List of aviation accidents and incidents involving CFIT
This is a list of plane crashes that have occurred because of controlled flight into terrain (CFIT), an accident in which an airworthy aircraft, under pilot control, is unintentionally flown into the ground, a mountain, a body of water or an obstacle.
Korean Air Flight 801
Korean Air Flight 801 (KE801, KAL801) was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Korean Air. The flight crashed on August 6, 1997, on approach to Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport, in the United States territory of Guam, killing 228[lower-alpha 1] of the 254 people aboard. The aircraft crashed on Nimitz Hill in Asan, Guam, while on approach to the airport.[2] The National Transportation Safety Board cites poor communication between the flight crew as probable cause for the crash, along with the captain’s poor decision making on the non-precision approach.[1]
Flying Tiger Line Flight 66
Flying Tiger Line Flight 66 was a scheduled international cargo flight from Singapore Changi Airport, in Changi, Singapore, to Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport in the Kowloon Peninsula via a stopover at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (now Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport), in Subang, Selangor, near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. On February 19, 1989, the FedEx-owned Boeing 747-249F-SCD crashed while on its final approach to Kuala Lumpur. The aircraft impacted a hillside 437 feet above sea level and 12 kilometers (6.5 nautical miles) from the airport, resulting in all four crew members being killed.
Air New Zealand Flight 901
Air New Zealand Flight 901 (TE-901)[lower-alpha 2] was a scheduled Air New Zealand Antarctic sightseeing flight that operated between 1977 and 1979. The flight would leave Auckland Airport in the morning and spend a few hours flying over the Antarctic continent, before returning to Auckland in the evening via Christchurch. On 28 November 1979, the fourteenth flight of TE-901, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, registration ZK-NZP, flew into Mount Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew on board.[3][4] The accident became known as the Mount Erebus disaster.
The initial investigation concluded the accident was caused by pilot error, but public outcry led to the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the crash. The commission, presided over by Justice Peter Mahon QC, concluded that the accident was caused by a correction made to the coordinates of the flight path the night before the disaster, coupled with a failure to inform the flight crew of the change, with the result that the aircraft, instead of being directed by computer down McMurdo Sound (as the crew had been led to believe), was instead re-routed to a path toward Mount Erebus. Justice Mahon's report accused Air New Zealand of presenting "an orchestrated litany of lies" and this led to changes in senior management at the airline.
The accident is New Zealand's deadliest peacetime disaster, as well as the deadliest accident in the history of Air New Zealand.
See also
Notes
- This figure does not include a 229th fatality that occurred on October 10th, more than 30 days after the accident.[1]:1
- At the time of the crash, Air New Zealand had two IATA codes, TE for international flights (a relic from Air New Zealand's predecessor, Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL)) and NZ for domestic flights (acquired from the merger with the National Airways Corporation in April 1978). Despite being domestic flights from an immigration point-of-view, the Antarctic flights used the TE code for logistical reasons.
References
- "Controlled Flight Into Terrain Korean Air Flight 801 Boeing 747-300, HL7468 Nimitz Hill, Guam August 6, 1997" (PDF). ntsb.gov. Washington D.C.: National Transportation Safety Board. January 13, 2000. NTSB/AAR-00/01. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
- "Korean Air Flt 801 - Official Guam Crash Site Information Web Center". ns.gov.gu. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
- Accident description for ZK-NZP at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 24 August 2011.
- "DC-10 playbacks awaited". Flight International: 1987. December 15, 1979. Archived from the original on January 24, 2013.
At press time no information had been released concerning the flightdata and cockpit-voice recorder of Air New Zealand McDonnell Douglas DC-10 ZK-NZP which crashed on Mount Erebus on 28 November.