All 176 people aboard the two aircraft were killed,[2]:8[3]:5–6[4][5] making it the world's deadliest mid-air collision at the time.[6] It remains the deadliest aviation accident in Yugoslav and Croatian history.[7][8] This is also the only British Airways accident to result in fatalities excluding subsidiaries or former identities.
Inex-Adria Flight 550 departed Split Airport at 09:48 UTC bound for Cologne Bonn Airport as flight JP550. It carried 108 passengers, mostly German holiday-makers returning home at the end of a holiday on the Dalmatian coast, and a crew of five.[3]:2 The flight crew consisted of Captain Jože Krumpak (51), an experienced pilot with 10,157 flying hours, and First Officer Dušan Ivanuš.[7][3]:10–11 Inex-Adria was a charter airline based in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, the northernmost of the constituent republics making up SFR Yugoslavia.
Both flights proceeded uneventfully until they approached the Zagreb VOR.
Air traffic control
In the mid-1970s, the Zagreb air traffic control region was one of the busiest in Europe despite being seriously undermanned and poorly equipped.[9]:26 The Zagreb VOR was a reporting point for a number of congested airways between northern Europe and southeastern Europe, the Middle East, and beyond.[10] The airspace was divided into three sectors by altitude: the lower sector below 25,000 feet (7,600m), the middle sector from 25,000–31,000 feet (7,600–9,400m), and the upper sector above 31,000 feet (9,400m).[3]:27–29
On entering Yugoslav airspace from Austria, BA476 established radio contact with the Zagreb ACC upper-sector controller Gradimir Tasić at 10:04:12 UTC, informing him that they were at Flight Level330 (33,000ft; 10,050m) and expected to reach the Zagreb VOR at 10:14. The controller responded by instructing them to select transponder code 2312, and to call again on reaching the VOR:[3]:1
10:04:12
BA476
Zagreb, Bealine 476, good morning.
Zagreb Upp
Bealine 476, good morning, go ahead.
10:04:19
BA476
Er, 476, is Klagenfurt at 02, 330 and estimating Zagreb at one four.
10:04:27
Zagreb Upp
Bealine 476, roger, call me passing Zagreb, flight level 330, Squawk Alpha 2312.
10:04:40
BA476
2312 is coming.
This was the last communication with the Trident aircraft before the accident.[3]:1
At around the same time, JP550 contacted middle-sector controller Bojan Erjavec asking for a higher flight level; the aircraft was at flight level 260 (approximately 26,000 feet (7,900m)). FL280 (28,000 feet (8,500m)) and FL310 (31,000 feet (9,400m)) were unavailable, so Erjavec informed JP550 of the situation and offered flight level 350 (approximately 35,000 feet (11,000m)), which the pilots accepted. To get clearance for a higher level, it was necessary to obtain the permission of the upper-sector controller. Erjavec waved his hand to get Tasić's attention, but Tasić (who was working the upper sector on his own, as his colleague Mladen Hochberger had gone to search for Nenad Tepeš, Tasić's replacement who was running late) was far too busy to be interrupted. Middle sector controller Gradimir Pelin was then instructed to co-ordinate the climbout for the DC-9 with Tasić.[citation needed]
According to Pelin, he walked to the upper sector console holding JP550's flight progress strip. He asked Tasić if the DC-9 could climb to FL350. Tasić took the strip from Pelin and looked at it, then asked where the aircraft was at the moment. Pelin then pointed to a blip on the screen approaching Kostajnica. Tasić's response was 'yes, it could climb'. Pelin then noticed an aircraft on the screen coming from the direction of Metlika and asked Tasić about it, who said 'wait until they cross.' Pelin referred to the middle-sector screen to make sure that he had identified the DC-9 positively on the upper-sector screen. He then returned to Tasić and they both watched the targets pass each other, at which point Tasić authorised JP550 to climb. Pelin then called out to Erjavec and said, 'Yes, climb it.' Upon Erjavec receiving the OK from Pelin, he instructed the DC-9 to climb to FL350. That was at 10:07:40.[citation needed]
At 10:12:03, JP550 called the Zagreb middle-sector controller to inform them that the aircraft was out of flight level 310. The last instructions given by Erjavec to JP550 were to call the upper-sector controller on 134.45MHz and to stop squawking the assigned squawk code. By instructing JP550 to squawk Standby, Erjavec simply released a code allocated for the middle sector. The data tag for the DC-9 would now disappear from his screen and the aircraft would become merely a point among many others. If everything about this handover had been normal, the DC-9 would have been given a new code on initial contact with the upper sector controller and would have been positively identified on the upper sector screen with its flight number and altitude readout. But this had not been a normal handover because of the ill-handled co-ordination for the climb. Also, Tasić was busy with other traffic and JP550 did not immediately contact the upper-sector controller. This could have been because the frequency was busy, but the pilots might also have delayed the call for some unknown reason.[citation needed]
By the time JP550 contacted the upper-sector controller at 10:14:04 it had reached the Zagreb VOR and was already climbing through flight level 325 (approximately 32,500 feet (9,900m)). The controller immediately asked for confirmation of the aircraft's level:[3]:4
10:14:04
JP550
Dobar dan ["Good day"] Zagreb, Adria 550.
