12 accidents of De Havilland aircraft since 2000

The de Havilland DHC-6-400 operated by Air Antilles Express took off Pointe-a-Pitre, France (Guadeloupe island) for a passenger flight to Saint Barthelemy, France (Saint Barthelemy island). 7 people were on board. The plane landed on Saint Barthelemy airport, veered off the left side of runway 28 and struck a parked Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil helicopter. One occupant received minor injuries. There was no one on board the helicopter at the time of impact. Both the DHC-6 and the helicopter received substantial damage.

The de-Havilland Dash 8-400 operated by US-Bangla took off from Dhaka, Bangladesh, for a passenger flight to Kathmandu, Nepal. 67 passengers and 4 crewmembers were onboard. The plane crashed during landing at Kathmandu. 49 occupants were killed, and 22 were rescued alive. The twin turboprop aircraft was on final approach to Kathmandu airport runway 02 cleared to land. However, the crew then requested to land on runway 20 (i.e. same runway but in the opposite direction), tower cleared the aircraft to land on runway 20. The plane flew past just above the air-traffic control tower during its descent for landing. It touched down the ground just next to a parked plane and ploughed through a fence on the east side of the airport and plunged into the lower ground. The aircraft burst into flames.

The DHC-6-300 Twin Otter operated by Nepal Airlines took off from Pokhara, Nepal, for a passenger flight to Jumla, Nepal. 15 passengers and 3 crewmembers were onboard. The plane crashed during about 30 minutes after takeoff, about 40nm southwest of Pokhara. All 18 occupants perished. The aircraft took off uneventfully, but radio contact was lost about 30 minutes later. While in flight, the aircraft attempted to divert to Bhairahawa Airport due to icing after the aircraft had flown into freezing rain. The aircraft did not arrive at Jumla at or Bhairahawa Airport, and a search was initiated. The wreckage has been rapidly located in the jungles near Khidim about 40nm southwest of Pokhara and about 25nm north of Siddharthanagar, and at an approximate altitude of 7000 feet (1800 meters). The 18 bodies of the occupants of aircraft were found all over the hill, and wreckage parts are distributed over about 7km distance.

The de Havilland Dash 8-100 operated by Airline PNG took off from Lae-Nadzab, Papua New Guinea, for a passenger flight to Madang, Papua New Guinea. 28 passengers and 4 crew were onboard. The plane crashed about 12 NM (20 km) south of Madang, killing 28 occupants. 4 people onboard survived. The descent profile to Madang airport was steep because of the proximity of the Finisterre Ranges, a mountain range in north-eastern Papua New Guinea. The pilot-in-command was hand-flying the aircraft because the autopilot was unserviceable. He was maneuvering the aircraft visually to avoid cloud and thunderstorms. While descending, the overspeed warning horn sounded shortly followed by both propellers overspeeding simultaneously and exceeding their maximum rpm limit by about 60%. Seconds later, the crew declared an emergency and reported that both engines had stopped. The aircraft force-landed at 18 NM (33 km) south of Madang Airport, on sparsely timbered terrain on the north side of Buang River. The aircraft disintegrated due to impact with trees and ground and engulfed in flames. Rescuers rapidly localised the wreckage, which was on fire. The four survivors were the captain, the first officer, a flight attendant and a passenger.

The Merpati Nusantara Airlines DHC-6 Twin Otter passenger plane was reported missing when it failed to arrive at Oksibil Airport, Indonesia, after a domestic flight from Jayapura, Indonesia. The wreckage was found a few days later. 13 passengers and 3 crewmembers were onboard. There is no survivor. The plane took off normally from Jayapura for a 50-minute flight headed to Oksibil, about 175 miles (280 km) to the south. 13 minutes after takeoff, contact with the DHC-6 was lost. The Twin Otter came down in bad weather as it flew over the Papua region in eastern Indonesia. The rescue plane spotted the wreckage of the airplane 42 kilometres (26 miles) North of Oksibil Airport, on a mountainside at an elevation of 9300 feet, in a remote area.

