Crash landing in KRT

[wilyflier]

It also looks as if the wind was blowing from the tail to the nose after the aircraft stopped

[Mr Trim]

Not that it actually was a contributing or causal factor of the accident, but it is an interesting fact that in January 2007 Aerolineas Argentinas was considering to lease this A310. After carrying out the inspection of the aircraft and its maintenance records the Technical Commission of the company recommended NOT to carry out the transaction based on the awful condition of the aircraft (that apparently included a lot of corrosion) and improper maintenance logs.

[yellowsub]

Just back from KRT.

The photos on the previous page have summed it up. Aircraft wreckage is 100-200m off the northern end of the runway.

Aircraft landed on 36. Spoke to the ramp agent. Sounds like they touched down half way down the 9000 odd foot runway in the wet. Reading the Metar on previous page, with what looks like a tail wind.

Brake fans, bursting cylinders?! My two cents worth is they couldn't stop & ran off the end into the approach lights and grass/sand.

The ILS on both runways is notamed not calibrated at the moment so they probably did the VOR approach. Also the radar they had last time I was there has 'gone'

Leaving this morning we had two russian turbo props under take us on the apron as we were starting number one engine. There was a follow me car sandwiched in between, trying to hide under our wing, not the go! The tower endorsed it all and I still can't believe it happened. It's chaos.

Definitely not my favourite place to fly into.

[goma]

Totally agree with YELLOSUB its a nightmare of a place,ATC awfull and thats if they answer you at all.

Think the controllers are ex fighter controllers as they are very good at getting you as close as possible to other aircraft!!!!

More accidents to come!!

[Doors to Automatic]

Just back from KRT.

The photos on the previous page have summed it up. Aircraft wreckage is 100-200m off the northern end of the runway.

That's what I thought when I saw the SKY news clip just after the crash and saw what I thought were the approach lights.

So what was all this nonsense about the aircraft having landed safely and taxying in when the explosion occured?

Looks like a standard third-world over-run caused by a hot and high approach in wet conditions!

[sandyballs]

It amazes me why so called first world airlines to continue to operate into this place.
Everything about the airport is questionable, its time the flight safety depts stood up to the clowns in the commercial dept before this happens again.
How many incidents does it take before action is taken?

[Austrian Simon]

Originally Posted by Doors to Automatic

So what was all this nonsense about the aircraft having landed safely and taxying in when the explosion occured?

So far there are two apparently conflicting statements:

- the police chief of Khartoum said, the airplane veered off the runway, broke up in two, and burst into flames.

- the airport chief said, that the airplane had safely landed, the crew was talking to ATC regarding taxi, when the airplane burst into flames.

The statements by the airport chief were supported by all accounts of surviving airplane occupants, who even said, that there was a time span of 2-3 minutes from landing to start of the fire.

Now, what if BOTH statements are true?

Note, that I am in pure speculation now, which may be very off the reality. But this speculation explains all observations so far associated with this accident.

I assume, that the airplane landed, overran the runway end, and stopped just short of the approach lights, with the crew being unaware of the overrun. I assert, that the airplane was undamaged at that point and nothing out of the usual was noticed by the crew.

They now talk to ATC regarding taxi back to the apron and probably get cleared to backtrack the runway. Now the airplane turns to the left to backtrack - and now the right wing hits the approach lights.

The fuel tank gets ruptured and fuel spills to the ground. Fumes of the fuel get ignited by the engine exhaust, the fire starts at the right hand engine, and approaches the fuselage through the fuel on the ground (as the flames are being blown _AWAY_ from the fuselage).

Alternatively, the wing could have struck a pole of the approach lighting, breaking it off, and the right engine ingesting that pole causing the fire.

Now, this makes both, so far conflicting statements true and merge them into a possible scenario. But at the same time, this scenario explains the 2-3 minute time span between landing and the start of the fire and it explains, why the flames were seen being blown to the right and forward of the airplane in the live coverage of the blaze, but not towards the fuselage as it would have been if the airplane was still more or less aligned with the runway. The wind, remember, was coming from 140 degrees, so it needed the airplane almost perpendicular to the runway centerline to have this observed direction of flames.

Once again, we are in pure speculation at this point, that may well prove wrong. This is one of many more thinkable scenarios, but is a scenario that does not stand in conflict with any of the statements and evidence we have received so far. It is just a speculation, that perhaps may turn into a theory or may be disproven in an hours time. I stand to be corrected.

Servus, Simon

[Doors to Automatic]

I assume, that the airplane landed, overran the runway end, and stopped just short of the approach lights, with the crew being unaware of the overrun.

I would have thought that even the most Mickey Mouse of Third World crews would have known that they had run out of runway!

The lack of lights, rough ground under-wheel and bits of fence, approach light, localiser antennae and clouds of dirt etc filling the windshield would be a bit of a giveaway!

But an interesting theory none the less - I might well stand corrected!

[411A]

Lets face facts here.
Khartoum is no better, nor worse, than any other African destination.
Having personally operated to KRT dozens of times with B707 and (especially) TriStar equipment, I never found it all that difficult....even when the runway was considerably shorter, and no ILS existed.

In short, you have to pay attention to what the hell you are doing...and if you don't, expect rather large problems.
ATC...not bad, by African standards.
Radar?
Can be very accurate, if the right folks are on duty.

For those crews that expect European standards with ATC...better fly somewhere else, especially during haboob season.

Sorry, them's the facts.

EOM

[noflare]

Sorry 411 I have to disagree,... everything about KRT is substandard.
I certainly dont expect it to have Euro standards however it should provide basic safety standards and it does not.

A place to be avoided...even if you are paying attention to what you are doing!

