Gero - Aviation Disasters: the Worlds Major Civil Airliner Crashes Since 1950

AVIATION

DISASTERS

The Worlds Major Civil Airliner Crashes since 1950

FIFTH EDITION

DAVID GERO

First published in 1993 by Patrick Stephens Limited

This edition published in 2009 by The History Press

Reprinted 2010, 2012

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved

David Gero, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2006, 2009, 2013

The right of David Gero to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 9992 5

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

W hen Aviation Disasters was first published more than a decade and a half ago, it was unique in the world of trade books, a reference publication dedicated to the subject of air calamities. In the years since, numerous books on the subject have come out, and they have been joined by several air crash websites on the worldwide Internet. I would like to think that Aviation Disasters started or at least helped to spark interest in this field of research.

This latest edition is essentially a new book. Not only does it include events occurring in the young twenty-first century, but it also updates information on disasters recounted in earlier versions. Im happy to see more nations and investigative agencies becoming willing to share accident information. When I began my research for the first edition, censorship was still a major issue; the second in fact offered the first in-depth coverage on disasters that had occurred, but generally not been reported, in the former Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies. The availability of material has helped to make this fourth edition of Aviation Disasters the most comprehensive ever.

Since the beginning of 1950, the airlines of the world have suffered well over 1,000 significant mishaps, i.e. those involving fatalities and/or the destruction of an aircraft. Since the task of presenting all of these in any detail would be beyond the scope of a single book, I have concentrated on those most serious catastrophes. The primary criterion for entry into this volume is severity in terms of lives lost. I have included accounts on every known accident occurring on a passenger flight with at least 80 fatalities, and every one involving an air carrier of the industrialised world resulting in at least 60 deaths. Additionally, I have included accounts on other incidents that may be less serious in terms of casualties but are of some historic value. Every type of calamity is included, whether it be the result of crew error, bad weather, technical failure or hostile action (the latter referring to both sabotage and aircraft attacked from the ground, sea or air).

Readers may observe that Aviation Disasters is biased, both in the number of accounts and in their length and coverage, towards operators in Western Europe, North America, Oceania and Japan. This should not be construed as meaning that these nations have inferior safety records (just the opposite, in fact, they are the safest), but rather can be explained by their greater volume of air traffic coupled with their willingness to share accident information (which probably accounts for their superior records).

Whenever possible, I have endeavoured to obtain information from official sources. Generally, civil air mishaps are investigated by government bodies, such as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the US and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) in the UK, which publish accident reports or summary briefs. Recommendations coming therefrom are then implemented by government regulatory bodies, the best known of which are the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). I have also relied heavily on the aviation media, whose writers are more knowledgeable on the subject than most journalists, and which will normally guarantee greater accuracy. I must also give praise to the many international airlines that offered assistance, and wish further to credit the aforementioned Internet which has greatly improved access to accident information. (I might note that the Internet works both ways, however; its interesting to see how certain websites have lifted information from my books, sometimes giving me credit, sometimes not.)

In writing this book, I have gone to great lengths in providing specific details of individual mishaps, even to the point of listing the specific model of a certain type of aircraft and its serial number, and the local time of occurrence. Each account is literally a mini-volume of the incident, making the book easy reference for those seeking information on a particular disaster. It was a very challenging project!

Although my name appears on its cover, this latest Aviation Disasters was the result of the work of many individuals information and photographic researchers, translators, technical advisers and even readers who have offered opinions and corrective assistance. As stated in the very first edition, I hope new and returning readers will find it interesting and enlightening.

David Gero
San Gabriel, California

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

T he author would like to thank the following organisations and individuals for their help in the preparation of this book:

Airbus Industrie; Air Accidents Investigation Branch (UK); Air Canada Flight Safety Division. Contact: J.A. Mitchell; Airclaims Ltd. Contact: Paul Hayes; Airclaims CIS. Contact: Elena Kuznetsova; Danish Aircraft Accident Investigation. Contact: Niels Jaksobsen; Norwegian Aircraft Accident Investigation Board. Contacts: T.B. Kirkvaag, Ragnar Rygnestad; Air France Office of Public Affairs. Contact: Gail Muntner; Mete Akkaya, Turkish Representative to the ICAO; Alitalia; All Nippon Airways Safety Promotion Committee. Contacts: Yoshi Funatsu, Hiroshi Sakabe; Argentine Air Force. Contacts: Guillermo Raul Barreira, Mario Santamaria; Belgian World Airlines (SABENA). Contact: J. Deschutter; Arif Boediman, Indonesian Representative to the ICAO; Boeing Canada de Havilland. Contact: Colin Fisher; British Airways Air Safety Branch. Contacts: Roy Lomas, C.N. Hall; Australian Bureau of Air Safety Investigation. Contacts: W.G. Duffy, F. St. G. Hornblower, D.J. Nicholas, R.J. Sibbison; Canadian Airlines International Ltd. Contact: P.G. Howe; Canadian Aviation Safety Board. Contacts: Nicole BrindAmour, Manon Ouimet van Riel, Joyce Pedley; Centro de Investigacao e Prevencao de Acidentes Aeronauticos (Brazil). Contacts: Osmar Nascimento Amorim, Renato Tristao de Menezes, Paulo Fernando Peralta, Carlos Machado Vallim, Paulo C.F. Viana; Civil Aviation Authority (UK); Civil Aviation Department (Hong Kong). Contact: Y.S. Fong; Departamento Administrativo de Aeonautica Civil (Colombia). Contacts: Carlos German Barrero Fandino, William Mejia Restrepo; Department of Civil Aviation (Malta). Contact: C.D. Caruana; Department of Civil Aviation (Pakistan). Contact: Patrick Callaghan; Department of Transport (South Africa). Contact: Barend P.K. Jordaan; Department of Transport and Power (Ireland). Contacts: G. Guihen, J. McStay; Direccin General de Aeronutica Civil (Mexico). Contact: Carlos Moran Moguel; Direcao-Geral Da Aviaao Civil (Portugal). Contact: Jose Camilo Pastor; Direction des Journaux Officiels (France). Contacts: Jeannine Valin, Monique Masson; Director General Of Civil Aviation (India). Contact: B.R. Chopra; Directorate of Civil Aviation (Iceland); Ecuadorean Direccin General de Aviacion Civil. Contact: Edmundo Baquero M; Embassy of South Africa to the US. Contact: Neville C. Parkins; Embassy of the US to Peru. Contact: David Stebbing; Embassy of the US to Venezuela. Contact: Hans Mueller; Federal Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (Switzerland). Contacts: Erich Keller, A.D. Salzmann; Federal Ministry of Transport (Germany). Contact: I.A. Kramer; Hellenic Republic Ministry of Communications, Civil Aviation Authority (Greece). Contacts: G. Fotiades, K. Mavrogenis, G. Tzouvalis; Inspection Generale de lAviation Civile et de la Meteorologie (France). Contacts: Robert Davidson, M. Dulac; International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Contacts: Tracey Martineau, Germaine Zaloum; Japan Aeronautical Engineers Association; Japan Airlines. Contacts: M. Osaki, Geoffrey Tudor; Japan Air System. Contact: H. Kanai; KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Contact: Peter Offerman; Nick Komons, Historian, Federal Aviation Administration (US); Lauda Air. Contact: Ronald Kraftner; Library of Congress (US); Lockheed; Lufthansa German Airlines. Contact: Norbert Wagner; Ministere des Communications Administration de lAeronautique (Belgium). Contact: J. Van Laer; Ministerio de Transportes, Turismo y Comunicaciones (Spain). Contact: Jose Bellido Grela; Ministerio de Transportes y Comunicaciones (Peru). Contact: Luis Bouroncle Loayza; Ministry of Defence (UK). Contacts: Les Howard, Eric Munday; Ministry of Transport (Israel). Contact: Giora Chalamish; Ministry of Transport (Japan); Ministry of Transport and Public Works (The Netherlands). Contact: F.A. van Reijsen; Ministry of Transportation and Communications Bureau (Philippines). Contact: M.S. Talento, Jr; National Archives (US). Contacts: Vernon Brooks, Janet Kennelly, Jane Lange, ADonna Thomas, Jessie White; National Board of Aviation (Finland). Contacts: Seppo Hamalainen, Jorma Kivinen; National Transportation Safety Board (US). Contact: Susan Stevenson; Nordic Delegation to the ICAO. Contact: O. Mydland; Office of Air Accidents Investigation (New Zealand). Contacts: L.J. Banfield, L.F. Blewett, Ron Chippindale; Philippine Airlines. Contact: Enrique Santos; Public Archives of Canada. Contact: Glenn Wright; Qantas Airways. Contact: John J. White; Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS). Contact: Gunnel Thorne; Singapore Ministry of Transport. Contact: Ong Yunn Shing; Swedish Civil Aviation Administration. Contacts: Klas Bask, Roland Nilsson; Swissair FAH Historical Society; US Air Force Historical Research Center. Contact: Lt Col Alan Clair; US Air Force Inspection and Safety Center. Contacts: John J. Clark Jr, Vincent Murone; US Department of Defense; Venezolana Internacional de Aviacion SA (VIASA). Contact: Capt Eduardo Nieto Willett.