Accident | |
---|---|
Date | 12 March 2018 |
Summary | Runway excursion on landing due to pilot error and unstable approach |
Site | Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal 27°41′33.29″N85°21′32.03″E / 27.6925806°N 85.3588972°E |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Bombardier Q400 |
Operator | US-Bangla Airlines |
IATA flight No. | BS211 |
ICAO flight No. | UBG211 |
Call sign | BANGLA STAR 211 |
Registration | S2-AGU |
Flight origin | Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka, Bangladesh |
Destination | Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal |
Occupants | 71 |
Passengers | 67 |
Crew | 4 |
Fatalities | 51 |
Injuries | 20 |
Survivors | 20 |
US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, that crashed on 12 March 2018 while landing, killing 51 of the 71 people aboard. The aircraft, a 76-seat Bombardier Q400 operated by US-Bangla Airlines, burst into flames after the crash. The 20 surviving passengers were badly injured from the impact and the fire. It remains the deadliest aviation disaster involving a Bangladeshi airline, and the deadliest incident involving a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400.
A commission appointed by the government of Nepal investigated the accident and issued a report that concluded that the probable cause of the crash was pilot disorientation and a loss of situational awareness on the part of the flight crew. The report was criticized by the airline and by the Bangladeshi representative to the commission, who felt that the air traffic controllers at Tribhuvan International Airport did not do their job properly and could have prevented the accident.
The aircraft, operating as flight number BS-211, departed Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, at 06:51 UTC (12:51 pm Bangladesh Standard Time) bound for Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal. [1] : 1 BS-211 was a regularly scheduled flight that operated four times a week between the two cities. [2]
At 08:10 UTC, the first officer contacted Kathmandu Approach, who told the flight to descend to 13,500 feet (4,100 m) and enter a holding pattern at a specified navigational waypoint. [1] : 24 Long approach delays were common at Kathmandu due to a lack of airport capacity and a high volume of traffic into and out of the airport, so the instruction to enter a holding pattern was not unusual. [3] Since they were slightly ahead of schedule, the pilots expected the delay to last several minutes, so they discussed the navigational elements of the holding pattern, and configured the flight management system in preparation. [1] : 24 However, before the aircraft had arrived at the holding point, the approach controller instead cleared the flight to descend and proceed directly to the approach for runway 02. [1] : 24 The pilots had not reconfigured the flight management system for the approach, so when the aircraft arrived at the next waypoint, the autopilot began a left-hand turn of the aircraft as it had been configured for the holding pattern. [1] : 25 The pilot realized that the plane was turning away from the intended course, and quickly changed the aircraft's autopilot heading selector to a course that would intercept the correct approach, and manually adjusted the autopilot's rate of descent. [1] : 25 These changes caused the aircraft's autopilot to switch to a mode where the course and rate of descent were controlled by the cockpit selectors instead of the aircraft's flight management system that was programmed to automatically follow the course and the rate of descent to align with the targeted runway. [1] : 25
The crew performed the landing checklist, but the pilot erroneously stated that the landing gear was down and locked when it was not. [1] : 25 Because the flight management system was disengaged, the pilots had to manually adjust the aircraft's rate of descent, and failed to select a rate that kept the aircraft at its intended altitude throughout the planned descent. The first officer repeatedly called out that they were 500 to 600 feet (150 to 180 m) too high compared to their desired altitude. [1] : 25–26 Meanwhile, a gear-unsafe alert tone sounded continuously in the cockpit, unacknowledged by the pilots. [1] : 25–26 With their attention focused on trying to adjust to the correct altitude, and distracted by the audible warnings, the crew failed to notice that the plane was still off course, and had by this time flown to the right of the desired approach path, descending at rates as high as 1,700 feet per minute (520 m/min). [1] : 26 Audible warnings of "MINIMUM", "SINK RATE", "TERRAIN", and "TOO LOW-GEAR" sounded, adding to the confusion. [1] : 26 [4] The first officer noticed that the landing gear was not down and lowered it, but by this time the aircraft had already passed the runway and neither pilot was aware of it. [1] : 26 The tower contacted the flight crew and informed them that they had been cleared to land on runway 02, but they appeared to be heading to runway 20, the opposite end of the single runway, and asked the pilot's intention. [1] : 27 Still unaware that they had already passed the runway, the pilot responded that he intended to land on runway 02. Seeing high terrain ahead of them, the pilot performed a sharp right-hand turn, during which the aircraft descended to as low as 175 ft (53 m) above the ground, and reached bank angles of up to 35 to 40°. This triggered additional alerts and alarms of "PULL UP", "TERRAIN", and "BANK ANGLE" in the cockpit. [1] : 27 [4] After flying to the west without spotting the runway, the pilot calmly admitted to the first officer that he had made a mistake and had become distracted by talking to her, and performed another steep right turn, with bank angles as high as 45° and descent rates of over 2,000 ft/min (610 m/min). [1] : 27 [4]
