2nd plane into Lake Victoria

[readywhenreaching]

Coincidence ?

DATE: 23.03.2005 LOCAL TIME: 23:07
LOCATION: off Mwanza-Intl AP (HTMW)
COUNTRY: Tanzania
AIRLINE: Airline Transport
TYPE: Ilyushin IL-76TD
REGISTRATION: ER-IBR
C/N: 0043454623
AGE: 21 y
OPERATION: INC
FLIGHT No.: -
FROM: Mwanza
TO: Zagreb VIA:_Khartoum
OCCUPANTS:_
PAX: -
CREW: 8
FATALITIES:_
PAX: 0
CREW: 8
OTHER: 0
INJURIES:_
PAX: _0
CREW: 0
OTHER: 0
DAMAGE TO AIRCRAFT:_destroyed
In darkness the aircraft crashed into Lake Victoria shortly after takeoff from Mwanza airport. There were no survivors. The Il-76 was carrying a load of fish.
NOTE: This accidents comes only 4 days after another cargo flight ended in the waters of Lake Victoria (see: 19.03.)


www.jacdec.de (http://www.jacdec.de)

[hobie]

Reuters has this .....

"March 24, 2005
Tanzanian divers scoured Lake Victoria on Thursday for signs of eight crew members of a Ukrainian cargo plane that crashed into the water shortly after take-off, provincial authorities said.

The wreckage of the Ilyushin-76 that crashed late on Wednesday was visible from the Tanzanian shore of Africa's biggest lake, which the country shares with Uganda and Kenya.

"We still have divers trying to establish whether there are bodies trapped underneath," Zelothe Stephen, the regional police commissioner in the Tanzanian lakeside town of Mwanza, said.

Regional officials said the plane with the registration code ERIBR belongs to Air Transport Incorporation of Ukraine. It carried 50 tonnes of fish bound for Croatia via the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

The cause of the crash is not clear.

"We are launching an operation to pull out the wreckage. We don't see any sign of life," Daniel Ole Njoolay, a regional commissioner from Mwanza, said.

"It crashed into the lake immediately after the takeoff. It happened at 11:07 at night," Njoolay said. "Much of the body is sunk but the wings are floating. We can see the wreckage, it's about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) from shore."

The plane had a pilot and a crew of seven, whose nationalities were not immediately clear.

Last week, a cargo plane contracted by Ethiopian Airlines crashed into Lake Victoria when trying to land at Uganda's Entebbe Airport. The pilot and crew were seriously injured but survived."

(Reuters)

[cargoflyer]

http://www.airdisaster.com/news/0305/25/news.shtml

:(

[PaperTiger]

Coincidence ?

What else :confused:
The Victoria Triangle, natives with laser pointers ?

(Not making light of the victims.)

[Kalium Chloride]

I don't believe in coincidence.

Old aeroplanes, crap African aviation conditions more like.

[eggplantwalking]

It has nothing to do with old aircraft or African conditions of any kind. It is a problem of simple physics and the inability of pilots to make a quanatative analysis of the variables and apply the laws, or in this case, the take-off calculations. Having flow several types of cargo aircraft out of Mwanza over the past years, I am very familiar with the place and the shippers. The airport is not the most modern and lacks navagational aids; this is a given. However, once the temp. and wind is known (or guessed) the only other variable is the weight of the load and here is where the problems start. The shippers will cheat on weights or bribe the loadmasters or captains with cash to take extra cargo (fish). As every flight is contracted to carry a minimum weight, you can start to see the pressure put on the crews in one way or another. A few hundred dollars extra to a Russian crew is a lot of money, especially when the flight is preformed several times a month. Quite often the risk results in extra money for vodka; sometimes not. The bottom line: flight calculations are based on physics; pushing the envelope for any reason can be a formula for disaster. The aircraft has nothing to do with it!

[BUSHJEPPY]

don't know if the aircraft, or the company itself, the new flag of convenience which is Moldova has anything to do with this crash. It is for sure a good cocktail, put together led to their 3 incidents/accidents in a row within a couple of months:

ER-IBW:

The forward emergency evacuation hatch opened in flight, causing one of the crew members to be sucked out. An emergency landing was carried out at Jeddah.

