A sombre ceremony was held today, Thursday, December 16, 2004, in Halifax, as families of seven dead air crew gathered to remember their loved ones.
MK airlines president Mike Kruger read from a poem and promised he would never forget the dead crew.
Family members have urged investigators to look at the way the airline treated its employees and the maintenance of the 747 jets.
MK Airlines 747 crashes Halifax , Canada
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Throttle set incorrectly in jet that crashed
Fowler said the focus is now on the incorrectly set throttle. The setting, which is done by hand, was too low to deliver the power needed for the 350,700 kilogram cargo plane to lift off, he said.
Fowler's comments came Thursday after he attended a sombre memorial service in Dartmouth, N.S., and then spent hours briefing visiting families of the dead airmen of the MK Airlines Ltd. flight.
"The power wasn't set properly," said Fowler.
"There are a number of defences built in to any system to make sure that this sort of thing wouldn't happen. What we're doing is analysing each aspect of the tasks they had to go through.
"Are the procedures valid? Are the checks and balances appropriate?"
Those procedures are a matter of air crew checking and cross-checking settings.
There are also warning systems in newer aircraft to avoid incorrect power settings, but the MK jet didn't have these systems, explained Fowler.
Fowler said he has just returned from England, where the Ghanaian-registered airline has its headquarters, where he looked at the working conditions of MK Airlines staff and the rest periods.
He said it was too early to come to any conclusions on whether fatigue may have been a factor.
The crew was using a system known as "heavy crewing", where one crew flies the aircraft while the other rests on board. Fowler said looking at working conditions was "part of the reason for going to U.K. to understand the culture of the company and its working conditions."
The throttle on the Boeing 747 cargo was set too low: pilot error.
The pilots of the MK Airlines flight tried to take off from Halifax International Airport with the throttle at a significantly lower level than needed to take off. The throttle, which the pilots would have set manually, was at an exhaust pressure ratio of 1.3 instead of the required level of 1.6, the plane's flight data recorder has indicated.
"The engines were capable of producing the required thrust, so in the context of the accident it's not an issue," Mr. Fowler said. The flight data recorder has shown that the aircraft had a large increase of power just seconds before the plane failed to take off.
Tthe crew had been on a 24-hour schedule requiring them to criss-cross the Atlantic. That might have been illegal if the airline had been regulated by British authorities, but MK Airlines operates out of Ghana.
Tnvestigators have also determined that the plane's cargo of lobsters, fish, lawn tractors and computer equipment didn't exceed its capacity; the plane weighed about 352,000 kilograms.
The crash was the fourth in 12 years for MK Airlines.
Fowler's comments came Thursday after he attended a sombre memorial service in Dartmouth, N.S., and then spent hours briefing visiting families of the dead airmen of the MK Airlines Ltd. flight.
"The power wasn't set properly," said Fowler.
"There are a number of defences built in to any system to make sure that this sort of thing wouldn't happen. What we're doing is analysing each aspect of the tasks they had to go through.
"Are the procedures valid? Are the checks and balances appropriate?"
Those procedures are a matter of air crew checking and cross-checking settings.
There are also warning systems in newer aircraft to avoid incorrect power settings, but the MK jet didn't have these systems, explained Fowler.
Fowler said he has just returned from England, where the Ghanaian-registered airline has its headquarters, where he looked at the working conditions of MK Airlines staff and the rest periods.
He said it was too early to come to any conclusions on whether fatigue may have been a factor.
The crew was using a system known as "heavy crewing", where one crew flies the aircraft while the other rests on board. Fowler said looking at working conditions was "part of the reason for going to U.K. to understand the culture of the company and its working conditions."
The throttle on the Boeing 747 cargo was set too low: pilot error.
The pilots of the MK Airlines flight tried to take off from Halifax International Airport with the throttle at a significantly lower level than needed to take off. The throttle, which the pilots would have set manually, was at an exhaust pressure ratio of 1.3 instead of the required level of 1.6, the plane's flight data recorder has indicated.
"The engines were capable of producing the required thrust, so in the context of the accident it's not an issue," Mr. Fowler said. The flight data recorder has shown that the aircraft had a large increase of power just seconds before the plane failed to take off.
Tthe crew had been on a 24-hour schedule requiring them to criss-cross the Atlantic. That might have been illegal if the airline had been regulated by British authorities, but MK Airlines operates out of Ghana.
Tnvestigators have also determined that the plane's cargo of lobsters, fish, lawn tractors and computer equipment didn't exceed its capacity; the plane weighed about 352,000 kilograms.
The crash was the fourth in 12 years for MK Airlines.
High Flight
During the memorial service, Mr. Kruger read the poem High Flight by Canadian John McGee.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds— and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence, hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along,
And flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
John Gillespie McGee, Jr. (1922 - 1941) was killed at age 19 on December 11, 1941, in a midair collision, flying in a Spitfire.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds— and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence, hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along,
And flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
John Gillespie McGee, Jr. (1922 - 1941) was killed at age 19 on December 11, 1941, in a midair collision, flying in a Spitfire.
MK had aborted plans to switch its service to Montreal.
A spokesman for MK Airlines Ltd. said MK had made plans and received permission to divert its once-a-week service to Montreal's Mirabel Airport after the crash. MK Airlines was granted to fly into Mirabel as an alternative to Halifax, pending the investigation into the crash.
But the customers' demand changed...the market had dried up.
There are plans in due course to restart services into Canada, quite possibly into Mirabel, but at the present time there is no immediate demand.
MK Airlines, based in Ghana, currently has no North American destinations for its 16 large cargo aircraft.
A spokesman for MK Airlines Ltd. said MK had made plans and received permission to divert its once-a-week service to Montreal's Mirabel Airport after the crash. MK Airlines was granted to fly into Mirabel as an alternative to Halifax, pending the investigation into the crash.
But the customers' demand changed...the market had dried up.
There are plans in due course to restart services into Canada, quite possibly into Mirabel, but at the present time there is no immediate demand.
MK Airlines, based in Ghana, currently has no North American destinations for its 16 large cargo aircraft.
Preliminary report cites Fatigue and poor training as a factor in crash.
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