Incident Overview

Description
A Dornier 228-212, registration F-OHAN, crashed in the waters off Nuku Hiva Airport, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia. Ten of the 22 occupants sustained fatal injuries. Air Tahiti flight 805 had taken off from Hiva Ou at 11:10 for a flight to Nuku Hiva. The crew were approaching runway 06 when the no. 1 engine suffered an uncontained failure. Both crewmembers didn’t recognize the failure but concentrated on the low oil pressure warning for the engine in question. The approach was abandoned and the aircraft flew parallel to the runway in order to land on runway 24. The Dornier lost altitude and at the very last moment it was decided to carry out an unprepared ditching. PROBABLE CAUSE (translated from French): “The accident resulted from a series of inappropriate actions by the crew, facing a mechanical failure of an engine which alone should never have led to this outcome. Among the factors explaining this below-average performance of the crew, the inquiry committee noted: 1) The influence of a possible levels of alcohol of the crew members; 2) A lack of rigor in the type rating qualifying of the crew; 3) Ommissions in the Operations Manual (no division of tasks in some occasional or emergency situations); 4) Deficiencies in the company’s technical control of the state of the aircraft.”
Primary Cause
The accident was caused by a mechanical failure of the no. 1 engine, which alone should not have resulted in this outcome, stemming from inadequate crew training, operational procedures, and insufficient technical oversight.The accident was caused by a mechanical failure of the no. 1 engine, which alone should not have resulted in this outcome, stemming from inadequate crew training, operational procedures, and insufficient technical oversight.Share on: