Asiana 747F missing?
 

It is being reported on Anet that an Asiana 747 F is missing apparently on a flight from ICN to Shanghai.

The only news link so far is in Korean, which I can't read, and google translate makes a bit of a mess of it ( although the gist of it seems to tie in with what the poster said.

Has anyone else heard anything?

edited to add: there are now unconfirmed reports that wreckage and an oil slick have been sighted.:(

(URGENT) Asiana Airlines' cargo plane crashes in waters off Jeju Island

here

(URGENT) Asiana Airlines' cargo plane crashes in waters off Jeju Island | YONHAP NEWS

Here the report with text:

Asiana Airlines cargo plane crashes off Jeju | YONHAP NEWS

A/C departed at 03:05 a.m. from Incheon bound for Pudong.

Reg - HL7604:(

MSNBC is reporting that the Captain was 51 and First Officer 44. No names.

S. Korean cargo jet crashes; 2 dead - World news - Asia-Pacific - msnbc.com

Fire on-board.
AFP: Two dead as cargo plane crashes off South Korea

This has got to stop. Why is nothing being done about this!! How are we certifying aircraft without fire suppression on the main decks of these aircraft! IALPA needs to start serious lobbying. As long as 'only' freighters are affected, nothing will change. Why do I even bother reading a NOTOC with 20 tonnes of batteries? Its an uncontrollable bomb that I'm 'hoping' doesn't detonate.

Rant over.
IB

I totally agree. As long as it's ONLY CARGO AND ONLY 2 ''ANONYMOUS'' PILOTS who gives a damn, right? I do believe that Fedex is one of rare airlines that does have fire ext on the main deck of MD11, not sure about other ac in their fleet.

Asiana has issued this quite detailed press release:

July 27, 2011
OZ Flight 991 Press Release

1. Accident Details

A. Time: July 28, 2011 (Thu.) 04:11 AM
B. Location: Approximately 76 miles southwest of CJU Airport.
C. Flight: OZ991 (ICN-PVG)

Departure Time: 02:47 AM, Estimated Time of Arrival: 04:33 AM

D. Crew

- Captain: Sang-Gi Choi (Born: January 25, 1959)
- Employed at Asiana since July 2, 1991
- Assigned to B747 since July 3, 2001
- 6,896 hours of flight time in B747
- 14,123 hours of total flight time

- Co-pilot: Jeong-Woong Lee (Born: August 12, 1967)
- Employed at Asiana since April 2, 2007
- Assigned to B747 since November 4, 2010
- 492 hours of flight time in B747
- 5,211 hours of total flight time

E. Freight: 58 Tons

- Freight Contents: More than 90% of the freight was standard cargo and IT products. The remainder was comprised of liquids (e.g., paint, resin solution, etc.)
- All cargo was loaded in accordance with IATA regulations.

F. Aircraft Specifications

- Registration Number/Aircraft Type: HL7604/B747-400F
- Owner: AAR
- Manufacturer: BOEING
- Manufacture Date: 2006.02.15.
- Operational Date: 2006.02.23

G. Details

- At 04:11 AM (Korea Standard Time) flight OZ991 reported control problems at an altitude of 7600 feet and was diverted to CJU when contact was lost with the aircraft.
- 04:11KST – Contact is lost with the aircraft at 7,600 feet when it reports control problems and is diverted to CJU.
- 04:15KST – Contact initiated by Republic of Korea Coast Guard and Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC)

JetPhotos.Net Photo » HL7604 (CN: 29907) Asiana Cargo Boeing 747-48EF(SCD) by Rufenach [www.fraspotting.de]

"The plane carried 58 tonnes of cargo, including 0.4 tonnes of potentially risky materials such as lithium batteries, paint, amino acid solution and synthetic resin, he said."


Pretty much says it all right there.

LI batteries need to be banned from all aircraft until such time that they devise a way to inert them for shipment.

As long as a/c can be insured when carrying lithium batteries etc then they will continue to be shipped by air..unfortuneately no one gives a damm about freight pilots ...'safety is our first priority' yeh right !

Unless one happens to crash on a major city causing hundreds of casualties:ugh:

It's really hard to ban all the Li-ion battery in the air transport. Right now, most electronic devices containing Li-ion battery as a complete package and need to be transportted by air. The cargo carrier will not say NO to such bussiness even few aircraft accidents happened which Li-ion battery is involved, e.g. UPS accident in Dubai,2009 and the Asiana accident today. The big boss of cargo carrier has to secure the business unless all the cargo carriers say NO.

Guy's the fire suppresion debate is interesting as it is not even mandated in EU registered pax aircraft I looked into this when I was a QA consultant for a well known Dutch MRO and it became clear that aircraft of a certain vintage (think F100 age) did not have to have either smoke detectors or fire suppresion systems in the lower baggage holds! it was a situation that I found incredible even after more than 30 years in this business some things just astound you as IMO all aircraft either pax or cargo should be mandated to have both.

Perhaps improve the packaging..

LipoSack Fire Retarding Lithium Polymer Battery Charging & Storage Safety Bag

Condolences to the collegues and their families...

It would be interesting to know if the batteries were carried in the main deck (like in the UPS crash) or if they were in one of the class C compartments and even the fire extiguishers were not enough to put the fire out. If that's the case, lithium batteries should be banned until another way of packing them or different fire extiguishers are tested and certified.

DMN,

Currently MD-11 only. First 777 installation currently in progress (N858FD)

Post no.8
With link.

Silberfuchs,

Crash: Asiana B744 near Jeju on Jul 28th 2011, fire in cargo hold

Once they go that's pretty much it, they require no external oxygen to burn and will resist just about all attempts to extinguish them.

There is no hard eveidence on the cause of the crash, or even any confirmation that lithium batteries were part of the cargo, yet everyone has jumped to the conclusion that lithium batteries were the cause.

To my knowledge there has not yet been an incident involving lithium batteries in cargo that were prepared in compliance with the regulations. All of the lithium battery incidents to date involving cargo shipments have been as a result of untested batteries or badly prepared packages where the battery terminals could short causing a fire.

So how about we wait to see what comes out of the investigation, or is that expecting too much??