changed in the last few weeks. Needless to say, if anything has to be done right now, it’s to understand what may happen to commercial aviation in the future. Some airlines are close to bankruptcy, others are being bailed out. Most have cut back on operations and are considering their next moves. There is a lot of politics, a lot of economics and not a lot of physics happening other than gravity dragging the revenue curve sharply downwards. Let’s see if we can make sense of what is going on internationally and in the next few minutes in this podcast, I’m going to make an effort not to inflate an already disastrous situation by too many adverbs or pronouns. Words like catastrophe, apocalyptic or disastrous. As aviation is all about numbers, we need to take a close look at the sector and understand just who may survive and who may not. Because commercial aviation is literally the lifeblood of modern business, flying globally is going to continue after this virus has been defeated. However things are not going to be business as usual after the pandemic passes. I’ve been attending webinars where IATA – the International Air Travel Association – has been briefing us about the latest in the Corona-virus affected aviation sector. I’ve been reading the professional pilots rumour network and receiving daily updates from various aviation sources, along with the Official Aviation Guide or OAG. My own flying has been cut. I’m grounded as here in South Africa we are on a strictly enforced lockdown and most domestic flights have stopped, while all international flights in and out have been shut down entirely.

Episode 13 - How Iran downed Ukraine Air SR752 & Social Media helped uncover the truth Mar 02, 2020

Show notes

Unfortunately this week we have an example of where safety was improved over the decades – but the growing tension in the world appears to have reversed some of the gains made. This is largely because of trigger-happy military personnel. Most passengers are blissfully unaware of just how close many commercial airliners have come to being shot down in the recent past, let alone during World Wars. This week we deal with the relatively recent shooting down of Ukraine Airlines SR 752 by the Iranian military. First a few examples of commercial airliners being shot out of the sky. As I mentioned briefly in an earlier podcast, the first known example was on 24 August 1938 during the Second Sino-Japanese War when a DC-2 known as the Kweilin operated by China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) was forced down by Japanese Aircraft inside Chinese territory just north of Hong Kong. The DC-2 was carrying 18 passengers and crew. Apparently all survived the emergency water landing, but not the follow up strafing run by the Japanese pilots. Fifteen died. The next reported commercial airliner shot down was the Kaleva OH-ALL incident on 14th June 1940- a civilian transport and passenger Junkers Ju 52-3/mge) operated by the Finnish carrier Aero O/Y. This time is was shot down by two Soviet Ilyushin DB-3 bombers while en route from Tallinn, Estonia, to Helsinki, Finland. The Soviet Soviet DB-3s bombers opened fire with machine guns and badly damaged Kaleva, causing it to ditch in water a few kilometers northeast of Keri lighthouse. All seven passengers and two crew members on board died. In episode three of this series, I explained how Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was brought down by a Soviet-made Buk surface to air missile. All 283 passengers and 15 crew on board the Boeing 777-200 ER died when the missile hit the plane near Donetsk in the Eastern Ukraine. It was fired by separatist rebels who’d been using an older model Buk missile which was promptly wheeled back into Russia after the case of mistaken identity. And that brings us directly to the 8th January 2020 Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 Boeing 737-800 that was shot down by Iran’s armed forces shortly after take-off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, killing all 176 people on board. Initially, Iran denied responsibility suggesting an engine had blown up. Eventually on 11 January, three days after the incident, Iran said it unintentionally shot down the commercial airliner mistaking it for a hostile target. For a start, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was extremely jittery because they had fired dozens of missiles at American bases in Iraq only a few hours before. That was in response to General Qassim Suleimani being killed by an American Drone in Iraq in late 2019.

