Afriqiyah Airways Flight 8U771 Crashes; Boy Only Survivor

[FSTargetDrone]

100+ dead. Other stories suggest that there is some confusion as to the boy's age. He may be 8-10 years old.

The Guardian:

Libya plane crash: 10-year-old Dutch child is sole survivor

At least one Briton among more than 100 killed when Afriqiyah Airways plane crashed in Tripoli

Matthew Weaver and James Meikle

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 May 2010 17.10 BST

A child is in hospital with serious injuries after becoming the only known surviving passenger on a plane that crashed while landing at Tripoli airport and broke up, killing more than 100 people.

The Foreign Office has confirmed that at least one British national was on the flight.

The Airbus A330-200, operated by the Libyan airline Afriqiyah, was arriving from Johannesburg. Passengers were thought to include 61 Dutch, 22 Libyans, an unknown number of South Africans and several Britons due to transfer on to a London flight.

The Foreign Office said it was aware of unconfirmed reports that there were more British nationals on board the flight and among the casualties. "We are urgently investigating," a statement said. "A consular team from the British embassy are on their way to the airport. Consular staff in Tripoli are urgently seeking further details."

There was no immediate cause suggested for the crash, which is not believed to be linked to volcanic ash from Iceland, which has closed some airports in north Africa in the last 24 hours. Some local reports said visibility on landing was poor.

First reports suggested the survivor was a 10-year-old boy: Dutch, like more than half the passengers. HThe Dutch foreign ministry said that neither the age, sex nor nationality of the child had been confirmed.

Libyan television showed a dark-haired child with a bandaged head and an oxygen mask lying in a hospital bed, apparently conscious and with intravenous lines in one arm. A doctor, speaking in Arabic, explains that the child "has several breaks in both legs and is under intensive care but is stable".

Dutch embassy officials who plan to visit the hospital tonight say they understand from the Libyan officials that the child is Dutch.

Libyan TV footage of the crash site showed wreckage spread over a wide area of scrub. Rescue workers and officials, many wearing masks, were shown picking through the debris. Some were carrying a body in a sheet.

Libya's transport minister, Mohamed Zidan, told a news conference at the airport that 96 bodies had been recovered.

Airbus said the twin-engine plane was delivered last September and had logged about 1,600 flight hours. It was powered by General Electric engines.

"Preliminary reports indicate that the aircraft crashed short of the runway threshold during approach. According to available information there were 93 passengers and 11 crew on board … The concerns and sympathy of the Airbus employees go to the families, friends and loved ones affected by the accident," the aircraft manufacturer said, adding that a team of technical advisers was on its way to the crash site.

Afriqiyah Airways said the crash happened at about 5am British time. "We are very sorry to announce the tragic loss of Afriqiyah Airways flight 8U771 from Johannesburg in an accident during landing at Tripoli international airport," a statement said. "We extend our deepest sympathy to the families and friends of the victims."

Ali Mustafa Abdel-Latif, a Libyan journalist, told al-Arabiyya, the Dubai-based news broadcaster, that the crash appeared unconnected to the cloud of volcanic ash affecting flights over nearby Morocco. He said it seemed to have been caused by pilot error.

Weather conditions over Tripoli at the time of the crash were good.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "We are aware of reports that there were British nationals on board the flight but this has not been confirmed. We are urgently investigating." A consular team from the British embassy was on its way to the airport.

Safety expert David Learmount said lax oversight and usually older aircraft meant Africa as a whole had a poor air safety record. "It's the worst in the world by a long chalk," he said, adding: "This was a brand new aircraft of modern type, so you can't blame it on the aeroplane."

Another airline expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "There are questions about the Libyan authorities' ability to oversee the airline industry.

"The weather conditions were not bad but there are suggestions that the visibility was poor as the plane came in to land. The real issue at Tripoli [airport], especially in poor visibility, is that it's not equipped with navigational aids – it does have ILS [instrument landing system]."