ER-IBM:

The Ilyushin 76 was carrying a consignment of humanitarian aid from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Kabul, Afghanistan. The crew reportedly decided to divert to Dushanbe where the undercarriage collapsed after touchdown. The aircraft blocked the runway for several hours. Conflicting reports speak about landing gear damage after an attempted landing at Kabul, followed by a diversion to Dushanbe and a mechanical failure while trying to lower the gear.

ER-IBR:

See above

[Kalium Chloride]

Eggplantwalking - thank you for that explanation, but I'd like to point out that my tongue was firmly in my cheek.

Of course it's a matter of physics. I was simply pointing out that coincidence is rarely an element in aviation. There's usually a common root.

When you point out the bribery to overload aircraft, that counts as crap African aviation conditions. I wasn't referring to the weather.

If two aircraft had gone down in the Thames in a week, I'd be more inclined to listen to claims of coincidence. But when it happens in Uganda/Tanzania, then I'm afraid you'll be waiting a long time for me to express any kind of surprise.

[eggplantwalking]

Kalium Chloride,
Right, I now understand your position but I couldn't see your tongue on my computer screen. And right again, there will be no suprise when the next one splashes into Lake Victoria or falls into the jungles of the Congo. The basic problem in my opinion is that these freight comanies don't pay much money for their crews. Therefore, they tend to attract those crews who would be otherwise unemployable due to inexperience or other reasons. At the end of the day, the freight companies get exactly what they pay for i.e., cocktails for disaster flying their aircraft.

[Agaricus bisporus]

I'm curious about the route planned.
Why stop in Khartoum en route? Part unload there? Is Zagreb a usual destination for African fish? It seems a bit surprising. (though I suppose the Med had been raped to death thereabouts) Anyone out there know about these things?

[readywhenreaching]

more route details emerged:

Mwanza - Khartoum - Benghazi - Osijek (not Zagreb)

[cringe]

According to a Croatian news source, the Ilyushins have been transporting fish from Tanzania to Osijek for over a year now. About a hundred flights were planned for this year, with refueling stops in Sudan and Lybia. The cargo is intended for the EU market.

[BUSHJEPPY]

In Europe, we can buy the Nile Perche fresh from the Lake Victoria dirt cheap in the supermarket. Are we contributing to these unsafe operations motivated by economics.

[EDDNHopper]

I don´t want to hijack this thread, but some of you might be interested in the documentary film Darwin´s Nightmare (http://www.coop99.at/darwins-nightmare/) which is running in selected cinemas right now.

All about fish, flight crews, and the ecological disaster at Lake Victoria.

[charterdriver]

Typical US response - ignorant and degrading about anything that isn't from the States. They don't realise that Africa is a continent consisting of many, many countries. In the movies they talk about coming to "Africa" as though by visiting one town they have deciphered the whole continent and experienced everything that Africa has to offer. They also complain in loud whiny voices about foreigners not being able to speak "American", when there is no such language - you speak ENGLISH!

Mwanza is a tiny town in an extremely large continent, and to lable mishaps that occur there as "African Conditions" is not quite fair!

[Rhodie]

Charterdriver - being from the same part of this dark continent, I can understand some of your frustrations at the generalization when anything involves 'Africa'...

but...

generally, it is not far wrong...

Borders aside, Africa is being plundered, ravaged and sucked dry - not only by IL76's, but by the governments and inhabitants of the countries themselves. It has been going on for years and will continue until there is bugger-all left. And then, the ever present hand will be held out, palm up, to the 'First World' countries in yet another "give us" beg...

It is a never ending circle.

Unless "Africa" wakes up, it's toast.

Get yourself a copy of 'Africa Adieu', if you can find one - it is a documentary made by an Italian crew in the late 60's, as relevant today as it was then. Then read what Dr. Albert Schweitzer (spelling?) wrote - he also had it right.

This does not detract from the fact that another 8 crew lost their lives.

R

[charterdriver]

Dear Rhodie
You know that South African ATC is ok, and being thrown into the same boat as the rest of Africa is insulting. I am merely pointing out that our American friend is incorrect in applying the term "African Crap" to the whole continent.

