S7 Airlines Flight 778
Encyclopedia
S7 Airlines
Flight 778 (RU778 or SBI778) was an Airbus A310-300 passenger flight en route from Moscow
to Irkutsk
when it crashed upon landing at Irkutsk International Airport
at 07:44 local time
on 9 July 2006 (July 8, 22:44 UTC
). The plane overshot the runway
, sliding over several hundred metres of wet runway and grass. It crashed through a concrete
barricade
, hit a group of private garages and burst into flames. Television
pictures showed smoking ruins of the Airbus with only the tail section intact. It took two hours for local firefighter
s from five different fire stations to extinguish the blaze.
There were 193 passengers and 10 crew members aboard. Seventy six passengers and three flight attendants survived the crash, leaving 124 dead. Nearly 60 people were taken to a hospital, some with critical injuries, but others managed to escape with few injuries and 15 were able to continue their journeys. Some survivors said they owed their lives to a flight attendant who managed to open the emergency exit in the rear of the aircraft.
Flight 778 has the third highest death toll of any aviation accident involving an Airbus A310 anywhere in the world after Kenya Airways Flight 431
and Yemenia Flight 626
.
A spokeswoman for the ITAR-Tass news agency
in Russia
, Irina Andrianova said "The aircraft veered off the runway on landing. It was travelling at a terrific speed."
The agency also reported that many children were among the passengers who were flying to a holiday on Lake Baikal
, near Irkutsk, about 4200 kilometres (2,609.8 mi) east of Moscow. Besides Russian citizens, who were the majority of passengers, there were also two Polish
tourists traveling to Mongolia
via Irkutsk. Having been in the tail section, they managed to escape the plane unassisted, one injuring a leg. There were twelve other non-Russians on board, three from China
, three from Belarus
and two each from Germany
, Moldavia
, and South Korea
.
Among the dead were Sergey Koryakov, regional
head of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB)
, and Mariya Rasputina, daughter of writer Valentin Rasputin
.
News agencies reported Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin
as saying the pilots advised air traffic control
lers they had landed successfully, but that radio
contact then broke off suddenly. Speaking before flying from Moscow to Irkutsk, Levitin was also quoted as saying the runway was wet after rain.
and later to Delta Air Lines
after Pan Am's bankruptcy in 1991. Prior to service in S7, Airbus Industrie and Aeroflot
had flown the aircraft. It had accumulated more than 52,000 flight hours in more than 10,000 flights. It was powered by Pratt & Whitney
PW4152
engines.
According to Airbus, the aircraft was properly maintained. The most recent A Check, or maintenance check, on the aircraft was on 1 June, Sibir said. A C Check, which involves a more thorough overhaul, was carried out 12 July in Frankfurt last year.
According to the final results of the investigation, the accident was not caused by the left engine thrust reverser's non-deployment due to a Minimum Equipment List (MEL) authorized reverser deactivation - The thrust reverser in question was inoperative in line with MEL requirements prior to the accident.
When the pilot slowed down the plane by using wheel braking and deploying the righthand engine thrust reverser, the lefthand engine thrust lever
was inadvertently advanced, causing the plane not to decelerate as per a normal landing. The crew was unaware the thrust lever had been inadvertently advanced until late in the accident cycle. The aircraft veered off the runway and hit a concrete barricade at the speed of approximately 100 km/h (62 mph).
A preliminary report was issued by the Russian MAK the week of September 25, 2006, blaming the accident on pilot error, and finding that there was no problem with the engines or the aircraft.
The English translation of the accident final report, on page 115, stated the following conclusion:
S7 Airlines
OJSC Siberia Airlines , operating as S7 Airlines, is an airline headquartered in Ob, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia, with offices in Moscow. S7 Airlines has been Russia's fastest-growing airline and recently passed Aeroflot as Russia's largest domestic airline.S7 has operated scheduled passenger...
