Incident Overview

Description
“The Royal Air Maroc Boeing 747-400 was parked in the de-icing centre of Montreal (Mirabel) International Airport, Quebec. The aircraft was being prepared for a scheduled flight from Mirabel to Casablanca, Morocco, with a stop at New York, New York. The four engines were running during the de-icing operation. The crew heard “”dgivrage termin”” (de-icing completed), and the captain asked the co-pilot to inform the apron controller that the aircraft was ready to taxi. Taxi instructions were issued. The aircraft started to move forward and overturned the two de-icing vehicles that were still in front of the aircraft’s horizontal stabilizers. The two vehicle drivers sustained minor injuries; the three occupants of the cherry-pickers received fatal injuries. The Board determined that the flight crew started to taxi the aircraft before its perimeter was clear, following confusion in the radio communications. The following factors contributed to the accident: a lack of de-icing procedures within Royal Air Maroc; non-compliance with procedures on the part of the Canadian Airlines International Ltd. de-icing crew; inadequate or inappropriate communications equipment; incomplete training of Snowman 1 (the chief de-icing attendant); a regulatory framework less demanding of foreign air carriers than of Canadian carriers; a lack of operational supervision; and a lack of adherence to radio protocol.”
Source of Information
http://web.archive.org/web/20080516223314/http://www.tsb.gc.ca:80/en/reports/air/1995/a95q0015/a95q0015.asphttp://web.archive.org/web/20080516223314/http://www.tsb.gc.ca:80/en/reports/air/1995/a95q0015/a95q0015.aspPrimary Cause
Inadequate de-icing procedures, communication failures, and insufficient oversight by Royal Air Maroc and its contracted airlines.Inadequate de-icing procedures, communication failures, and insufficient oversight by Royal Air Maroc and its contracted airlines.Share on: