Accident Report on Coulthard's Lear 35 Released
 

The Accident Report on the crash of the Lear 35 at Lyon on 2 May 2000, which David Coulthard & co survived (despite the tragic deaths of the 2 pilots) has been released. All in French, I'm afraid, except the CVR transcript at the end of the document, in English:

http://www.bea-fr.org/docspa/2000/g-...-ri000502.html

(Don't think it's been left out, but couldn't see any form of approach briefing or any proper checklists being carried out...any comments bizjet people?)

- Mechanical failure within left engine resulted in failure, led to engine being shut down.

- Aircraft made final approach on single engine but this was never stabilised.

- A little before the threshold and increase of thrust on the right engine was requested.

- The aircraft banked heavily to the left and struck the ground.

Probable cause: loss of roll control apparently owing to lack of monitoring of the flight symmetry at the moment that additional thrust was requested on the right engine, following non-stabilised approach.

The BEA will probably release an English transcript in the fullness of time - they usually do this with commercial jets and of course in this case the aircraft was British registered. Guess the CAA will do something too.

try clicking

Here

For a rough translation

Hope it works

Hi,

When was this Learjet 35 built? Did the aircraft have a updated flightdeck?

Thanks
BAe 146-100

Accident Report on Coulthard's LearJet Released
 

Such a tragic story. Good to know though that single-engine approach training (UK and USA) has been modified a result of lessons learned. Disappointing that checklists don't appear to have been used but such emergency procedures are often recited/carried out by memory with checklist back-up/confirmation. For all their aircraft/sim training this crew may never have carried out a single-engine and approach and landing culminating with the selection of full flap. BM

From G-INFO, Year of Manufacture was 1988.

Sad loss...anybody else think the ATC aspects could have been more helpful?? Lots of frequency changes, not much info offered?

Can someone explain to me how the plane rolled over even though it had plenty of speed and didn't stall.

I believe that they applied full power at the last second but the data recorder indicates a reduction of power ??

My impression is that they had 20 degrees flaps. Did anyone read that they went to full flaps at the last second ??

Keep the blue side up; whever up is

I appreciate it's incredibly easy to criticise on here, but I have to agree with the above, on the initial read of the CVR transcript there were way too many freq' changes.

Info on Lear 35 single engine controllability
 

Lear 35's have more than sufficient power and controllability while single engine. The are limitations on lateral fuel inbalance though. An AFM limitation is 600 pounds imbalance while hand-flying, or 200 pounds inbalance with the AFCS engaged.

This is a serious problem when the imbalance is based on tip tank fuel, because this scenario presents the largest "moment."

The Lear 35 systems allow the easy crossflowing of fuel from one wing to the other wing. One of the first steps (but not THE first) taken with an engine shut down is to open the crossflow valve. This will allow the gravity crossflowing of fuel to the wing with the operating engine to minimize the imbalance. Occasional activation of a fuel boost pump is also recommended to keep the imbalance closer to zero.

With a large imbalance, there can be a serious controllability issue, especially significant while single engine.

I would only be speculating if I said this was the problem in this sad accident.

Gidday,

Yes the fuel balance for the Lear can be a trial, I operated 31s in the pure training mode and in the early days we didn't have a Sim, so all endorsements were done "live".

Most of us got a fright or two when things were busy doing "failure" work.

As you slow down the aileron required just runs out, student miss control can hide the initial onset as they use rudder, then it all runs out at the same time.

Mr Garrett's spin up has saved the day but if it is actually shut down, the ball is difficult to play for sure.

Stay safe.


:ok:

Another thing to consider is fuel dumping...if they did have a fuel balance problem.

All the tip fuel in the 35 can be dumped in 5 mins. If the tip tanks are full that decreases landing weight by about 2400 pounds.

It seems as though they were at Max Landing Weight of 15 300 which equals a ref of 129 and a 20 flap ref of 139.

Although I may have lost something in the translation, it seems like this wasn't considered....easy to second guess, but something I hope I'd consider in this situation.

such a short descent between failure and crash - I can't see how a fuel imbalance would have been an issue.

The report says that fuel imbalance was not an issue.
Transl: In both cases [two estimations of possible imbalance] the value calculated was less than the 600lb landing maximum...

The report criticises the multiple frequency changes in section 2.4.

It would be interesting to know if the yaw damper was on. The 35 is difficult to fly Single engine if you approach Vref and you are fighting a crosswind (in this case they land 36L and the wind is 200 at 10 or something like that ...) I saw it a couple of times in the sim where people didn't reengage the YD and were chasing the needles with the pedals. Just my first thoughts, who knows what happened.

LearJet GA, I agree. Add to this multiple power changes on final near Vref and you have a bull by the horns.

I am speaking hypothetically, as I have no idea what the cause of the accident was.

I see you fly Learjets out of Lux?

I don't remember any fuel imbalance limit other than 600 pounds. I checked all my manuals and can't find it. But it could be due to UK certification or because it was a FC530 A/P. All my books are for the FC200.

Also it became a requirement last year, but has been a prefered option for at least 4 years that engine out landings are make with flaps 20, not full flaps.

I don't believe that the Y/D was that much of an issue.

Unstablized approach with the 'wrong' engine inop, can make for an interestinjg time.

Rick, I do not have my reference books here at home, but the 200 pound imbalance may be in the AFCS supplement. However, I did not realize this was an FC-530 AFCS, so the 200 pound figure I cited may not apply.

Do you fly for American Jets in Houston? If so, I just took a refresher course at SimuFlite with two of your co-workers, or maybe you.

:)