There have been two fatal crashes involving Airbus A330s. In 1994, seven crew were killed in a test flight near Toulouse. Last year, an Air France A330 from Rio de Janeiro crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board.

Afriqiyah Airways was founded in April 2001 and is owned by the Libyan government. The airline said those wanting information about passengers should ring 0044 20335 52737.

Airbus said the A330-200 could typically carry 253 passengers on routes of up to 7,250 nautical miles. The first was delivered in April 1998.

[Broomstick]

So... weather conditions over Tripoli at the time were "good", but visibility was poor? That's a little... contradictory without further details. There is also the matter of "no instrument landing system" - there are a number of types of landing aids and systems in the world, some are old technology but still quite useful and adequate for many situations, as opposed to the latest and most high-tech systems (it's not uncommon to find both sorts at even the most modern airport, the older tech acting as a backup to the newer). I've often found in crashes that journalists will say there was no instrument landing system when in fact there was, it was just older technology.

So... as usual remember few details are known at the moment as to the cause of the crash, and today's reports may be contradicted tomorrow.

I do hope the survivor makes a good recovery. No doubt he lost at least one parent on that flight if not both. He's had a really, really bad day.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I'd imagine poor visibility in good weather is caused by massive amounts of smog from a third world city with no air pollution controls and, good weather means no wind to blow it away from the city.

[Broomstick]

Well, that's a possibility.

Aviation has some pretty strict definitions regarding some weather terms, which can differ from those of the groundpounders. I suspect someone non-aviation on the ground said "Oh, this weather is nice" rather than consulting actual aviation weather reports.

Other possibilities are clear skies but with blowing dust at ground level, low lying fog, and so on.

[FSTargetDrone]

An update:

May 13, 2010
Child Is Stable After Libyan Air Crash
By NICOLA CLARK and MARK McDONALD

PARIS — A Dutch boy who was the only survivor of a plane crash in Libya that killed 103 people was in stable condition on Thursday after undergoing surgery on his broken legs, according to Libyan hospital officials quoted by news agencies.

Ruben van Assouw, 9, from the city of Tilburg, was returning from a South African safari with his 11-year-old brother and their parents, his grandmother told a Dutch newspaper.

The grandmother, An van de Sande, spoke to Brabants Dagblad, and a photograph on the paper’s Web site showed the boy in a hospital bed in Tripoli, the Libyan capital. She said Ruben would be taken back to the Netherlands as soon as he was able to travel.

The airliner crashed Wednesday morning on approach to the airport in Tripoli. Libyan and Dutch officials said 92 passengers were killed — most of them Dutch tourists — along with 11 crew members.

Dr. Hameeda al-Saheli, the head of the pediatric unit at the hospital, told the state news agency in Libya that Ruben had four breaks in his legs, The Associated Press reported, although he had no neurological injuries or internal bleeding.

The plane, Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 from Johannesburg, crashed at 6 a.m., the airline said.

The cause of the crash of the Airbus jet, which occurred in good weather, was under investigation, though Libya’s transportation minister said Libyan authorities had ruled out terrorism. That determination was made quickly, and the minister, Mohammed Zidan, gave no indication of how officials had reached that conclusion.

The flight recorders have been retrieved from the wreckage and will be analyzed, Mr. Zidan said.

Daniel Hoeltgen, a spokesman for the European Aviation Safety Agency in Cologne, Germany, said the aircraft had been inspected at least three times in recent months by the French civil aviation authority, which did not find any significant safety problems.

A spokesman for the Royal Dutch Touring Club ANWB said 61 of the dead were with two Dutch tour groups returning from South Africa, one going to Brussels and the other to Düsseldorf, Germany.

Ad Meijer, a spokesman in The Hague for the Dutch foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, said the Dutch Embassy staff had not yet verified whether all of those tourists were Dutch.

In Britain, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office confirmed that at least one British citizen was on board. According to news reports, 22 victims were Libyan and at least 3 were South African.

