TAAG crash...

[AIRWAY]

Hello,

Just read on the news that TAAG has been banned from European Skies, and that a 737 just crashed in Mbanza Congo...

Anything else to go wrong with TAAG?

[PaperTiger]

Sounds a bit like an overrun:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28886892.htm

EU ban:
The decisions which the Commission intends to adopt include, in particular:
(1) a ban on all the 51 airlines certified in Indonesia;
(2) a ban on TAAG Angola Airlines;
(3) a ban on Volare Aviation Enterprise, Ukraine;
(4) the operational restriction already imposed on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) since March 2007 will be modified in order to allow operations into the Community with specific Boeing 747 and Airbus 310 aircraft in addition to its Boeing 777 fleet already authorised;
(5) a revision of the list of existing Kyrgyz companies.(my bolding)

[Gauteng Pilot]

M'BANZA CONGO, Angola (Reuters) -- A Boeing 737 belonging to Angola's state TAAG airline has crashed in the northern city of M'banza Congo, killing at least six people and badly injuring others, Angola's ANGOP news agency reports.
The airplane was carrying 78 passengers and was en route from Luanda to M'Banza Congo, which is in northern Angola near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The agency said the plane lost control while making an emergency landing and crashed into a building, destroying it. It said a number of severely injured passengers were taken to hospital for treatment.
The agency said among those killed in the accident Thursday was the municipal administrator of M'Banza Congo and a senior Roman Catholic priest from Italy.
It said the cause of the accident was under investigation.
The crash came on the same day that the European Union added TAAG Angolan Airlines to a list of international airlines barred from flying in its airspace due to safety reasons.
TAAG, Angola's flag carrier, flies to a number of destinations in Angola as well as cities in Africa, Europe and South America.
Angola's worst recent year for air accidents occurred in 2000, when two separate crashes claimed 87 lives in the southwest African country in one month.
In the first crash, a Russian-built passenger plane crashed after exploding in the air in northeast Angola, killing all 48 people aboard. UNITA rebels, who at the time were engaged in a bitter civil war with Angola's Russian-backed government, claimed responsibility.
Two weeks later a Russian-built Antonov airplane crashed near the capital Luanda, killing all 39 people aboard

[CaptainSandL]

The aircraft was a 1985 737-200Adv.

Latest update from AngolaPress contains the following sentence:

The aircraft started landing on the middle of the runway, causing the pilots to lose control and crush into a nearby house that was totally destroyed.

[kingair9]

"middle of the runway" sound rather like a long landing - even shorter the remaining rwy gets: 5905 Feet (1800 metres) total length...

:bored:

[Outta_Guage]

Paper Tiger

I have recently dealt with Volare on their AN12 (one of my fav a/c to deal with). I do not know much about Volare background / fleet. Do you know if this EU idea is based on their entire fleet? The reaon I ask is that I was working on a Volare AN12 cargo a/c just 3 weeks ago, and the CAA decided to drop by and say 'Hi'. After their insepction the CAA chap actually said to me that this particular a/c was in goos shape (ok..we all know they are smokey as hell but its part of the 'character' of that a/c type).

I have a feeling I am in the minority, but there seems to be a big EU haul on banning anything old at the moment, and to be frank some of these old 'smokey joe' a/c are the backbone of the charter world, and I for one like handling them (crews are usually yhe best in the world IMO.

Cheers
OG

[yachtno1]

Looks like the 777-200ER we're expecting to operate in and out of Gatwick from July 15th won't be happening then!:)

[The AvgasDinosaur]

Some details here.
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20070628-0
Hope it helps
Be lucky
David

[DownIn3Green]

This is the same place Transafrik lost N188CL (B-727) (see the photo on airliners . net ) some yrs ago.

In Transafriks' case, the pilot recognized the limitations of the runway's length and overcompensated by ripping the gear off on the dike at the approach threshold.

Boy, I loved N188CL......

[non iron]

sounds to me like a classic, God bless `em.
Poor vis, non - precision approach, and fly it on when the runway is seen.
l have no reason to say this except that this is what happens to wipe out barely seviceable aircraft in Africa.
lf wrong l apologise now.

[international hog driver]

The photo on Anet is the old runway at MBanza, the new(er) runway is sealed and about a mile away.

The runway is in the middle of town and as such it is an open thoroughfare for the locals.

I cant remember if it was TransAf or Gemini that collected a few people with a 727 there once.

Having seen the way the Taag 737s carry out some approaches it was only a matter of time before a floater killed someone. The places are unforgiving and no RFFS on any worthwile capability.

RIP

[DownIn3Green]

No kidding? There's a new runway there? I guess some things do change...

IHD-If you mean by "collected" you mean wiped out, then yes, it was Transafrik's B-727 that hit a bus as it slid off the side/end of the runway...

[international hog driver]

No not the bus, we heard about that too.

This was a simple landing that a cyclist decided to interupt with his head upon the main gear.

As fate would have it the crew rolled out at the long end and saw the commotion and decided it probably was not a good idea to shut down.

So as they were pointed in the right direction they just continued and departed over the heads of the people on the runway.

Ok so its not what you would do at LHR but you dont get mad cyclists on the runway there is every second person armed to the hilt. (come to think of it they are arent they).