The Dangerous Secret That Killed 57 People | AtlasJet 4203

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DC9 Image: Pawel Kierzkowski - Own work
This is the story of atlas jet flight 4203. On the 30th of november 2007 an atlas jet MD83 was on the ground at istanbul's ataturk airport bound for isparta airport. The flight had 50 passengers and 7 crewmembers. The MD 83 that they were flying that day had only been inducted into the atlas jet fleet just 5 months ago but it had been manufactured in 1994 and had served with a whole host of operators from the likes of Reno air, american airlines, turkish carrier freebird airlines and turkish airlines. The flights first officer was new to the flight deck of the MD83, he was a part of the turkish air force but as of the 20th of november he had only accumulated 14 hours on the mD83 well below the 100 needed by turkish regulations. At 12:51 am local time the plane took off from istanbuls ataturk airport, as the plane climbed into the inky black sky the pilots put the plane on course for isparta. The flight was expected to take just an hour and 25 minutes so i dont think anyone onboard really had time to get comfortable. Soon they were in contact with the controllers at isparta. Now Isparta isnt a big airport and so it didnt have facilities that larger airports might have, like an ILS or instrument landing system which guides planes right down to the runway. Instead the pilots had to use radio beacons known as VORs to navigate to the airport. Once the pilots were over the VOR at isparta they then had to let the controller know when they were turning inbound towards the runway. After the plane overflew the airport it headed away from the runway to line up with the runway. After a few minutes the controller got confirmation that the pilots were turning inbound towards the runway. They were 18 kilometers or 11 miles away from the airport. At the rate things were going, flight 4203 should be on the ground in mere minutes.

But the controller didnt hear back from flight 4203 again, the allocated landing time for flight 4203 came and went and still no plane. The controller was trying to raise the plane on radio but no reply came through. The controller got in touch with other planes in the area to try and get them to spot the missing MD83 but that did not work as well as the night was too dark. Immediately search and rescue teams were sent out in the night to try and find the wreck but the darkness and the mountainous terrain made things very difficult. The Turkish air force even sent out a helicopter equipped with a thermal camera to try and find the missing jet. At 6 am the helicopter came upon the crash site of flight 4203. None of the 57 people on board survived.

As with all crashes, the discovery of the wreck was immediately followed up by a barrage of news interviews but The really weird thing about this crash is the statement made by the CEO of atlas jet right after the crash. In his press conference he said quote "the accident was caused by a pilot error, there was no technical fault with the aircraft" End quote. Is it just me or does that just seem weird. Like no one knows the reason for the crash hours after the wreck has been found and here is the CEO throwing the pilots under the bus. To find out the actual reason for the crash 4 investigators were sent to the crash site. The crash site was spread over a relatively large area of 5000 square meters or 54000 square feet. They examined the wreck and the eniges seemed to be working the plane was configured correctly. But the very interesting thing and the investigators first clue is the location of the crash site itself. The crash site was located 12 kilometers or 7.5 miles to the west of the airport. The approach to runway 05 did not need the plane to be in the mountainous area that it was. Flight 4203 had been sent off course in its