The Bureau of Investigations and Analyses in France said that it had sent two investigators to Tripoli and that Airbus, which manufactured the plane, had sent a team of five specialists to assist the Libyan authorities.

Photos from the scene showed debris strewn across a wide area. Workers wearing surgical masks picked through gnarled rows of seats, retrieving remains and personal items like passports and cellphones. With the exception of the plane’s tail fin and parts of the wings, few large pieces of the plane appeared to have remained intact.

Airbus said the plane was delivered in September to Afriqiyah Airways. The plane had accumulated about 1,600 flight hours in about 420 flights.

Flight 771 originated in Johannesburg and was scheduled to stop in Tripoli before continuing to Gatwick Airport near London. The airline’s schedule indicated that the plane was an Airbus A330-200 with a capacity of 253 passengers.

Afriqiyah Airways said the plane crashed just short of the runway. The skies were clear with visibility of 3 to 4 miles, and the winds were very light, according to weather reports. The crash was the first for Afriqiyah, which was founded in Tripoli in 2001.

Nicola Clark reported from Paris, and Mark McDonald from Hong Kong.

So how do those weather conditions sound? No mention of dust or issues with visibility near the ground. The plane wasn't even a year in service. It's also only the second fatal crash of an Airbus 330.

[Sea Skimmer]

No it's the third. That article is claiming its only the second commercial flight, which is true. But one of the first A330s crashed on a Airbus test flight after the plane had entered commercial service. Everyone onboard died, IIRC this is the infamous jet flying into the trees at the end of the runway crash The original article you posted got this right.

[Broomstick]

Afriqiyah Airways said the plane crashed just short of the runway. The skies were clear with visibility of 3 to 4 miles, and the winds were very light, according to weather reports. The crash was the first for Afriqiyah, which was founded in Tripoli in 2001.

Nicola Clark reported from Paris, and Mark McDonald from Hong Kong.

So how do those weather conditions sound? No mention of dust or issues with visibility near the ground. The plane wasn't even a year in service. It's also only the second fatal crash of an Airbus 330.

3-4 miles visibility is MVFR or "marginal visual flight rules', which indicates some sort of haze, fog, or smog even if there might not have been a cloud in the sky. That's getting close to mandatory instrument flying. That increases the possibility of hitting trees or some other obstruction while approaching a runway, or misjudging height, or otherwise misinterpreting visual information. If the landing aids were primitive or non-existent that further increases the risk of that sort of accident.

The wide debris field usually means the airplane did NOT spin but rather landed too soon or too fast or both, hitting belly first. This would also be consistent with a destroyed fuselage but the tail fin and some of the wing structure remaining more or less intact.

I seem to recall hearing a report that the pilot(s) knew a crash was imminent and declared a mayday, but it was on the TV and heard in passing so I'm sure how reliable that is. If so, it is rather intriguing.

Further speculation, much less determination, would have to wait on the black boxes and their data.

[FSTargetDrone]

No it's the third. That article is claiming its only the second commercial flight, which is true. But one of the first A330s crashed on a Airbus test flight after the plane had entered commercial service. Everyone onboard died, IIRC this is the infamous jet flying into the trees at the end of the runway crash The original article you posted got this right.

That was my fault, sorry. The thing I linked but didn't quote does say,

Prior to the Air France incident the A330 had never had a fatal crash in commercial flight, though a development model came down after takeoff during testing

The wide debris field usually means the airplane did NOT spin but rather landed too soon or too fast or both, hitting belly first. This would also be consistent with a destroyed fuselage but the tail fin and some of the wing structure remaining more or less intact.

Interestingly, this article reports that the boy (Ruben) was some distance away from the tail (Kronenburg is a Dutch foreign ministry official):

Kronenburg said rescuers found Ruben amid the scattered bodies, luggage and wreckage at the crash site, about half a mile from the plane's tail section.

They saw something unexpected: the boy was breathing. "That's why they noticed that he was still alive," Kronenburg said.