10 plane crashes in year 2016

The Tupolev Tu-154 operated by the Russian Air Force took off from Sochi, Russia, for a military flight to Hmeymim airbase in Latakia, Syria, where Russia has a large military presence. The plane was carrying 92 people, including 84 passengers and eight crew members. The Tupolev crashed in the Black Sea, minutes after takeoff from Sochi. All 92 people onboard were killed. The plane initially took off from Moscow, Russia. En route to Latakia, the plane landed in Sochi to refuel. Shortly after it took off from Sochi, during climb, the plane made a U-turn back towards the coastline and disappeared off radar screens. The plane impacted the waters of the Black Sea and was destroyed. Wreckage was found at a depth of 50 to 70 meters. No major weather patterns were present at the time of the accident. The Tu-154 was carrying soldiers, reporters and 64 members of the famed Alexandrov military music ensemble, the army’s official choir, who were to perform for Russian troops in Syria. The plane was manufactured in 1983 and clocked 6,689 hours of flight. The last repair was on December 29, 2014, and in September 2016 it underwent scheduled maintenance.

The Boeing 727-2J0F cargo operated by Aerosucre Colombia took off from Puerto Carreño, Colombia, for a freight flight to Bogota, Colombia. 6 crewmembers were onboard. The plane did not achieved enough altitude after takeoff, then lost height and crashed. 5 occupants were killed, one occupant (a flight technician) survived. The Boeing 727 attempted to take off from Puerto Carreño's runway 24, a 1780 m long runway, but failed to lift off before the runway threshold. The plane overran the runway at high speed clipping the barbed wire fence at the edge of the airport (95 meters away from the runway threshold) in a nose up attitude. Then the plane right wing hit a shed on ground: the right inboard flap was torn off (see photo at the end of this article). The plane finally became airborne and hardly climbed a few hundred a feet. About three minutes later, the plane is seen in a right hand turn losing altitude until it impacted flat terrain about 5 NM (9 km) from the airport, bursting into flames.

The ATR-42-500 operated by Pakistan International Airlines took off from Chitral, Pakistan for a passenger flight to Islamabad, Pakistan. 42 passengers and 6 crewmembers were onboard. The plane crashed in a mountain while descending toward Islamabad. All 48 people onboard were killed. Shortly before the crash, the crew reported a failure of the left hand engine. The failed engine had been switched off by the crew, and the plane continue to flight to the planned destination. 1 minute later, the crew declared an emergency. 1 minute later, radio and radar contact was lost with the aircraft. The aircraft was unable to maintain heading and turned left before the crash. The wreckage has been rapidly found by the rescuers, and was located at about 25 NM (45 km) north of Islamabad. The plane has been completely pulverized.

The Avro RJ-85 operated by LaMia Bolivia took off from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, for a passenger flight to Medellin, Colombia. 68 passengers and 9 crewmembers were onboard. The plane was descending towards Medellin about 20 NM (35 km) southeast of Medellin when it disappeared from radar screen. The wreckage has been located rapidly. 71 occupants were killed, and 6 survived with injuries. The chartered aircraft was coming from southern Brazil. It made a stop in Bolivia before continuing its journey heading to Medellin, Colombia. The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane was enroute at FL300 and started the descent towards Medellin about 80 NM (150 km) south of this city. At this time there were three other aircraft holding, waiting to be instructed start the approach. There was also an aircraft diverting to Medellin airport with a reported fuel leak, about to commence its final approach. The Avro RJ-85 entered a holding pattern to let time to a traffic ahead to land. Then the crew declared a fuel emergency while the plane was in holding pattern, and requested priority landing. Two minutes later, the controller cancelled the approach of the traffic ahead, and requested the Avro RJ-85 to turn right to avoid traffic ahead, and to start the descent. The crew answered negatively for the right turn, stating they have the traffic ahead in sight, and started to descent. 6 minutes after having declared a fuel emergency, all the four engines stopped running. The aircraft was 15.5 NM (28.7 km) south of the threshold the runway, and 5.4 NM (10 km) south of the accident site. Two minutes later, the crew radioed: “Miss, Lima Mike India 2933 is in total failure, total electrical failure and without fuel.”. Moments later, the plane crashed in a wooded area, close to the city of La Ceja at the slopes of Cerro Gordo. The impact point is at altitude of 8,500 ft. The plane came down in one piece. The aircraft has been destroyed by the impact, but some big fuselage parts are visible at the crash site. The plane did not catch fire. Investigators calculated that the plane did not have enough range to perform the flight with holding pattern. Although the crew discussed the possibility to make a stop to refuel at an intermediate point, decision was taken not to do it. The evidence available to the investigation has not identified a technical failure that may have caused or contributed to the accident. The available evidence is however consistent with the aircraft having suffered fuel exhaustion. Players, coaches and invited guests from Brazil's Chapecoense soccer team were onboard the charter flight. So were more than 20 journalists on the way to cover the soccer match in Medellin.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-10 operated by Fedex Federal Express took off from Memphis, TN, USA for a cargo flight to Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA. 2 crewmembers were onboard. The plane crash landed at Fort Lauderdale airport and the left hand engine burst in flames. There were no injury, but the aircraft received substantial damage. The plane performed an uneventful flight and approach normally to Fort Lauderdale airport. Crew members reported that the approach was stable and a normal landing occurred. They also reported that there had been no problem with the landing gear during the flight. Investigation shows that 12 seconds after the aircraft touched down normally on the runway, the left main gear collapsed. This lead the left engine and left wingtip to contact the ground, causing a rupture of the fuel lines and the left wing fuel tank. Fuel from the left wing ignited as the aircraft rolled down the runway, the fire continued after the aircraft came to a stop partway off the runway. A few seconds later, an explosion occurred in the vicinity of the left hand engine. Both flight crew members escaped through the right hand cockpit window using the escape rope and did not report any injuries. The aircraft had accumulated 84,589 flight hours in 35,606 flight cycles since its manufacture in 1972.

The Boeing 777-300 operated by Emirates Airlines took off from Thiruvananthapuram, India, for a passenger flight to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 282 passengers and 18 crewmembers were onboard. The plane crashed on landing at Dubai international airport. All the occupants evacuated via slides, 13 passengers received minor injuries during the evacuation. A fire-fighter attending to the aircraft was killed. The aircraft burned down completely. The Boeing 777 was on final approach at Dubai airport. The aircraft performed a normal approach, and there was no emergency declared. During the approach and until the landing, the aircraft encountered windshear conditions, with a wind changing from a headwind of 8 knots to a tailwind of 16 knots. The aircraft landed long, both main landing gear touched down, and the crew decided to go around. A few seconds later the aircraft was airborne again, the crew retracted the landing gear and climbed to 85 feet above the runway with the speed decaying to 134 kts. Both flight crew members noticed the decaying speed, the first officer called Check Speed. The aircraft descended again with the landing gear in transit into the UP position. 3 seconds prior to impact with the runway the thrust levers were moved from IDLE to full forward. 2 seconds later the engines began to respond, another second the Aircraft aft fuselage impacted the runway at 125 kts, with a nose-up pitch angle of 9.5 degrees, and at a rate of descent of 900 feet per minute. This was followed by the impact of the engines on the runway. The three landing gears were still in transit to the retracted position. As the Aircraft slid along the runway, the No.2 engine-pylon assembly separated from the right hand wing. An intense fuel fed fire was observed to start in the area of the damaged No.2 engine-pylon wing attachment. The Aircraft continued to slide along the runway on the lower fuselage, the outboard right-hand wing, and the No.1 engine. An incipient fire started on the underside of the No.1 engine. About a minute later the commander transmitted a Mayday Call and advised they were evacuating. Fire fighters arrived about one minute after the aircraft came to a stop and began to immediately apply foam. All occupants evacuated the aircraft. One cabin crew received serious, 21 passengers, another cabin crew and the first officer received minor injuries. Approximately nine minutes after the Aircraft came to rest, a firefighter was fatally injured as a result of the explosion of the centre fuel tank.

