Flight Safety Foundation Accident Prevention 1996

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December 1996

Hidden, Smoky Fire in MD-87 Aft Cabin Forces Emergency Evacuation After Landing 8 pages. [PDF 115K]

All the passengers and crew members evacuated the aircraft at the gate without injury, but the fire would have posed a far greater safety threat if the fire had occurred in flight, the official Danish accident report said.

November 1996

Military Boeing 707 Strikes Birds After Liftoff; Damage to Engines No. 1 and No. 2 Results in Loss of Power and Impact with Terrain 8 pages. [PDF 89K]

U.S. Air Force personnel at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska knew that geese posed a danger to aircraft and acted to disperse them. Nevertheless, their efforts to detect or deter roosting geese were inadequate, an official U.S. Air Force accident report says.

October 1996

After Loud Bang, Captain Rejects Takeoff; DC-10 Runs Off End of Runway 8 pages. [PDF 65K]

The accident raised crew-training issues and renewed concern about rejected takeoffs when runways are wet or contaminated by slush or snow, the official Canadian accident report said.

September 1996

Uncontained Disk Failure in Right Engine of DC-9 During Initial Takeoff Run Results in Rejected Takeoff and Aircraft Evacuation 14 pages. [PDF 139K]

U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigators determined that the Turkish maintenance station that had last inspected the compressor disk had overlooked a detectable flaw that caused the disk to fragment.

August 1996

Flight Crew of DC-10 Encounters Microburst During Unstabilized Approach, Ending in Runway Accident 12 pages. [PDF 105K]

The approach controller did not warn the crew of the possibility of wind shear, but the official Portuguese accident report noted that such an experienced crew should have been aware that wind shear was a possibility.

July 1996

Racing Balloon Is Shot Down by Air Force Attack Helicopter in Belarus 8 pages. [PDF 59K]

The balloon crew may have been suffering from the combined effects of hypoxia and fatigue and, therefore, failed to react to the sounds of the helicopter and machine-gun fire, the official report said.

June 1996

Improperly Installed Electrical Wiring Causes In-flight Fire and Leads to Loss of Control by Learjet Crew During Attempted Emergency Landing 8 pages. [PDF 92K]

The operator of the accident aircraft failed to provide adequate quality control and oversight of the installation of special-mission power wiring for military use of the aircraft, the official U.S. report said.

May 1996

During Three-engine Takeoff in DC-8, Captain Makes Premature Liftoff, Resulting In Stall and Collision With Terrain 12 pages. [PDF 128K]

Although the flight was legal under the regulations governing it, the accident flight crew would not have met the legal crew-rest requirements for a revenue flight, the official U.S. report said.

April 1996

Commuter Captain Fails to Follow Emergency Procedures After Suspected Engine Failure, Loses Control of the Aircraft During Instrument Approach 12 pages. [PDF 166K]

The airline failed to obtain the captain’s training records from his previous employer, where he had received negative evaluations. The records were also inadequate for assessing flight proficiency, the official investigation found.

March 1996

Pilot of Cessna 441 Incorrectly Taxis onto Active Runway and Aircraft Is Struck by McDonnell Douglas MD-82 on Takeoff Roll 12 pages. [PDF 91K]

On the night of the accident, the ground controller in the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control tower was working four positions and monitoring seven frequencies, the official U.S. report said.

February 1996

Unaware That They Have Encountered a Microburst, DC-9 Flight Crew Executes Standard Go-around; Aircraft Flies Into Terrain 16 pages. [PDF 414K]

The approach was continued into severe convective activity and the crew failed to recognize a wind-shear situation in a timely manner. The failure of the air traffic controller to report radar data and other pertinent weather information to the crew was a contributing factor to the accident, the official U.S. report said.

January 1996

Two Engines Separate from the Right Wing and Result in Loss of Control and Crash of Boeing 747 Freighter 8 pages. [PDF 43K]

The official report of the Netherlands Aviation Safety Board concluded that the original design of the engine pylons, together with the continuous airworthiness measures and the associated inspection system, did not guarantee the minimum required level of safety of the Boeing 747 at the time of the accident.