in one of the phil. hosted aviation forums i found a few minutes ago a translation and a link which is intersting. the phil. forum has a translation of of a german forum thread on airliner.de by a german passenger of the flight.
for the german speaking "krauts" here the link:
airliners.de - Luftfahrt-Forum - Thema anzeigen - Crash MA-60 11.01.2009 Bericht als PAX
and for us, non-krauts the english translation:
Philippine Flight Simmers Group • View topic - Zest Air plane UNDERshoots Caticlan runway; passengers hurt
there are a few statements in this report which puts doubt on the capabilities of the MA60:
There were approximately 20 passengers on board plus three crew in the cockpit and two in the cabin.
nowhere was any mentioning of 3 pilots on board of the aircraft. does anyone know more about this? who was the third guy?
Around 6:52 a.m. we were on final to MPH (Caticlan in the "other" airport abbreviation system). An extremely gusty approach. At an altitude of 5 to 10 meters alarm signals were audible from the cockpit (I sat in row 2) and the go-around was initiated. Looking outside my window I could see the whole width of the runway, which means we were already located over the grass beside the runway.
this shows that the flying pilot had difficulties in making a controlled approach on his first trial. the writer doesn't say into which direction the aircraft drifted. what athe alarm signals? does the MA60 have a GPWS?
The MA-60 had substantial trouble gaining altitude, most of which was acheived by retracting the landing gear. (possibly flaps retraction too)
it appears from this statement that the MA60 is really underpowered.
After about 5 minutes a renewed attempt. Power reduced during final and the thought "we made it" crossed my mind; in that same moment the first impact. Later on we saw that first parts of the aircraft were lost at that point already.
where was this first "impact"? does this mean it was not a controlled flair but a very firm landing?
Second impact already on the grass strip, I saw the runway disappear from beside my window.
zest air should be charged double landing fees for this landing. from his account it appears that the aircraft made an uncotrolled landing.
The aircraft skidded on it's belly, without propellers and with gear collapsed, after about 200m it veered 180 degrees to the left and came to a stop were wall and fence of the airport perimeter meet.
any idea where the landing gear collapsed?
In the forward cabin section were I was sitting the complete ceyling had collapsed. Three people who were sitting behind me could free themselves.
there must have been tremendous g-forces upon landing or is the ceiling panel just installed by simple fasteners?
A lady who sat on the other side of the aisle in row 2 fell into the aisle with her seat. I managed to free myself after around 30 seconds by climbing through fallen cabin panelling and over seats.
are the seats not installed with the proper g-ratings? this sounds strange to me that a whole seat will get loose during that type of landing. this would also proof that the MA60 is not manufactured according to international standards.
About the injuries: said lady had spinal column injury and a broken upper arm.
maybe this is the lady which was earlier mentioned by ads1963 and the lady whose seat was ripped off the floor.
The rest was mostly smaller injuries. (we had ourselves examined here in Germany, the result was broken ribs and a broken leg)
these guy must have been in pain. is the x-ray in the philippines so bad not to discover broken rips and legs?
Registration was RP-C8893, by the way. We filmed the first approach and go-around on video.
this video might be interesting to us as well as to the accident investigators. maybe we can find it one day on yourtube.
in short: the phil. authorities should interview this passenger to really determine the cause and the airworthiness of the MA60.
btw. i have heard that the crew was the first one to leave the aircraft. any thruth to that?
is there a CVR and FDR on a MA60? are chinese authorities assisting in the investigation?