The Airbus A320-200 operated by Egyptair took off from Paris, France, for a passenger flight to Cairo, Egypt. 56 passengers and 10 crewmembers were onboard. The plane was enroute at FL370 (around 11 km) over the Mediterranean Sea about 210 NM (390 km) north-northwest of Cairo when the transponder signals of the aircraft ceased. The aircraft was located crashed in the Mediterranean Sea. All 66 people onboard were killed. The crew was talking normally to Greek air traffic control a few minutes prior the crash. When Air traffic Controllers attempted to hand the aircraft off to Egypt the crew did not respond, radar contact was lost 2 minutes after the first attempt to raise the crew for hand off. The Egyptian authorities published the following elements about the accident: The flight recorders stopped operating while the aircraft was in cruise at an altitude of 37,000 feet; The aircraft systems sent ACARS messages indicating the presence of smoke in toilets and the avionics bay; The data from the data recorder confirms these messages; The playback of the cockpit voice recorder reveals, in particular, that the crew mentioned the existence of a fire on board; Several pieces of debris were retrieved from the accident site. Some of these had signs of having been subject to high temperatures, and traces of soot. In addition, the BEA had collected the following elements: A signal from an emergency locator transmitter was sent at 00:37 (source CNES (3) ) i.e. around eight minutes after the transmission of the last ACARS message; Data from a Greek primary radar (sent by the Greek authorities to the BEA) shows that the aeroplane had descended in a turn until collision with the surface of the water. Based on these elements, the BEA considers that the most likely hypothesis is that a fire broke out in the cockpit while the aeroplane was flying at its cruise altitude and that the fire spread rapidly resulting in the loss of control of the aeroplane.

The Boeing 737-800 operated by Flydubai took off from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for a passenger flight to Rostov on Don, Russia. 55 passengers and 7 crewmembers were onboard. The plane crashed during landing at Rostov on Don airport. There are no survivors: all 62 people onboard were killed. Bad weather conditions with low visibility and strong winds were prevailing at Rostov on Don airport at the time of the accident. The Boeing 737 has first attempted to land but aborted the approach due to weather and entered a hold initially at 8000 feet. After 30 minutes at 8000 feet the aircraft climbed to FL150. After about 2 hours of holding the aircraft commenced another approach to Rostov's runway 22 with winds from 240 degrees at 27 knots (14 m/s) gusting 42 knots (22 m/s). The second approach was flown manually in flight director mode. At 720 feet of height and 2,42 NM (4,5 km) before the runway threshold the crew decided to go around. the crew applied the go-around procedure : engines accelerated to TOGA, landing gear retracted and flaps reduced to 15 degrees. Climbing through a height of 1900 feet at nose up attitude of 18 degrees the pilot flying pushed the yoke forward resulting in a nose down movement and an increase in airspeed above 200 kts. The engine thrust was reduced for a brief period resulting in a speed decrease, then engine thrust was increased again to TOGA. At a height of 2950 feet a simultaneous nose down control input and a stabilizer nose down deflection occurred resulting in the aircraft, after having reached 1000 meters/3300 feet, to begin to descend and experience a vertical acceleration of -1.0G. According to Flight Data Recorder, the nose down trim input came from the stabilizer trim switch at the control column and lasted for 12 seconds while the cockpit voice recorder recorded specific noise of the trim wheels rotating. The following crew recovery actions did not allow to avoid an impact with the ground. The aircraft impacted the runway about 120 meters past the runway threshold with a speed of more than 324 kts and more than 50 degrees pitch nose. The Boeing 737 was pulverised.

The Canadair CRJ-200 operated by West Atlantic Sweden took off from Oslo, Norway, for a cargo flight to Tromso, Norway. Two crewmembers were onboard. The plane was enroute at FL 330 (33,000 ft or 10km) when it vanished from radar. The plane crashed on the side of a mountain northwest of Lake Akkajaure about 10km from the border to Norway in mountainous area without road access, about 1000 meters above sea level. Both crewmembers were killed. The jet was operating a cargo flight with 4.5 tons of mail and parcels. It took off uneventfully and reached its cruise altitude. A few minutes later, while the plane was enroute at FL330 about 75nm west of Kiruna (Sweden) in the border region between Norway and Sweden, the crew declared emergency. The aircraft disappeared from radar immediately thereafter. The crash site is very small, overall diameter being 50 meters, and is evidence of a high energy impact, suggesting the aircraft came down near vertical. The weather conditions weren't harsh at the time of the accident.