Superjet-100 crash-lands, catches fire at major Moscow airport

Gawan

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On Moscow's Airport crash-landed an Aeroflot plane. And to the newest numbers only 37 passengers survived :-(.



Panicked passengers rushed to evacuate a burning Aeroflot plane at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after the Sukhoi Superjet-100 made a mind-blowing, fiery crash-landing at a second attempt. At least 5 people were injured.

Footage shared on Twitter appeared to show a dense cloud of black smoke pouring out of flight SU1492 parked on the runway as dozens of ambulances were dispatched to the scene. All 78 passengers were evacuated from the burning wreck, and five have been reported injured.

Fire crews rushed to the scene, along with dozens of ambulances. All 78 passengers were evacuated from the burning plane, and at least 10 injuries have been reported.

The commuter aircraft had made several flights earlier on Sunday, and was heading to Murmansk before its terrifying emergency landing.

 
The pilot of the SSJ-100 Denis Yevdokimov has described the situation as follows (machine translation from Russian):

During the landing - I will not tell you the exact time, the takeoff was at 18:02 - there was no radio connection. We managed to restore it using the emergency frequency on the radio station, but it was short and intermittent. After turning on the transmitter mode, we could say a few words, then it disappeared again. And we had to connect again. The dispatchers helped us. They set the course for us to get us on the strip. The speed was low for the landing, it was normal. All according to the operational guide for the crew. We approached the ground smoothly, with a decrease in vertical speed,” says the pilot.

“After a full stop, we announced an emergency evacuation. And first, the co-pilot came out of the cab, then me. I didn’t look outside at first to see if there were any firemen there. The fire truck was already there. The fire started after the landing. That is, we did not have a fire in the air,” said Evdokimov.

Because of the lightning, we had a loss of radio communication. And the transition of the aircraft to the minimum mode - direct control mode. And not through the computer, as usual, but directly. Emergency control mode. I can not say exactly why it happened. There was enough speed, I approached the strip with a decrease in vertical, according to the procedure,” he continued.

“The fire started after landing. A bright flash of light, a loud boom, transition of the aircraft to emergency control mode. And the loss of radio short-term, which we later managed to recover. The fire started after the landing, as I understand it, because of the landing. The reason probably is this. The tanks were full. Yes, there is a procedure for us - operational guide for the crew - to return to the departure aerodrome. And there is another procedure - landing with excess landing mass. Two procedures, one after another, we made the decision to land. The first one, where the failure message is written, that procedure was implemented. And the one for the landing, the landing procedure with an excess of the landing mass,” said the pilot.

 
I do not mean to exacerbate this tragedy. But, there's more going on than meets the eye's, imho.


Forty-one people were killed and at least six were injured when a Russian Aeroflot Sukhoi Superjet plane made an emergency landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday due to fire on board.

The plane, a one-year-old Sukhoi Superjet, departed from Sheremetyevo for Murmansk but shortly after taking off requested an emergency landing after experiencing equipment failures due to being struck by lightning, Interfax cited a source as saying.

The plane bounced off the runway four times during landing. After the fourth landing, the plane's landing gear collapsed and the tail caught fire.

Russia's Investigative Committee confirmed that 41 out of 78 passengers, who had been headed from Moscow to the northern Russian city of Murmansk, were killed.

One of the passengers killed was U.S. citizen Jeremy Brooks, the state-run TASS news agency reported.

Six passengers were taken to the hospital, TASS cited a Health Ministry source as saying.

Interfax reported that the tail was completely burned and a rescue team had tried to find survivors in that part of the plane.
TV footage showed a plane landing with its tail ablaze. On the ground, black smoke billowed from the plane.


The plane had the registration number RA-89098. The Flightradar24 tracking service showed that it made two circles around Moscow and landed after about 45 minutes.

Emergency workers have recovered two of the plane's black boxes, the RBC news website reported on Monday.
The Investigative Committee has opened a case into safety violations that led to the deaths.

This story is being updated.
Reuters contributed reporting to this article.

Aeroflot issued a list of the names of 33 surviving passengers, including five that were hospitalized, but said the list was incomplete.

“The aircraft was evacuated in 55 seconds, compared to the industry norm of 90 seconds,” it said. “The captain was the last to leave the burning aircraft.”

The plane took off but stopped its climb at about a 1000ft when the pilot’s declared loss of radio communication first, and later emergency via transponder codes.

It returned to the airport for what reports described as a hard landing on runway 24L at 18:31 local time.

The Aeroflot Sukhoi Superjet 100-95, operating flight SU-1492 from Moscow Sheremetyevo to Murmansk (Russia) with 73 passengers and 5 crew, crashed at Sheremetyevo.

