Lagunes

The airplane departed Ouagadougou on a flight to Abidjan, carrying seven passengers, three crew members and military equipment on behalf of the French Army (antiterrorist operation 'Barkhane'). On approach to Abidjan-Félix Houphouët-Boigny Airport, the crew encountered poor visibility due to heavy rain falls. On short final, the aircraft descended below MDA, impacted water and crashed in the sea few hundred metres short of runway 03. Six occupants were rescued while four others including all three crew members were killed. The aircraft was destroyed. At the time of the accident, weather conditions were below minimums.

On Sunday 30 January 2000, the Kenya Airways Airbus 310-304, registered 5Y−BEN, was undertaking the scheduled international flight KQ 431 transporting passengers from Abidjan to Nairobi, via Lagos. On board there were 10 crewmembers and 169 passengers. On the same day, in the afternoon, 5Y-BEN had flown in from Nairobi and landed at Félix Houphouët-Boigny International Airport in Abidjan at 15 h 15. The unfavorable meteorological at Lagos had obliged the pilot, after a thirty minutes hold at Lagos, to divert to Abidjan. The relief crew, which had arrived two days previously on flight KQ 430 on Friday 28 January 2000, at 15 h 44, took over on board 5Y-BEN, to undertake flight KQ 431 from Abidjan to Nairobi, via Lagos. Departure was scheduled for 21 h 00, in accordance with the initial program. The copilot was pilot flying, the Captain was pilot not flying. At 20 h 55 min 22 s, the crew established contact with Abidjan Airport control tower and asked for start-up clearance. This was granted. At 20 h 56 min 09 s, the Captain ordered the checklist to be performed and announced the type of take-off by saying "Flex sixty" at 20 h 56 min 19 s. At 21 h 00 min 18 s, three minutes and nineteen seconds after the start-up of the first engine (engine n° 2), the Captain announced over the interphone that linked him with the ground mechanic “we have two normal start-ups”. At 21 h 01 min 07 s, the crew of 5Y-BEN asked for clearance to taxi. The tower controller put them on standby. A few seconds later, he cleared them to taxi. At 21 h 02 min 33 s, the Captain ordered the Copilot to set the flaps at 15°. Later, at 21 h 04 min 50 s , the copilot announced "trim: 0.9 nose up, Slats/flaps 15/15". The airplane began to taxi at 21 h 07 min 35 s, the tower controller informed the crew of the latest wind, cleared them to take off and asked the crew the call back when they reached flight level 40. At 21 h 07 min 45 s, the copilot read back the clearance. This was the last communication between the crew and the control tower. At 21 h 08 min 08 s, the copilot announced "Take-off checklist completed … cleared for take-off". At 21 h 08 min 18 s, the Captain applied take-off power and announced "thrust, SRS, and runway" then, nine seconds later “100 knots”. At 21 h 08 min 50 s, the Captain announced "V1 and Rotate(4)", then two seconds later "Positive". The airplane took off. At 21 h 08 min 57 s, the copilot announced "Positive rate of climb, gear up". Less than two seconds later the stall warning sounded. At 21 h 09 min 07 s, the automatic call out (AC) announced 300 feet. At 21 h 09 min 14 s, the copilot asked "what’s the problem?". From 21 h 09 min 16 s, the AC announced successively 200, 100, 50, 30, 20 and 10 feet. Meanwhile, at 21 h 09 min 18 s, the copilot ordered the aural warning to be cut. Two seconds later, the GPWS sounded the “Whoop...” alarm followed, a half a second later, by the AC announcement of 50 feet. At 21 h 09 min 22 s, an aural master warning started, immediately followed by an order from the Captain to climb: "Go up!", though this was preceded six tenths of a second by the AC announcement of 10 feet. At 21 h 09 min 23.9 s, end of the master warning, followed immediately within a tenth of a second by the noise of the impact. The time of the accident is presumed to be 21 h 09 min 24 s.

The twin engine aircraft was completing a special flight from Luanda to Abidjan with an intermediate stop in Lomé, carrying seven UNO emissaries and one pilot. While descending to Abidjan-Félix Houphouët-Boigny Airport, the pilot encountered very low visibility due to foggy conditions. On approach, the aircraft entered a left turn then an uncontrolled descent and crashed about 30 km from the airport. All eight occupants were killed, among them Alioune Blondin Béye, Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs, aged 59.

Following an uneventful flight from Accra-Kotoka Airport, the crew started the descent to Abidjan-Félix Houphouët-Boigny Airport in poor weather conditions. Due to heavy rain falls, the horizontal visibility did not exceed 2 km and on final, the captain decided to initiate a go-around procedure. Few minutes later, the crew started a second approach to runway 21, established on the ILS but continued the approach above the glide. This caused the aircraft to land 900 metres past the runway threshold. On a wet runway surface, the aircraft skidded and veered off runway to the left. While contacting soft ground, the aircraft lost its undercarriage and came to rest 1,800 metres past the runway threshold. All 104 occupants were evacuated, among them three passengers were slightly injured. At the time of the accident, weather conditions were poor with heavy rain falls and wind from 110 gusting at 25 knots.

While descending to Abidjan-Félix Houphouët-Boigny Airport runway 21 by night, the captain reported runway in sight and was instructed by ATC to report on final. Few seconds later, the aircraft nosed down, entered an uncontrolled descent and crashed 4 km short of runway, bursting into flames. The aircraft was destroyed and all 17 occupants were killed.

The approach to Abidjan-Félix Houphouët Boigny Airport was completed by night with a reduced visibility to 1,250 metres due to low isolated clouds. On short final, the aircraft struck the ground 30 metres short of runway 21 threshold. Upon impact, the undercarriage were torn off and the aircraft slid on its belly for few dozen metres before coming to rest. All six crew members evacuated safely while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

About 20 minutes after takeoff from Abidjan-Port-Bouet Airport, while cruising over the Atlantic Ocean, the fire alarm on engine n°1 sounded. As the fuel temperature was abnormally high, it was decided to shut down the engine. The captain declared an emergency and was cleared to return. On approach, he was cleared to land on runway 03 but preferred to land on runway 21 that was equipped with an ILS system. After completing a back circuit by night but in relative good visibility, the airplane passed over the Abidjan VOR then the pilot-in-command initiated a left turn when the stall warning sounded. While completing a left turn in a flaps and landing gear up configuration, the airplane banked left, stalled and crashed in the forest of Akakro located about 10 km northeast of Abidjan Airport, near the city of Bingerville. A passenger was seriously injured while 50 other occupants were killed.

The aircraft was performing an executive flight from Lagos to Abidjan. While completing a last turn to the right to join the glide for runway 03, the airplane lost height then crashed into the sea, about 500 meters offshore. The aircraft was destroyed and all three occupants were killed. No flight plan was filed and it was reported that the aircraft did not have all required certificates while flying for the first time since its delivery two years ago.

The crew was completing a ferry flight from Kinshasa to Liverpool with several intermediate stops in Abidjan, Dakar, Agadir and Basel. The purpose of the flight was for maintenance as the n°4 engine was inoperative. En route, while cruising on the three remaining engines, the crew informed ATC that the engine n°3 caught fire. While descending to an altitude of 6,000 feet, the engine n°3 exploded and detached. The crew continued the approach but was unable to lower the undercarriage. A belly landing was completed at Abidjan Airport and the airplane slid on several dozen meters before coming to rest. All four crew members escaped uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.