Eventually, with air traffic controllers on the radio still trying to clarify where the aircraft was going and the plane flying in a southeasterly direction, the first officer spotted runway 20 at the aircraft's 3 o'clock position, about two nautical miles (2.3 mi; 3.7 km) away, and the pilot made a sharp and abrupt right turn back to the west in an attempt to return to the approach end of the runway. [1] : 28 The aircraft overflew the end of runway 20 on a heading of 255°, 450 feet (140 m) above the ground, turning left with a forty-degree bank angle. [1] : 28 Alarmed by the actions of the aircraft, the air traffic controller hastily cancelled the flight's landing clearance, erroneously calling out "takeoff clearance cancelled". [1] : 28 The aircraft flew over the airport's domestic passenger terminal less than 50 feet (15 m) over the roof, and controllers in the tower ducked down out of fear. [1] : 29 [5] The aircraft made another sharp turn in an attempt to line up with the runway before touching down at an angle 5,600 feet (1,700 m) along the runway with its right main landing gear. The aircraft was travelling at the cockpit-indicated airspeed of 127 knots (235 km/h; 146 mph) and a heading of 190 degrees when it hit the runway. [1] : 29 The aircraft skidded off the runway, crashed through the inner perimeter fence on the edge of the airport, and slid down the slope. The aircraft disintegrated into pieces as it slid down the rough slope before crashing into the football field and bursting into flames. The aircraft came to a stop about 442 metres (1,450 ft; 483 yd) southeast of the runway. [1] : 13 [6]
The aircraft was a Bombardier Q400, configured with a seating capacity of 76 passengers, and registered as aircraft S2-AGU. [1] : 6 It was first delivered to Scandinavian Airlines in 2001, and flown by three airlines before being purchased by US-Bangla Airlines in 2014. [7] It had already been involved in a minor incident in 2015, when it skidded off the runway in Saidpur, resulting in minor damage to its right main wheels. [8] At the time of the crash, the aircraft had flown a total of 28,649 takeoff cycles for a total of 21,419 hours and was current on its maintenance. [1] : 6–7 The impact forces of the crash and the post-crash fire destroyed the aircraft. [1] : 3
The aircraft was carrying 65 adult passengers, two children, and four crew members, for a total of 71 on board. [9] Of the passengers, 33 were from Nepal, 32 were from Bangladesh, one was from China, and one was from the Maldives. [10] All of the crew were from Bangladesh. [11] 51 passengers and crew members were killed in the accident; 22 from Nepal, 28 from Bangladesh, and one from China. [1] : 4 Most of the Nepalis killed in the crash were medical students from Jalalabad Ragib Rabeya Medical College and Hospital of Sylhet, who were returning home after finishing their final professional exam. [5] Twenty passengers survived with serious injuries. [6]
The captain of the flight was 52-year-old Abid Sultan, a former Bangladesh Air Force pilot. [1] [12] Sultan had 22 years of flying experience, with more than 5,500 hours of flight time, and more than 1,700 hours of experience flying the Q400. [1] : 31 He had worked for US-Bangla since 2015 and was also an instructor and Q400 check pilot for the airline. [5] [10] [1] : 31 He was experienced with the flight to Kathmandu, having flown it more than 100 times. [13] He had resigned from the airline before the flight, but as part of the airline's code of conduct, he was required to continue working until he had been discharged. [14] He suffered multiple blunt-force trauma to his head and chest, initially surviving the crash, but he died of his injuries the next day. [1] : 15 [10]
The first officer was 25-year-old Prithula Rashid, the first female pilot of the airline. [15] She joined the airline in July 2016, and had a total of 390 hours of flight experience, 240 hours in the aircraft type. [1] This was her first time flying into Kathmandu. [1] : 22 She died of her injuries, described as blunt-force injury to her head. [1] : 15 [16]
The two cabin crew members, Khwaza Hossain Mohammad Shafi and Shamim Akter, died after the crash. [16]
The plane was engulfed in flames within seconds of the plane's initial touchdown, and airport personnel immediately dispatched emergency equipment. [1] : 15–16 Fire trucks arrived within two minutes and firefighters had to put out a grass fire in their path before they could reach the aircraft. [1] : 16 The fire at the crashed aircraft took fifteen minutes to extinguish. [17] The airport was closed for three hours after the crash, and incoming flights were diverted to other airports. [18] [19] As of March 2019, one year after the crash, the wreckage of the aircraft was still beside the runway at the airport. [4]
