MK Airlines 747 crashes Halifax , Canada

[Comet]

There is still confusion over the nationalities of the crew involved. The airline is saying that there were South African and Zimbabwean nationals onboard and no Britons. The Canadian police are saying otherwise. This must be an awful time for the families of those people involved

[MKAirlines]

There is still confusion over the nationalities of the crew involved. The airline is saying that there were South African and Zimbabwean nationals onboard and no Britons. The Canadian police are saying otherwise. This must be an awful time for the families of those people involved

Yes comet your right

my thoughts are with the victims !

[SN30952]

Good display by "The Star" a Toronto newspaper

CBS airdisasters timeline, a good reminder of the big disastrs

As my personal opinion was a loading problem, resulting in a shifting cargo, I checked on other possible reasons for the misfire.

Here is one, that might be of importance:
The plane was supposed to leave from the end of a 2,700-metre runway, but entered through a taxiway at the 2,000-metre mark. See the maps and aereal picture I gave higher and @ The Star just above...
From where she left, they only had about 6,000 feet and it just wasn't enough runway.
An investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, declined comment when asked if the plane took off from the wrong spot.

MK Airlines Flight 1602 crashed in the darkness (is poor visibility, by lack of light, a possible reason?, there was also said that electricity was out after the crash) while attempting takeoff at 3:52 a.m. local time Thursday. The 747-200 wide-body jet was headed for Zaragosa, Spain, loaded with 53,305 kilograms of seafood — lobsters and silver hake — and garden tractors.

The history of this particular aircraft, built in 1980 and registered in Ghana revealed no problems.

Names of the crew were not released.
The plane was carrying a captain, first officer and flight engineer, plus a loadmaster and three spare crew who were hitching rides home.
This reports says: There were four Britons, two Zimbabweans and one German.

The doomed plane arrived from Hartford, Conn., on Wednesday evening to pick up a load of seafoodfor Zeus Seafood Inc. and refuel.

MK Airlines has been running chartered flights in and out of Halifax for nearly 18 months. Two months ago, the Canadian Transportation Agency granted MK a new permit to fly twice a week between Halifax and Spain. That flight permit is due to expire Oct. 31, agency spokesman Craig Lee said Thursday.

MK has applied to the Canadian regulator for an additional series of twice-weekly cargo flights between Nov. 4, 2004, and Jan. 30, 2005, for the Halifax-Spain route. Getting cargo service up and running between Halifax and Spain hasn't been smooth. After a single delivery on the Halifax-Spain route by MK Airlines in the spring of 2003, the federal cabinet overruled the Canadian Transportation Agency's granting of a permit to the airline for a series of cargo flights.

At the time, a spokeswoman for then-transportation-minister David Collenette said the regulator had misinterpreted government policy in granting the permit. Air Canada was seen to have been potentially harmed because MK would steal away cargo business.

But MK and one of its customers, Zeus Seafood Inc., appealed to the Federal Court of Canada, paving the way for the transportation regulator to authorize new cargo operations in November, 2003. MK Airlines received its first cargo permit to operate out of Halifax in the spring of 2003, including a Halifax-Luxembourg route.

[Bottie]

Also a little message to Bottie. Please don't use the translation tool of Altavista Babel Fish. Did you read your translation? It is awfull. Some words still in dutch and other words totally different from what it is supposed to be.

I know

[SN30952]

This must be an awful time for the families of those people involved

The same or not more than for the families of those people involved in the DXB airport building collapse, I guess. Working men are working men. I am not sentimental nor emotional about that, its part of life. But human error is in many cases the source of lots of sarrow. But lets leave these considerations for the tabloids?

[Robin_Bamps]

Hi everybody,

The crashed aircraft was pictured at LUX by Rainer Bexten one day before the crash :

http://www.planepictures.net/netshow.php?id=269043

http://www.planepictures.net/netshow.php?id=269044

Talking about the safety records of the aircraft, I have my doubts when seeing this pic :

http://www.planepictures.net/netshow.ph ... ount=false

Maybe it's just the paint but it isn't looking nice

Regards, Robin Bamps.

[TCAS_climb]

The plane was supposed to leave from the end of a 2,700-metre runway, but entered through a taxiway at the 2,000-metre mark

Sorry, did I miss something ? Where did you find that info ?


And Mr. Bexten should send his pictures to the Canadian authorities, in my opinion. I don't know if they can be useful to the investigation, but it's always better to have as much "fresh" information as you can.

