Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771

Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771

The Airbus A330-202, 5A-ONG, involved in the incident
Accident summary
Date 12 May 2010
Summary Spatial disorientation (somatogravic perceptual illusion) during go-around following Terrain Awareness and Warning System (TAWS) alert, lack of CRM, pilot error
Site On approach to runway 09 at Tripoli International Airport in Tripoli, Libya
32°39′41″N 13°7′9″E / 32.66139°N 13.11917°ECoordinates: 32°39′41″N 13°7′9″E / 32.66139°N 13.11917°E
Passengers 93
Crew 11
Injuries (non-fatal) 1
Fatalities 103
Survivors 1 (2 initially)
Aircraft type Airbus A330-202
Operator Afriqiyah Airways
Registration 5A-ONG
Flight origin OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa
2nd stopover Tripoli International Airport, Tripoli, Libya
Destination Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 was a scheduled international passenger flight that crashed on 12 May 2010 at about 06:01 local time (04:01 UTC) on approach to Tripoli International Airport.[1][2] Of the 104 passengers and crew on board, the sole survivor was 9-year-old Dutch boy Ruben van Assouw.[3][4][5][6]

The crash of Flight 771 was the third hull-loss of an Airbus A330 involving fatalities, happening eleven months after the second one came with the crash of Air France Flight 447.

Aircraft

The aircraft was an Airbus A330-200, registration 5A-ONG, manufactured in 2009, manufacturer's serial number (MSN) 1024. It was delivered in September 2009 and at the time of the accident it had approximately 1,600 hours total flying time and about 420 take-off and landing cycles. The aircraft was powered by two General Electric CF6-80E1 engines.[7][8] It was configured for a capacity of 253 passengers.[9][10] This particular flight carried 93 passengers and 11 crew. Most of the passengers were Dutch citizens returning from holiday in South Africa.[2][5] An airport official stated that 13 Libyans, both passengers and crew, as well 70 Dutch nationals had lost their lives in the crash.[11][12]

Flight

The route of Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771

The flight originated at OR Tambo International Airport, serving Johannesburg, South Africa. Its destination was Tripoli International Airport, Libya.[2] During the final approach and up to the moment of the accident the pilot had not reported any problems to the control tower.[13] The aircraft crashed about 1,200 metres (1,300 yd) short of Runway 09, outside the airport perimeter.[14][15] The aircraft was destroyed by the impact and post-crash fire.[16][17] The METAR in force at the time of the crash was HLLT 120350Z VRB01KT 6000 NSC 19/17 Q1008.[18][A] The main runway of the airport is 3,600 metres (11,800 ft) long.[19] Libyan Transport Minister Mohammed Ali Zidan ruled out terrorism as a cause.[20] During the incident, the aircraft damaged a house on the ground. The homeowner, his wife, and their five children escaped unharmed. The house and a nearby mosque are scheduled to be demolished as part of the airport expansion plans.[21] The first body of a non-Libyan passenger was repatriated to the Netherlands on 27 May 2010.[22] On 21 June 2010 the Libyan authorities began clearing the accident site of Afriqiyah 771.[22]

The accident is the second deadliest involving an Airbus A330 (after Air France Flight 447), and the second deadliest accident to have happened in Libya.[9] It was the first hull-loss accident for Afriqiyah Airways.[15]

Investigation

The Libyan Civil Aviation Authority (LYCAA) opened an investigation into the accident.[23] Airbus stated that it would provide full technical assistance to the authorities investigating the crash,[24] and would do so via the French Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA).[25] The South African Civil Aviation Authority sent a team to assist with the investigation.[26] The BEA assisted in the investigation with an initial team of two investigators, accompanied by five advisors from Airbus.[27] The Dutch Safety Board (Onderzoeksraad voor de Veiligheid "Research Council for Safety") sent an observer.[28] The flight recorders were recovered and sent to Paris for analysis soon after the incident.[13][29]

Authorities reviewed the recordings made by the Flight Data Recorder[30] In August 2010, it was reported that preliminary investigations were complete. There was no evidence of any technical problems nor was there any fuel shortage. No technical or medical problems had been reported by the crew and they had not requested any assistance.[18] Due to the 2011 Libyan civil war, the investigation was being hampered, with the Nederlandse Omroep Stichting unable to get any response from the LYCAA. The data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder and Flight Data Recorder had been extracted, and the results given to the LYCAA.