The 22 passengers who survived the impact and subsequent fire were sent to local hospitals. [19] Two of those survivors later died of their injuries. [17] Survivability was the highest on the right side or near the front of the aircraft, as passengers on the left side were most likely directly killed by impact forces, but the rapidly spreading fire after the crash limited options for escape for the passengers who survived the initial impact. [1] : 16 [4] Many of the crash victims were burned beyond recognition, and required DNA tests to identify their remains. [20] At the time of the accident, it was the deadliest aviation disaster involving a Bangladeshi airline, [21] and the deadliest accident involving the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400. [22]
In the following days, Nepali Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli visited the crash site and announced that an investigation into the cause of the crash was underway. [18] Imran Asif, chief executive officer of US-Bangla Airlines, told reporters that the company's early opinion was that the crash was caused by air traffic controllers at the airport misleading the pilots, causing them to attempt to land on the wrong runway. [10] He said that he doubted that any negligence existed on the part of the pilots. [10] Nepal Army Lt.Col. Puran Ghale, who was among the first rescuers to arrive at the aircraft after the crash, complained that aircraft engineers were slow to arrive at the crash site, which hindered the rescue efforts. [3] A spokesman for the airline insisted that the governments of both Bangladesh and Nepal co-operate in the investigation to "launch a fair investigation and find the reason behind the accident." [10] Responding to early reports, the airline denied that the doomed flight was the first officer's maiden flight into Kathmandu. [21] In later statements, the airline said that it would cover the hospital expenses of injured survivors and pay US$25,000 to the relatives of each of the passengers who died. [23]
Two days after the accident, US-Bangla Airlines suspended all service to Kathmandu for an indefinite period. [24] The airline applied for resumption of its Kathmandu operation, in September 2018, intending to resume flights on 28 October, but a source inside the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said that approval was "highly unlikely" to be granted due to the many critical statements about the operation of the airport that executives from the airline had made after the accident. [24]
Shortly after the accident, a local news agency published a video taken by Kathmandu residents showing the plane flying very low in the vicinity of the airport. [25] In early 2019, a second video surfaced on social media sites that showed CCTV footage from the airport. The second video showed the aircraft narrowly missing buildings and parked airplanes at the airport, and the last moments of the flight. [25]
After the crash, the government of Nepal formed an Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission to determine the cause and the circumstances of the accident. The six-member commission was also assisted by Captain Salahuddin Rahmatullah, the head of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Group of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, [26] and Nora Vallée, senior investigator for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, [27] where the aircraft was manufactured. [1] : foreword
The commission released a preliminary report on 9 April 2018. [6] The report was a brief synopsis of the accident and stated that the aircraft had touched down 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) down runway 20 heading southwest before going off the runway. It said the cockpit voice and flight data recorders had been recovered and had been sent to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada for analysis along with other aircraft components. [28]
On 27 August 2018, Nepal's Kathmandu Post newspaper reported that a source had leaked details from the still-ongoing official investigation. The source said that the commission was planning to assign blame for the crash on Captain Abid Sultan, and said that he was smoking continuously in the cockpit, lied to the control tower during the landing, and engaged in erratic behavior. [29] The airline and the Bangladeshi representative to the commission dismissed the newspaper report as "baseless", stating that the story was filled with false information, designed to make the airline and its employees look bad. [30]
The final investigation report released on 27 January 2019 concluded that pilot disorientation and a lack of situation awareness led to the crash. [1] : 40
When we analyzed the conversation on the cockpit voice recorder, it was clear to us that the captain was harbouring severe mental stress. He also seemed to be fatigued and tired due to lack of sleep — he was crying on several occasions.
