Medical flight BN2A crash Romania - 2 dead, 5 injured

[xcris]

A Britten Norman Islander BN2A-27 crashed in a mountainous area in North-Western part of Romania (Apuseni Mountins) on Monday Dec 20 around 16.15 local time (14.15z).

Approx position 46°32'26.22"N 22°58'39.76"E (Google Earth reference)
The aircraft was en-route from Bucharest (LRBS) to Oradea (LROS) as a VFR flight for a medical mission, to collect organs for transplant from the Oradea Hospital.

CORRECTED According to ROMATSA (Romanian ATS Admin) before departure the pilot considered the flight path as VMC and assumed the flight in VFR conditions. (see next comment) It is not clear what the conditions enroute were but according to rumors it is possible for the PIC have assumed this flight on the edge due to it's importance for life saving - organ prelevation and transport is quite one shot)
Just passing Sibiu (LRSB) the pilot informed the enroute ATC service that they encountered low visibility and icing condition and requested to descend from 11.500 to 10.000 ft due to ice accretion. (It's not clear for me yet if he requested or informed, since he was VFR - this is what Romatsa Director, Mr. Aleodor Francu, declared briefly). The request was granted (?). Sooner, entering a high terrain area he requested/informed (?) further descent for viual reference and eventually disappeared from ROMATSA radar 7-8 NM prior to accident. ROMATSA last marked at "2100 m" (7000 ft) descending (?).
Own remark: examining the sectional VFR Chart (skyvector.com World VFR search for LRCL and see the mountainous area W SW) the lowest safe altitude in this sector is 7000!)

According to survivors on board the a/c crashed into trees and came to a rest in a high forested hill. All aboard was alive at the moment.
One survivor mentioned that "eventually" they lost an engine - just prior the crash (not confirmed).
At least 4 of them phoned to emergency 112 number being in contact with rescuers. The first call was made at 16.34 (LT) Even the GSM signal was good the emergency services were unable (?) to track them. (More both ROMATSA and STS - the service for special telecomm) provided wrong data.
A large search operation was ad-hoc organized by locals and volunteers from Cluj-Napoca and around villages. Eventually, after 8 hours, they were tracked by a forester and volunteers reached them and carried down to the ambulances. They arrived to hospitals in Cluj-Napoca after 12 hours (!) after the crash. The PIC was found dead stuck in the cockpit, another young volunteer medical student lost her life in the ambulance due to injuries and low temp.
One doctor from the medical team onboard the aircraft assisted all of them all of the time providing help. He recounted that the pilot was alive for a long time and conscious they talked and tried to release him from the iron trap, with no success.
The copilot is now in the worse condition but stable in hospital. (Maybe he will clarify all of the aspects of this doomed flight).
RIP Aurelia Ion (23) Adrian Iovan (55)!

About the aircraft:
manufactured in Romania in 1977 (Romaero Bacau)
Reg YR-BNP, first reg 01.12.1978, last reg 2006
in 2012 was subject to major overhaul after a long period of retirement
last inspection Dec 2013
airworthiness certificate issued Dec 20, 2013 void Dec 27, 2014
flown occasionally for medical purposes flown by volunteer crews

Pilots:
PIC - Adrian Iovan 55 y.o. retired TAROM and BLUEAIR pilot, 38 years of activity as a pilot, +16.000 hours, various types from An2, BN2, AN-24 to Boeing 737 (most on Boeing 737) (commercial pilot, supposed ATPL with no restrictions)
FO Razvan Petrescu 23 y.o. flight instructor Romanian Fligt Academy (certification not available yet), aerobatic team pilot
Crew: medics from the transplant team from various hospitals, all injured from minor to moderate injuries.

Disclaimer: I tried to make a synthesis of the media reports until now. I'll provide new info if necessary as they appear. Thank you!
Cristian

some links with photos from Romanian media:
FOTO EXCLUSIV Pilotul Adrian Iovan, g?sit mort între fiarele contorsionate ale avionului pr?bu?it la Cluj | Citynews Cluj (http://citynews.ro/eveniment/foto-exclusiv-pilotul-adrian-iovan-gasit-mort-intre-fiarele-contorsionate-ale-avionului)
PRIMELE IMAGINI cu avionul care a aterizat for?at în Mun?ii Apuseni - FOTO - Mediafax (http://www.mediafax.ro/social/primele-imagini-cu-avionul-care-a-aterizat-fortat-in-muntii-apuseni-foto-11935958)

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LATER EDIT:
The Romanian Gov came with an interim report available here
http://media.hotnews.ro/media_server1/document-2014-01-22-16458345-0-nota-privind-accidentul-aviatic-din-20-ianuarie.pdf
(Romanian only, sorry)

There are some clarification but far from clarifying some aspects. But contrary.

They say:
On Monday Jan 20 10:50 LT (08.50z) was opened an IFR flight plan for the flight RFT111 ac YR-BNP route LRBS-LROD clearance 13.10 - 16.10.
The ac departed LRSB 13.38 LT
Note: this brief mentions all heights in meters. It is not clear if and when they refer to "level" or "altitude". Neither in this report nor in the media statements or leaks is mentioned an altimeter setting.

At 14.35 approaching LRSB on a low route at LVL 115 (Mr Aleodor Francu, ROMATSA Director, mentioned before in a video that they were at that time "at 11500" ft obviously standard pressure being on IFR but unclear why at 11500) the pic requested descent to 3050 m (10.000 - Aleodor Francu ) due to ice accretion. ATCo informed the pilot the lowest safe altitude in the region is 3200 m.
No mention what resolution was applied.