On 28 February 2013, the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority announced that they had determined that the cause of the crash was pilot error. Crew resource management lacked/was insufficient, sensory illusions and the first officer inputs to the aircraft side stick were a contributing factor in the crash. Also fatigue could have played a role in the accident.

Accident description

The flight crew did not acquire any visual ground references before the approach was started. The aircraft started its final descent for landing too early. The aircraft had descended to 280 feet above ground when the Terrain awareness and warning system sounded in the cockpit. The captain ordered a go-around and the autopilot was turned off. The first officer put the nose of the aircraft up for 4 seconds and the thrust levers were set to go-around power. The aircraft pitched up to 12.3° nose up and the flight crew raised the landing gear and flaps. Shortly thereafter the co-pilot started making nose down inputs which caused the aircraft to pitch-attitude to reduce to 3.5° nose down. (The co-pilot could have been focused on the aircraft's speed, rather than its attitude.) The go-around pitch attitude was not maintained and the instructions from the flight director were not followed. (The report says that fatigue could have played a role in causing the first officer to focus solely on the airspeed.) The captain and the first officer were making inputs to the aircraft's side stick at the same time (although the dual inputs were not sufficient to trigger a dual-input warning). This action appears to be intended to provide assistance by the captain to fly the aircraft. This action led to confusion on who was flying the aircraft. The Ground proximity warning system sounded as the aircraft lost more height and the co-pilot responded with a sharp nose-down input. Then the captain took control of the aircraft without warning, via the side stick priority button and maintained the nose-down input, while the first officer was simultaneously pulling back on his own side stick. Two seconds before impact with the ground the aircraft was at 180 feet. The captain was also pulling his side stick fully back, suggesting both pilots were aware of the aircraft's impending collision with the ground.[31][32]

Reactions

Afriqiyah Airways issued a statement saying that relatives of the victims who wished to visit Libya would be transported and accommodated at Afriqiyah's expense. The Libyan authorities relaxed certain passport restrictions and guaranteed the granting of visas.[33] By 15 May 2010 the airline opened the Family Assistance Centre in a hotel in Tripoli to care for family members and relatives of crash victims who were visiting Libya. The executive team of Afriqiyah, including the CEO and the chairperson of the board, met family members at the hotel. Some family members wanted to visit the crash site; they travelled to the site and placed flowers there.[33] The airline permanently retired the flight number 771 and it has been re-designated to 788 for Tripoli to Johannesburg and 789 for the return flight.[22]

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands expressed her shock at hearing the news.[34] The President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, also offered his condolences.[2]

Passengers and crew

The passengers aboard Flight 771 were of various nationalities. All of the eleven crew members were Libyans. One passenger held dual citizenship. The following list reflects the airline's passenger nationality count of the victims.[33] The airline released the manifest on the morning of 15 May 2010; the airline sent the list to several related embassies.[33]

Nationality Killed Survivors Total
Passengers Crew
Netherlands Dutch 67  – 1 68
Libya Libyan 2 11  – 13
South Africa South African 13*  –  – 13*
Belgium Belgian 4  –  – 4
Austria Austrian 2  –  – 2
United Kingdom British 1  –  – 1
France French 1  –  – 1
Germany German 1  –  – 1
Zimbabwe Zimbabwean 1  –  – 1
Total 92 11 1 104

* one South African passport holder, Bree O'Mara, had dual South African and Irish citizenships.[35][36]

