A faulty altimeter contributed to the fatal crash last week of a Turkish Airlines jet, sending a signal that caused it to slow down too abruptly, Dutch investigators said on Wednesday.
The plane crashed about 1km short of the runway, just outside Amsterdam’s international airport, killing nine of the more than 130 people aboard.
The Dutch Safety Board, which is investigating the Feb. 25 accident at Schiphol Airport, told reporters that one of the jetliner’s two radio altimeters, instruments that gauge an aircraft’s altitude, had incorrectly indicated that the plane, a Boeing 737-800, was approximately at ground level, prompting the automatic pilot to throttle back the engines in preparation for touchdown. The plane was actually at almost 600m.
The Dutch investigators’ preliminary report said that flight recordings indicated that the pilots had been notified that the left altimeter was not working correctly, but that “provisional data indicates that this signal was not regarded to be a problem.”
It also said that “initially the crew did not react to the issues at hand.”
Later, when an alarm indicated that the plane’s speed was too slow, it appears that the pilots gave the plane more fuel, but by then it was too late, said Pieter van Vollenhoven, an investigator who spoke at a news conference in Amsterdam.
Fred Sanders, a spokesman for the Dutch Safety Board, said previous flight recordings indicated that the plane had twice before had problems with its left radio altimeter during landings.
The report said: “The board is of the opinion that extra attention is needed for the role of the radio altimeter when using the automatic pilot and the automatic throttle system.”
“The board has issued a warning for Boeing today requesting extra attention to a part of a manual for the Boeing 737, in which is stated that in case of malfunction of the radio altimeter[s], the automatic pilot and throttle system that are connected to this may not be used for approach and landing,” it said.
Boeing, which has sent a team to assist the investigation, issued a statement on Wednesday reminding its Boeing 737 operators to “carefully monitor primary flight instruments during critical phases of flight.”
Jim Proulx, a spokesman for Boeing in Seattle, declined to provide any further information about the accident.
A Boeing spokeswoman, Sandy Angers, said that when one of the two radio altimeters fails, a message is supposed to appear on the captain’s flight display.
The plane that crashed hit the ground traveling about 175kph, landing on its tail, then skidded on its belly and broke into three parts. The jet was at about 600m when the altimeter malfunctioned, indicating the plane was at minus 2.4m, the Dutch report said. It said that there was mist and that the runway would not yet have been visible.
Gideon Ewers, a spokesman for the International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations in London, said there was nothing unusual in the fact that the pilots of the flight, en route from Istanbul, were landing by autopilot.
More than 1,500 Boeing 737-800s have been delivered to 89 customers, and 1,490 more are on order by airlines around the world.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
RSS