[wilyflier]

Occams razor, or razer

The uninformed simplest explanation is brake fire,while they consider the situation. That would cook up nicely in a couple of minutes, with the 2 tyre bursts as well.

[ajet32]

Sudan A310

411 must agree its an African Airport ??? Not EU or North America what do people expect. Rock star parking will cost all of 10-15 SPD per stay. This is a country full of corruption second only to the DRC in my experience. Glad to see that so many survived. The A/C mentioned earlier was an AN12 of Juba Air Cargo crashed after an engine out on T/O and a poorly executed return. There are many > 10 other crashed AN12 in this fine land , see WAU(HSSW) Nyala (HSSN) and perhaps HSOB El Obeid.

[fixwing38]

sudan crash

I see no comments about the damage to the outer left wing and undercarriage which shows no fire damage but appears from the pics to have hit something hard.. and the gear seems out of line with the engine nacelle.not to mention the condition of the tyres.had there been no fire was there enough of the aircraft left intact to taxi it back to the apron???

[Ptkay]

Originally Posted by Doors to Automatic

I would have thought that even the most Mickey Mouse of Third World crews would have known that they had run out of runway!

Have you forgotten the "Mickey Mouse" from Ranair in VFR CAVOC overunning (trying to taxi)
beyond the runway end in Lodz few weeks ago...

He just got suck.

How about doing the same in the night and in tropical storm.

Mickey Mouse ???

[Raredata]

I don't recall any ILS or Radar at HSSS.Are we talking about the same place?

[Doors to Automatic]

How about doing the same in the night and in tropical storm.

How about diverting?

[411A]

I don't recall any ILS or Radar at HSSS.Are we talking about the same place?

Haven't been there for awhile, have we?
Yes, KRT has both...sadly it would appear that either a few folks don't actually know how to use same or, in the case of some 'foreign' airlines (according to a few comments received here), it is non-existant.
It would seem that a few European operators do not plan for the unexpected , ahhh, have to say, whose fault is that, I wonder...?
Those who operate to KRT on a regular basis, know the score, one wonders just why those 'others' have been...'left in the dark.'?

Answers on a postcard.

[FlyingCroc]

ILS, what ILS?

They have 2 ILS but it does not work and is on Test since years. You have VOR approaches with high minimas, 1600m, unusable if you have strong winds inducing sandstorms. WX is absolutly unreliable, forecasts useless. Radar Vectoring is sometimes available but not very useful, be aware of mistakes. Otherwise constant altitude/DME callouts required, ATC is generally terrible, lots of noise on the frequency. The run no center lights, way is rough, rubber deposits and large waterpuddles after rain. The shoulders of the taxiways are soft and there are large potholes. Alternates are far away and Port Sudan is another story.
Yep I agree, a place to avoid.

[pacplyer]

And now it's time for my favorite WAR STORY

A310 cpt seven yrs in the tropics. We had several ex-air india birds. Pratt engines as I recall. Real bad about compressor stalling/flameout in reverse with crosswind or standing water. Typical scenario: Third World ATC has too many diversions and can't handle the traffic (meaning more than one target at a time.) Everybody winds up high for the approach, low on gas. In my case a virtual lake was standing on the runway in the dark after a typhoon. Atis said CAVOK and no rekmarks. But the truth was no visable runway lights at all since they were submerged. We never knew it was there. After two bad vectors inside the marker for us, and Polar went around complaining that his machine "wasn't built to do that" told ATC never mind we'll do a 360 to the left and vector ourselves. Splashdown; brakes useless, number two started barking fire against the FADEC-type reverse limit because gentlemen: It is not a boat motor; it cannot compress water. Number two flamed out abruptly a few thousand feet later, and we slid the length of the runway. Witnesses were sure we had caught fire on the rollout. Massive yaw occurred when one stayed in max reverse and the other quit. Due to nothing but superior f***ing airman-ship on my part, only crew under-shorts were ruined: I slammed both reversers to idle to regain runway alignment and then reapplied the good one about two thirds max against full rudder and was just barely able to stop. The A310 rudder has a crosswind limit of exactly 28kts. Not 29! Ten months later a company A310 did the same thing and went through the freeway injuring motorists.

Could this be what happened to the above A310? These are the usual suspects for what is otherwise a great airplane. The post accident fire might have happened independently and been due to overun damage off the pavement. Fuel tanks leak when trunion gears punch up into the intregal tanks. I've seen overrun 310's. The damage is incredible. Usually the Nose gear is ripped backwards and shoved up into the e and e compartment.

The moral of this story: The devil with the company automation policy, click the thing off every chance you get and hand fly it. Even if they make fun of you and call you "Hand Job." At least you'll be used to planning the vertical nav while you're saturated with stick and rudder skills that, I dare say, most modern day aviators no longer possess.

Not something the bus salesman likes to tell flight departments when he's peddling his "flys itself" products for lease to low time flight crews!

pac - out

[Sudan19]

HoMe

I Don't know why people keep talking about the airport and not the real issue.
the airport is fine if you know your s**t you can fly there no problems. but it seems like every one wants ATC to do the job for them while they sit there pressing the buttons.
it is a third world country and guess what the airport is not like london heathrow but if you are a good pilot it shouldn't bother you.
90% of the time the weather in KRT is CAVOK. so don't complain about the weather.
it seems like a pilot error. they did not allow for the tail wind, wet runway high approach, and they touched down at the middle of the runway. and with an LDA of 9000 foot or so you are not going to stop and your plane will burst into flames. it doesn't matter if its at HSSS or EGLL .

every one in the airline hates that captain and don't think he is good enough to be a skipper. but he has contacts and thats how he made it to the top. i don't know who was the handling pilot at the time. so i suppose we will have to wait and see before we blame someone.