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Plane crashes in Russia, all 62 people on board killed

Rogue Valley

Rogue Valley

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Plane crashes in Russia, all 62 people on board killed

Sat Mar 19, 2016

r

FlyDubai Flight FZ981 crash site at Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia

All 62 people aboard a passenger jet flying from Dubai to southern Russia were killed when their plane crashed on its second attempt to land at Rostov-on-Don airport on Saturday, Russian officials said. "The aircraft hit the ground and broke into pieces," the Investigative Committee of Russia said in a statement on its website. "There were 55 passengers aboard and seven crew members. They all died."
Click to expand...

What the Investigative Committee of Russia didn't mention is that the weather at Rostov-on-Don was stormy with wind gusts exceeding 60 mph and limited visibility. Flight FZ981 circled the Rostov airport for two hours after an initial attempt to land was aborted and then crashed 250 feet short of the runway on the second attempt to land. A well known Russian pilot, Andrei Litvonov, said Saturday on Russian television that the airport lacks advanced navigation equipment that would make the landing proceedure easier for pilots. The passenger list comprised 44 Russians, 8 Ukrainians, 2 Indians, and 1 Uzbek including 4 children. Unfortunately, the flight could not be diverted to nearby Ukraine because Donetsk International Airport is destroyed and all air-corridors over war-torn eastern Ukraine remain closed after the Malaysian Flight MH17 shoot-down on 17 July 2014 killing all 298 aboard.

RIP

665003303001_4808083807001_vs-56ecf263e4b0f9fa24ebb495-672293879001.jpg

FlightRadar24 image showing the disjointed approach of Flight FZ981 before its deadly
second attempt to land at Rostov-on-Don in extremely adverse weather conditions
 
A responsible pilot would have gone to an operating alternate airfield where the weather was better. The pilot had to have fuel to divert to an operational airfield. That's basic SOP for civilian air.

We divert aircraft all the time in the free world.
 
CNN's reporting it was the 7th landing attempt, over a two hour period!

Wow!

Those passengers weren't just killed, but terrorized beforehand! :doh

After seeing this, I'd have to think really hard before I'd fly FlyDubai!
 
Chomsky said:
CNN's reporting it was the 7th landing attempt, over a two hour period!

Wow!

Those passengers weren't just killed, but terrorized beforehand! :doh

After seeing this, I'd have to think really hard before I'd fly FlyDubai!
Click to expand...

The pilot/copilot were from Cyprus and Spain. They had 5,965 and 5,769 hours of flying time respectively making them quite experienced. The cabin crew included two Russians and citizens of Seychelles, Colombia and Kyrgyzstan.

The airport they were attempting to land at is scheduled to close next year.
 
Simpleχity;1065679007 said:
The pilot/copilot were from Cyprus and Spain. They had 5,965 and 5,769 hours of flying time respectively making them quite experienced. The cabin crew included two Russians and citizens of Seychelles, Colombia and Kyrgyzstan.

The airport they were attempting to land at is scheduled to close next year.
Click to expand...
Fair enough.

But seven attempts sounds a bit excessive, to me. I won't question their judgement further. But I will stand by my statement that seven aborted landings in stormy weather had to be hellacious on the passengers! :doh
 
Simpleχity;1065679007 said:
The airport they were attempting to land at is scheduled to close next year.
Click to expand...

EDIT: nvm

EDIT 2: Was it so hard to just post a RIP post, instead of your usual excessive butthurt about Russia/Ukraine related issues?!?

Fallen.
 
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Chomsky said:
CNN's reporting it was the 7th landing attempt, over a two hour period!

Wow!

Those passengers weren't just killed, but terrorized beforehand! :doh

After seeing this, I'd have to think really hard before I'd fly FlyDubai!
Click to expand...
yeah FlyDubai and land hard, as for the terror, absolutely and the poor pilots they had to have known after a few attempts that it wasn't going to end well, so kudos to them for trying repeatedly

hell of a way to go
 
Chomsky said:
CNN's reporting it was the 7th landing attempt, over a two hour period!.......
Click to expand...


Don't beleive everything you hear on CNN.
 
He should have diverted instead of doing all that holding. Better weather or better approaches could probably have been found.
 
_Sal said:
yeah FlyDubai and land hard, as for the terror, absolutely and the poor pilots they had to have known after a few attempts that it wasn't going to end well, so kudos to them for trying repeatedly

hell of a way to go
Click to expand...
I don't know if I'd give them kudos for the multiple attempts leading to catastrophic failure; seems to me they'd better deserve kudos if they would've more accurately analyze the situation, and aborted for a safer location!
 
Chomsky said:
I don't know if I'd give them kudos for the multiple attempts leading to catastrophic failure; seems to me they'd better deserve kudos if they would've more accurately analyze the situation, and aborted for a safer location!
Click to expand...

well the problem is we do not know what kind of guidance the pilots were working with...the air traffic controllers may well have misjudged and misguided...it's not like one can just decide as a pilot what one is going to do with the plane...that is simply not an option.
 
The rescue phase has been terminated. The crash left a huge crater. From what I understand, no bodies are intact so identification will be difficult. Due to weather conditions, landing would be tricky but not impossible. Two jets landed minutes before the FlyDubai attempted its fatal landing. On the other hand, an Aeroflot plane attempted to land three times and then diverted to another airport. I wouldn't be surprised if a micro-burst struck the plane's wings. The "black-boxes" have been found and will be analyzed. The pilot's (Aristos Sokratous/Cyprus) last communication to the Rostov-on-Don air control tower: "Is the weather better [on the ground]?" Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region, said on Saturday that the plane crashed around 800ft short of the runway. He added: "By all appearances, the cause of the air crash was the strongly gusting wind, approaching a hurricane level."

