MyCargo 747-400F crashes into Kyrgyzstan village

It sounds like they have found at least one flight recorder

Did the aircraft actually touch down and get back into the air? or did they try to go around prior? All Ive seen so far is that they tried to go around.......

Edit: Posted before I saw you ADS-data

a reply to: FredT

I'm assuming they attempted to go around. One of the reports said they missed the runway, so I assume they got down to minimums and didn't have the field in sight.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Uggg I hate that I really do. it esp. sucks if you are a chopper and you can't see the field.

blog.flightradar24.com...

The blog said they were able to generate an additional 38 seconds of data.

17:15.4 They had an altitude of 1800 feet
17:15.7 they had a decent rate of -320 feet ground speed at 164 knots
17:15.9 Altitude 2025
17:16.2 they had an ascent rate of 1152 and ground speed of 162
17:16.5 Last altitude reading 2350
17:16.6 they had an ascent rate of 1152 and ground speed of 160
17:19.5 ground speed 150 knots. Final reading

From 17:15.4 to 17:16.2 is where they started to pull up
From 17:15.4 to 17:16.5 Altitude goes from 1800 to 2350
From 17:02.7 they were 2000 feet or less

a reply to: FredT

Landing speed in a 747-400 is approximately 160 mph. At 150 knots they were only at 172 mph, which puts them in the flaps 20 range. According to the book, they should have climbed between 1800 and 2500 fpm until they reached 10,000 feet. That goes towards something disrupting lift, and the aircraft stalling, possibly falling off to one side and rolling over.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: FredT

Landing speed in a 747-400 is approximately 160 mph. At 150 knots they were only at 172 mph, which puts them in the flaps 20 range. According to the book, they should have climbed between 1800 and 2500 fpm until they reached 10,000 feet. That goes towards something disrupting lift, and the aircraft stalling, possibly falling off to one side and rolling over.

Yeah it sure looks like that way. Having flown at low altitude alot those are some pretty crappy conditions and from the time they started trying to go up till the last bit of data they had 4 seconds to figure out what was going wrong and try to take some sort of meaning full action.

a reply to: FredT

They probably didn't even notice anything was going on until it was too late. That's not a lot of time to recognize there's a problem, diagnose it, and take corrective action.

According to ACT the crew didn't report any technical problems with the aircraft prior to the landing attempt. The aircraft underwent a C check in November of 2015. A C check is done every two years, and takes 5-6 weeks, and up to 6,000 man hours.

Without going into any kind of detail, the Kyrgyzstan government has confirmed that both recorders have been found. The second was found this morning. The Interstate Aviation Committee will decipher the recorders for them.

The Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security had a closed door briefing today on the accident. So far it's appearing to just be a tragic accident.

The IAC is investigating, with assistance from Turkey, as operator, and the US, as manufacturer.

More details emerging. The aircraft apparently clipped a building, possibly the control tower, and a fence before hitting the village. One of the pilots survived, and appeared to have minor injuries. He was able to climb out of the wreckage and walk around, but later died at the hospital after being transported.

All bodies from both the aircraft and village have been recovered. The investigation is starting now, with both recorders being sent to Moscow to be read. If they can't be read there, they'll be sent to France or the US.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It would be such a shame if the cause of this supposed unsuccessful go around was the same cause that led to the Emirates 521 crash/gear up landing/runway excursion.

a reply to: justwanttofly

There was one report that they "clipped a building responsible for Air Traffic Control" and then a fence.

Both recorders showed significant mechanical damage, as well as exposure to high thermal conditions. The NTSB is assisting with downloading and decoding them. The memory modules had to be removed, and repairs performed before they could recover any data. The FDR has had data recovered, but they are still working on the CVR.

Both recorders have been successfully decoded, but haven't been released yet. Some of the debris is being sent to the US to be analyzed. No word on what parts or how much debris is coming.

Five children from the village were rushed to the hospital yesterday with suspected jet fuel poisoning. No word on ages or condition. On the 21st a 29 year old who had suffered burns over his lower body succumbed to his injuries.

The IAC reported that the aircraft was in good technical condition at the time of the crash.

There is a proposal to move the villagers to Manas Village, due to fuel contamination, and the cost of repairs to their village. Repairs are estimated at 180M Kyrgyzstani soms.

The cargo consisted of various things, including household equipment such as washers, multiple types of lighters, and cargo bound for multiple countries. The flight had operated many times from Hong Kong to Istanbul with a technical stop/crew change in Manas. Some of the cargo onboard was bound for Kyrgyzstan, but had to go to Istanbul first, where it would be placed on another aircraft and flown back to Kyrgyzstan.

Flight has yet to verify the authenticity of this report, but it appears that the crew encountered a false glideslope. They crossed the final approach fix at 4050 feet, not the 3400 feet required that was published. At approaches around 6-9 degrees above the 3 degree approach path, the ILS can create a mirror image of the glideslope.

As the crew approached just about a mile from the end of the runway, they encountered the mirror slope, and began following it at a 3 degree approach angle. They wound up overflying the entire runway, and executing a go around at 100 feet. The go around mode on the 747 doesn't execute a go around until 52 feet. They impacted almost 3000 feet past the end of the runway, 200 feet right of the extended centerline.

www.flightglobal.com...

I only landed in low vis conditions a couple of times... hated it.. hated it with a passion.

Seems like everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and not necessarily pilot fault as much as environment being just right to cause the automatic systems problems that have not been seen a lot. (just my wild Arsed guess based on what has been posted.

Sad situation all around.

a reply to: Irishhaf

I did a landing in Manila where you could barely see the runway, when you were on it rolling out. Talk about maximum suckage. False glideslope may be something they need to work on in the simulator more often. It's not a common issue by any means, but it should be something the crew is trained to recognize.

The aircraft was high as they crossed the threshold, and captured a mirror glide slope. The decision to go around was made after they descended below the 100 foot decision height.

At 25 minutes from the airport, they were 130 nm from the airport, and began descending from 34,000 feet. They were on both the ILS and the VOR/DME frequencies. They were on a standard TOPKA 1 approach, which put them over both RAXAT and TOPKA waypoints. At RAXAT, they were at 18,000 feet as required, but at TOPKA, they were at 9,200 feet, not the required 6,000.

They were cleared to descend to 3,400 which they should have reached 5.4 nm from the airport to capture the glideslope at 3.2 nm. The crew was aware they were high, and were operating in FLCH mode on the autopilot. They didn't reach 3,400 feet until 1.7 nm from the airport, and failed to capture the glideslope. They captured the false glideslope and began descending as much as 9 degrees, instead of 3 degrees, which is standard. Descent rates reached as high as 1,425 fpm.

They crossed the far end of the runway at 110 feet, with a 100 foot minimum. The Captain ordered a go around, but they had descended to 58 feet by that point. Three and half seconds after TO/GA was pressed, the aircraft impacted rising terrain at 165 knots, with a 6G vertical impact.

www.flightglobal.com...