Episode 12 - The 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak & its effect on the global airline business Feb 02, 2020

Show notes

We are deviating from our flight plan – last episode I said we would be covering Ukraine Air flight 752 shot out of the air by Iranian missiles killing all 176 on board. However, there is now a major crisis that has thrown most aviation companies into chaos and its called the Coronavirus. The logic behind this series is to reflect on how crashes improve safety – in this case I will explain how the 2003 SARS virus has led to some improvements in how aviation authorities deal with an epidemic and a pandemic. There is now also growing concern about the role of aviation in facilitating the spread of the coronavirus which goes by the name of 2019-nCoV particularly since the World Health Organisation listed it as a global emergency in the last week of January 2020. I’ve decided to dedicate this episode to covering this story as it develops, as it is going to cause massive losses for airlines and may even change how we travel. By the end of January 43 airlines had cancelled some or all flights into China in response to the spread of the coronavirus. The United States State Department issued a warning to citizens not to travel to China, as consumers were already avoiding travel there even when flights were available. A study by the University of Florida in January 2020 found that 19 percent of Americans have already changed bookings on travel plans in the next three months because of the virus, and another 52 percent said they are now worried about international travel. By February 2020 most of the world’s main airlines have pulled the plug on direct flights to and from China. While the Beijing government desperately tries to cope with an outbreak of a highly infectious disease thought to be linked to one of it’s cities Wildlife market – the rest of the world is preparing for what could make the outbreak of the SARS virus in 2002/3 and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) look like a walk in the park in comparison. There are two main reasons for this analysis. First, the coronavirus can remain hidden and yet carriers are infectious for up to two weeks when symptoms develop. That means no symptoms of the virus, which include high temperature, bronchial infections and other flu-like symptoms can be observed by airport temperature scanners while passengers are actually infecting other travelers. The second and extremely serious phenomenon which makes this different, is that there is now proof of human to human transmission.

Episode 11 - Fires on board commercial airliners and the mystery of the SAA Helderberg Dec 29, 2019

Show notes

This episode covers the terrifying examples of fire on board commercial airliners. One of the first was the Imperial Airways Armstrong Argosy II incident in Dixmude Belgium in 1933 where a fire thought to have been started by a passenger attempting to commit suicide caused the plane to crash killing all 15 on board. It was the deadliest accident at that point in the history of British civil aviation. It is also thought to be one of the first airliner ever lost due to sabotage. When you hear the story, perhaps you’ll agree with the findings at the time during the investigation. Everything centred around one passenger, by the name of Albert Voss, who was seen to jump from the aircraft as it came down over the Belgian countryside. Imperial's London–Brussels–Cologne route had been flown since 1928. But on the 28th March 1933 the plane was travelling from Brussels to London taking it over the northern Flanders region before crossing the coast for the 50 mile flight across the English Channel. It was delayed and eventually took off at 12.30 in the afternoon. While flying over Flanders, onlookers saw flames burst from the fuselage, before the aircraft lost altitude and plunged to the ground. As the Armstrong Argosy biplane slipped from the sky, a passenger was seen falling from the rear – someone had jumped. Another example of an accident that was caused by crew actions combined with a design fault was the United Airlines Flight 608 Douglas DC-6 on 24 October 1947. The four engine plane, registration NC37510, was on a scheduled passenger flight from Los Angeles to Chicago when it crashed just before 12.30 in the afternoon southeast of Bryce Canyon Airport, Utah, United States. 5 crew and 47 passengers died – all on board. It was also the deadliest air crash in the United States aviation history at the time and caused by a fire on board. Sometimes lateral thinking by pilots can be fatal if operating procedure is flouted. One of these lateral thinkers was the pilot of Swissair Flight SR306, a Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle III, which was a scheduled international flight from Zürich to Rome, via Geneva. His decisions which flew in the face of standard operating procedure doomed his passengers and crew unfortunately. The Sud-Aviation SE 210 crashed near Dürrenäsch, Aargau, on September 4, 1963, shortly after take-off, killing all 80 people on board. Another example of crew error which led to a fire took place near Toronto, Canada, on the 7th May 1970 where an Air Canada McDonnell Douglas DC-8 exploded after leaking fuel ignited – 109 on board died. This was an example of pilot error, but also a confused use of spoilers which are designed to slow an aircraft down rapidly. It was the misuse that led directly to a fire and explosions as you’ll hear. Had the crew followed the check list this accident would not have happened, as is the case with so many disasters. Captain Peter Hamilton and First Officer Donald Rowland had flown together before this terrible incident – but they seemed out of kilter when it came to exactly when to arm the spoilers. The check list indicated the spoilers should have been armed at the beginning of the final approach. Yet hoth agreed they’d arm the spoilers in the middle of the landing flare when the engines were throttled back and the plane was close to the runway. The final example in this episode is of South African Airways flight 295 probably one of the more mysterious in-flight fires where the cause has never been identified. It is known as the Helderberg disaster in South Africa.

Episode 10 - In-Air break ups, the miracle of Juliane Koepcke & the Comet Catastrophe Dec 08, 2019

Show notes

In this episode we’ll look at in-air breakups of aeroplanes – caused by poor flying, poor design, or poor maintenance and bad weather. In some cases all four of these together. However as with all things aviation, every accident leads to an equal and opposite reaction .. to misquote the great Sir Isaac Newton. That reaction luckily for us, is called Aviation safety standards. The terrible truth is that people die and then safety improves. So let’s start with the 32 year-old Charles Rolls. He was one half of the great Rolls-Royce engine company but his end was rather unfortunate. Probably the most famous of all in-air break ups involved the notorious de Havilland Comet. It took three catastrophic failures all within a year before the airliner was grounded. Launched by BOAC in 1952, the Comet was the world’s first jet airliner and was an attractive plane too. Aviation buffs swooned over its swept back look, the modern jet liner was born and it could fly right across the Atlantic without a stop. However, it had a serious flaw. The windows and doors. One of the most incredible in-air failures ended with almost everyone surviving. In April 1988, part of the fuselage of an Aloha 737 flying from Hilo to Honolulu shredded at 24,000ft. A flight attendant was swept overboard – everyone else survived. Imagine sitting in the open air with nothing between them and the ocean except for a safety belt. That may be so, but it took a 1991 accident to kick start a proper global culture of aviation safety. The mid-air break up of the Continental Express Flight 2574 – an Embraer 120 Brasilia, was a scheduled domestic passenger airline flight operated by Britt Airways from Laredo International Airport in Laredo, Texas, to Houston Intercontinental Airport or IAH in Houston, Texas. A break-up of a plane over Peru deserves special mention at this point. As you’ll hear in this series, there are many examples of a single person surviving a plane crash. And this is one of them. Today we hear about the extraordinary story of Juliane Koepcke. She was 17 years old and sitting in the window seat next to her mother on board a Lansa Aircraft flight 508 from Lima in Peru to Pucallpa in the middle of the Amazon Rain Forest. There’s another I have to mention and it involved something known as Clean Air Turbulence which led to an in-air breakup of a commercial airliner. In the case of BOAC flight 911 callsign Speedbird 911, clean air turbulence produced an estimated 7.5Gs that caused the Boeing to disintegrate over Mount Fuji in Japan on 5th March 1966. Clean Air turbulence will be covered in a future podcast, but needless to say there’s no warning. All 113 passengers and 11 crew perished.

Episode 9 - Boeing MAX 8 accidents & the failure of governance Nov 01, 2019

Show notes

This week it’s the terrible crashes involving the Boeing 737 MAX 8 – one in October 2018 and the other in March 2019. In both cases an automated trim called the Movement Characteristics Augmentation System is believed to have been behind the accidents. The story is also a shocking failure by the Federal Aviation Authority in managing a crisis, as well as serious questions of governance at Boeing. While the accident reports are awaited, there is enough information from both FAA and Boeing itself to cover this as an example of poor design, poor safety management, and poor oversight – particularly when it comes to risk analysis. Since the accidents Boeing has announced a slew of changes to its quality control process, including the announcement in September that a new Safety Committee was being created led by Boeing veteran Beth Pasztor. Too little too late for 346 people. Boeing has also split the role of CEO and chairman of the Board which is a bit like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted but at least its beginning to take action internally. Boeing has built a name around allowing pilots to fly their planes, whereas competitor Airbus designs their planes around full fly-by-wire automation, but back in the mid 2000s something radical happened at the American plane manufacturer. This podcast looks at a story that has saddened many in the aviation sector. The oldest aircraft manufacturer is now under pressure legally and ethically.

