LX 498 Report blames pilots and professional environment [Archive]

EDDNHopper

5th Dec 2003, 21:11

Sorry if this has been posted in this forum already (sorry, did a quick search but couldn´t find it):
The cockpit crew have been given the blame for Crossair LX 498 which crashed shortly after T/O in Zurich in January 2000. Lack of orientation and poor crm were found to be major contributing factors which led to this tragic accident.

Find the report, which was now released, under
http://www.bfu.admin.ch/de/php/qryBerichte.php3

EDDNHopper

7th Dec 2003, 04:13

24 hrs after my initial post, and after having read the report more thoroughly, I would like to rephrase the topic of this thread:

"... blames pilots and the overall professional environment they were working in."

It seems to me that, despite some mistakes for which the crew might be to blame, they were only a small part of a huge, and much less than optimal, working and employment environment.

I quote from the report:
The investigation has determined the following causes for the accident:
...
- The flight crew reacted inappropriately to the change in departure clearance SID ZUE 1Y
by ATC.
- The first officer made an entry into the FMS without being instructed to do so by the
commander concerning the change to standard instrument departure SID ZUE 1Y. In doing
so, he omitted to select a turn direction.
- The commander dispensed with use of the autopilot under instrument flight conditions and
during the work-intensive climb phase of the flight.
- The commander took the aircraft into a spiral dive to the right because, with a probability
bordering on certainty, he had lost spatial orientation.
- The first officer took only inadequate measures to prevent or recover from the spiral dive.
...
The following factors may have contributed to the accident:
...
- The commander was not systematically acquainted by Crossair with the specific features of
western systems and cockpit procedures.
...

Between the lines, and sometimes quite frankly, the report specifies the poor recruitment and training procedures of an employer experiencing unprecedented and rapid growth. This allowed for, among other things, there being two men in the cockpit who could only barely communicate with each other in their only common language, English, which was not their mother tongue.

Now, as we all know, these times of expansion are long over for said airline. I wonder, however, will the findings from this sad accident be in any way considered in the recruitment, training, and rostering practices of other fast growing airlines, such Easy etc.? Will anybody learn?

Modified link to the English version of the report (ca. 900 KB PDF):

http://www.bfu.admin.ch/common/pdf/u1781_e