Continental Connection Flight, operated by Colgan Air, departed Newark-Liberty International Airport, NJ on a domestic flight to Buffalo Airport, NY. 44 passengers and 5 crewmembers were onboard. The airplane, a DHC-8, crashed into a neighborhood six miles short of the Buffalo Niagara International Airport. It struck a house in Clarence Center, starting a huge fire. All the people onboard were killed. There is also one casualty on ground. After a seemingly routine flight, the Dash 8 Q400 turboprop plane endured a 26-second plunge before smashing into a house. The commuter plane was on approach to runway 23. The plane slowed to an unsafe speed as it approached the airport, causing an automatic stall warning. The pilot pulled back sharply on the plane's controls and added power instead of following the proper procedure of pushing forward to lower the plane's nose to regain speed. He held the controls there, locking the airplane into a deadly stall. The plane altitude was too low to exit the stall. The weather conditions at the time of the accidents were not so bad, but icing conditions were prevailing. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the captain's inappropriate response to the activation of the stick shaker, which led to an aerodynamic stall from which the airplane did not recover. Contributing to the accident were: The flight crew's failure to monitor airspeed in relation to the rising position of the low-speed cue, The flight crew's failure to adhere to sterile cockpit procedures, The captain's failure to effectively manage the flight, and Colgan Air's inadequate procedures for airspeed selection and management during approaches in icing conditions.

The Twin Otter DHC6-300 was operating a service to the French Polynesian capital Papeete, on the main island of Tahiti with 19 passengers and one pilot on board. Immediately after takeoff from Moorea-Temae Airport, the Twin Otter veered to the right and began to descend until it struck the sea. No distress call was received by the Air Traffic Controller. All the people onboard were killed. The airline says the twin turboprop crashed 1.85km (1 NM) from the end of the runway. The plane rapidly sunk under several hundred meters of water. The investigation shows that about 30 seconds after takeoff, the aircraft starts an abnormal descent. The pilot seems surprised. A few seconds later, the plane smashes onto the water surface. While the plane is descending, two sounds are identified as pilot actions on flight control commands, but the aircraft maintains the descent, as described by witnesses and confirmed by the violence of the impact. The engines are working normally and symmetrically. The accident has probably been caused by a rupture of the elevator control cables, which were significantly worn and, for one of them, broken in the rear section.

The Twin Otter plane was on a 10-minute inter island flight between St. Maarten, Dutch/French Antilles, and Saint-Barthélémy, French Antilles, and approached Saint-Barthélémy from the West for a visual approach and landing on runway 10. While on finals over the 'Col de la Tourmente', the aircraft was seen making a sharp turn to the left. The Twin Otter struck a house on the 'Col de la Tourmente' and caught fire. The 17 passengers and 2 crewmembers were killed. A man on the ground was also killed and his wife was injured. A house was destroyed. The most probable hypothesis is that the pilot would have selected the reverse beta range for the propellers with the intention of losing energy to correct the airspeed, regain the descent path or shorten the landing as much as possible. In fact, the propeller then acts as a powerful brake. It is possible that an asymmetry developed at that moment, though it would have been of relatively low amplitude, given the low thrust setting on approach, and could have been detected and likely quickly countered. However, following entry into reverse beta range, the aircraft may have developed undesirable behavior (stall warning, buffeting, etc.) or have reached the target airspeed, which would have been the desired result. In either case, it is necessary at that moment to de-select reverse beta range. Then the pilot would have pushed the levers energetically back to their normal use range by increasing the thrust, which would explain the change in the engine noise. Asymmetry in the power levers movement, or in the operation of the propeller mechanism, or even in the position of the propeller levers, would then have led to asymmetry between the engines, to an extent that would have led to a violent yaw movement, inducing a sharp roll to the left, possibly associated with a stall of the left wing, then a dive. The pilot would not have been able to regain control of the aircraft, which would have been both too slow and too near the ground at that moment.