Dan Air 727 crash, Tennerife

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

In the early 80s I think, during descent into the old airport on a fight from Manchester. I recall that ATC gave erroneous hold-entry instuctions and the 727 hit a mountain in cloud, but can anyone direct me to an accident report?

I met a chap in the pub last night who was the FO's son, and was 6 years old awhen it happened. 'Red' Wheelan was the captain - anyone know why 'Red'?.

SSD

[Conan the Librarian]

Think it was Captain Arthur "Red" Whe(e)lan and he had a shock of red hair. Remember the incident well. DanDare only had about three 727s at the time, all 100 series I think.


Conan

[Bof]

Shaggy Sheep Driver and Conan

Aircraft was indeed a 100 - G-BDAN and occurred on the 25 April 1980, 8 crew and 138 pax lost their lives. Incidentally Conan I think we had about eight B727-100s.

[PaperTiger]

I don't think there is an AAIB report as the investigation (sic) was done by the Spanish authorities. Their report was translated and published by HMSO and you can find it on Amazon (I just checked). Mind you, since they identified the airplane as a Trident !, and we all know Spanish ATC never makes mistakes, I'm not sure just how informative you'll find the report.

[ORAC]

Aviation-safety.net (http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19800425-0):

Narrative:
At 09:22 flight 1008 took off from Manchester for a flight to Tenerife. Arriving near Tenerife, the aircraft descended towards the 'TFN' VOR-beacon, and then on to the 'FP' beacon. The crew was to turn right after passing the FP-beacon, and take up an unpublished holding pattern at 5000 feet. The aircraft however, passed 'FP' 3km to the South of it and continued towards a mountainous area. At 13:21 G-BDAN crashed into a mountain at 5450 feet at a speed of 300mph and with a 30/40deg. bank to the right.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The captain, without taking into account the altitude at which he was flying, took the aircraft into an area of very high ground, and for this reason he did not maintain the correct safety distance above the ground, as was his obligation".

Contributing factors were:
a) the performance of a manoeuvre without having clearly defined it;
b) imprecise navigation on the part of the captain, showing his loss of bearings;
c) lack of teamwork between captain and co-pilot;
d) the short space of time between the information given and the arrival at 'FP';
e) the fact that the holding was not published"
(Spanish report)

UK authorities agreed in general with the report, but added some comments to give the report "a proper balance":
1. Ambiguous information given concerning the holding pattern at FP.
2. No minimum safe altitude computed for holding pattern.
3. Track for holding pattern at 'FP' is unrealistic.

[WHBM]

I was probably one of the last people to see the aircraft.

Arriving at a hotel near Mobberley for a business meeting, I heard an aircraft climbing out from Manchester, looked up (as you do), and saw for a few seconds the Dan-Air 727 emerge from cloud, nicely lit by sun, and then disappear again.

In the afternoon, departing the hotel, I switched the car radio on and heard of the accident.

[JW411]

I remember being told by a mate in Dan at the time that the fact that they tried to take up the hold at 250 knots/clean was the straw that broke the camel's back.

The suggestion was that had they been back at 210 knots they would have missed the mountain.

[chevvron]

Didn't the AIB report incude a transcript of the CVR or am I thinking of another accident?.

[Daysleeper]

There was a panorama programme about this at the time featuring a very young Jeremy Paxman. It was generally derisive about the Spanish investigation.

Worth a look for.

[MrNosy]

The AAIB (AIB in those days) published the translation of the Spanish report in July 1981 - Aircraft Accident Report 8/81. And, as already noted on this thread, the UK Addendum to the Report disagreed with a number points in the Spanish report.

[BlueEagle]

An additional point, raised at the time, was that the holding clearance to the 727 was passed in what was then regarded as American terminology, for example, if the beacon was the TD and the holding pattern was to be left handed and the inbound course was, say, 250 degrees then the clearance passed would have been, "Dan AirXXX take up the hold, TD, 250, Left Hand" and such a clearance , in those days, would have been totally unfamiliar to a person not current with American ATC terminology.

[chevvron]

In an english TV re-creation of this many years ago(ITV I think), I'm sure the controller said 'turns to the left'. This would have been from the actual transcript.

[flash8]

>The AAIB (AIB in those days) published the translation of the Spanish report in July 1981 - >Aircraft Accident Report 8/81. And, as already noted on this thread, the UK Addendum to >the Report disagreed with a number points in the Spanish report.

Others will no doubt expand, but it is my understanding, from somebody involved in the investigation, that there was considerable unease within the AIB over the reports conclusion, that even reached ministerial level. The Spanish were not held in high regard and some saw it as a whitewash.

The CVR transcript was published and is no doubt available on the web. I remember the First Officer stating something like "bloody funny heading" and I think also "He's taking us to the highground" just after the GPWS. Again, somebody else would know better.

I remember my heart sinking after I read this on the front page of the papers, I was ten at the time. RIP.

[proplover]

I remember the incident very well mainly as one of the stewedes's was a local girl and part of "our crowd". A beutiful, happy and a lovely person - sad memories are comming back of that time when we were told that yes, she was on that flight.

[fat and retarded]

The Panorama programme which carried out the reconstruction of the events leading up to the accident is " Crash-what happened to flight 1008 ? " and is available as a training video from the BBC.