In hindsight, it seems to me that perhaps the control tower should have diverted all incoming aircraft until weather conditions improved. My condolences to all who suffered a personal loss.

Wreckage "Boeing-737" in Rostov-on-Don
[video=youtube;4PQKgu5LWV0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?4PQKgu5LWV0[/video]

As a side-note, the show-trial of Ukrainian POW Lt. Nadiya Savchenko is taking place in a courtroom in Donetsk, Russia which is close to Rostov-on-Don. The trial adjourned on 9 March and the judge set March 21 and 22 for the verdict and sentencing respectively. With the Rostov-on-Don airport now closed, Lt. Savchenko's lawyers and international journalists will be unable to fly-in to attend the kangaroo-court finalé. There is little doubt the Russian judge will declare Lt. Savchenko guilty and levy the maximum sentence of 23 years in a penal colony.
 
Chomsky said:
CNN's reporting it was the 7th landing attempt, over a two hour period!

Wow!

Those passengers weren't just killed, but terrorized beforehand! :doh

After seeing this, I'd have to think really hard before I'd fly FlyDubai!
Click to expand...

Don't Underestimate Bad Airlines Inc.
 
A very severe angle to the earth. It will be interesting to see what FDR says
 
Fallenangel said:
EDIT: nvm

EDIT 2: Was it so hard to just post a RIP post, instead of your usual excessive butthurt about Russia/Ukraine related issues?!?

Fallen.
Click to expand...




The information from Ground Radar indicates that the plane failed to follow the flight guide path for landing, in that it gained altitude, lost air speed, stalled, lost control and dove to the ground. What do the Russian news say? Does not seem like the airport design had much to do with the crash.


https://aviation-safety.net/photos/displayphoto.php?id=20160319-0&vnr=2&kind=G


Apparently the key was losing air speed and gaining altitude. The pilot should have applied throttle power to keep up air speed.

Rostov-on Don is a Captains only air port, so the Spanish first officer was not handling the controls.

Pilots may have been working double shifts.
 
Here is a link to glide path info for Rostov-on-Don:

View image: Bez názvu


Includes a warning on Wind Shear.


Another chart showing the downward progression on the glide path, then a rise up in elevation, a stall, and a drop to the ground.

View image: FZROV


What caused the airplane to suddenly gain altitude, when the glide path should be a continuous, gradual descent.


Downward wind shear would have caused the plane to lose altitude, it seem to me.




//
 
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Another casualty of putin's invasion of ukraine. I would certainly never get on a plane that flies over any part of russia. Hope they enjoy their destroyed economy and exclusion from the developed world
 
Simpleχity;1065681802 said:
The rescue phase has been terminated. The crash left a huge crater. From what I understand, no bodies are intact so identification will be difficult. Due to weather conditions, landing would be tricky but not impossible. Two jets landed minutes before the FlyDubai attempted its fatal landing. On the other hand, an Aeroflot plane attempted to land three times and then diverted to another airport. I wouldn't be surprised if a micro-burst struck the plane's wings. The "black-boxes" have been found and will be analyzed. The pilot's (Aristos Sokratous/Cyprus) last communication to the Rostov-on-Don air control tower: "Is the weather better [on the ground]?" Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region, said on Saturday that the plane crashed around 800ft short of the runway. He added: "By all appearances, the cause of the air crash was the strongly gusting wind, approaching a hurricane level."

In hindsight, it seems to me that perhaps the control tower should have diverted all incoming aircraft until weather conditions improved. My condolences to all who suffered a personal loss.

Wreckage "Boeing-737" in Rostov-on-Don
[video=youtube;4PQKgu5LWV0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?4PQKgu5LWV0[/video]

As a side-note, the show-trial of Ukrainian POW Lt. Nadiya Savchenko is taking place in a courtroom in Donetsk, Russia which is close to Rostov-on-Don. The trial adjourned on 9 March and the judge set March 21 and 22 for the verdict and sentencing respectively. With the Rostov-on-Don airport now closed, Lt. Savchenko's lawyers and international journalists will be unable to fly-in to attend the kangaroo-court finalé. There is little doubt the Russian judge will declare Lt. Savchenko guilty and levy the maximum sentence of 23 years in a penal colony.
Click to expand...

interesting how resistance to invasion is cast in different terms by the same media - when it's in ukraine, she was "kidnapped" and they are "rebels." When it's a grab for oil in iraq, it's "terrorists/insurgents" and they should be held indefinitely without trial and tortured

i'm not excusing either, but let's not claim the high ground
 
chromium said:
Another casualty of putin's invasion of ukraine. I would certainly never get on a plane that flies over any part of russia. Hope they enjoy their destroyed economy and exclusion from the developed world
Click to expand...

/facepalm

How this tragedy has anything to do with Ukraine, besides the fact that there were actual Ukrainian citizens among the victims?!?


Fallen.
 
Gladiator said:
The information from Ground Radar indicates that the plane failed to follow the flight guide path for landing, in that it gained altitude, lost air speed, stalled, lost control and dove to the ground. What do the Russian news say? Does not seem like the airport design had much to do with the crash.


https://aviation-safety.net/photos/displayphoto.php?id=20160319-0&vnr=2&kind=G


Apparently the key was losing air speed and gaining altitude. The pilot should have applied throttle power to keep up air speed.

Rostov-on Don is a Captains only air port, so the Spanish first officer was not handling the controls.

Pilots may have been working double shifts.
Click to expand...

Huh?

Fallen.
 
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