MK Overloaded
From today's Sunday Times
Overloading blamed for plane crash that killed four Britons
Dipesh Gadher, Times 24/10/04
A GIANT cargo plane owned by a British-based airline with one of the world’s worst accident records may have been carrying an excessive load before it crashed on take-off in Canada, killing all seven crew.
The accident in Halifax, Nova Scotia, involving a Boeing 747-200, was the fourth time in 12 years that an aircraft owned by MK Airlines has gone down. The victims, who died 10 days ago, included four Britons with dual Zimbabwean nationality.
Although the company’s fleet is registered in Ghana, west Africa, its administrative offices are in Hartfield, East Sussex, and it files its annual accounts to Companies House in Britain.
Founded by Mike Kruger, 47, a former Zimbabwean pilot who resides in Britain for part of the year, MK Airlines transports fresh produce for UK supermarkets. It has also worked for the Ministry of Defence, carrying supplies to troops in Cyprus and the Gulf.
The company’s three previous crashes — including one fatal accident — happened in Nigeria in 1992, 1996 and 2001 and all involved planes approaching landing.
Kruger said there were “extenuating circumstances” found in each case that have led the airline to fit its fleet with enhanced ground-proximity warning systems.
Nevertheless, the Department for Transport (DfT) last week ordered the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to carry out a safety inspection of one of MK Airline’s planes in Britain.
Although the aircraft was later cleared for take-off, it is the third time this year that checks on the airline have been ordered by the DfT.
Last August CAA officials were unable to complete an inspection because MK Airlines moved its operations from Manston airport in Kent to Ostend, Belgium.
The DfT had sought to act on that occasion amid concerns that aviation authorities in Ghana might be failing to ensure aircraft safety. In June the department banned two Ghana Airways passenger jets from landing in Britain.
Full details of the crash in Halifax on October 14 began to emerge last week as accident investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) recovered the 747’s flight data recorder.
Although the plane’s engines were operating normally, investigators found that it was travelling too slow to lift off safely. On Friday the TSB issued a safety notice on the proper weighting of cargoes, suggesting that the aircraft may have been overloaded by a separate handling company. Investigators have refused to confirm this as the cause of the crash.
Kruger denied that his airline had ever compromised safety and insisted that Ghana’s aviation authorities adhered to internationally recognised standards. “We have an extremely strong safety regime,” he said. “The authorities are welcome to inspect us and we are willing to co-operate fully.”