The sole survivor was 9-year-old Ruben van Assouw, a resident of the Dutch city of Tilburg,[6][11][37][38] who was returning from a safari with his parents and brother.[6][39] Van Assouw was taken to Sabia'a Hospital, 30 kilometres (19 mi) south-east of Tripoli and later transferred to Al-Khadhra Hospital, Tripoli,[23] to undergo surgery for multiple fractures in both legs.[40] Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Ad Meijer said the child has no life-threatening injuries.[2][41] Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and Captain Sabri Shadi, the head of Afriqiyah Airways, visited Van Assouw while he was hospitalised in Libya.[33] On 15 May, he was transferred by air ambulance to Eindhoven in the Netherlands.[37] Van Assouw was accompanied on the flight by his aunt and uncle.[42]

Of the passengers, 42 were continuing to Düsseldorf, 32 were continuing to Brussels, seven to London, and one to Paris. Eleven of the passengers had Libya as their final destination.[37] Of the 71 passengers identified as Dutch by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 38 were travelling with the Stip travel agency, 24 were travelling with the Kras travel agency, and 9, including the survivor, had their tickets booked independently.[43][44]

Among the victims were Frans Dreyer, brother of South African Member of Parliament Anchen Dreyer.[45][46] and his friend and colleague, Anton Matthee. On the evening of 12 May 2010, the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that one of its passport holders was on the plane, novelist Bree O'Mara.[35][47] One of the Dutch victims was Joëlle van Noppen, singer in the former Dutch girl group WOW!.[48]

The flight deck members were identified as Captain Yousef Bashir Al-Saadi (Arabic: يوسف بشير الساعدي‎), Co-pilot Tareq Mousa Abu Al-Chaouachi (Arabic: طارق موسي أبو الشواشي‎), and Co-pilot Nazim Al-Mabruk Al-Tarhuni (Arabic: ناظم المبروك الترهوني‎).[49]

See also

Notes

  • A ^ Translation: METAR for Tripoli International Airport, issued at 03:50 UTC on the 12th of the month. Winds variable in direction at 1 knot (1.9 km/h), visibility 6,000 metres (3.7 miles), no significant cloud cover, temperature 19 °C, dewpoint 17 °C, altimeter setting 1008 hPa

