Lauda Air Flight 004

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**Lauda Air Flight 004**
Summary
Date	May 26, 1991
Type	In flight thrust reverser deployment
Site	Ban Nong Rong, Thailand
Passengers	213
Crew	10
Injuries	0
Fatalities	223
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	Boeing 767-3Z9ER
Aircraft name	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Operator	Lauda Air
Tail number	OE-LAV
Flight origin	Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong
Last stopover	Don Mueang International Airport, Bangkok, Thailand
Destination	Vienna International Airport, Vienna, Austria

Lauda Air Flight 004 was an international passenger flight that crashed due to a thrust reverser deployment of the number 1 engine, in flight.

On May 26, 1991, about 23:10 local time, Flight 004 (originating from Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport), a Boeing 767-3Z9ER, registration OE-LAV, ship name Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, took off from Old Bangkok International Airport (Don Mueang International Airport) for its flight to Vienna International Airport with 213 passengers and 10 crew, under the command of Captain Thomas J. Welch and First Officer Josef Thurner.

At 23:22, Welch and Thurner received a visual warning indicating that a possible system failure would cause the thrust reverser on the number 1 engine to deploy in flight. Having consulted the aircraft's Quick Reference Handbook, they determined that it was "just an advisory thing" and took no action.^[1]

At 23:31, the thrust reverser on the number 1 engine deployed while the plane was over the jungle near Ban Nong Rong (Uthai Thani Province), Thailand. Thurner's last recorded words were, "Reverser's deployed!".^[2]

The 767 stalled in mid-air and disintegrated at 4000 ft (1200 m). None of the 223 passengers and crew aboard the airliner survived. It was the first fatal crash of a Boeing 767. The accident remains the deadliest aviation disaster on Thai soil to date.

Upon hearing of the crash, Niki Lauda, retired Formula 1 race driver and owner of the airline, travelled to Thailand. As evidence started to point towards the thrust reversers as the cause of the accident, he made simulator flights at Gatwick Airport which appeared to show that deployment of a thrust reverser was a survivable incident. He went on to allege that the thrust reverser could not be the sole cause of the crash. A subsequent official investigation disagreed with Lauda's findings that there must have been further problems for the aircraft to have been lost. The incident led Boeing to modify the thrust reverser system to prevent similar occurrences.

Aviation writer Macarthur Job has noted that, "had that Boeing 767 been of an earlier version of the type, fitted with engines that were mechanically rather than electronically controlled, then that accident could not have happened.^[2]