Pilot sentenced to 20 years for causing the Cotonou B727 crash

[Melax]

Pilot jailed for 20 years for causing Cotonou plane crash - Bikya Masr (http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=19479)

************************************************************ *****
If I remember well, the crew was pressured and the owner was in the plane ! It was a very shady operation the 727 was registered in Guinea after having being denied registration in lebanon.:E Here's the link to the accident report from the french BEA http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2003/3x-o031225a/pdf/3x-o031225a.pdf
************************************************************ *****
Pilot jailed for 20 years for causing Cotonou plane crash Oct 27th, 2010 | By Patrick Galey (http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?author=43) | Category: Africa (http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?cat=2325), Lebanon (http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?cat=1984) BEIRUT: A Lebanese court has sentenced the pilot of a Beirut bound passenger jet to 20 years in jail, after it emerged his actions caused a crash which killed least 136 people.
Beirut-bound UTA Flight 141, which plunged into the sea in 2003, was piloted by Libyan Najib al-Barouni, who was found guilty of neglect by a state prosecutor Tuesday. Barouni remains at large and was sentenced in absentia along with Lebanese national Darwish Khazem, a representative of the privately owned Lebanese-Guinean airline.http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/11-flight-crash-150x150.jpg (http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/11-flight-crash.jpg)
In addition, Imad Saba, the Palestinian-American owner of the ill-fated Boeing 727, UTA General Manager Ahmed Khazem and the same company’s operation chief Mohammad Khazem were delivered custodial sentences ranging from three years to three months. The three men were present in court for the hearing and all five were ordered to pay a total $930,000 for relatives of victims.
Flight 141 crashed shortly after takeoff from Benin’s capital Cotonou in West Africa, on Christmas Day 2003. At least 136 but as many as 160 people on board, the majority Lebanese, were killed in the accident. The exact number of dead remains a mystery but 22 individuals survived the wreckage and 23 were never found.
UTA, which was eventually incorporated into a French aviation firm, had a checkered safety history and was only given permission to commence commercial flights from Beirut after initially failing to meet necessary safety specifications.
Preliminary investigations into the cause of the crash showed that the plane had taken off up to 10 tons overweight, although subsequent crash probes revealed a different problem.
“The direct cause of the accident was not the large amount of excess weight on board, but the distribution of the load,” said France’s Accident Investigations Bureau (BEA) in the months following the crash.
The French experts also criticized lapses in technical support on the ground in Cotonou, urging Benin and other West African states to invest in “control structures for planes making stopovers.”
Initial offers of compensation to the tune of $25,000 per victim for family members were not accepted.
Civil proceedings have been brought against Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines in the wake of the Flight ET409 crash of January this year. The plane crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from Beirut airport in a violent thunderstorm, killing all 90 people on board. The flight had been bound for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where most Lebanese passengers were to travel on to work placements in West Africa.
Lebanon maintains a strong diaspora presence in countries such as Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Ghana and several airlines service Beirut airport especially for those travelling to and from Lebanon on business.

[DownIn3Green]

:D:DI've been in and out of Contonou many times in a 727 while working for a Rep of the Congo (not Dem Rep of the Congo) in 2001...

Everything said in the report is true...I can't count the number of times I had to off-load "carry-ons" in the bins and/or "children with mustaches" just to make it "safe"...not "legal"...

But then that's Africa for you...Been there, done that, and got the "hand made cotton outfits"...And I'd do it again in a heartbeat...

[GlueBall]

BEA report suggests a probable 3t overload with a forward CG and insufficient selected Nose Up stabilizer trim setting. Boeing analysis found that if the copilot [Pilot Flying] had not hesitated during the initial control column pull and had applied more aggressive rotation [pull] that the airplane would have cleared the concrete localizer building. :ooh:

[Daermon ATC]

Just finished reading the report... my goodness, I'm astonished such things could happen...

As for the pilot's sentence, the report states:


Today, safety cannot depend solely on the Captain, especially when he has
imprecise information on the condition of his airplane. It depends on the existence
of an organized structure where each participant has the skills necessary to carry
out a well-defined role, where systematic checks are made on the validity of the
information supplied and of the reference documentation, and where airplane
operations are managed and feedback on them truly exists.
The investigation showed that none of these basic conditions for safety were in place.


And none of the corrupt officials who allowed that plane to fly did even face charges... :ugh:

[BEA 71]

So far I have only read the first 15 pages or so, it brings back memories of handling ( Turkish ) guest worker flights out of Germany in the 80s. A colleague from ( then ) T 3, LHR, said the situation was worse than the
handling of a Africa bound flight. We did the best we could, but they
still smuggeled huge amounts of overweight handbaggage on board, infants were hidden in bags causing much confusion regarding the total
of passengers on board. I remember two serious incidents where aircraft
nearly stalled. Baggage we did not load for volume reasons, was taken
on the next Turkish flight after a couple of Deutschmark bills had been
given to the aircraft captain by a Turkish " travel agent ". As it came to
light even loaders were bribed for loading unmanifested baggage in the
holds. It has been pure luck that there had been no crash. I doubt the
situation will ever change, the problems in Africa have been known for
decades, there is always someone who gains financially.

[oversteer]

"If we manage to take off... the people … I tell you It will be quite a performance if we manage to take off today, you will see if we manage to take off"


Co-pilot from the CVR log, seemingly arguing with the director-general of his airline. Chilling.

