Category Archives: Plane crashes

Indonesia plane crash: Sriwijaya Air jet throttle may have been faulty, says report

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Automatic throttle may have caused Sriwijaya Air jet pilots to lose control of Boeing 737-500

A malfunctioning automatic throttle may have caused the pilots of a Sriwijaya Air jet to lose control, leading to the Boeing 737-500’s plunge into the Java Sea last month, Indonesian investigators have said.

National transportation safety committee investigators said on Wednesday they were still struggling to understand why the jet nosedived into the water minutes after taking off from Jakarta on 9 January, killing all 62 people on board.

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Indonesia plane crash relative: ‘I said I would pray for her’

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As divers search for black boxes in Java Sea, families recall last-minute messages

Rafik Yusuf Alaydrus’s wife, Panca Widia Nursanti, messaged him on WhatsApp as she sat on board the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 flight. The weather in Jakarta was bad, she said. It was raining heavily and the flight, bound for Pontianak on Borneo island, had been delayed for an hour by the poor conditions.

As she waited for takeoff on Saturday, Panca told him she had a bad feeling, and asked him to pray for her. “I tried to calm her down, saying that I would pray for her, and asked her to pray during flight. Inshallah she would be safe,” he said.

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Divers search for black boxes in debris of Sriwijaya Air flight 182 – video

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Footage released by the Indonesian Navy showed divers searching for the black boxes of Sriwijaya Air flight SJ 182 among suspected debris from the downed flight.

Authorities pinpointed the area where the black boxes may be located after they lifted chunks of the Boeing 737-500 fuselage off the sea bed. Rescuers have also found human body parts and personal effects.

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Indonesia plane crash: divers to retrieve black boxes from Sriwijaya Air flight 182

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Authorities located data recorders on Sunday from jet that crashed off Jakarta carrying 62 people

Indonesian divers will try to retrieve the data recorders of a Sriwijaya Air jet on Monday after it plunged into the sea two days ago with 62 people on board minutes after take off from Jakarta’s main airport.

Flight SJ182 was headed to Pontianak on Borneo island, about 740 km (460 miles) from Jakarta, on Saturday before it disappeared from radar screens four minutes after take-off and crashed into the Java sea.

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Indonesia plane crash: authorities locate black boxes among wreckage

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Sriwijaya Air flight carrying 62 people crashed after taking off from Jakarta on Saturday

Indonesian authorities have located the black boxes of the Sriwijaya Air jet that crashed into the sea soon after taking off from the capital Jakarta, as human body parts and suspected pieces of the plane were retrieved.

The Boeing 737-500 with 62 passengers and crew was heading to Pontianak in West Kalimantan on Saturday when it disappeared from radar screens four minutes after takeoff.

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Plane crash deaths rose in 2020 despite pandemic

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Dozens more died in large commercial plane crashes despite 42% drop in flights worldwide

The number of people killed in large commercial airplane crashes rose in 2020 to 299 worldwide despite a sharp decline in flights due to the coronavirus pandemic, a Dutch consulting firm has found.

In 2020 there were 40 accidents involving large commercial passenger planes, five of which were fatal, resulting in 299 fatalities. In 2019 there were nearly double the number of accidents – 86 – eight of which were fatal, resulting in 257 fatalities, said aviation consulting firm To70.

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Plane crash of US navy trainer kills crew and burns home

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Two dead on board T-6B Texan II aircraft with a house and cars on fire in ‘heavily populated’ area outside Foley, Alabama

A US navy training plane that took off from Florida crashed on Friday in an Alabama residential neighbourhood near the Gulf Coast, killing both crew on board, authorities said.

Zach Harrell, a naval air forces spokesperson, said both people in the T-6B Texan II training plane died. No injuries were reported on the ground.

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Boeing ‘gambled with public safety’ in run-up to two deadly crashes

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Cost cuts and lack of scrutiny contributed to 737 Max disasters, say US politicians

Boeing jeopardised the safety of passengers by cutting costs on the development of the 737 Max and escaped scrutiny from regulators before software flaws contributed to two fatal crashes of the aircraft, according to a report by US politicians.

The US manufacturer was forced to ground its bestselling plane after the crashes of a Lion Air 737 Max in 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines jet in 2019. The crashes killed 346 people.

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Air India Express black boxes recovered at Kerala crash site

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Boeing 737 crashed on landing in heavy rain, killing at least 18, including the two pilots

Flight data and cockpit voice recorders have been recovered from the wreckage of an Indian passenger aircraft that crashed in the southern state of Kerala.

The Air India Express plane, which was repatriating Indians from Dubai because of the Covid-19 pandemic, overshot the runway of the Calicut international airport in heavy rain near the city of Kozhikode, also known as Calicut.

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US Air Force jet crashes into North Sea during training mission

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Search and rescue teams deployed after F-15 crashes off English coast near Middlesbrough

A US Air Force F-15 aircraft based in the UK crashed into the North Sea off the coast near Middlesbrough on Monday morning while it was on a training mission.

The status of the pilot onboard is unknown following the crash, which happened on a routine training mission at around 9.40am. UK search and rescue teams were being deployed to try to locate the pilot.

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Two survivors of deadly Karachi plane crash tell of unlikely escapes

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Investigation begins into cause of Pakistan International Airlines crash that killed 97

The last thing Muhammad Zubair can remember before the plane hit the ground is the acrid smell of jet fuel and the cries of fellow passengers as flames began to engulf the cabin.

As he struggled to unbuckle his seatbelt with fire blazing beneath his chair, Zubair said he “followed the light and got to this hole and I jumped out on to the wing, and then to the ground”.

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Karachi plane crash survivor describes his escape – video

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Muhammad Zubair, one of two people who survived a plane crash in Pakistan, has described his escape from the burning aircraft after a second failed attempt to land in Karachi on the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid. The Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A320 with 99 passengers and eight crew members onboard crashed into a crowded residential district on Friday afternoon

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Pakistan plane crash survivor: ‘All I could see was smoke and fire’

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One of two survivors recalls how Airbus crashed during second attempt to land at Karachi airport, killing at least 97 people

One of the two survivors of the Pakistan plane crash has described his escape from the burning plane after it came down during a second attempt at a landing.

“All I could see around was smoke and fire,” engineer Muhammad Zubair told Geo News. “I could hear screams from all directions. Kids and adults. All I could see was fire. I couldn’t see any people – just hear their screams.”

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Dozens killed as passenger plane crashes near Karachi airport

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Pakistan International Airlines plane arriving from Lahore comes down in residential area

At least 66 people are confirmed to have died after a Pakistani passenger aircraft crashed into a residential area near Karachi’s airport.

The pilot of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Airbus A320 jet travelling from Lahore called in to air traffic control describing a technical fault minutes before the crash, which happened at 2.45pm local time.

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Pakistan plane crash: smoke billows over residential area in Karachi – video

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There are fears of mass casualties after a passenger aircraft carrying more than 100 people crashed into a residential area in the Pakistani city of Karachi.

The Pakistan International Airlines jet, carrying 99 passengers and eight crew members, was on its final approach to Karachi airport when it went down near Model Colony

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Poland marks 10 years since plane crash that killed ruling elite

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Nationalists renew criticism of Moscow’s handling of disaster which killed president and other senior politicians and military officers

Poland’s ruling nationalists held scaled-down events to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a plane crash in Russia that killed top politicians and military officers, and renewed criticism of Moscow’s handling of the disaster.

Senior officials laid wreaths on Friday at a monument in the capital, Warsaw, to honour the late president Lech Kaczynski, who died. They walked in single file, guarded by police wearing surgical masks.

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MH17 trial: Russia keen to thwart investigation, says prosecutor

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Several witnesses in ‘fear for their lives’ if their identities are revealed, hearing into shooting down of airliner is told

Dutch prosecutors have accused Russia of trying to sabotage the investigation into the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight 17 in Ukraine in 2014, saying this has cast “a dark shadow” over the impending trial of four suspects.

Pre-trial hearings began in Amsterdam on Monday. Prosecutors say the defendants – three Russians and a Ukrainian – helped arrange the Russian missile system that shot down MH17, a civilian airliner. All 298 people on board were killed. Most of the passengers were Dutch nationals.

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Iran: Khamenei to lead Friday prayers for first time since 2012 amid US tensions

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Supreme leader will deliver sermon in Tehran as anger continues over downing of passenger plane

Iran’s supreme leader will deliver a Friday sermon in Tehran for the first time since 2012 as the Islamic republic grapples with the fallout from the killing of its top general in a US airstrike and popular anger at its accidental shooting down of a passenger plane.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has held the country’s top office since 1989 and has the final say on all major decisions.

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