Binter Death Pilot faces Prison

[Bumz_Rush]

Thats the headline in Spanish newspaper "SOL in ENGLISH". but only on page 21. "The co-Pilot of the fated Binter plane that crashed in August 2001, faces a three year prison sentence.
He is to be charged with the acts of "serious carelessness". 4 died and 27 injured. The investigation revealed that the co-pilot had not taken necesseary precautions and had made an "error" that had led to the crash".....

Cross Spain of my destinations......I am not 100% certain as to the reasons for the crash, but I think they ran out of fuel on a very short domestic hop, and then lost control on very short finals.....I am surprised the hosti was not held to blaim instead....after all she was on the aircraft too.....

Can anyone throw more light onto the story, please.....Bumz

[Kalium Chloride]

Bumz:

Firstly I think it's important to get facts right, especially with emotive issues such as this one.

The crash had nothing to do with fuel.

During the flight there was a false fire alarm for the left-hand engine. The fire-extinguisher was activated but the fire alarm continued.

The captain ordered that a second extinguisher (for the same engine) be activated as well. The first officer misunderstood, and instead activated the extinguisher for the right-hand engine.

Both engines lost power as a result of the double-extinguisher activation. The aircraft lost height and crashed short of the runway.

If you read the transcript, you find that there was a misunderstanding over the meaning of "pull the other one" - the captain meant the second left-hand firebottle, the first officer thought he meant the first right-hand firebottle.

While the faulty fire alarm was certainly an initiating problem, the investigation highlighted the crew's lack of co-ordination in dealing with the situation.

I present this only for factual reference - I have no comment on the fairness, or otherwise, of any legal proceedings currently in effect.

[IB4138]

The prosecution are also asking for removal of his pilots licence.

The accident report particularly points to his actions as a main factor in the crash. The captain died.
From what I remember it was not a shortage of fuel that caused the aircraft to come down on the N340 road, just short of the runway, but an alleged action on the flight deck.

The paper is actually named "Sur in English".

I read the article on Friday, when the paper was published, but thought better of putting the news on the forum, as the trial has not taken place and three years plus loss of licence is the MAXIMUM punishment that he can receive.

A bit of attempted sensational reporting from the paper.

[Lu Zuckerman]

It sounds like the movie "Fate is the hunter:

:E :E

[filejw]

I guess this is one of the reasons most pilot unions try to keep local and criminal agency's out of accident investigations.And it also show's why standared SOP and call's are so important on a flt deck.

[Rumble]

Anybody know a/c type?

On anything remotely modern first action on fire alarm is to push fire button for that engine (cuts off fuel; perhaps hydraulics etc).

Other main function of this button is normally to direct BOTH extinghuishers into said engine.

To get extinghuisher into other engine would have had to unpush one fire button then push another fire button & then push second extinghuisher.

not an easy mistake to make & even difficult to ask for.

comments

[OLNEY 1 BRAVO]

A Casa CN235 if I remember correctly.

[HotDog]

Well in my previous life, although never flew with less than three engines or four, any emergency drill like engine fire response, had to be cross checked before actuation. If the F/O who shut down the wrong engine has to be penalised, so should the Captain who didn't confirm firing of the second bottle into the engine on fire.

[Rumble]

If you read the posts above you'll see that the captain is dead.

Probably penalty enough don't you think

[HotDog]

OK Rumble, I missed that but I still maintain they were both responsible for the outcome.

[MerchantVenturer]

I guess this is one of the reasons most pilot unions try to keep local and criminal agency's out of accident investigations.

As a member of the public who is also a quite frequent airline passenger I am interested in the rationale behind this.

Accidents in other forms of public transport, such as buses and coaches, and even railways on occasions, are investigated by law enforcement and criminal authorities if the facts appear to merit it. I am not aware of unions representating workers in those industries trying to prevent the involvement of these bodies in accident investigation (I can only speak for the UK), so why should air transport be any different?

I make no reference to the incident subject of this thread because I know nothing about it and, even if I did, I would not be competent to pass comment. However, speaking generally, if a pilot was shown to be criminally negligent why should he/she escape criminal sanction when a bus or train driver would not?

[calypso]

I remember speaking to one of the investigators at the time, the facts as he explained where:


The Casa 235 turboprop was on finals to rwy 32 in Malaga when they had a fire indication on one of the engines. The engine was shutdown and the fire bottle discharged. The fire indication continued. In this A/C type you have one fire bottle per engine but they can be crossfed, a special procedure is needed to achieve the crossfeed. The captain asked for the second bottle to be discharged. The FO did not acomplish the crossfeed procedure and in so not doing discharged the bottle into the good engine. This caused the good engine to stop. With both engines gone they landed in the undershoot between the Rwy threshold and a busy motorway. The captain was not wearing his shoulder harness and died as a result of head injuries against the glareshield panel.

The sad thing is that the original fire indication was spurious. No fire was detected in either engine.

As always the easiest and cheapest is to blame the pilot. Bad design, poor CRM, poor training or even poor ability may be a cause. Criminal negligence seems a bit unlikely, afterall his life was also on the line...

[IB4138]

The newspapers at the time alledged that one of the passengers on board was one of Bin Laden's men, who, when the aircraft came to a halt, simply unfastened his seatbelt, stepped from the wreckage and vanished.
The aircraft was inbound from Mellilia on the North African coast just across the Med from Malaga.

[unwiseowl]

If I remember correctly, an article in Flight said that the captain had reached over and activated the second bottle himself.

[Pilot Pete]

On anything remotely modern first action on fire alarm is to push fire button for that engine (cuts off fuel; perhaps hydraulics etc). Other main function of this button is normally to direct BOTH extinghuishers into said engine.

To get extinghuisher into other engine would have had to unpush one fire button then push another fire button & then push second extinghuisher.

not an easy mistake to make & even difficult to ask for.


Firstly, does your mass generalisation on how all modern fire exstinguishant systems work cover this aircraft type?

Secondly, it evidently was an easy mistake to make if what those who seem to know about it have posted is anything to go by.

And thirdly, that seems like a great deal of speculation about this accident.

PP

[IcePack]

Interesting that The Spanish have done something about this accident and yet have not come up with any reports or reasons for the 757 accident at Gerona some 4 years ago. I guess in this case they could easily blame the Pilot. Wonder how hard they looked into the training regime of the operator.