Air Disasters Compilation #10 - Besiege

LAM Mozambique 470 was a commercial passenger flight from Maputo, Mozambique to Luanda, Angola on November 29th, 2013 carrying 33 people.

Crash:

Halfway through its flight at 38,000 feet, the plane started descending rapidly the plane lost altitude at 100 feet per second and 6 minutes later it crashed in Bwabwata national park, Namibia, the plane exploded and skidded killing everyone on board.

Investigation:

The Captain was going through a divorce at the time and his son commit suicide almost exactly 1 year prior, while the First Officer was out of the cockpit the Captain closed and locked the door, he then set the autopilot to descend into the ground and increased speed in an act of pilot suicide.


Northwest 255 was a commercial passenger flight from Saginaw, Michigan to Santa Ana, California with stopovers in Detriot, Michigan, and Pheonix, Arizona on August 16th, 1987 carrying 155 people.

Crash:

When the plane took off it failed to gain altitude and began to sway from side to side, the aircraft continued on and struck multiple light poles in a parking lot before rolling over, the left wing struck the top of an Avis car rental building, the plane inverted and crashed into Middlebelt road killing 154 people on board and 2 people on the ground with the sole survivor on the plane being a 4-year-old girl from Tempe, Arizona.

Investigation:

The pilots were rushed to take off and they failed to read the taxi checklist letting them forget to deploy the flaps, the TOWS (Take off Warning System) didn't activate due to a loss of power that originated from the P40 circuit breaker from previous damage.


TWA 800 was a commercial passenger flight from New York City, New York to Rome, Italy with a stopover in Paris, France on July 17th, 1996 carrying 230 people.

Crash:

While climbing through 15,000 feet the center wing fuel tank exploded, this structurally compromised the nose section of the fuselage which would detach from the plane, the reduced weight caused the remaining portion of the fuselage to continue climbing until the wingtips snapped off causing the plane to dive down and explode while simultaneously breaking apart killing everyone on board.

Investigation:

The plane was sitting at the gate for an hour on a hot July day, the A/C was on full blast and the A/C packs were located right next to the fuel tanks which heated up the fuel to the point where it turned into explosive vapor, high voltage, and low voltage wires were bundled right next to each other and in the planes aging electrical system the rubber surrounding the wires eventually cracked causing frequent short circuits, one of these short circuits went directly to the fuel quantity indicator system which was located in the center fuel tank, the short circuit ignited the explosive vapors causing the explosion.


AirAsia 8501 was a commercial passenger flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore on December 28th, 2014 carrying 162 people.

Crash:

While the plane was flying at 32,000 feet the pilots requested to climb to 38,000 feet which were denied but they received clearance to climb to 34,000 feet, the plane began ascending to 37,000 feet until it stalled out and made a continuous 360-degree left hand turn, the plane never recovered and crashed into the ocean at 6:17:54 PM.

Investigation:

The Rudder Traveler Limiter Units (RTLU) was malfunctioning and was sending false alarms to the crew, the Captain got out of his seat and reset the flight augmentation computer's circuit breaker which in turn caused the autopilot to shut off and the plane to pitch up. When the plane stalled the First Officer was pushing down and the Captain was pulling up and this led to a dual-input error where the plane didn't know how to respond to the inputs given by the pilots, the pilots also didn't communicate about this and the plane stalled into the ocean.


Garuda Indonesia 152 was a commercial passenger flight from Jakarta, Indonesia to Medan, Indonesia on September 26th, 1997 carrying 234 people.

Crash:

While on approach to Medan the pilots couldn't see anything from the 1997 Southeast Asian Haze, the plane turned left instead of right and away from the airport into an area with high terrain, the planes right wing clipped a tree tearing part of it off with the plane losing control and crashing into the mountainside killing everyone on board.

Investigation:

The Captain was confused by the analog systems of the plane and he accidentally inputs the altitude as 1,500 instead of the required 2,000, the ATC also referred to the plane as Merpati Nusantara flight 152 which was in the area at that time as well and instead of turn left he said turn right, because of this the Captain turned left into the elevated terrain. The GPWS had also failed for unknown reasons.