[bits44]

Bill Fowler lead investigator from TSB Canada, initial findings
two tail strikes occurred, 800 feet and 500 feet from the end of the runway.
why these occurred has not yet been determined, the aircraft never became airborne, and the landing gear were in contact with the ground until the aircraft came to rest. Causes of this crash may have been a combination of errors, but for anyone to say any one thing caused it would be irresponsible. The search for the flight recorders continues and will aid the investigating officers in determining the cause.
Questions were raised that the aircraft may have entered the runway at the wrong point, Mr. Fowler stated that this has not been determined, although it is a possibility. Reporters raised questions regarding possible causes of the lack of lift on take-off. he replied any number of factors could have contributed, including engine failure, load shift, lack of sufficiant air speed for rotation, and as he previously stated, no one factor can be blamed until all the data is in, and witnesses have been interviwed.
KT

[YACHTIE]

Some more latest news from the crash again condolences for the loss of life.
Like someone earlier said, a seafood BBQ of unprecedented proportions.
As I used to work there it is ironic we watched all the planes take off there as my office then was under the fightpath 2 km from the crash site.
Had the jet been airborne for a short time it would have hit the building likely.
Here's the local newspaper article:

'Utter destruction'
Impact sequence key in probe of fiery jet crash
By SHERRI BORDEN COLLEY and PATRICIA BROOKS / Staff Reporters

Seven crew members aboard a loaded cargo jet bound for Spain died in a fiery crash early Thursday morning during takeoff from Halifax International Airport. It was the airport's first fatal crash since it opened in 1960.

RCMP were called to the airport at 3:52 a.m. after an MK Airlines Boeing 747-200 crashed into a quarry in woods at the end of a runway off Old Guysborough Road.

Four of the dead crew members were British nationals, two living in South Africa and two in Zimbabwe. Two others were from Zimbabwe and the seventh was a German living in South Africa.

Some remains have been recovered.

The tail of the aircraft snapped off and lay in a field at the end of the runway while the rest of the huge jet was in pieces hundreds of metres away.

Read on http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2004/10 ... 2.raw.html

[YACHTIE]

Another report with eyewitness accounts of the crash:

Like Dante’s Inferno’
By Richard Dooley, Peter McLaughlin & David Redwood – The Daily News with CP

HALIFAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

A firefighter emerged from the thin pall of black smoke, the acrid smell of jet fuel hanging in the air.

“It was like Dante’s Inferno,” said the Halifax regional fireman, as he emerged from a gravel pit that became the final resting place of a doomed cargo jet.

Hours earlier, the Boeing 747 raced down Runway 06, trailing a shower of sparks.

It tried to take off with its 53,000-kilogram load of lobsters, fish and lawn tractors, bound for Spain.

Airport workers watched in horror as the jet’s tail hit an earthen mound topped by navigation towers and snapped off, sending the plane careening into thick brush.

“Probably the last couple of hundred feet, there was nothing but bright white sparks like you’ve never seen before,” said Paul Sharpe, a JetsGo worker who talked to an eyewitness moments after the crash at 3:52 a.m.

“He said there was a bit of an explosion when the tail of the aircraft hit … and the rest was history. He just never got high enough to clear those towers.”

The tail of the wide-body jet lay in a field at the end of the runway, inside the fence surrounding the airport property.

“She continued her (takeoff run) and ran off the runway and ran into woods.”

The careening fuselage sheared the tops of power and telephone lines, cutting a wide swath through the woods, before the biggest chunk of the fuselage came to rest at the eastern edge of the quarry — a kilometre from the end of the runway.

Scores of firefighters hurried to the scene to put out the masive blaze created by thousands of litres of jet fuel.


One firefighter, who like the rest were under orders not to talk to the media, said the debris field was a surreal mix of seafood and off-road vehicles.

“It was filled with lobsters, ATV parts and tires,” said one firefighter, who wouldn’t give his name.

“It was hard to discern what were mechanical parts and what was part of the plane.”

The huge aircraft, which stopped in Halifax to refuel and take on cargo, was loaded with lawn tractors, parts, computer gear and 53,000 kilograms of lobster and fish bound for Zaragosa.

The burned and crumpled fuselage looked like a blackened skeleton. Blue smoke drifted out of the debris, as firefighters spent most of the morning hosing down the wreckage and brush that was still burning near the plane.

The jet’s crumpled wings lay against a bank of the pit.

Dave Carroll, a volunteer firefighter, said he arrived to fight the fire, only to see a large “fireball in the bushes.”

His face smeared with soot, Carroll said he’d never seen such wreckage and was saddened by the fact “it was such a big plane and there were lives lost.

“It’s one of those things you hope you never come to a second time.”


All seven crew members aboard MK Airlines Flight 1602 were killed in the crash. They were from Zimbabwe, Britain and Germany.

