Hi.
Was there last night. Everything I heard was 2nd hand...
Plane came back with technical problem. Taxied in w/ marshaller and was chocked.
Engines went to full power, and the pilots could not shut it down. Jumped the chocks, and ended up crashing into building that houses the ATC tower. 1 pax died, capt lost a leg, and female FO lost both legs. Ambulance crashed (rolled over) on way to hospital.
The airport was closed for a couple of hours or so. It was RwandAir flight, with Jetlink markings (Jetlink has one or more planes in RwandAir markings).
Observations:
The ramp is about 700m or so across. From their normal parking spot, they would've had to turn right to hit the tower building (the right turn was reported elsewhere). Emergency vehicles and lots of people still there around 2300. Fire fighters did a good job of putting out fire, or else everyone would have died.
This accident makes no sense to me:
Why couldn't the engines be shut down?
Why didn't brakes stop the aircraft?
Why did it hit the building, vs. going into grassy berm that was straight ahead?
I hope it was a mechanical fault that can be fixed on all CRJs, and not the pilots' fault!
cliff
NBO
PS-It could have been me. I tried to get hired at Jetlink. My buddy said they had a very good operation...very professional.