Incident Overview
Description
The Ilyushin was chartered to fly 50 tons of fish fillet from Mwanza to Osijek, Croatia. The airplane was to make scheduled refueling stops at Khartoum and Benghazi. The crew decided to take off from runway 30, heading towards Lake Victoria. The airplane was configured for a takeoff weight of 174 tons with the stabilizer set at -3.3 degrees. The actual weight was probably around 182 tons, which was still within limits. The aircraft lifted off the runway at 263 kph after rolling for about 2800 metres. It subsequently climbed to 29 m at which altitude it leveled off for 4.5 seconds. After that the airplane began to descend gradually. Four seconds into descent, the commander ordered the retraction of flaps. By this time the aircraft was already descending at the rate of 3.5 m/sec and the speed was increasing. At the last moment they noted that the descent and suddenly initiated a climb. The airplane then contacted the water and crashed. PROBABLE CAUSE: “The accident was caused by aircraft colliding with the water surface shortly after take off. While the aircraft had gathered sufficient energy to sustain climb, the crew failed to monitor altitude and react correctly in the short time that the aircraft was airborne. This resulted in the aircraft going into descent till it reached an altitude where recovery was not possible. The possibility of crew fatigue as a contributory factor in this accident cannot be ruled out.”
Primary Cause
Aircraft collision with water surface during takeoff and initial descent.Aircraft collision with water surface during takeoff and initial descent.Share on:
