Crossair Flight 498

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Crossair Flight LX498

HB-AKK, pictured a year before the aircraft crashed in Niederhasli, Switzerland.
Summary
Date 10 January 2000
Type Pilot error
Site Niederhasli, Switzerland
Passengers 7
Crew 3
Injuries 0
Fatalities 10
Survivors 0
Aircraft type Saab 340
Operator Crossair
Tail number HB-AKK

Crossair Flight LX498 (known subsequently as Crossair Flight CRX498 by officials) was a commuter flight from Zurich, Switzerland to Dresden, Germany that crashed two minutes after takeoff in the Swiss municipality of Niederhasli on 10 January 2000. The seven passengers and three crewmembers aboard the two-turboprop engine Saab 340 aircraft all died on impact. It was the first fatal crash for the Swiss regional airline Crossair in its 25-year history.

The official report into the disaster found that the crash was due to a loss of control resulting from multiple human failures. An alternative theory has been developed that suggests the crash may instead have been the result of mobile phone use interfering with the aircraft. The theory resulted in multiple countries banning mobile phone usage on aircraft.

Contents

[edit] Background

The 33-seat Saab-340B airplane used for Crossair Flight LX498 had been leased to Crossair from Moldavian Airlines since October 1, 1999.[1] The plane was scheduled to depart from Zurich Airport (Switzerland) on Monday, January 10, 2000, at around 6:00 p.m. and arrive in Dresden Airport (Germany) a few hours later.[2][3][4] The cold, drizzly weather was normal for the area,[5] there were no indications that anything was wrong with the aircraft, and, although this particular aircraft had 24,000 flying hours since its November 1990 delivery,[5] this type of airplane had a very good safety record.[2] The pilot had 8,100 hours of flying time, with 1,900 in the Saab 340 type and the co-pilot had about 1,800 total hours and 1,100 hours in the Saab 340 type.[1][3] The plane was carrying no unusual payload such as freight or mail and the plane was not due for its next regular maintenance check for another 21 days, on January 31, 2000.[1]

[edit] Event

After the seven passengers and three crewmembers boarded, the plane was cleared for takeoff on time at 5.55 p.m. (1655 GMT).[2] The aircraft departed Runway 28 heading west.[3] From takeoff, the plane climbed normally.[1] But after 7.2 kilometers (4.5 miles) the plane suddenly started to lose altitude and turn to the right instead of following the approved flight path to the left.[1] When air traffic controllers asked the pilot if he meant to turn right, they were answered with "Stand by," followed by a loss of radio contact.[1]

At 6.05 p.m. (1705 GMT), one minute 56 seconds into the flight,[1] the plane disappeared from radar screens.[2] Officials later determined that the plane went into a diving right turn before vanishing from radar screens.[1] Burning wreckage was scattered for 200-300 meters close to houses at Niederhasli, some 5 kilometres (3 mi) northwest of the runway at Zurich's Kloten airport.[2] The flight data and cockpit voice recorders were recovered from the accident scene, both heavily damaged.[3]

[edit] Parties involved

Four of the passengers were Germans – Steffen Braun, 36; Klaus Friedrich, 48; Matthias Morche, 22; and Peter Schmidt, 31.[1] The others were a Frenchman, Pascal Rol, 43, a Swiss, Heinz Hoefler, 61, and an unidentfied Spaniard who traveled to Zurich on a Swissair flight from Madrid, and of which no details are available.[1] The three person crew included Moldovan pilot Pavel Gruzin, Slovakian copilot Rastislav Kolesar and a French flight attendant, Severine Jabrin.[1] There were no survivors.[2]

At that time, Crossair was a majority owned subsidiary of SAirGroup.[6] The crash of Crossair Flight LX498 was the first time in Crossair's 25-year history that the regional airline had lost an aircraft,[6][2] and was the worst accident to hit the SAirGroup since the crash of Swissair Flight 111, a MD11 flying from New York to Geneva crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia, Canada in September 1998, killing all 229 aboard.[2]

At the time, Crossair operated 17 Saab-340 type planes, but eventually phased them out with Embraer ERJ-145 regional jets.[6] The crash came about in the midst of a bitter labor-management dispute between Crossair and its pilots over a possible pay raise and work rules changes.[3] The pilots union had just canceled pay agreements with Crossair in December, 1999, with a termination effective in summer 2000. In addition, and prior to the accident, two Crossair pilots told Swiss media that some foreign pilots employed by Crossair pose a safety risk because of an insufficient knowledge of English.[3] These two pilots were fired by Crossair, but were then elected to head the pilots union, "Crossair Cockpit Personnel (CCP)".[3] Flight LX498's crew consisted of a captain from Moldova and a copilot from Slovakia.[1] An investigation of the accident later revealed that Pilot Gruzin and copilot Kolesar were only able to communicate with each other in English, but Gruzin's ability to speak English was too limited to hold more than a basic conversation.[7]

After the crash, both Crossair and CCP, including the pilots who had previously spoken to the media and been fired, publicly stated that the coincidence between the accident and the dispute was very unfortunate and that reports about pilot error being involved in the crash were speculation,[3] although this conclusion was later established to be the probable cause of the accident.[8]

[edit] Official explanation

Pack of Phenazepam, found in Moldovan pilot Pavel Gruzin's crew bag.
Pack of Phenazepam, found in Moldovan pilot Pavel Gruzin's crew bag.

