Sukhoi Superjet off runway at KEF
 

A Sukhoi Superjet 100 doing touch and go's at Keflavik Airport, Iceland apparently belly landed at around 0530Z this morning and slid off runway 11.
One engine reported broken off, one of 5 crew taken to hospital.

Pictures here

Flugslys á Keflavíkurflugvelli - mbl.is

Crew training? Flapless landing? No gear warning? Ooops? Pure speculation on my part of course, but it's been done before.

"I said cheer up, not bloody gear up...":rolleyes:

This, along with media reports this week that the programme is teetering on the brink of financial default, can't bode well for the SSJ.

Russia's aviation flagship project the Sukhoi Superjet on the brink of default ? RT Business

What where they doing in KEF?
Crosswind training?
As it was the Sukhoi's own aircraft?

The same type of aircraft that flew into a mountain in Indonesia last year whilst doing demo flights. One can't but wonder if this is the bravado factor again.

The plane has been there for one month doing various tests according to the local media.

There have been tests on landing in strong wind in Iceland

What where they doing in KEF?
 

Iceland is a great place to do crosswind development testing. With strong westerlies blowing from 1,000 miles of open Atlantic ocean, crosswinds of 30-40 knots are very common and predictable, usually without much mechanical turbulence.

Today, July 21, 2013, at 05.25 local time at the airport in Keflavik (Reykjavik, Iceland), there was the incident with the aircraft Sukhoi Superjet 100 , reg RA-97005.

In the final stage of certification tests to improve the conditions of operation - automatic landing (certification program for ICAO Category CAT III A) in a crosswind at the landing with a simulated failure of one engine, there was a touch of the runway with landing gear retracted.

During the incident on board were five people, including three crew members and two certification center experts. No one on board was injured during landing. During the evacuation from the aircraft one of the experts received a leg injury.

In the flight test program CAT III A was involved Sukhoi Superjet 100 serial number 95005. The first flight of the aircraft took place on February 4, 2010.

At the time of the incident all systems were working normally. According to preliminary estimates of specialists of CJSC "Sukhoi Civil Aircraft", the aircraft will be restored and continued the flight test program.

TRANSLATED FROM

Who was the mug who built the runway in the wrong direction then?! :p

It was buit by our American friends during WW2 and was originally known as Mekks Field. It had four runways - one every 45 degrees.

one every 45 degrees Hrrrm........... make that 90?

Not if you think reciprocals as well

I do beg JW's pardon - he said had 4 runways.' You can still see the 'missing ones' from the air.

BOAC:

Right; let's start at the bottom and go clockwise. In approximate terms, the four runways were 02/20, 06/24, 11/29 and 15/33.

So, four pieces of tarmac and eight directions if we count the reciprocals.

Furthermore, the Americans also built a fighter airfield called Patterson Field which had three runways and was only a couple of miles east of Keflavik and can still be seen on Google earth.

From the photos the nose gear appears to be down, similarly the left main, but sunk in the mud. If this is the final condition, then gear side-load at touchdown or drifting-off the runway edge could be candidate conditions. Add to these the possibility of a wet runway and/or effect of reverse on side-force in a crosswinds or the effect of gusts, then … … hazards of flight testing where the margins to the limit conditions may be unknown or decrease very suddenly.

- or. more simply, gear up? See post #13.

Since the airplane appears to be resting on the engines and aft fuselage and located off the right side of the extended centerline of the runway, I'm wondering if the ground contact occurred during or shortly following gear retraction on the go-around. Pure conjecture of course. Yeah, that'll buff right out and be flying again in no time. :cool:

I'm sorry to see this happen to a minor competitor in the global airplane production game. I hope they recover to join Embraer and Bombardier to keep A and B from completely controlling the world market in all size classes.

Looks like they should have used the aft exits.
Then injury to crew would have been unlikely.
Sitting on its tail like that, the forward exits were awfully high.:uhoh:

Of course, hindsight is 20/20.

Clear photo here:
Photos: Sukhoi Superjet 100-95 Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

It will be interesting to see what the investigation uncovers about the landing, the airplane is resting close to the end of runway 11, so it must have skidded between 2000-2500m assuming initial touchdown in the normal touchdown area. Isn't that rather a long skid for a light jet like this?

