Crash of Hewa Bora plane with 112 pax/6crew at Kisangani

[sn26567]

FLASH: Hewa Bora Airlines plane carrying 112 pax+crew crashes 200 m before Kisangani airport in DR Congo as it tried to land under heavy rain.

40 survivors pulled from crashed plane, according to D R Congo spokesman. Hewa Bora CEO fears 53 dead.

Hewa Bora operates a Boeing 767, 2 Boeing 727 (which unconfirmed reports say involved in crash) and 6 MD-82s, according to airline website. According to published schedule, Hewa Bora Airways operates MD82 aircraft on Kinshasa - Kisangani route. Friday is EO952, due to arr 1450LT.

Source: Airline Route, BBC and Reuters

[sn26567]

Hewa Bora says it operates two, not one, B727s. One of them is the plane that just crashed.

[tolipanebas]

Isn't this their second hull loss during a landing in just a couple of years?

[sn26567]

Isn't this their second hull loss during a landing in just a couple of years?

Yes, a DC9 in Goma in April 2008. 40 dead. For information, Hewa Bora means 'fresh air' or 'good wind' in swahili (depending on the context) ....

[luchtzak]

Isn't this their second hull loss during a landing in just a couple of years?

Yes, a DC9 in Goma in April 2008. 40 dead.

Interesting read on wikipedia about the Hewa Bora Goma crash: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hewa_Bora_ ... Flight_122

Initial reports indicated that the Hewa Bora Airways flight had sixty to seventy passengers aboard and casualty reports varied. Authorities concluded that in the accident, those killed were mainly ground casualties and one registered passenger on the plane died.

The passenger manifest was first said to have "around 100 people", but in the DRC it is common practice to carry extra passengers and cargo beyond the manifest. Eventually a manifest was provided to the US embassy listing 79 passengers and five crew. The entire crew is reported to have escaped the aircraft.

[andorra-airport]

Hewa Bora says it operates two, not one, B727s. One of them is the plane that just crashed.

According to ch-aviation they have 3 727's . 2 are stored. 1 is (was?) flying , the 9Q-COP.
Beside that, they have 4 MD-82's active.

http://www.ch-aviation.ch/aircraft.php? ... EO&al_op=1

[sn26567]

I am not sure CH-Aviation is still regularly updated. According to Hewa Bora's own website, they have 2 B727s (besides 1 B767 and 6 MD82s, and soon to come 2 ATR42s).

http://www.hba.cd/hewaboraairways/racin ... onlangue=1

Report from The Aviation Herald:

Accident: Hewa Bora B727 at Kisangani on Jul 8th 2011, missed runway on landing

A Hewa Bora Boeing 727, flight EO-952 from Kinshana N'Djili to Kisangani (Democratic Republic of Congo) with 112 people on board, missed Kisangani's runway while attempting to land in poor weather conditions at 15:00L (14:00Z) and broke up. Emergency serivces have so far rescued 40 people alive.

Hewa Bora confirmed one of their Boeing 727s crash landed at Kisangani in bad weather, they have no information about the fate of the occupants yet.

The provincial governor said, at least 40 people have been rescued alive, the rescue operation is still ongoing.

No weather data are available for Kisangani (neither Metar nor reports of a local weatherstation).

[Bralo20]

Numbers according to Hewa Bora:

53 died
57 survived
Total: 110pax and crew

However the Congolese government stated that the Hewa Bora numbers were false and released other numbers and accused Hewa Bora for deliberately sending out numbers which are to low.

According to the government:

127 died
51 survivors

Total: 178pax and crew

[tolipanebas]

Nice, so now they are even quabling over the exact number of casualties!

Regardless the cause of this accident, the handling of it just shows how incredibly amateuristic the standards of aviation are in the RDC...

[tolipanebas]

According to the first reports, the Hewa Bora B727 was trying to land during a thunderstorm at Kisangani, using a non-precision approach -the only type of procedure available for this airport- when it was caught in a windshear on final and slammed into the ground about 300 meters before the RWY in dense tropical forest. Due to poor infrastructure, Kisangani Airport has no certified weather station to issue WX warnings.
For those wondering, Kisangani will not be a ZC destination once it launches...

From the confusion surrounding the number of pax, it's obvious not only the weather or the airport infrastructure are to be pointed at, but there also hasn't been any proper listing of pax done by the airline, prior to the flight. However it seems likely the plane had been filled up beyond max seating capacity, something which is not unusual in the RDC, thus giving less chance of survival to all those inside during an impact, as well as making evacuation of the crashed plane very difficult after it came to a standstill.