10:14:07
Zagreb Upp
Adria 550, Zagreb, dobar dan, go ahead.
10:14:10
JP550
325 crossing Zagreb at one four.
10:14:14
Zagreb Upp
What is your present level?
10:14:17
JP550
327.
Realising the imminent danger of collision, Tasić instructed the JP550 to stop climbing. In doing so, he reverted to his native Serbo-Croatian language, contrary to the regulations.[3]:30 This meant that the British Airways plane, even if they overheard this conversation, would have very little chance of understanding their own imminent danger.[citation needed] The controller's last-ditch attempt to avert catastrophe turned what would have been a near miss into the collision he was trying to prevent.[citation needed] For, by the time JP550 had levelled off it was at flight level 330 (approximately 33,000 feet (10,000m)), exactly the same level as BA476:[3]:4
10:14:22
Zagreb Upp
[stammering]... e... zadržite se na toj visini i javite prolazak Zagreba ["uh... hold your current altitude and report passing Zagreb"].
10:14:27
JP550
Kojoj visini? ["What altitude?"]
10:14:29
Zagreb Upp
Na kojoj ste sada u penjanju jer... e... imate avion pred vama na...[not coherent]335 sa leva na desno. ["The altitude you are climbing through because... uh... you have an aircraft in front of you at... [not coherent] 335 from left to right."]
10:14:38
JP550
OK, ostajemo točno 330. ["OK, we'll remain precisely at 330."]
The mid-air collision occurred at 10:14:41.[3]:1 Half a minute later, Tasić attempted to call BA476 and instruct it to report passing the next waypoint at Našice, but was answered by a different flight:[citation needed]
Tasić continued to call BA476 and JP550, ignoring calls from other aircraft, but to no avail:[citation needed]
10:15:50
Zagreb Upp
Adria 550, Zagreb...
10:16:00
Zagreb Upp
Adria 550, Zagreb...
10:16:14
Zagreb Upp
Adria 550, Zagreb...
10:16:32
Zagreb Upp
Adria 550, Zagreb...
10:16:42
Zagreb Upp
Adria 550, Zagreb...
10:16:50
Zagreb Upp
Bealine 476, Zagreb...
10:16:58
Zagreb Upp
Bealine 476, Zagreb...
Meanwhile, a LufthansaBoeing 737 was travelling eastbound on UB5 at flight level 290 (approximately 29,000 feet (8,800m)) towards Zagreb, only 15 miles (13nmi; 24km) behind the Trident. The co-pilot saw the collision as a flash of lightning and afterwards, out of a ball of smoke, two aircraft falling towards the ground. The Lufthansa captain, Josef Kröse, reported the sighting to Erjavec, the middle-sector controller.[11]
10:15:40
Capt Kröse R/T
....e Zagreb! It is possible we have a mid-air collision in sight. We have two aircraft going down, well, almost below our position now.
This was spoken in such an agitated voice that Erjavec was unable to understand what was being said.[3]:5[additional citation(s) needed] (Later, on hearing the recording of this call, Captain Kröse had difficulty in understanding his own words.[citation needed]) The Lufthansa captain had to repeat his message several times.[3]:5
10:18:12
Capt Kröse R/T
It is possible that the other aircraft ahead of us had a mid-air collision....er...just overhead Zagreb. We had two aircraft going down with a rapid rate of descent...and there was also smoke coming out.