[edit] Background

The Saab 340 is widely used in the United States, Australia and elsewhere as a commuter plane.[2] Prior to the hull loss of Crossair Flight LX498, there had been only four crashes worldwide of the 400 Saab-340 plane types since 1984 and only two of those were hull losses.[2][5][6] The two hull losses were a 1994 KLM Cityhopper crash that killed three in the Netherlands and a 1998 Air Formosa crash that killed 13 in Taiwan.[1]

An examination of pilot Pavel Gruzin's body revealed traces of the tranquilizer Phenazepam in his muscle tissue.[7] Examiners also found an open packet of the Russian-made drug in a baggage belonging to Gruzin.[7]

[edit] Causes

According to the Investigation Report of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, the accident was attributable to the flight crew losing control of the aircraft for the following reasons:[8]

  • The flight crew reacted inappropriately when departure clearance was ordered by ATC.
  • The co-pilot made an entry without being instructed to do so by the commander, which related to the change to the SID ZUE 1 standard instrument departure. In doing so, he omitted to select a turn direction.
  • The commander dispensed with use of the autopilot under instrument flight conditions and during the work-intensive climb phase of the flight.
  • The commander took the aircraft into a spiral dive to the right because, with a probability bordering on certainty, he had lost spatial orientation.
  • The first officer took only inadequate measures to prevent or recover from the spiral dive.

According to this same Investigation Report, the following factors may have contributed to the accident:[8]

  • The commander remained unilaterally firm in perceptions which suggested a left turn direction to him.
  • When interpreting the attitude display instruments under stress, the commander resorted to a reaction pattern (heuristics) which he had learned earlier.
  • The commander’s capacity for analysis and critical assessment of the situation were possibly limited as a result of the effects of medication.
  • After the change to standard instrument departure SID ZUE 1Y the crew set inappropriate priorities for their tasks and their concentration remained one-sided.
  • The commander was not systematically acquainted by Crossair with the specific features of western systems and cockpit procedures.

[edit] Alternative theory

The government crash report does not mention cell phone activity as a primary cause of the crash, and instead attributes it to pilot error.[9] However, a separate investigation into the cause of the crash showed that the autopilot system malfunctioned at the same time that a passenger's cell phone on board the plane received an SMS message and another received a call. After this information was made public, a number of countries that had previously been reluctant to do so outlawed cell phones on flights (including Switzerland).[10][11][12]

[edit] Flight number

The flight is widely known as 'LX498' as this was the coding given to this particular flight on the day. 'LX' is the older IATA (International Air Transport Association) coding for the airline, whereas 'CRX' is the newer ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) coding, which is replacing the IATA coding and which is used in all the official reports of the incident. Specialists researching into the official reports may find the flight identified as CRX498.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Abegg, Ernst E. (January 11, 2000). Associated Press. Plane went into dive, turned right before crashing, investigators say.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Abegg, Ernst E. (Jan. 10, 2000). Associated Press. Crossair plane crashes near Zurich.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Weekly of Business Aviation. (January 17, 2000). First Crossair Fatal Crash Comes Amid Labor, Management Turmoil. Volume 70; Issue 3; Pg. 27.
  4. ^ CBC News. (November 11, 2000). Zurich plane crash kills 10.
  5. ^ a b c Birmingham Post. (January 11, 2000). Ten killed in plane fireball.
  6. ^ a b c d Aviation Daily. (January 11, 2000). Crossair Has First Crash, A Saab 340 Near Zurich. Volume 339; Issue 7; Pg. 1.
  7. ^ a b c Abegg, Ernst E. (Aug. 23, 2002). Associated Press. Investigators: Pilot in fatal Swiss crash was taking tranquilizers.
  8. ^ a b c Investigation Report of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau on the accident to the Saab 340B aircraft, registration HB-AKK of Crossair Flight LX498 on 10 January 2000 near Nassenwil/ZH. Pg. 108.
  9. ^ Cockpit Voice Recorder database entry. Retrieved November 26, 2006.
  10. ^ Mobile Review. (November 19, 2002). A cell phone aboard an airplane, fantasies and the facts.
  11. ^ Mobile phone suspected in plane crash inquiry. The Register. 17 January 2001.
  12. ^ Marguerite Reardon, Ben Charny. "Feds move on wireless Web, cell phones in flight", ZDNet News, 2004-12-15. Retrieved on 2006-12-01. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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