Crash of an Airbus A300B4-203F in Bratislava

Date & Time: Nov 16, 2012 at 0525 LT
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
EI-EAC
Flight Type:
Survivors:
Yes
Schedule:
Leipzig - Bratislava
MSN:
250
YOM:
1983
Flight number:
DHL6321
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
3
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
0
Circumstances:
The crew took off from Leipzig Airport at 0438LT bound for Bratislava Airport (Slovakia). The approximately forty-five minutes flight took place without incident and the crew was cleared for the ILS approach to runway 22. The Captain was PF. During the descent, the controller informed the crew that the wind was from  120° at  7  kt. The crew selected the slats and flaps at 25°. The antiskid and the autobrake were armed in MED mode. The ILS 22 approach was stable until the wheels touched down. The main landing gear touched the runway about 700 m from the threshold of runway  22. The crew deployed the thrust reversers. About six seconds after the nose gear touched, the crew felt strong vibrations that increased as the speed dropped. At 85 kt, the thrust reversers were retracted. The aeroplane veered towards the left. The PF explained that he applied energetic braking and tried in vain to counter the rocking by using the rudder pedals then the nose gear steering control. He  added that the sequence occurred so quickly that he did not think to use differential braking to try to keep the aeroplane on the runway. The aeroplane exited the runway to the left at a speed of about 45 kt. Its nose gear struck a concrete inspection pit and collapsed. The aeroplane skidded for a few dozen metres before coming to a stop. The crew evacuated the aeroplane. Between the start of the vibrations and the aeroplane stopping, it had rolled about 400 metres.
Probable cause:
Incorrect installation of one or more washers on the nose gear torque link centre hinge made it impossible to lock the hinge shaft nut effectively. The unscrewing and the detachment of the latter in service caused the loss of nose gear steering. Free on its axle, the nose gear bogie began to shimmy, which made the aeroplane veer to the left. The aeroplane exited the runway and the nose gear collapsed during the collision with a concrete inspection pit for access to the runway lighting electric cables.The runway excursion was due to the incorrect and undetected re-assembly of the nose gear torque links. Despite the presence of a detailed diagram, the absence of clear and detailed instructions in the text of the manufacturer’s AMM, allowing the operator to ensure that the assembly was correct, contributed to the incorrect assembly. The failure of the nose gear was due to the collision with an obstacle in the runway  strip. The absence of any regulation requiring that equipment in the immediate vicinity of a runway or of a runway overrun area be designed so as to limit as much as possible any damage to aeroplanes, in case of a runway excursion, contributed to the accident.
Final Report:

Crash of a Cessna T303 Crusader in Bratislava: 3 killed

Date & Time: Dec 10, 2007
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
9A-DGV
Survivors:
No
Schedule:
Zagreb – Bratislava
MSN:
303-00186
YOM:
1982
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
2
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
1
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
3
Circumstances:
On approach to Bratislava-Ivanka-Milan Ratislav Štefánik Airport, the twin engine aircraft crashed in an open field located few kilometres from the airport, bursting into flames. All three occupants were killed. Weather conditions were marginal at the time of the accident.

Crash of a Boeing 707-328C in Bratislava

Date & Time: Feb 7, 1999 at 2344 LT
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
9G-ROX
Flight Phase:
Flight Type:
Survivors:
Yes
Schedule:
Bratislava – N’Djamena
MSN:
19521
YOM:
1967
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
3
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
4
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
0
Circumstances:
The aircraft was leased to a Belgian charter broker around June 1998 to operate fish charter flights between Mwanza and Vienna. The aircraft was in fact seen on many other airports, Bratislava, Ostrava and Lubumbashi. At the time of the accident, the plane is understood to have had a long list of 32 faults that needed urgent repair. Problems included a limited EGT of n°1 & 4 engines; n°3 engine constant speed drive (CSD) gearbox was consuming a 'massive amount of oil'; n°1 engine CSD generator missing; n°2 engine required bleed on takeoff and above FL330; left wing leading edge cracked and leaking; n°4 fuel tank and reserve tank gauge not working. Decision to ferry the aircraft to N'Djamena was taken on February 7. During the takeoff roll the n°2 & 3 engines failed. The takeoff was aborted but the aircraft could not be stopped within the remaining distance. It overran, lost its nose gear and came to rest 200 metres past the runway end. All seven occupants escaped uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Crash of an Avia 14T in Bratislava: 4 killed

