The Air World War

People are gathered infront of the Netherlands Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine to commemorate the victims of aircraft accidents. (Photo: AP)

It has been the toughest week for aviation in 2014, with 3 aircraft crashes. It began with Malaysia Boeing 777-200, that left Amsterdam-Schiphol runway 36C at 1230LT bound for Kuala Lumpur. It reach its planned altitude of 31,000 feet quite rapidly and the crew obtained the authorization to continue to FL330 (33,000 feet) while overflying Ukraine airspace. While cruising on airway L980 over the east part of Ukraine, the aircraft disappeared from radar screens instantly and no distress message was sent by the crew. The aircraft dove into the ground and disintegrated in a wheat field located near the village of Moskovs’ke (at position N48.1230 E38.5258). No survivor was found among the 298 occupants, which place this tragic event as the worst in the world since 1996.

According to preliminary data supplied by the U.S. authorities, it appears the aircraft has been shot down by a surface to air missile. But for now, it is not known if the missile was fired by the Ukrainian Army or by pro-Russian separatists. It was also confirmed the missile was fired from an area under control of the pro-Russian soldiers. At the time of the accident, the aircraft was following an open airway without any restriction and did have all needed permission to fly over this area which was prohibited only under FL320 (32,000 feet).

Six days later, in July 23, the Trans-Asia ATR72-500crashed in Makung (Pescadores or Penghu Islands), Taiwan. Its departure was from Kaohsiung and it was delayed for 16 hours due to stormy weather as heavy rain falls and strong winds caused by the typhoon christened ‘Matmo’. On approach to Makung Airport, the visibility was poor and the captain decided to make a go around. While on a second attempt to land, on final approach, the aircraft hit a house and crashed some 1,000 meters short of runway 02. Forty-eight occupants were killed while ten others were injured. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and post crash fire but nobody was hurt on the ground despite that several houses were destroyed.

In less than 24 hours, finishing the catastrophic week , we heard of the crash of the Algerian McDonnell Douglas MD-83, operated by Swift Air.

The Swift Air MD-83 was performing flight AH5017 on behalf of Air Algérie (this regular schedule is performed four times a week). The aircraft left Ouagadougou at 0117Z and was attempting to land in Algiers at 0510LT but failed to arrive. According to the Algerian National Career, radar contact was lost less than 50 minutes after takeoff from Ouagadougou. 118 people (112 passengers and a crew of 6) were on board. The last position of the MD-83 was west of Gao, Mali.

In the evening of July 24 (some 16 hours after the aircraft disappearance), the wreckage was eventually located and spotted some 50 km west of the city of Gossi, south of Mali. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and no survivors was found among the 118 occupants. At the time of the accident, bad weather conditions with storm activity, winds, turbulence and icing was confirmed over the region of Gao, until an altitude of 40,000 feet. It is not yet known if the crew was flying in this poor weather area or if he was able to get around.
Occupants’ nationalities, according to Swiftair: 53 French, 28 Burkinabe, 8 Lebanese, 6 Spanish (all crew), 5 Canadians, 4 Algerians, 4 Germans, 2 Luxemburg, 1 Swiss, 1 Belgian, 1 Nigerian, 1 Cameroon, 1 Ukrainian, 1 Romanian, 1 Malian, 1 Egyptian.

With wars on the ground focused by media in many different parts of the world, the war in air seemed it is not less dangerous. This led the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to arrange a special high-level meeting on 29 July at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to discuss issues surrounding the downing of MH17. The meeting will be held at ICAO’s Montreal Headquarters, in the presence of both the Secretary General and the President of the Council. IATA’s Director-General and CEO Tony Tyler will attend, along with the Directors-General of Airports Council International (ACI) and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO). The meeting will discuss appropriate actions to be pursued in order to more effectively mitigate potential risks to civil aviation arising from conflict zones.

A statement on the tragic week in aviation issued by Tony Tyler, IATA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Director General (DG), assured that this has been a very sad week for everyone involved with aviation. Our heartfelt sorrow goes to all those who have lost their lives in these tragedies. And the industry’s thoughts and prayers are with their families and loved ones.

“Every accident is one too many. The greatest respect that we can pay to the memory of those involved is to leave nothing unturned in our quest to understand the cause and to take steps to ensure that it is not repeated”, he said.

Mr. Tony Tyler agreed that three tragedies in such quick succession, will make many people understandably, asking questions about aviation safety. Answering those he said that “every day, approximately 100,000 flights take to the sky and land without incident. In 2013 more than three billion people flew and there were 210 fatalities. Regrettably, we have surpassed that number already this year. But even so, getting on an aircraft is still among the safest activities that one can do… safeguarding our customers from harm as we transport them around the world is core to the mission of the aviation industry, It has been that way throughout our development over the last century, and we continue to do everything in our power to make flying ever safer”.