When the implications of what was being said dawned on Erjavec, he glanced across to the upper-sector controller. At his station sat a stunned Tasić, white-faced with shock. Slowly he lifted the headset from his ears and placed it on the console in front of him.[citation needed]
The two aircraft had collided over the town of Vrbovec, northeast of Zagreb. The last five metres of the DC-9's left wing had cut through the Trident's cockpit section and forward passenger compartment.[3]:2,34
The pilots of the Trident were killed at the moment of collision. The explosive decompression caused the forward part of the Trident's fuselage to disintegrate; the Trident fell, landing on its tail and sliding a short distance before its remains came to rest near the village of Gaj.[3]:5
The DC-9, now without over one-third of its left wing, went into an immediate nose-dive and slammed into the ground right-wing first, near the village of Dvorišće, 25 seconds after the collision.[3]:5 The CVR had reactivated at the moment of collision, having stopped recording 20 minutes earlier.[3]:22
In the end, everyone aboard both flights were killed.[12]
Initial survivors
A police officer who was one of the first to arrive at the scene reported that a baby on the ground was "still giving feeble signs of life near the [British] plane, but even if the ambulances had arrived before me, it would have been too late to save it."[6] Locals reported finding a boy, who was lying on a road near a field, and who displayed signs of life up to 15 minutes after the collision, but he eventually died.[13]
Trial
Memorial to some of the dead
By noon that day, all controllers were in custody for interrogation. Later, all were released except Tasić, who remained in custody until the trial.[citation needed]
The trial opened on 11 April 1977 in Zagreb District Court. All the controllers were indicted under the Penal Code of Yugoslavia, Articles 271-72 as "persons who by endangering railway, sea or air traffic, threaten the lives of persons or property."[citation needed]
Tasić was the only one to be found guilty; he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment.[10] After a petition by air traffic controllers, it was determined that Tasić had been used as a scapegoat, and he was released on 29 November 1978. He had served nearly two years and three months in prison.[citation needed]
The events of the accident are also documented in a season 1 episode of Aircrash Confidential titled "Collisions", which was first aired on the Discovery Channel in 2011.[citation needed]
Adria Airways d.o.o. was the flag carrier of Slovenia, operating scheduled and charter services to European destinations. The company's head office was at Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport in Zgornji Brnik, Cerklje na Gorenjskem, near Ljubljana. On 30 September 2019, the airline declared bankruptcy and ceased all operations.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1976.
West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 was a charter flight that crashed in northwest Venezuela in the early hours of 16 August 2005, killing all 160 passengers and crew on board. The plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, registration HK-4374X, was en route from Tocumen International Airport (PTY) in Panama City, Panama, to Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport (FDF) in Fort-de-France, Martinique, France. While flying at 33,000 ft (10,000 m), the aircraft's speed gradually decreased until it entered an aerodynamic stall. The crew, probably under the mistaken belief that the aircraft had suffered a double engine flameout, did not take the necessary actions to recover from the stall. The confusion and lack of action resulted in the crash.
The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast, single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced as the Douglas DC-9 prior to August 1967, after which point the company had merged with McDonnell Aircraft to become McDonnell Douglas. Following the introduction of its first jetliner, the high-capacity DC-8, in 1959, Douglas was interested in producing an aircraft suited to smaller routes. As early as 1958, design studies were conducted; approval for the DC-9, a smaller all-new jetliner, came on April 8, 1963. The DC-9-10 first flew on February 25, 1965, and gained its type certificate on November 23, to enter service with Delta Air Lines on December 8.
Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145(SO1145/OSL1145) was a scheduled Nigerian domestic passenger flight from Nigeria's capital of Abuja (ABV) to Port Harcourt (PHC). At about 14:08 local time on 10 December 2005, Flight 1145 from Abuja crash-landed at Port Harcourt International Airport. The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 with 110 people on board, slammed into the ground and burst into flames. Immediately after the crash, seven survivors were recovered and taken to hospitals, but only two people survived.
Piedmont Airlines Flight 22 was a Piedmont Airlines Boeing 727-22 that collided with a twin-engine Cessna 310 on July 19, 1967, over Hendersonville, North Carolina, United States. Both aircraft were destroyed and all passengers and crew were killed, including John T. McNaughton, an advisor to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. The aircraft were both operating under instrument flight rules and were in radio contact with the Asheville control tower, though on different frequencies. The accident investigation was the first of a major scale conducted by the newly created National Transportation Safety Board. A review of the investigation conducted 39 years after the accident upheld the original findings that had placed primary responsibility on the Cessna pilot.
The 2005 Logan Airport runway incursion was a near-collision that occurred at approximately 7:40 p.m. EDT on June 9, 2005, between Aer Lingus Flight 132 and US Airways Flight 1170. EI132 was an Airbus A330-300 aircraft, owned and operated by the Irish airline Aer Lingus, destined for Shannon, Ireland, and carrying 12 crew members and 260 passengers. US Airways Flight 1170 was a Boeing 737-300 flight destined for Philadelphia and carrying 6 crew members and 103 passengers. The near-collision took place on the runway at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts.
Thai Airways International Flight 311 (TG311/THA311) was a flight from Bangkok, Thailand's Don Mueang International Airport to Kathmandu, Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport. On Friday, 31 July 1992, an Airbus A310-304 on the route crashed on approach to Kathmandu. At 07:00:26 UTC, the aircraft crashed into the side of a mountain 37 kilometres north of Kathmandu at an altitude of 11,500 ft (3,505 m) and a ground speed of 300 knots, killing all 113 passengers and crew members on board. This was both the first hull loss and the first fatal accident involving the Airbus A310.
The Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident is a British airliner produced by Hawker Siddeley. In 1957, de Havilland proposed its DH.121 trijet design to a British European Airways (BEA) request. By 1960, de Havilland had been acquired by Hawker Siddeley. The Trident's maiden flight happened on 9 January 1962, and it was introduced on 1 April 1964, two months after its main competitor, the Boeing 727. By the end of the programme in 1978, 117 Tridents had been produced. The Trident was withdrawn from service in 1995.
Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308 was a McDonnell Douglas MD-81 aircraft operating a Yugoslavian charter flight to the French island of Corsica. On 1 December 1981, the flight crashed on Corsica's Mont San-Pietro, killing all 180 people on board. The crash was the deadliest and first major aviation accident involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-80.
The Grand Canyon mid-air collision occurred in the western United States on June 30, 1956, when a United Airlines Douglas DC-7 struck a Trans World Airlines Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation over Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. The first plane fell into the canyon while the other slammed into a rock face. All 128 on board both airplanes perished, making it the first commercial airline incident to exceed one hundred fatalities. The airplanes had departed Los Angeles International Airport minutes apart from each other and headed for Chicago and Kansas City, respectively. The collision took place in uncontrolled airspace, where it was the pilots' responsibility to maintain separation. This highlighted the antiquated state of air traffic control, which became the focus of major aviation reforms.
On 31 January 2001, Japan Airlines Flight 907, a Boeing 747-400D en route from Haneda Airport, Japan, to Naha Airport, Okinawa, narrowly avoided a mid-air collision with Japan Airlines Flight 958, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-40 en route from Gimhae International Airport, South Korea, to Narita International Airport, Japan. The event became known in Japan as the Japan Airlines near miss incident above Suruga Bay. Had the accident occurred, it could have been the worst mid-air collision and the worst air disaster of all time.
On December 3, 1990, two Northwest Airlines jetliners collided at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. Flight 1482, a scheduled Douglas DC-9-14 operating from Detroit to Pittsburgh International Airport, taxied by mistake onto an active runway in dense fog and was hit by a departing Boeing 727 operating as Flight 299 to Memphis International Airport. One member of the crew and seven passengers of the DC-9 were killed.
United Air Lines Flight 736 was a scheduled transcontinental passenger service flown daily by United Airlines between Los Angeles and New York City. On April21, 1958, the airliner assigned to the flight, a Douglas DC-7 with 47 on board, was flying over Clark County, Nevada in clear weather when it was involved in a daytime mid-air collision with a United States Air Force fighter jet crewed by two pilots. Both aircraft fell out of control from 21,000 feet (6,400 m) and crashed into unpopulated desert terrain southwest of Las Vegas, leaving no survivors. The loss of Flight 736, one of a series of 1950s mid-air collisions involving passenger aircraft in American skies, helped usher-in widespread improvements in air traffic control within the United States, and led to a sweeping reorganization of federal government aviation authorities.
On 11 August 1979, a mid-air collision occurred over the Ukrainian SSR, near the city of Dniprodzerzhynsk. The aircraft involved were both Tupolev Tu-134As on scheduled domestic passenger flights, operated by Aeroflot. All 178 people aboard both aircraft died in the accident.
EgyptAir Flight 763 was an international non-scheduled passenger flight from Cairo, Egypt, to Aden, South Yemen. On 19 March 1972, the flight was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 registered in Yugoslavia as YU-AHR and operated by the newly renamed EgyptAir. It crashed into the Shamsan Mountains on approach to Aden, killing all 30 people on board.
Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 450, JP 450, was an international charter flight from Tivat in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to Prague, Czechoslovakia which crashed in the Prague suburb of Suchdol on October 30, 1975, at 09:20 AM. The McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 with 115 passengers and 5 crew on board descended, under Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC), below defined Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA) during the final approach to Prague Ruzyně Airport RWY 25, entered a gorge above Vltava river, and was unable to outclimb the rising terrain. 75 of the 120 occupants died during the crash itself while 4 others died later in hospital. The accident remains the worst aviation disaster on the Czech Republic soil.
The 1973 Nantes mid-air collision occurred when two airliners travelling to London Heathrow airport hit each other over Nantes, France, on 5 March 1973. They were an Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9 flying from Palma de Mallorca and a Spantax Convair 990 from Madrid. All 68 people on board the DC-9 were killed. The CV-990 was able to make a successful emergency landing at Cognac – Châteaubernard Air Base.
This article provides an overview of air transport in Yugoslavia, a country in the Balkans that existed from 1918 until its dissolution in the 1990s.
American International Airways Flight 808 was a cargo flight operated by American International Airways that crashed on August 18, 1993 while attempting to land at Leeward Point Field at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. All three crew members on board survived with serious injuries.
Palair Macedonian Airlines Flight 301 (1993), which occurred in Macedonia (now North Macedonia), was investigated by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
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