Episode 8 – Japan Airlines JAL Flight 123 & the dangers of shoddy aeroplane maintenance Sep 21, 2019

Show notes

This episode features an air crash in 1985 is the deadliest single-aircraft plane crash in history where 520 of the 524 passengers and crew died. Remarkably, 4 survived - all women. But this is also a story where the number of survivors could have been higher had the Japanese rescuers hit the ground earlier. As you’ll hear, authorities were alerted about the whereabouts of the crashed plane early by American military search and rescue, but then presumed all on board had died and delayed a rescue attempt until the next day. Japan Airlines Flight 123 servided an unusual route, although using a Boeing 747SR – which means Short Range. It was a domestic Japan Airlines passenger flight from Tokyo's Haneda Airport to Osaka International Airport, Japan. On August 12, 1985. During the flight, the Boeing suffered a sudden decompression twelve minutes into the flight and then crashed later into the area near Mount Tagamagahara, around 100 kilometers from Tokyo. A faulty repair by Being technicians was blamed and as we’ll see, a number of recommendations were made by the United States Federal Aviation Authority afterwards concerning Boeing’s maintenance and repairs.

Episode 7 – The Lovettsville Air Disaster and lightning strikes on planes Aug 30, 2019

Show notes

Strap in this week, because its all about lightning. We’re looking at one crash in particular, the Lovettsville Air Disaster which took place on August 31 1940 near the town of Lovettsville in Virginia, the United States. There were 21 passengers and 4 crew on board and all 25 died in the accident, including U.S. Senator Ernest Lundeen from Minnesota. As you’ll hear, his death was regarded as extremely sinister because he was under FBI investigation at the time. But we’ll get to that in a while. The plane was a brand new Douglas DC-3A operated by Pennsylvania Central Airlines. It was flying through an intense thunderstorm at 6,000 feet en route from Washington to Detroit. The journey for the doomed passengers and crew had started in Washington and there was a planned stopover in Pittsburgh but the plane took off late due to thunderstorm activity around Washington. Numerous witnesses reported seeing a large flash of lightning shortly before it nosed over and plunged to earth in an alfalfa field. With limited accident investigation tools at the time, it was at first believed that the most likely cause was the plane flying into windshear, but the Civil Aeronautics Board report concluded that the probable cause was a lightning strike. "Trip 19", as it was designated, was under the command of Captain Lowell V. Scroggins with First Officer J. Paul Moore. The pilot and copilot had over eleven thousand and six thousand hours experience respectively, although only a few hundred of those hours were on DC-3s. A new airline employee was flying in the third seat between the two pilots called the jump seat. He’d only just been hired on August 26th.

Episode 6 – The 1946 Mistberget & Gauli Glacier Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) crashes Aug 15, 2019

Show notes

It’s time for that terrible acronym – CFIT – which means Controlled Flight into Terrain. That’s where the pilot is unable to see the terrain for whatever reason, and believes that he or she is higher than they are, or somewhere else, or the equipment on board has failed and altitude readings are wrong. This often happens unfortunately when a let down is being flown – which is a technique that allows a pilot to pass hills and other obstructions before they are let down to a low altitude. There are few other reasons for controlled flight into terrain, including suicide which was the case with the infamous German wings accident of 2015 where mentally unhinged First Officer locked the captain out of the cockpit and proceded to fly a packed Airbus A320-211 into a Swiss mountainside. All 144 passengers and crew were killed in what was not pilot error – it was pilot suicide. One of the earliest examples that led to changes in training took place on 7th August 1946 on the Mistberget Mountain in Norway. It involved British European Airways Flight 530, which was a Douglas C-47 Skytrain. Three of the five crew on board died, but 10 passengers survived. It’s known as the Mistberget Accident. A few months later another CFIT accident took place in Switzerland involving a C-53 Skytrooper passenger variant of the Douglas DC-3 on the 18h November 1946. This is an important event and had multinational repercussions and also led to the turning point in alpine rescue.

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