Date & Time: Feb 11, 1977
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
OK-OCA
Flight Type:
Survivors:
Yes
Schedule:
Prague -Bratislava
MSN:
191 013 167
YOM:
1960
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
3
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
2
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
4
Circumstances:
On approach to Bratislava-Ivanka-Milan Rastislav Štefánik Airport, the crew encountered poor visibility. He passed below the decision height until the aircraft struck the ground and crashed in a field located 1,800 metres short of runway 22. A crew member was injured while four other occupants were killed.
Probable cause:
The crew continued the approach after passing below the decision height in marginal weather conditions.

Crash of an Ilyushin II-18V in Bratislava: 76 killed

Date & Time: Jul 28, 1976 at 0937 LT
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
OK-NAB
Survivors:
Yes
Schedule:
Prague - Bratislava
MSN:
189 0016 05
YOM:
1959
Flight number:
OK001
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
6
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
73
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
76
Circumstances:
While descending to runway 22 at Bratislava-Ivanka-Milan Rastislav Štefánik Airport, the crew adopted a wrong approach configuration and descended with a rate of descent of 22 m/s instead of 10 m/s. This caused the airplane to be unstable while its speed varied from 435 to 225 km/h. Flaps were directly selected from zero to full down position, which caused the airplane's speed to decrease. Reverse thrust were activated on both engines n°2 and 3 below the altitude of 1,000 metres. At this time, the engine n°3 failed and in a certain confusion, the crew inadvertently feathered the propeller on engine n°4. During the last segment, about 50 metres above the runway threshold, the captain considered a missed approach and decided to initiate a go-around manoeuvre. The airplane climbed to an altitude of 40 metres and turn to the right when the engine n°4 was restarted. The airplane rolled to the right then stalled and crashed in the Zlaté piersky Lake located one km short of runway 13 threshold, northwest of the airport. Four passengers were rescued while 75 other occupants were killed. Few hours later, one of the survivor died from his injuries.
Probable cause:
Wrong approach configuration on part of the flying crew who failed to follow the approved procedures. The following contributing factors were reported:
- Poor approach planning,
- Poor crew coordination,
- Unstable approach,
- Failure of the n°3 engine,
- Reverse thrust activated on engines n°2 and 3 at an unsafe altitude,
- Propeller on engine n°4 inadvertently feathered on approach,
- Inappropriate decisions on part of the captain,
- Poor flight supervision.

Crash of an Ilyushin II-18 in Bratislava: 82 killed

Date & Time: Nov 24, 1966 at 1630 LT
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
LZ-BEN
Flight Phase:
Survivors:
No
Schedule:
Sofia - Budapest - Prague - Berlin
MSN:
184 0071 01
YOM:
1964
Flight number:
LZ101
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
8
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
74
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
82
Captain / Total flying hours:
11959
Captain / Total hours on type:
2002.00
Copilot / Total flying hours:
5979
Copilot / Total hours on type:
768
Circumstances:
Flight LZ101 was a scheduled international air service from Sofia to Berlin with intermediate stops in Budapest and Prague. The four engine airplane departed Budapest-Ferihegy Airport at 1146LT bound for Prague, but en route, the crew was informed the airport of Prague-Ruzyne was closed to all traffic due to poor weather conditions. So the crew decided to divert to Bratislava-Ivanka Airport where he landed at 1258LT. About 1550 hours the pilot-in-command of the aircraft decided to resume his flight to Prague. He took off from Bratislava Airport at 1628:30. After take-off he made a turn to starboard according to the flight clearance with the instruction to perform a right turn on to the OKR Beacon, to climb only to 300 m and then to climb on to the NI beacon up to the flight level of 5 100 m. At 1630:20 hours the flight was requested to change to the ATC approach service frequency, 120.9 Mc/s. The crew confirmed reception of this message, but they did not carry out the retuning. Shortly afterwards the aircraft crashed into wooded ground in the mountains. The accident occurred 8 km away from the 31 runway threshold of Bratislava Airport at an altitude of 420 m above MSL, i.e. 288 m above the airport level. The aircraft was totally destroyed and none of the 82 occupants survived the crash.
Probable cause:
The Commission could not definitely establish the cause of accident. The Commission assumed that the most probable cause of the accident was insufficient evaluation of terrain relief and weather conditions in the Bratislava Airport control zone by the aircraft crew and lack of adaptation of the flight to these conditions. There are serious reasons to doubt whether the crew thoroughly evaluated the geographical and meteorological situation and drew from this evaluation the necessary conclusions in choosing the take-off runway, in accepting the flight clearance and in performing the takeoff and the departure by making a turn to the starboard on to the OKR beacon. The possibility must be admitted that the non-maintenance of the 15° bank and the 400 km/h speed (or the lowest possible limit of 360 km/h), which non-maintenance had a causal connexion with the accident, could be partly due also to errors in controlling and navigating the aircraft.
Final Report:

Crash of an Avia 14-32A in Brno: 13 killed

Date & Time: Oct 10, 1962 at 0857 LT
Type of aircraft:
Operator:
Registration:
OK-MCT
Survivors:
Yes
Schedule:
Bratislava – Brno
MSN:
908 071 03
YOM:
1958
Flight number:
OK306
Region:
Crew on board:
4
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
38
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
13
Circumstances:
The approach to Brno was started in limited visibility due to marginal weather conditions. On final, the airplane struck the top of a hill and crashed by a house located near the village of Slavkov, about 6 km from the runway 28 threshold. The aircraft was destroyed upon impact and three crew members and ten passengers were killed, the rest of the occupants were injured, some of them seriously.
Probable cause:
It was determined that the crew miscalculated his position and started the descent prematurely, causing the aircraft to descent below the minimum descent altitude.

Crash of a Douglas C-47A-20-DL near Torysky: 22 killed

Date & Time: Jan 18, 1956 at 1449 LT
Operator:
Registration:
OK-WDZ
Survivors:
Yes
Site:
Schedule:
Prague – Bratislava – Košice
MSN:
9385
YOM:
1943
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
4
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
22
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
22
Circumstances:
On the leg from Bratislava to Košice, the crew encountered poor weather conditions and was contacted by ATC and diverted to Poprad. Few minutes before its ETA in Poprad, while cruising in bad weather conditions at an altitude of 1,300 meters, the aircraft hit trees and crashed in a snow covered and wooded area located in the Tatra Mountain Range. Four passengers were injured and rescued while all 22 other occupants were killed.
Probable cause:
It was determined that the crew started the descent to Poprad prematurely following a wrong altimeter setting, causing the aircraft to hit obstacles and to crash. Poor visibility caused by snow falls and heavy winds blowing up to 100 km/h were considered as contributing factors.

Crash of a Douglas C-47A-10-DK in Pezinok: 4 killed

Date & Time: Dec 12, 1954 at 2304 LT
Operator:
Registration:
OK-WDK
Flight Type:
Survivors:
No
Schedule:
Prague – Brno – Bratislava
MSN:
12549
YOM:
1944
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
4
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
4
Circumstances:
The crew was performing a cargo flight from Prague to Bratislava with an intermediate stop in Brno. At 2242LT, the crew obtained the permission to descend to Bratislava via heading 225° to join the approach path for runway 23. At 2302LT, the pilot reported completing a last turn to join the glide when the airplane hit the ground about 10 km north of the airport, near Pezinok. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire and all four crew members were killed. The wreckage was found two days later only. At the time of the accident, the airplane was off course by 1,500 meters and the weather conditions were as follow: horizontal visibility 1,800 meters, broken at 80 meters and overcast at 300 meters with heavy rain falls and severe icing conditions.
Probable cause:
It is believed that the Pitot tubes heater system was OFF at the time of the accident, which cause several instruments to display wrong parameters, such the altimeters and the speed indicators. Such situation mislead the crew. This led the aircraft to descent to the insufficient height of 70 meters where the minimum safe altitude was 600 meters.

Crash of a Douglas C-47A-45-DL in Košice

Date & Time: Aug 5, 1950 at 1930 LT
Operator:
Registration:
OK-WDV
Survivors:
Yes
Schedule:
Prague – Brno – Bratislava – Košice
MSN:
9962
YOM:
1943
Country:
Region:
Crew on board:
3
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
20
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
0
Circumstances:
On final approach to Košice Airport, the aircraft crash landed in a field and came to rest on a railway embankment. All 23 occupants were uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.