Incident Overview
Description
The Avro York plane crash-landed on its belly following 3 unsuccessful attempt to land in poor visibility conditions. The belly was split open and the fuselage broke up to the rear of the wing. PROBABLE CAUSE: “Direct Causes: Flight plan (too great errors in the ETA; endurance inexact); Lack of decision on the part of the pilot who, after his second attempt to land, and in view of his insufficient petrol reserve, should have carried out the diversionary plan.; The lighting of the runways was inadequate: There were no approach lights.; There are no wireless facilities for landing in bad visibility at Dakar-Yoff. Contributory Causes: Difficulties in exchange of radio telephony communications between the control tower and the aircraft.; Insufficient knowledge of the English language by the controllers in the tower, according to the Americans and British.; As regards to the crew, there certainly appears to have been a slight nervousness during the attempts to land. The danger to passengers in the case of cabin fuselage below the wing in the event of a forced landing elsewhere than on a runway. Lack of knowledge of THIES by BSAA crews. THIES was given on the old general aeronautical maps but, at the time of the accident, no schedule for this aerodrome has yet been published by the Aeronautical Information Section. This schedule is now available.”
Primary Cause
Pilot error and inadequate planning leading to a failure to execute a diversionary plan.Pilot error and inadequate planning leading to a failure to execute a diversionary plan.Share on:
