Birgenair Flight 301 – 6 February 1996
Birgenair Flight 301 was a tragic event that took place on February 6, 1996. The flight, which was operated by Birgenair, a Turkish charter airline, was flying from Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, to Frankfurt, Germany. On board were 176 passengers and 13 crew members. Unfortunately, none of them survived the crash, making it one of the deadliest aviation disasters in the Dominican Republic’s history.
The aircraft involved in the accident was a Boeing 757-225, which had been in service for 11 years. According to the investigation that followed, the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction in one of the plane’s airspeed indicators. This malfunction caused incorrect readings to be sent to the flight computer, which then led to incorrect flight control inputs from the pilots.
Malfunction of Pitot Tubes
The technical malfunction in question was caused by the presence of a wasp’s nest inside the pitot tubes, which are responsible for measuring the plane’s airspeed. The nest caused a blockage in one of the tubes, leading to incorrect airspeed readings.
The investigation also revealed that the pilots failed to follow proper procedures to identify and correct the problem. Instead, they relied on their intuition and attempted to correct the issue manually. This only made things worse, as it led to a series of incorrect and erratic inputs that caused the plane to lose control and crash. At that point let’s remember the Swiss cheese model!
In the aftermath of the accident, a number of safety recommendations were made to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future. One of these recommendations was for airlines to improve their training procedures to ensure that pilots were better equipped to handle technical malfunctions. Another recommendation was for airlines to implement better maintenance procedures to ensure that their aircraft were properly inspected and maintained on a regular basis.
The Birgenair Flight 301 accident was a tragic event that had a profound impact on the aviation industry. It served as a reminder of the importance of proper maintenance and training procedures in ensuring the safety of air travel. Today, airlines around the world continue to implement new safety measures and procedures to minimize the risk of similar accidents happening in the future.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgenair_Flight_301
https://simpleflying.com/birgenair-flight-301/
Featured image source:
By Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland – Birgenair Boeing 757-225; TC-GEN@FRA;19.10.1994, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26725432