[cavortingcheetah]

;) I regret to have to say that, although I hail from The Dark Continent; the excrement is exuding rather more rapidly than anyone might want. It creeps slowly southwards. Quite a lot of it, I am led to believe, comes from DCA, Okey Dokey, ZACAA. Still a department of defunct pedagogues and mentally sacred pen pushers, sorry, I mean scared or is it scarred. It isn't perhaps always the IL76ers. Last time I landed at Lanseria, I thought that some Executive 727 had excercised his option and tried to plough the hot runway with a fast turn off where there is no high speed. But, the ATC is still good down there, God bless you Andre.:cool:

[Paterbrat]

In charter some years ago in 74 we lost our chief pilot, ex-fleet airarm pilot and extremely experienced out of Mwanza in a 402. Didn't find much wreckage I think a mainwheel tire and some scraps. Always was a bit of a mystery though a little later trying out a brand new G series 310 from Wilson with just self and nearly full tanks, simulated zero thrust on one and there was only one place we were going and that was down albeit gradualy. I had made the bad mistake of assuming which one should never do that as I was alone in an empty aircraft we would be fine. Density alt temp and our minimal weight had put us out of the box. Back then our pax and cargo loads could be marginal to put it very politely and the scales or their readings misread? quite easily.

[an-124]

I am not saying that the previous 2 crashes out of MWZ have been with overloaded a/c, but, from first hand experience, I can tell you what it is like taking off from MWZ in an overloaded IL-76.

The routing we were doing was MWZ - KRT - CAI - BTS.

Prior to landing at MWZ, we had flown into an airfield in the DRC that was admittedly too short for the IL-76. We had both right and left MLG's catch fire and 3 blown tires. Luckily, on the previous flight, we had delivered to the airport in question a new fire truck.

Whilst loading in MWZ, there was an abundance of activity at the rear of the a/c. There would have been 40 africans wearing white wellingtons all loading the boxes in by hand. Nobody counting the amount of cargo being loaded.

The paperwork was a little innaccurate, with the shipper arguing how many boxes were being loaded.

The airline in question was paid a certain amount per KG, and the crew was (by their own admission) paid a bonus for carrying past a certain weight. I estmate that we were at approx 53t of load on board when we took off.

We used as much runway as possible. (for those of you that have been into MWZ, you will know that you have next to no room to turm around at the end of the runway, and you run the risk of ending up in the dirt.) When we accelerated (hardly) down the runway, I had the feeling that we had a bungee cord attached to the rear of the aircraft. I was standing behind the captain and F/O watching the takeoff, and the captain and the F/O were glancing at each other in anticipation.

We did finally lift off and spent the next couple of minutes(seemed like 30) climbing at about 1 ft per second. I went down to the navigators pit and could see the reflection of the moon in the water no more than 50 feet below me.

I went back upstairs to the cockpit, and there was still silence in what was normally a fairly vibrant atmosphere.

After what seemed like an eternity, the airspeed seemed to increase, and the mood in the cockpit changed somewhat. I went out the back to the engineers, who were now resting, stretched out on top of the boxes of fish. After a while, one of them started to prepare the meals for the flight crew and themselves, whilst another pillaged a box of fish and stated packing them with salt into 2 litre coke bottles for later use.

----------

My opinion is that russian crew (whilst being aviation professionals) are pressured into taking risks by the commercial side of our business. Of course the captain has the final say on payloads / flying in dubious conditions etc., but the lure of bonus of a few hundred or a thousand USD's can be too good to refuse to a captain that makes a salary similar what I used to pushing shopping trolleys. If the IL-76's were overloaded, I hope that the commercial guy is unable to sleep for a long - long - long time....
If the captain refuses to fly, he is overlooked for further flying.

Once I was on a russian aircraft for a duty period of 42 hours, and had the captain not flown it, another captain would have been found that would fly it. The captain that refused would have difficulty finding himself 1st choice for the next flight.


footnote:
MWZ - BTS
This was after the previous evening at the Tilapia hotel, when we got absolutley smashed on vodka that the crew had brought to
the hotel themselves.

footnote2:
At KRT, there was another IL-76 that had taken off just from MWZ after us. - They said that they were carrying 50+ tons, and were flying KRT - BTS direct with no stop in CAI. - They had already unloaded when we got to BTS. This same IL-76 went down in East Timor a year or 2 back.