Caravelle wreck found after 34yrs!!

[Speedbird48]

Just read on the Aviation Herald that the wreck of a SATA Caravelle 10R has just been found near Funchal on the island of Madeira after 34 years!!

That is one heck of a long time to be lost on a fairly small island. May they all now be laid to rest where they belong.

[Mechta]

That is one heck of a long time to be lost on a fairly small island.Not exactly on the island, it was actually in the sea in 110 metres of water, so not quite so easy to find...

News: Wreckage of Societe de Transport Arien (SATA) Caravelle 10 R near Funchal found 34 years after accident (http://avherald.com/h?article=445133bb&opt=0)

[Speedbird48]

Sorry,

I did not read the full report, only the headlines.

Strange to see that there were survivors yet it took 34 years to find the wreck?? I guess I am missing something?? But I am sure someone will tell me!!

Speedbird 48.

[Mechta]

Maybe no one was looking?

If the pilots survived and their reports matched up, then the cost of getting salvage equipment to a relatively remote location, to bring up a near obsolete wreck, may have been considered unnecessary. Just a guess.

[Agaricus bisporus]

The breathless first post is a bit of a red herring methinks. It is not as if this wreck had actually been lost so it hardly needed "finding", it was only 4Km from the airport and extensive rescue operations took place so its location can not have been in any doubt. More like no one had bothered to go there since, and why would they?


Estado:Final
Fecha:18 DIC 1977
Hora:20:14 UTC
Tipo:Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle 10R
Operador:SA de Transport Aérien - SATA (http://aviation-safety.net/database/operator/airline.php?var=5452)
Registración:HB-ICKNuméro de série:200
Año de Construcción:1965
Tripulación:
Fatalidades: 1 / Ocupantes: 5
Pasajeros:
Fatalidades: 35 / Ocupantes: 52
Total:
Fatalidades: 36 / Ocupantes: 57
Daños en la Aeronave:
AnuladoConsecuencias:Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Ubicación:4 km (2.5 milles) SSE de la costa de Funchal Airport (FNC) (Portugal)
Fase:Aproximación (APR)
Naturaleza:Vuelo Internacional No ProgramadoAeropuerto de Salida:Genève-Cointrin Airport (GVA) (GVA/LSGG), SuizaAeropuerto de Llegada:Funchal Airport (FNC) (FNC/LPFU), PortugalNúmero de Vuelo:730

Flight SATA 730 was an international charter service from Zurich to Funchal Airport, Madeira, Portugal via Geneva, Switzerland. The Caravelle aircraft landed at Geneva at 14:30 UTC. Departure was delayed because a hydraulic pump had to be replaced. The flight deck crew consisted of two captain. A new captain was in the left-hand seat and was piloting the aircraft. The other captain (who was in the right-hand seat) performed the duties of pilot-in-command, pilot responsible for the initiation to Funchal, route check pilot and co-pilot. Initiation of the new captain was necessary because of the difficult approach and landing at Funchal. However, this initiation ought to have been made by day.
The aircraft took off at 16:26. The flight then progressed in accordance with the flight plan. At 19:38 the crew contacted Madeira control, reporting Rose Point at FL330; the aircraft was cleared to leave this flight level at 19:41. The crew then asked for descent instructions and received clearance to descend to FL050; it was requested to contact control again when this level was reached or when overflying the Porto Santo (PST) NDB. At 19:55 the crew reported being overhead the PST at FL085. The aircraft was instructed to continue its descent to FL050, then to contact Funchal approach control.
At 19:57 the crew contacted Funchal approach control, which stated that runway 06 was in service and cleared the aircraft to descend to 3500 ft, the QNH being 1014.0 mb.
After being cleared for the approach the crew descended below the 720 ft permitted during circling, even though they had lost sight of the runway. The pilots, had lost sight of the runway lights at the end of the downwind leg and at the beginning of the base leg, when the aircraft was already flying below 200 ft. The radio altimeter had probably been preset to 200 ft, but the pilots did not check its indications. The aircraft touched the sea soon after the base leg turn. The landing gear and flaps (20°) were out.

CAUSE: "The accident was caused by an involuntary ditching during the approach. The fact that the aircraft was flying below the descent plane may have been due to a lack of co-ordination between the pilots and a sensorial illusion on the part of the crew, when it was preoccupied with the search for visual runway references."

[AN2 Driver]

Speedbird 48

At the time, in 1977, they considered the search for this airplane to be extremely difficult and dangerous, particularly as they thought it was further out from the coast and at 600 m depth. That is why the search was never really attempted. The discovery of it at 110 m depth is quite surprising for all concerned, but with the means available at the time would have probably been as difficult to achieve as if it had been at the originally presumed 600 m.

What has been discovered now seems to be the tail end of the airplane, which broke into two sections. The front is where the FDR is located however. It might be very interesting to recover it, as it is one with metal foil recording, it might actually have retained the last several minutes of the flight and might finally give up the answer to the question when and in what fashion the crew started their descend. I reckon it would also be an all time reckord for any FDR device having been lost and refound.

Best regards

AN2 Driver

[multiprops]

Mechta:

I too, think it was more an issue of the Portuguese authorities not having the necessary equipements to search/recover an airplane that deep, back in the early 70's...

[norilsk]

Scratch foil FDR used an Aluminium based foil .Salt water and aluminium dont work well together