References

  1. ↑ "Afriqiyah Flight 771 crash". Afriqiyah Airways. 12 May 2010. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Plane crash in Libya 'kills more than 100 on board'". BBC News. 12 May 2010. Archived from the original on 13 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  3. ↑ "Libya plane crash 'kills all 104 on board'". MSNBC. 12 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  4. ↑ "Mogelijk Nederlanders aan boord crash Tripoli" (in Dutch). NOS. 12 May 2010. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "61 Nederlanders dood bij crash Tripoli". De Telegraaf (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Overlevende vliegramp is Tilburgs jongetje". Brabants Dagblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  7. ↑ "Afriqiyah Airways flight 8U771 accident in Tripoli, Libya (issue 2)". EADS. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  8. ↑ Kaminski-Morrow, David. "Afriqiyah identifies crashed A330-200". Flight Global. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  10. ↑ Clark, Nicola (12 May 2010). "Jet With 104 Aboard Crashes in Libya". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Libya plane crash kills 103, Dutch child survives". Reuters. 12 May 2010. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  12. ↑ "Libya plane crash – 'at least one Briton on board'". BBC News. 12 May 2010. Archived from the original on 13 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Dutch boy who survived Libya crash flies home". BBC News Online. 15 May 2010. Archived from the original on 17 May 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2010.
  14. ↑ Final report, synopsis, p.9
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Recent accidents / incidents worldwide". JACDEC. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  16. ↑ Final report, section 1.3, p.11
  17. ↑ "Scores dead in Libya plane crash". Al Jazeera. 12 May 2010. Archived from the original on 13 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Hradecky, Simon. "Crash: Afriqiyah A332 at Tripoli on 12 May 2010". Aviation Herald. Retrieved 17 August 2010.
  19. ↑ "Libyan jet carrying 104 crashes on approach to Tripoli; Dutch boy is sole known survivor". Chicago Tribune. 12 May 2010. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  20. ↑ "Terrorism Ruled Out in Tripoli Plane Crash". Sky News. 12 May 2010. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  21. ↑ Nierop, Leonie: "Nóg zeven wonderen in Tripoli." NRC Handelsblad, 15 May 2010. Retrieved on 16 May 2010.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 "Flight Afriqiyah Airways 771 Johannesburg – Tripoli." Afriqiyah Airways.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "Plane Crushes at Tripoli Airport, 104 Passengers on Board, 9-year-Old Boy Survives". Tripoli Post. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  24. ↑ "Airbus To Provide Technical Help in Libya Crash Investigation". Wall Street Journal. 12 May 2010. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010. (registration required)
  25. ↑ "Afriqiyah Airways aircraft accident in Libya". EADS. 12 May 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2010.
  26. ↑ "CAA team to travel to Libya to assist in crash investigation". Business Day. 12 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  27. ↑ "Press release, 12 May 2010". Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile. 12 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  28. ↑ "Onderzoeksraad stuurt waarnemer naar Tripoli, 12 May 2010" (in Dutch). Trouw. 12 May 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2010.
  29. ↑ "Investigation begins into cause of Tripoli air crash". BBC News Online. 13 May 2010. Archived from the original on 17 May 2010. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
  30. ↑ "Sources: Pilot in Libyan crash hampered by low visibility". CNN. 16 May 2010. Archived from the original on 19 May 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2010.
  31. ↑ "Illusion and dual control led to Afriqiyah A330 crash". Flightglobal. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  32. ↑ "Final Report of AFRIQIYAH Airways Aircraft Airbus A330-202, 5A-ONG Crash Occurred at Tripoli (LIBYA) on 12/05/2010". Libyan Civil Aviation Authority. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 33.4 "Flight Afriqiyah Airways 771 Johannesburg – Tripoli" (Archive). Afriqiyah Airways. Retrieved on 29 August 2010.
  34. ↑ "61 Nederlanders dood bij vliegtuigcrash Libië" (in Dutch). NRC Handelsblad. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 "103 dead in Libyan plane crash". RTÉ News and Current Affairs. 12 May 2010. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
  36. ↑ "Irish-South African Author Bree O'Mara Killed in Libya Plane Crash". BOOK South Africa. Archived from the original on 27 May 2010. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 "Child survives as 100 feared dead in Libya plane crash". CNN. 12 May 2010. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  38. ↑ Nield, Barry. "Fate or fluke? Air crash sole survivors." CNN. 13 May 2010. Retrieved on 13 May 2010.
  39. ↑ "`Miracle' Dutch boy confused but stable." The Standard. Friday 14 May 2010. Retrieved on 13 May 2010.
  40. ↑ El-Tablawy, Tarek. "A safari ends in tragedy for lone crash survivor." Associated Press at Google News. 14 May 2010. Retrieved on 14 May 2010.
  41. ↑ "Child is lone survivor in Libya plane crash". CNN. 13 May 2010. Archived from the original on 13 May 2010. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
  42. ↑ "Dutch boy who survived Libya crash flies home". BBC News Online. 15 May 2010. Archived from the original on 18 May 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2010.
  43. ↑ "70 Dutch people killed in air crash." Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. Retrieved on 14 May 2010.
  44. ↑ Mu, Xuequan. "Families of Dutch crash victims arrive in Libya: agency." Xinhua. 13 May 2010. Retrieved on 14 May 2010.
  45. ↑ "Anchen Dreyer se broer op doodsvlug" (in Afrikaans). Beeld. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  46. ↑ "Afriqiyah: 62 Nederlanders aan boord". De Telegraaf (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  47. ↑ Pitel, Laura; Bremner, Charles (13 May 2010). "Irish author Bree O'Mara named as victim in Libyan air crash". The Times (London). Retrieved 13 May 2010.
  48. ↑ "Ex-zangeres 'WOW!' omgekomen" (in Dutch). RTL Boulevard. 13 May 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2010.
  49. ↑ "نعي (Obituary)" (in Arabic). Afriqiyah Airways. Retrieved 13 May 2010. (Archive)

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771.
Wikinews has related news: Over 100 dead in Libyan plane crash