Observers said the aircraft bounced and the undercarriage collapsed after which the fire broke out.

Aviation Herald reported that “during the rollout the aircraft burst into flames, veered left off the runway and came to a stop on the grass adjacent to the runway, the aircraft burned down.”
 
The pilot of the SSJ-100 Denis Yevdokimov has described the situation as follows (machine translation from Russian):
During the landing - I will not tell you the exact time, the takeoff was at 18:02 - there was no radio connection. We managed to restore it using the emergency frequency on the radio station, but it was short and intermittent. After turning on the transmitter mode, we could say a few words, then it disappeared again. And we had to connect again. The dispatchers helped us. They set the course for us to get us on the strip. The speed was low for the landing, it was normal. All according to the operational guide for the crew. We approached the ground smoothly, with a decrease in vertical speed,” says the pilot.

“After a full stop, we announced an emergency evacuation. And first, the co-pilot came out of the cab, then me. I didn’t look outside at first to see if there were any firemen there. The fire truck was already there. The fire started after the landing. That is, we did not have a fire in the air,” said Evdokimov.

Because of the lightning, we had a loss of radio communication. And the transition of the aircraft to the minimum mode - direct control mode. And not through the computer, as usual, but directly. Emergency control mode. I can not say exactly why it happened. There was enough speed, I approached the strip with a decrease in vertical, according to the procedure,” he continued.

“The fire started after landing. A bright flash of light, a loud boom, transition of the aircraft to emergency control mode. And the loss of radio short-term, which we later managed to recover. The fire started after the landing, as I understand it, because of the landing. The reason probably is this. The tanks were full. Yes, there is a procedure for us - operational guide for the crew - to return to the departure aerodrome. And there is another procedure - landing with excess landing mass. Two procedures, one after another, we made the decision to land. The first one, where the failure message is written, that procedure was implemented. And the one for the landing, the landing procedure with an excess of the landing mass,” said the pilot.
None of that explains the ridiculous bounce on landing. If it was a normal approach at normal speed, and the only problem was radio communication, why did the plane effectively take off again after a "normal" landing. Either the pilot is lying or he is an extremely bad pilot that cannot properly land a plane.
 
Well, for the record, I agree.

Planes are designed to survive lightning strikes. Something's up...

That's what I also initially thought but perhaps the strike (if that was indeed the cause of the crash) was of such unusual ferocity and power that it overwhelmed any safety features. Records of very powerful lightning bolts killing whole groups of people seem to be on the increase in the last few years and then there was this stunning report from 2016 -


Could a lightning strike of this type of extreme magnitude be responsible for the tragedy?

Just my pet theory at the moment.
 
The news portal Meduza (a Russian language opposition-friendly source with unclear funding, and a partner of BuzzFeed) apparently published, out of the blue, the following article just a couple of hours before the SSJ-100 accident:


The article is titled "We explain how the jets are protected from lightning strikes and why the risks of consequences is minimal".
 
Some snippets from SOTT regarding the crash that might help add to the picture:

41 dead as Russian Superjet-100 crash-lands and bursts into flames at major Moscow airport - UPDATES

Electrical fire, lightning, or criminal act? Aviation experts on likely cause of Russian plane crash

As investigators tackle the questions about the Sukhoi Superjet 100 that crash-landed in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport with the loss of 41 lives, two aviation experts told RT that certain possibilities can't be ruled out.

"It's plausible but unlikely," aviation safety assessor Jacques Astre told RT. Although thunderstorms had been reported in the area earlier on Sunday, "Airplanes are designed to withstand lightning strikes," he explained. "Sometimes there is damage, but it's very minor and not to the extent that it could cause the loss of the aircraft."

Astre reckons it's "very likely" that the fire began with an electrical fault. That view is shared by Sultan Hali, a former senior officer with the Pakistani Air Force and a veteran aviator.

"The usual culprit is electronic cables short-circuiting, so this could very well be an electronic fire caused by that," he told RT. Hali added that an electrical fire is one of "the most horrifying" things that a pilot can experience, as it can bring down communications capability.

"If you have lost total communication then you are on your own," he added.

Before declaring a mayday emergency, the Sukhoi's crew had declared a radio failure, before circling Moscow and landing hard back at Sheremetyevo.

Astre suggested that the enormous fireball could have been a result of the hard landing, as it was reported the plane hit the ground three times before staying down. "Viewing the video, it appears to me from the flames and the smoke, that maybe the plane landed hard, compromising the fuel tanks."

