Smallpilot, read (take) that:
www.aviation-safety.net
Date: 25 DEC 2003
Time: 14:55
Type: Boeing 727-223
Operator: Union des Transports Africains de Guinée
Registration: 3X-GDM ??
Msn / C/n: 21089/1273?
Year built:
Engines: 3 Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9A
Crew: fatalities / 7 on board
Passengers: fatalities / 156 on board
Total: 111 fatalities / 163 on board
Airplane damage: Written off
Location: off Cotonou Airport (COO) (Benin)
Phase: Initial Climb
Nature: International Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport: Cotonou Airport (COO)
Destination airport: Beirut Airport (BEY)
Flightnumber: 141
Remarks:
Union des Transports Africains de Guinée operates two flights a week from Conakry, Guinea to Beirut and Dubai with their newly acquired ex-American Airlines Boeing 727. On December 25, UTA Flight 141 departed Conakry, Guinea for a scheduled flight to Beirut, Lebanon with a planned intermediate stop at Cotonou. At Cotonou nine of the 92 passengers deplaned and 73 passengers boarded the flight. It was a warm afternoon at a temperature of 32 deg. C with a light breeze as the 727 taxied to runway 24. Runway 06/24 is an asphalt runway, measuring 2400 (7874 feet) meters with a 61m (199 feet) overrun zone. According to FAA runway length requirement calculations, a fully laden Boeing 727-200 with JT8D-9 engines and a 25-degrees flap setting would, given the weather and airfield elevation, need a runway length of approx. 8000 feet.
Apparently the 727 barely climbed after takeoff, causing the main undercarriage to strike the roof of a 2-3 meters high small building housing radio equipment. The operator inside the building suffered injuries. The plane continued, smashed through the airport boundary fence, crashed and broke up on the shoreline.
Weather at the time of the accident (13:55Z) was: DBBB 251400Z 17006KT 130V210 8000 FEW015 BKN250 32/27 Q1009 NOSIG=
There are people in this forum that knows Africa and the way aircraft are operated. Look at Hewa Bora and their old 727 and Tristars: taking off fully load out of Goma (which by the way only has less than 2000 meters available due to Lava) or Mbuji-Mai with 2000 meters, altitude and tropical temperature. So when that happen, we are not surprised and can speculate freely.