Earlier, the plane, arriving from Hartford, Conn., had landed at the airport to take on fuel and load fish and lobsters bound for Zaragoza.

The Ghana registered Boeing 747-200 was a former passenger jet converted to carry cargo.

It’s believed the plane is about 34 years old.

Investigators are looking closely at the maintenance records and history of the aircraft.

Investigators do know the plane carried less than a full load of aviation fuel, about 89,000 kilograms, when it attempted to take off, heading south along a runway that runs more or less parallel with Highway 102. But something went horribly wrong before the plane reached the end of Runway 06.

“All I seen was just the nose going up. You could see it was like it was almost dragging the behind,” Darren McLaughlin told ATV News.

“It was still going down and the next thing you know ... the power went out so it was completely dark, and the plane just blew up.”

Airport firefighters drove through a security gate near the end of the runway to get at the fiercely burning wreckage.

The crash site is near the Aerotech Industrial Park. The nearest homes are several kilometres away.


Transportation Safety Board lead investigator Bill Fowler said investigators aren’t ruling out anything at this stage of the investigation, including whether a flock of birds struck the plane, or if the plane was too heavy for the length of the runway it was using.

He said all possibilities are being examined. Fowler added that speculation about the cause of the crash is premature until investigators have a chance to physically look at the wreckage and find the plane’s flight data recorders. The jet used depleted uranium as ballast, but Fowler said it poses no health risk.

The cause of the pre-dawn crash wasn’t known, but Sharpe lent support to unconfirmed reports that the 747 didn’t have enough runway to take off safely.

He said the plane was supposed to leave from the end of a 2,700-metre runway, but entered through a taxiway at the 2,000-metre mark.

“From where she left, they only had about 6,000 feet and it just wasn’t enough runway,” he said.

Another report said it was possible the plane’s tail struck the runway as it began to lift off.


John Power, MK Airlines operations manager, arrived in Halifax last night and gave a brief statement.

“The families and all of MK are grieving the loss of our friends and our fellow airmen,” said Power.

Power did not release their names, but he confirmed the victims were four British nationals, two Zimbabwe nationals and one German.

All seven men lived in either Zimbabwe or South Africa.

Power said his first job is to help crash investigators.

“I’m not here to defend. I’m here to try and support this investigation,” he said.

RCMP spokesman Const. Joe Taplin visited the crash site just after daybreak yesterday.

He said the sight of the charred wreckage and the sickening smell of smoke and burned aviation fuel is something he’ll never forget.

“It’s disturbing to see what actually took place here,” he said.

“You can see where there was lots of fire on this aircraft.”

Airport spokeswoman Pat Chapman said airport firefighters were on the scene within three minutes of the crash.

“We knew there was crew on board, so our priority was get to that as quickly as possible,” she said.

When firefighters arrived at the crash site, they were confronted with intense heat and fireballs from the ignited aviation fuel.

“There was a lot fire, a lot of smoke and flame,” said Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Services spokesman Mike LeRue.

He said the ground was covered with fuel when the first firefighters arrived.

The major part of the fuselage was burning along with trees and scattered pieces of aircraft.

Firefighters say they were lucky the crash happened near an access road, allowing trucks to get close to the wreck to spread fire suppressant foam (Foam is used to extinguish burning aviation fuel).

The fire was under control about 31⁄2 hours after the crash.

The smell of fuel hung heavy in the air as firefighters struggled through brush to get at the flames.

Five fire trucks and six firefighters from the airport broke through a security fence at the south end of the airport to get at the crash site.

The fire was so intense that firefighters arriving at the airport called for backup from nearly every available fire hall in the area.

Twenty trucks and more than 60 firefighters were on the scene to put out the flames.


All flights in and out of Halifax International Airport were cancelled or delayed for several hours while emergency crews put out the fires.

About 17 flights were cancelled.

The cargo jet had clipped telephone and power poles, knocking out electricity for more than two hours for the area.

Flights resumed on one runway around 8 a.m. and schedules returned to normal around noon, said an airport official.

The crash is the only one in the airport’s history involving loss of life, Chapman said.

By the end of the day, activity at the airport was back to normal.

But Runway 06 remained closed. It will stay closed today.

[Bottie]

Now once again a proof how Wiloo uses this dramatic accident to (try to) win the public opinion:

On their site they're telling:

"De Canadese overheid is iets minder snel met conclusies en minder overtuigd, en spreekt over 'elements that are systemic in other accidents' "

while the mentioned link tells us:

“We're too early into this to speculate, but if there are elements that are systemic in other accidents, we will look into that,” he said. “It's a matter of course; we will look at those to see if they link. We haven't found out any links, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.”