— Final accident report by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal
The report also shows that Sultan made multiple abusive statements regarding a young female pilot whom he had trained and who had questioned his reputation as an instructor. He also spoke of a rumor that the trainee pilot and he had engaged in an extramarital affair, which had forced him to resign from the company. When telling this, he cried and wondered aloud where he would be able to find another job and stated that he had been so worried that he had not slept the previous night. [31] Records show that Rashid, the co-pilot, who was on her first flight to Kathmandu and showed interest to learn at every stage of the flight, was a passive listener to Sultan's story throughout the flight. [5]
The sole Bangladeshi representative on the investigative panel was publicly critical of the final report, saying that it left out the fact that air traffic controllers at the airport did not execute their duties properly. He said that the controllers could have provided navigational assistance to the pilots once it became apparent that they were disoriented, but they did not. He said that if the controllers had done so, the accident could have been averted. [26]
The crash was featured on season 21 of the Canadian documentary series Mayday . The episode is entitled "Meltdown over Kathmandu". [32]
The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was bought by Boeing in 1986, then by Bombardier in 1992, then by Longview Aviation Capital in 2019; Longview revived the De Havilland Canada brand. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150s, it was developed from the Dash 7 with improved cruise performance and lower operational costs, but without STOL performance. The Dash 8 was offered in four sizes: the initial Series 100 (1984–2005), the more powerful Series 200 (1995–2009) with 37–40 seats, the Series 300 (1989–2009) with 50–56 seats, and Series 400 (1999–2022) with 68–90 seats. The QSeries are post-1997 variants fitted with active noise control systems.
Nepal Airlines Corporation, formerly known as Royal Nepal Airlines, is the flag carrier of Nepal. Founded in 1958, it is the oldest airline of the country. Out of its main base at Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, the airline operates domestic services within Nepal and medium-haul services in Asia. The airline's first aircraft was a Douglas DC-3, used to serve domestic routes and a handful of destinations in India. The airline acquired its first jet aircraft, Boeing 727s, in 1972. As of February 2023, the airline operates a fleet of six aircraft. Since 2013, the airline has been on the list of air carriers banned in the European Union.
Yeti Airlines Pvt. Ltd. is an airline based in Kathmandu, Nepal. The airline was established in May 1998 and received its air operator's certificate on 17 August 1998. Since 2019, Yeti Airlines is the first carbon neutral airline in Nepal and South Asia. It is the parent company of Tara Air. As of 2024, Yeti Airlines is the second-largest domestic carrier in Nepal by passengers carried and third largest by fleet size.
Buddha Air Pvt. Ltd is an airline based in Lalitpur, Nepal. It operates domestic flights within Nepal as well as international services to Varanasi, India, from its main base in Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu. It was the largest domestic carrier in terms of passengers carried in 2023.
Tribhuvan International Airport is an international airport located in Kathmandu, Bagmati, Nepal. It has a tabletop runway, a domestic terminal and an international terminal. As the country's main international airport, it connects Nepal to over 40 destinations in 17 countries.