Hali added that a jet's undercarriage would not normally collapse had it not been already weakened by "severe" fire. The retired aviator added that, with little yet known about the incident, "the possibility, however faint it may be, of criminal activity cannot be ruled out."
Terrifying footage shot inside the Sukhoi-100 shows its wings burning as the plane travels fast on the landing strip at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. Sparks are also seen from the jet's window.
"The flight came back. We had a rough landing. We almost lost consciousness from fear. The plane was bouncing like a grasshopper and started burning already on the ground," Petr Egorov told Komsomolskaya Pravda.

  • The aircraft involved in the incident was built in 2017
    [*]The plane underwent its most recent maintenance in April.
    [*]The plane was in the air for some 28 minutes when there was an emergency alert.
    [*]The pilots alerted the airport about their decision to turn back and land and then lost radio contact with air traffic control.
While already on the runway, the plane made a sudden sharp turn
An Aeroflot captain who piloted the Superjet 100 in Moscow has revealed harrowing details of the accident, saying he had to crash-land with full tanks, which possibly led to the jet catching fire right after its bumpy touchdown.

There was "a bright flash and a bang" moments before the pilots began an immediate descent into Moscow's Sheremetyevo
Airport, Denis Evdokimov, a captain on the ill-fated Aeroflot flight, told Telegram channel Baza. To make matters worse, communication with the ground failed "because of a lightning strike."

The failure left the crew with no option but to perform a manual landing. They finally managed to establish radio contact and "could only say a couple of words" to the air traffic control, who guided them back to the runway, Edvokimov recalled.

While attempting to land, the jet struck the runway several times, probably damaging the fuel tanks and causing a fire to ignite in the rear of the fuselage. But the captain failed to explain why the touchdown was so hard, only saying that "we had caught fire upon landing."

The crew didn't seem to have any trouble during descent, he said. "The speed wasn't high, it was normal.
[We acted] according to the flight manual." However, the jet's weight was much greater than required because of its full tanks, making it extremely challenging to safely land a 45-ton airliner on a runway, the pilot said.

He and his first officer followed a protocol on landing an overweight plane, but it could be the bumpy touchdown that ignited fire on board, Evdokimov suggested. The plane was flying to Murmansk, a city in the north of Russia, carrying 78 passengers and five crew members. Shortly after take-off, the pilots declared an emergency and turned back. The Flightradar24 tracking service showed that the jet circled twice around Moscow before it hit the runway after spending less than half an hour in the air.

Lightning struck the plane 10 minutes after take-off, Tatyana Kasatkina revealed in an interview to local media just hours after she survived the emergency landing. "There was strong hail, a noise was heard outside, then a bang occurred," she said, adding that a flash and black smoke could be seen.

The pilot announced that the plane was returning to the airport right away, she said, but indicated that communication was severely impaired. The plane's light signaling was also out of order.
 
From the above it seems as though they're leaning towards bad weather - a lightning strike - being the initial cause and the full fuel tanks leading to a bad landing and the resulting fire, although they don't rule out criminal activity. It does seem strange how the trouble seemed to occur very soon after take off but then maybe there's some mechanism which makes that more likely.
 
On Moscow's Airport crash-landed an Aeroflot plane. And to the newest numbers only 37 passengers survived :-(.

First reports and video can be found here:

Plane Crashes

In the first report by C.a. there was this description ...

The tail part of the liner is completely destroyed, rescuers are trying to get to the back rows through the twisted metal, where victims may be injured, an Interfax source said.

The Aeroflot Superjet-100 aircraft, performing the Moscow-Murmansk flight, soon after taking off from Sheremetyero, requested an emergency landing due to a fire. Among the possible causes was called lightning, according to some sources, the aircraft engine caught fire. According to Interfax, the airline sent a distress signal without radio contact with the ground and caught fire after hitting his nose into the runway. On board were 78 people - 73 passengers and five crew members. Open fire extinguished.

The nose of the plane caught fire but the tail part is completely destroyed (probably from the fuel tanks exploding on heavy impact)?
 
Historically Aeroflot has had a very bad accident and safety record

Well, when the Soviet Union collapsed in the 90s and the Russian economy started falling apart as a result - and Aeroflot as the former state-run monopoly was practically the only existing Russian airline carrier at that time - its safety and quality of service naturally plunged as well. Aeroflot was basically operating in a survival mode at that time.

Later as the Russian economy started recovering, the new commercial airline companies emerged in Russia with no such prior statistics from the 90s. So when we compare Aeroflot to other airline companies, Russian or foreign, we need to take into account that "dark period" in the country's history, I think.

Since then, Aeroflot has won a number of quality and safety awards, both domestic and international. That is not to say that Aeroflot is flawless, but today it is usually considered relatively safe, fwiw.
 
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