I'll continue now only with this official brief mentions:
14.42 the PIC requested (?) descent to 2450 m and informed that he will switch freq to Advisory Center and to VFR thus descending below ROMATSA control limit.
15.58 36 km after LRSB (NW of LRSB) at 2600 m unable to contact RAS pilot contacted ACC Cluj
15.32 - 15.33 the pilot tried to contact a NW sector (unnamed) with no success
15.35 ROMATSA requested a pilot enroute (flight BMS215B) to facilitate the communication with RFT111. ROMATSA have been informed that "the ac IN DIFFICULTY (?) is at 2450 m"
between 15.45 - 1549 ROMATSA tried to contact RFT111 with no success.

(So the crash was around 1545 LT 1145z)
The BN2A was airworthy. TT 3350 h Engine Time 500 h (since last overhaul) Prop Time 300 h (since last overhaul)

The questions remain and even tougher: why now they insist on 2450 m last report, when Mr. Francu clearly stated:
"The last information we had when he was at 2100 m somewhere 7.4 NM from a point near the border between Alba and Cluj counties" (maybe he had in mind a FIX).
vid here:
FRANCU, director ROMATSA: De ce s-a prabusit avionul? - Stiri WebTV Realitatea TV | REALITATEA .NET (http://webtv.realitatea.net/francu-director-romatsa-de-ce-s-a-prabusit-avionul-_914033.html)

EDIT: ROMATSA is already in counter-attacjk. They said just minutes after this report that is "wrong". Nobody from that ac talken on radio with Cluj ACC. Maybe there will be other signals soon.

[JanetFlight]

One question if i may ask....at the time of the accident the Aircraft was operating under any AOC, or it was private as non-commercial (non-AOC) ?

[xcris]

JanetFlight: The aircarft was operated under AOC RO-016(a) issued to the Romanian Aviation Academy (owner and operator)
Romanian Aviation Academy - Scoala Superioara de Aviatie Civila » 2. Fleet (http://www.aviationacademy.ro/eng/?page_id=17)

[countbat]

RIP. I feel sorry for the tragedy and my best wishes to the families.
However it seems to me that the planning was not that good. In aviation the goal should be getting from point A to point B in a safe and pleasant way. Not taking chances or playing I know better. I'm assuming the PIC had access to all the meteo infos needed.
Also reaching the place of the accident after so many hours is kind of hard to accept.

[xcris]

countbat: Thank you for your input. Myself and most of Romanians feel the same. Such delay it's simply unacceptable. The region is not Siberia or Alaska, it's a relatively populated area, three big cities are not very far, two airports (LRCL quite big) etc. It was a lack of response of authorities which simply were not able to organize and respond fast. One person aboard was on the phone for hours, even having a GPS enabled smartphone. He was unaware how to extract geo coordinates out of Google Maps! And noone told him, but for hours he tried to explain out of the map cues (not very dense for the region) where they are.
The ac was ELT equipped. They say now it was broadcasting only on 121.5 (being "the default freq", even if it was both 121.5 and 406 MHz able) and some (?) called Moscow cospas-sarsat center and were informed that they no longer offer sat support for that freq! No one go further to call another cospas-sarsat mission control center or to use a mobile unit! And simply abandoned this path, even if the ELT signal was loud and clear on that frequency tenths of miles away!
In the same way, the police and secret services didn't considered to use the equipp. and software they own able to track and pinpoint GSM signal, due to the fact that they cannot use this WITHOUT A COURT ORDER!? And so on... :(
I appreciate it was a huge link of mistakes from the very beginning - flight preparation, as you say - to the bitter end...

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Lots of pictures and excellent video footage here
VIDEO: FILMARE AERIAN? de la locul ACCIDENTULUI AVIATIC din Apuseni: Ce au v?zut pasagerii în momentul în care s-au pr?bu?it | Alba24 (http://alba24.ro/video-de-la-inaltime-din-locul-accidentului-aviatic-din-apuseni-ce-au-vazut-pasagerii-in-momentul-in-care-s-au-prabusit-269357.html)

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BUCHAREST, Romania — A small plane crash on a remote mountain wouldn’t normally be enough to anger an entire country or threaten the government. Romania, however, is dealing with just this scenario.

Small plane crash in Romania unleashes public ire - The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/romania-interior-minister-quits-over-crash-rescue/2014/01/23/0b81703c-8426-11e3-a273-6ffd9cf9f4ba_story.html)

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According to sources close to investigation one of the two ELT equipment antennas was broken.
After the accident the ELT was found intact on the floor, working on own backup power, however one of the two antennas was "broken" (not clear if antenna was broken or dettached due to crash). Unfortunatelly is supposed that that was the 406 MHz digital transmiter antenna which signal is due to be picked up by cospas-sarsat satellites and reported to regional center in Moscow in case of distress.
However the working antenna broadcasted for hours on 121.500 MHz its signal being picked up at the time by en-route airplanes on guard frequency and by dedicated ground equipment. Surprisingly no authority followed the signal to track it with available units...

On the other hand that raises again a sign of question upon ELT equipment not working due to mount dettachement in case of crash (which, for me, is... stupid). See here a 2012 FAA SAIB addressing exactly this issue:
https://www.faasafety.gov/files/notices/2013/Feb/ELT_HQ-12-32.pdf