My first guess is that this was a case of pilots forgetting about the landing gear. There were no radio transmissions from them about issues with the landing gear and clearly from photos the nose gear is retracted. If this is confirmed than we have another case of a Russian test pilot crashing a perfectly good plane. :\

The crosswind tests may well have included a flapless landing. There would be no audible gear warning signal in such a configuration. If the landing checks are rushed or interrupted and no one spots the three reds then bingo.

Well they were doing CAT II/III autoland trials, not the basic crosswind tests.
The airplane is already certified and being delivered, but Low vis certification is ongoing. Somehow I doubt that a flapless landing is part of that, but partial flaps certainly probably as a part of a single engine (idling) approach.

As I've heard they completed 46 !!! approaches to certify for CAT III

Already at his feet ;)

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(c) Flickr: KarlGeorg's Photostream

del.....................

"Down, 3 greens!". :ok:

Doing touch and gos were they?

"Go Around! Flaps!"

"Oh b@gger, that was the gear handle"...puts them right about there?

Gear-up Superjet crew had requested touch-and-go

...Pilots of a Sukhoi Superjet 100 test aircraft had requested to execute a touch-and-go manoeuvre shortly before a gear-up accident at Reykjavik's Keflavik airport...Both flight recorders have been retrieved and, although a final decision has yet to be taken, Gudmundsson says they will "most likely" be sent to Moscow's Interstate Aviation Committee for data download...

I have heard that gears were down and then they retracted them at the beginning of a climb. But maybe because of combination of a wind and lately increased power of the only engine, the plane dropped back to RWY and belly landed. They suppose human factor...

Somehow that does not sound very plausible Karel_x. But we will find out in due course.

Surely, but it is not my own speculation:

My translation:

Igor Vinogradov, the first vice president of Sukhoi Civil Aircrafts, responsible for quality and certification, told about the Island incident:
"The aircraft had gears down on the final, then it changed its trajectory and went for go-around. Of cause it start to retract gears. In this very moment the incident happens. Both the gears and the aircraft work properly."


Source: Interview for Finam FM radio, time 18:30++
????? ???. ?????? 289 - ???????? ?????? ????????? ????? ??? ? ????? ????????? . ????? ????? ??

If so, that begs the question, what happened to:
"POSITIVE RATE - GEAR UP?

A TWR controller at KEF told me that it appeared that once the aircraft touched, they tried to get it airborne again (without the gears), hence the distance it travelled (about 2500m) before it came to rest about 20 m off the end of the runway.

But the report will tell.

The interview is ca 15 minutes long and Igor Vinogradov told a hint that now they are interesting about position of thrust lever. He told that engine followed thrust lever correctly, but now they investigate if pilots set it to correct position. After direct question of journalist he refused technical problems of undercartridges or engines and/or any other system of a/c and he speculated about a human factor. He also told about a wind change.

This has been posted on the Transport Accident Investigation Board website:
"On Sunday morning July 21st at 05:23 AM, Sukhoi Superjet 100 of Russian experimental registry 97005 was performing a certification test flight under cross wind condition at RWY 11 on Keflavik Airport (BIKF), Iceland. The purpose, prior to the event, was to perform a low pass/missed approach with one engine shut down, close to the airplane‘s maximum weight limit, in cross wind condition. During the approach and the low pass, the landing gears were in down position. During the go-around procedure, and after the landing gears were retracted, the airplane decented with the result of landing at the RWY with the landing gears up. The aircraft skidded down the runway and stopped outside the end of the runway. There were 5 persons on board the flight. One person was injured during the accident. The accident is being investigated by the Icelandic Transportation Accident Investigation Board. The Russian Federation has appointed an Accredited Representative to the Investigation. The Air Accident Investigation Commission in Russia will also participate to the investigation."

Source: Sukhoi Superjet 100 Aircraft Accident on Keflavik Airport on July 21st 2013 | Fréttir | Rannsóknarnefnd samgönguslysa - Flugslys

Thanks for link. I think it is consistent with declaration of Vinogradov. The only little difference is that Vinogradov state that nobody was injured in incident itself, this man light injures during evacuation.

And there is missing one letter in the statement of AAIU :)

after repair.

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