ČSA Flight OK-NAB
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 Ilyushin Il-18 similar to accident aircraft |
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| Summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | July 28, 1976, 9.37 CEST |
| Type | Pilot Error |
| Site | Lake Zlaté piesky near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia |
| Fatalities | 77 |
| Injuries | 2 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Ilyushin Il-18 |
| Operator | ČSA |
| Tail number | OK-NAB |
| Passengers | 73 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Survivors | 2 (passengers) |
ČSA Flight OK-NAB was an Ilyushin Il-18V 4 engine turboprop, operating as a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Prague's Ruzyně airport to Bratislava's Ivanka airport, both in Czechoslovakia, which crashed while attempting to land at Bratislava on July 28, 1976. All 6 crew members as well as 71 passengers perished. Two passengers survived.
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[edit] Crash
The flight departed Prague airport at 8:52 (CEST) and proceeded routinely to Bratislava. At 9:35:10 (CEST) the flight was cleared by Bratislava tower to land on runway 22. For reasons that are unclear, the crew executed a highly unstabilized ILS instrument approach to runway 22, with rates of descent as high as 22 instead of 10m/s; speeds varying from 435 to 225km/h instead of 269 km/h; and flap selection directly from 0 degree to full flaps instead of in gradual increments. As they approached the runway, the crew inadvertently deployed the no. 2 and no. 3 engine (inboard engines) thrust reversal while still airborne. The thrust reversal caused the no. 3 engine to fail and the crew then inadvertently feathered the no. 4 prop, losing all thrust on the right side of the aircraft. At 50m above the runway threshold the crew attempted to execute a go around. They were able to restart the no. 4 engine at 40m, but the ensuing right bank due to assymetric thrust increased; the aircraft then lost control and struck lake Zlaté piesky in a 60 degree right bank and a 60 degree nose down attitude.[1]
[edit] Probable cause
The investigators published the most probable cause as the engine failure and pilot error. [2]
[edit] Rescue operation
The plane crashed into a densely populated area and rescue operations started immediately after the crash. Svazarm divers tried to help, but most passengers drowned or died due to crash forces, except four who were pulled alive, of which two later died in the hospital.
[edit] Controversy
Surviving passenger Jaromír Kratochvíl later claimed in an interview that the captain of the flight requested emergency landing in Brno but it was rejected because of the Vietnamesse delegation that was there and that the Vienna airport offered the flight emergency landing permission but communist authorities rejected it.[3] It is unclear how a surviving passenger would be aware of the captain's actions during the flight, or how searching for an alternate emergency landing site relates to an unstablilized approach with inadvertent thrust reversal deployment at Bratislava.