Let's hope the authorities of the RDC will come to understand they urgently need to improve their regulatory oversight on their domestic airlines as well as the infrastructure of their airports and will accept any foreign know-how and help offered to them in this respect, because as has been demonstrated here once more, if you let airlines in the RDC pretty much regulate themselves, you get a mess like this.

[Konus]

ZC destination = do you mean Korongo Airlines ?

[Bralo20]

ZC destination = do you mean Korongo Airlines ?

ZC is indeed the IATA code for Korongo Airlines

[sn26567]

A picture of the crashed aircraft taken in better times, one year ago: http://www.airliners.net/photo/Hewa-Bor ... 1947979/L/

[sn26567]

From the latest information gathered by The Aviation Herald, it appears that there were 112 pax and 6 crew on board. Four crew perished and only 2 flight attendants survived. In total at least 74 persons died in the crash and 42 were taken to hospitals alive.

[tolipanebas]

Are these the final POB figures?

If so, it seems neither the original HBA nor the RDC numbers were even close! Quite telling about the formalities during boarding in FIH...

I suppose the financial compensation for the victims (or their families) will be to equal standards?

[Ice]

Non precision approach using Garmin 196 as navigation and let down equipment. Tagged spare parts are an illusion and most of the time spares are taken from old wrecks. Any final report yet on the 2008 DC9 crash? I heard that the engines are still not handed over to the NTSB. Shocking.

[sn26567]

In order to avoid the repetition of fatal accidents in R D Congo, some local newspapers are calling for the authorisation for Korongo to operate in the country. They draw the attention on regulations imposed to Korongo that local airlines don't have to comply with, such as the construction of a maintenance hangar.

Korongo has not yet been authorised to import its aircraft. These newspapers call on the government to lift that restriction. That is the only way to try to get out of the European blacklist, only a small step. Korongo satisfies to all conditions imposed by the government and has safe reliable planes. Why the delay?

See articles (in French) : http://franceactu.net/54597-A-la-suite- ... repetition
http://radiookapi.net/revue-de-presse/2 ... epetition/

[TCAS_climb]

Oh yeah, right, let the journalists regulate commercial air transport. Their proposal and their perception of how the Blacklist works demonstrates -once again- that they really don't know what they're talking about.

I really like the cartoon I saw recently where a bunch of journalists were gathering in front of a huge board in a meeting room at the beginning of the day. There were lots of subjects written on the board (e.g. politics, economy, global warming, insecurity, transportation, etc.) and just above all those titles there's a big sign saying "In what subject would you like to be an expert today ?" Pick one !


Did you notice the Accountable Manager's Safety Policy published on their website ? This is a copy-paste from the sample "Safety Policy" published in first edition of the ICAO Safety Management Manual (in 2006). There are two things worth noting:

• • The safety policy is signed in 2010 but taken from the outdated ICAO manual... since it was replaced in 2009 by the Second Edition. Even the free manuals and documentation are outdated at HBA?
  • Get the original sample policy from ICAO and compare it with HBA's policy, it's interesting to see what was added or removed.

Then look at their press release and the statement from the spokeperson from the government: they already point the finger at the thunderstorm. Amazing, simply amazing. And bloody spooky too!

[sn26567]

Radio communication with the control tower indicated no problem with the aircraft. A mistake by a trainee air traffic controller is the cause of the accident. The aircraft struck a tree about 1000 meters short of runway 13 as a result. The captain had a total experience of 7,000 hours with around 5,000 hours on the Boeing 727.

An Air Traffic Controller has been arrested.

On Jul 13th the "Regie des Voies Aeriennes" (RVA), ATC service provider at Kisangani Airport, denied all allegations that an error by their controllers caused the crash. The RVA confirmed trainee controllers under supervision were controlling the aircraft. The two controllers assigned to the tower of Kisangani at the time of the crash were fully qualified however. The RVA demanded the immediate release of the two controllers, that had been arrested, arguing that guilt has not yet been established.

The Transport Ministry said there was no evidence of any failure of the aircraft prior to impact. A control error and overloading of the aircraft are being looked into.

[sn26567]

Without waiting for the information of the black boxes of the Boeing 727, and after blaming an Air Traffic Controller, the government of D R Congo has now suspended the Air Operator's Certificate of Hewa Bora Airlines, effectively grounding the carrier.

Many people in official circles are pressing the government to reopen the Korongo dossier...