[AN124]

It's also confirmed at this point in time that the plane had 2 tailstrikers prior to take off.
One at 250m before the end of the runway and the second some 80m further.

After that the plane was in the air for a few seconds before the tail hit the ground again and broke off the plane.

Source: www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl

Best Regards,
Yvo

[website-info]

The crew nationalities are still to be confirmed, but remember that alot of people in Zimbabwe have dual nationality (Ie Zim and British) especially if you are in aviation........

Rgds
Tony

[Robair64]

On the website of CBC (www.cbc.ca) you can find video coverage and a statement of Capt. John Power of MK Airlines who, amongst others things, mentions the nationalities of the crews involved.
You will also see a preliminary computer simulation of the accident.
On the website of MK two press releases can be found revealing the names of the members of their staff who tragically died.

[JohnA]

Load shift mooted as cause in this Globe & Mail report today:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... ory/Front/

[SN30952]

Load shift mooted as cause in this Globe & Mail report today: Jet's tail key to crash investigation

I came to that conclusion earlier this week in Luchtzak: even before Fri Oct 15
As my personal opinion was a loading problem, resulting in a shifting cargo, I checked on other possible reasons for the misfire.
And so is Meyers Ex Garuda in LAX. (Globe and Mail of Fri Oct 16) Is Meyers reading LZ? What was the balance of that 747, a mixed cargo of dense froozen, and mechanical equipment?

But meanwhile I tend to say that the 747 captain turned too early onto the runway and did not have enough length of runway for a heavy take off, He tried to correct his error by pulling up the nose sharp, causing the tail to strike concrete twice.

All the rest is to be seen later, but to me MK officials are too much concerned with the family of the crew, because they know already what they will have to explain to them.... I'm sorry to say, that looks like decoy too...
By saying too much and not enough, the chief OPS of MK, a pilot, leaves nobody guessing, I think this is a bad communication strategy, an other MK faillure, perhaps.
And pilots will also protect pilots, like lawyers protect lawyers... and that is how it always should be, isn't it british old boys.

[bigjulie]

If you go to www.mkairlines.com you will find a press release with the names of the crew, a sad time for MK Airlines

[yhzbuzz]

As I was preparing for work on Thursday October 14th. I was surprised to hear on the radio that " a transport plane had crashed and had closed the airport down." Not thinking it was all that serious I headed out the door to the airport where I work servicing Air Canada's aircraft. There were a few erroneous reports on the radio during my half hour trip to work as information was still scetchy and the media didn't know how to disertain from transport plane to 747 cargo aircraft. It was not until I arrived at work that I learned it was MK Airlines which I happened to know flew 747's in and out of Halifax and had seen many times. At 7:00 am when I arrived, airspace was still closed at the airport except for a search and rescue helicopter which was supplying light for firefighters. I could see smoke rising from the area of the crash but could not see actual site as it was not visible from the airport premises. I did see the section of the vertical stabilizer from a distance and the impact area surrounding the raised berm containing the ILS/lights. Half the lights were missing from the impact of the aircraft. As is the case in most accidents there is always a lot of speculation and heresay..I do know that our government will spare no expense in investigating this accident. One only has to look at Swiss Air's flt. 111 investigation to realize the indepth lenghts our Transportation Safety board will go to investigate an accident. It has been released that the aircraft's tail section came in contact during rotation at two different points during its roll down the runway. The tail section separted from the fuselage and ended up on the other side of the berm housing ILS lights. The rest of the aircraft continued approximately a kilometer from the end of runway 33 and ended up in a swampy somewhat treed rock quarry. Emergency crews received a call from eyewitnesses at approximately 3:58 am. who had seen the fireball from the crash. She took on approximately 54,000 kgs of lobster and silver hake fish loaded here in Halifax. At her previous stop she had loaded on John Deere lawn tractor parts and some computor parts as well as was reported in the local papers. As of 1pm local time today, the flight recorders had not been recovered. Bad weather, rain, wind has hampered the investigation and the area is said to be treacherous with all the aviation fuel covering the ground. The RCMP have confiscated some material from a few souvener hunters who drove their ATV's and dirt bikes to the site last night...the idiots...someone should shoot them! More will be released soon as it is known..and trust it will be factual and not speculative...

[bits44]

http://novascotia.cbc.ca/regional/servl ... ns20041016

Some new light is shed on this disaster regarding engines.
and the very sad news that all the remains of the crew members have been recovered
A very sad day for all aviators and air transport workers worldwide

[sn26567]

As I was preparing for work on Thursday October 14th....

Thanks for this inside report, yhzbuzz.

And welcome to Luchtzak!