Tenzing-Hillary Airport, also known as Lukla Airport, is a domestic airport and altiport in the town of Lukla, in Khumbu Pasanglhamu, Solukhumbu District, Koshi Province of Nepal. The airport has gained worldwide fame, both for its unusual location, but also because it was rated the most dangerous airport in the world for more than 20 years by a program titled Most Extreme Airports, broadcast on The History Channel in 2010.
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 July 31, 1992, at 07:00:26 UTC, the Airbus A310-304 operating the route crashed into the side of a mountain 37 kilometres north of Kathmandu, 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.
Sita Air is an airline based in Kathmandu, Nepal, operating domestic services within Nepal. It was established in 2003. The airline's main base is Tribhuvan International Airport with hubs at Pokhara Airport and Nepalgunj Airport.
Yeti Airlines Flight 101 was a domestic flight in Nepal that crashed on final approach to Tenzing-Hillary Airport in the town of Lukla in eastern Nepal on 8 October 2008. The De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 200 registered as 9N-AFE originated from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu.
Agni Air Flight 101 was a regional flight between Kathmandu and Lukla, Nepal, that crashed on 24 August 2010, killing all 14 people on board. Twenty minutes after take-off, the flight crew had reported a technical problem. Contact with the aircraft was lost shortly after. The aircraft crashed 50 miles (80 km) south of Kathmandu.
Tara Air Pvt. Ltd. is an airline headquartered in Kathmandu, Nepal. It is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines. Tara Air was formed in 2009 using aircraft from the Yeti Airlines fleet and is based at Tribhuvan International Airport, with a secondary hub at Nepalgunj Airport. The airline operates scheduled flights and air charter services with a fleet of STOL aircraft, previously provided by Yeti Airlines. Its operations focus on serving remote and mountainous airports and airstrips.
Sita Air Flight 601 (ST601/STA601) was a Nepalese domestic passenger flight, operated by Sita Air from Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal's capital Kathmandu to Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla. On 28 September 2012, the Dornier 228 serving the route crashed while attempting an emergency landing at Kathmandu shortly after takeoff, killing all 19 people on board.
US-Bangla Airlines is the largest airline in Bangladesh by fleet size. The airline is headquartered in Dhaka and based at Shahjalal International Airport under the umbrella companies of US-Bangla Group.
Summit Air, formerly known as Goma Air, is an airline based in Kathmandu, Nepal. The airline operates from short takeoff and landing airstrips in the Western parts of Nepal. The airline received the first of two Let 410 aircraft, financed by the Czech Republic Export Bank., in October 2014, and initially only used them on flights to Lukla and Jomsom.
Manang Air Pvt. Ltd. is a helicopter airline based in Kathmandu, Nepal and was founded in 1997 and has been operating helicopters in commercial air transportation within the Nepalese territory under the Regulation of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. The company provides chartered services and is focused on personalized services such as adventure flights helicopter excursions or expedition work. It is the only Approved Training Organization in Nepal.
On 5 August 1984, a Biman Bangladesh Airlines Fokker F27-600 crashed into a marsh near Zia International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh while landing in poor weather. The aircraft was performing a scheduled domestic passenger flight between Patenga Airport, Chittagong and Zia International Airport, Dhaka.
Pokhara International Airport is an international airport in Pokhara, Gandaki Province, Nepal. It is located 3 km (1.9 mi) east of the old domestic airport, which it will gradually replace. The airport is Nepal's third international airport and officially began operations on 1 January 2023, with STOL-operations to Jomsom still being operated from the old airport. The airport is expected to handle up to one million passengers per year, but as of 2024 there have not been any regular international flights.
On 31 March 1975, a Pilatus PC-6 Porter, operated by Royal Nepal Airlines crashed in Nepal en route from Tribhuvan International Airport to Phaplu Airport on a domestic charter flight. The flight was chartered by Sir Edmund Hillary to bring his wife Louise and daughter Belinda to Phaplu, where he was building a hospital. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff.
On 24 July 2024, a Bombardier CRJ200ER operated by Saurya Airlines as Flight FER, crashed shortly after take-off from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, killing 18 out of 19 people on board.