Avia Traffic Company Flight 768

Avia Traffic Company Flight 768

Aircraft Involved
Occurrence summary
Date	22 November 2015
Site	Osh Airport
Passengers	153
Crew	6
Injuries (non-fatal)	14 (4 serious)
Fatalities	0
Survivors	159 (all)
Aircraft type	Boeing 737-300
Operator	Avia Traffic Company
Flight origin	Bishkek Airport, Kyrgyzstan
Destination	Osh Airport, Kyrgyzstan

Avia Traffic Company Flight 768 was a scheduled passenger flight from Bishkek Airport, to Osh Airport operated by the airline's fleet of four Boeing 737-300 aircraft. On 22 November 2015, the aircraft, EX-37005, was on final approach when it touched down hard enough to shear off the left and right main landing gear. The aircraft skidded off the runway with the left engine being torn from its mount.^[1]

Accident

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-3YO registration EX-37005, originally delivered to Philippine Airlines in 1990. It was then sold to Garuda Indonesia, Citilink and then Sama Airlines before being sold to Avia Traffic Company in 2011. The aircraft was 25 years old at the time of the accident.^[2]

Landing

The aircraft had originally departed Krasnoyarsk Airport Russia for Osh but diverted to Bishkek due to fog in Osh. After the weather improved, the crew departed for Osh. Ground observers reported that the visibility deteriorated to about 150 meters.

The aircraft was performing an ILS approach to Osh's runway 12 at about 07:56L (01:56Z) but touched down hard causing the landing gear to collapse and separate from the aircraft. The aircraft went off the runway and ran over rough terrain, the left-hand CFM56 engine separated and the right-hand engine received substantial damage before the aircraft came to a stop about 1500 meters from touchdown. Four occupants received serious injuries and ten occupants received minor injuries.^[3]

Investigation

Russia's Civil Aviation Authority opened an investigation into the accident. Preliminary reports suggested the aircraft was performing an ILS approach to Osh's runway 12, with visibility 50 meters in fog. The crew conducted a go-around following a hard touch down and joined the traffic pattern, but during the traffic pattern the crew decided to divert to their alternate and return to Bishkek, but soon after they received indications of the failure of the right hand engine combined with the failure of two hydraulic systems. The failures were caused by the puncture of the collapsed right landing gear. The crew shut the right hand engine down and decided to perform an emergency landing in Osh despite weather being below minima. The aircraft touched down very hard and skidded off the runway.^[3][4]

See also

• Turkish Airlines Flight 1878
• Garuda Indonesia Flight 200

References