[MilPilot]

1.5.1.1 Captain
Male, aged 49.
Air Transport Pilot’s License (ATPL) No 347 issued by Libya on 5 March 1988,
valid until 9 January 2004, not validated by the Guinean DNAC.
Commercial Pilot’s License (CPL) No 119847 issued by the United Kingdom on
30 August 1977, validation No 47/03 by the Guinean DNAC for a period of three
months on 9 December 2003.

1.5.1.2 Co-pilot
Male, aged 49.
Air Transport Pilot’s License (ATPL) No 347 issued by Libya on 1st March 2001,
valid until 9 January 2004, not validated by the Guinean DNAC.
Commercial Pilot’s License (CPL) No 119847 issued by the United Kingdom on
13 October 1979, validation No 47/03 by the Guinean DNAC for a period of three
months on 9 December 2003.

Notice something rather amusing :O

[Melax]

The english translation is not very accurate:eek:, the copilot credentials should be:
1.5.1.2 Copilote
Homme, 49 ans.
Licence libyenne de pilote de ligne (ATPL) n° 506 délivrée le 1er mars 2001, non
validée par la DNAC de Guinée.
Licence britannique de pilote professionnel (CPL) n° 122077 délivrée le
13 octobre 1979, validation n° 46/03 par la DNAC de Guinée pour une durée de
trois mois le 9 décembre 2003.
Aptitude médicale valide jusqu’au 14 janvier 2004.
Expérience professionnelle et contrôles : informations non obtenues.
Le copilote avait rejoint FAG dans le cadre d’une mise en disponibilité de Libyan
Arab Airlines. Comme le commandant de bord, il avait effectué son premier vol
pour UTA le 8 décembre 2003 et connu depuis une activité identique.

************************************************************ **
This is the link to the French version (reference document) http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2003/3x-o031225/pdf/3x-o031225.pdf

I do have a question for people with a legal background. How is it that a Lebanese court has jurisdiction and can be prosecuting the pilot, Lybian with a UK License operating a Guinea registered craft crashing in Benin ? The company owning the craft I think has ties to The US, The US Virgin Islands and Dubai but not Lebanon.:confused:

[Mister Geezer]

Was this outfit indirectly linked to the rotting Tristars at Sebha (Libya) which went off track on a Hajj trip and overflew Mecca and were subsequently banned from Saudi airspace?

[411A]

Was this outfit indirectly linked to the rotting Tristars at Sebha (Libya) which went off track on a Hajj trip and overflew Mecca and were subsequently banned from Saudi airspace?

I believe so, indirectly.
However, it was Madina, not Mecca.

[Mister Geezer]

Ah, thought I remember being told a story on one of my visits to Sebha, that linked the L1011s to the 727 crash.

As for the licence validations, I am not surprised that a CPL was validated for ATPL privileges. I worked in Libya for a brief period and I was given TRI/TRE privileges based solely on my history as a Line Training Captain, despite never having held a TRI/TRE previously. A colleague who was an F/O but held an ATPL, was given a Left Seat validation based solely on the fact he held an ATPL at the time. The LCAA validations were based on out UK licences.

Go further south in Africa and the validation stories just get even more colourful!

Based on what I have seen and heard, what is contained in the accident report does not surprise me. :(

[PilotMikeTx]

As for the licence validations, I am not surprised that a CPL was validated for ATPL privileges. I worked in Libya for a brief period and I was given TRI/TRE privileges based solely on my history as a Line Training Captain, despite never having held a TRI/TRE previously. A colleague who was an F/O but held an ATPL, was given a Left Seat validation based solely on the fact he held an ATPL at the time.

I worked with a Libyan who had been issued an LCAA Challenger type rating even though he never took, let alone passed a checkride. He did his 2 week initial training at CAE, but since CAE doesn't have examining authority for the LCAA, they could not administer the checkride. But they did give him a nice "certificate of completion" (suitable for framing) complete with shiny gold seal, which he was able to present to the LCAA, who gave him a green stamp on his license making him a type rated, captain qualified hajji. Luckily the company had enough sense not to turn him loose by himself.

[Swiss Cheese]

From what I could glean, there were Lebanese passengers on board who died and/or were injured, whose tickets gave them rights of legal action in Lebanon. An old treaty called the Warsaw Convention 1929 (check the small print on your ticket the next time you get bored) probably applied.

Their next of kin chose to pursue those rights in their home State. The families spooled up the Courts in Lebanon, (mostly following the Civil Law tradition, but with a generous dash of local representative Beirut flavour) who then did their Criminal thing, and followed through with the compensation ruling.

The insurers for the airline seemingly came up with the none too smart offer of US$25,000 per family for full and final compensation some time ago. Hey presto, several years later they have a much larger compensation bill.

The interesting thing about this, is that it will have a positive impact on the Lebanese families affected by ET409, as this is the first time a Lebanese Court has ruled publicly on an aviation case for criminal and/or compensation purposes.

Probably the right time to sell your shares in aviation insurance companies.

[Melax]

Hi SC, Thanks for your input, from what I gather (from friends) it seems that the courts jurisdiction has to do with the fact that Lebanon was the destination and as such, the airline had a business activity there (an establishment or ties to that country) as an example, I was told of the Gulf Air Crash where the plaintiffs sued the carrier in French courts, based on the fact that the aircraft (Airbus) was manufactured there... Well I guess it is rather complicated. I do think that the difference in sentencing (Pilot vs. Management) is disproportionate. The Management, being present and involved should have been given more or less the same sentence if warranted. 20 Years ? seems to be harsh, but I wasn't there so...