Flight 778 (RU778 or SBI778) was an Airbus A310-300 passenger flight en route from Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
to Irkutsk
Irkutsk
Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...
when it crashed upon landing at Irkutsk International Airport
Irkutsk International Airport
Irkutsk Airport is an airport in the centre of Irkutsk, Russia. As of 2006, a new passenger terminal is nearing completion...
at 07:44 local time
UTC+9
UTC+09:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +09. This time is used in:-As standard time :*East Timor*Indonesia **Moluccas**Papua and West Papua *Japan - Japan Standard Time*North Korea...
on 9 July 2006 (July 8, 22:44 UTC
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...
). The plane overshot the runway
Runway
According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...
, sliding over several hundred metres of wet runway and grass. It crashed through a concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
barricade
Barricade
Barricade, from the French barrique , is any object or structure that creates a barrier or obstacle to control, block passage or force the flow of traffic in the desired direction...
, hit a group of private garages and burst into flames. Television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
pictures showed smoking ruins of the Airbus with only the tail section intact. It took two hours for local firefighter
Firefighter
Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...
s from five different fire stations to extinguish the blaze.
There were 193 passengers and 10 crew members aboard. Seventy six passengers and three flight attendants survived the crash, leaving 124 dead. Nearly 60 people were taken to a hospital, some with critical injuries, but others managed to escape with few injuries and 15 were able to continue their journeys. Some survivors said they owed their lives to a flight attendant who managed to open the emergency exit in the rear of the aircraft.
Flight 778 has the third highest death toll of any aviation accident involving an Airbus A310 anywhere in the world after Kenya Airways Flight 431
Kenya Airways Flight 431
Kenya Airways Flight 431 was an international scheduled Abidjan–Lagos–Nairobi passenger service, operated with an Airbus A310-304, registration 5Y-BEN, that crashed into the sea, off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire, on at 21:09:24 GMT, shortly after take-off from Félix Houphouët-Boigny International...
and Yemenia Flight 626
Yemenia Flight 626
Yemenia Flight 626 was an Airbus A310-324 twin-engine jet airliner, operated by Yemenia, operating as a scheduled international flight from Sana'a, Yemen, to Moroni, Comoros, that crashed on 30 June 2009 at around 1:50 a.m. local time while on approach to Prince Said Ibrahim International...
.
A spokeswoman for the ITAR-Tass news agency
Information Telegraph Agency of Russia
The Information Telegraph Agency of Russia , is the major news agency of Russia. It is headquartered in Moscow.- History :Its origin is in a letter sent by Finance Minister Vladimir Kokovtsov to foreign minister in March 1904 writing that "our trade and industrial circles, as well as the Finance...
in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Irina Andrianova said "The aircraft veered off the runway on landing. It was travelling at a terrific speed."
The agency also reported that many children were among the passengers who were flying to a holiday on Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is the world's oldest at 30 million years old and deepest lake with an average depth of 744.4 metres.Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, it is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the...
, near Irkutsk, about 4200 kilometres (2,609.8 mi) east of Moscow. Besides Russian citizens, who were the majority of passengers, there were also two Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
tourists traveling to Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
via Irkutsk. Having been in the tail section, they managed to escape the plane unassisted, one injuring a leg. There were twelve other non-Russians on board, three from China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, three from Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
and two each from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Moldavia
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
, and South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
.
Among the dead were Sergey Koryakov, regional
Irkutsk Oblast
Irkutsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of Angara River, Lena, and Nizhnyaya Tunguska Rivers. The administrative center is the city of Irkutsk. Population: -History:...
head of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB)
FSB (Russia)
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet Committee of State Security . Its main responsibilities are counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and...
, and Mariya Rasputina, daughter of writer Valentin Rasputin
Valentin Rasputin
Valentin Grigoriyevich Rasputin is a Russian writer. He was born and lived much of his life in the Irkutsk Oblast in Eastern Siberia. Rasputin's works depict rootless urban characters and the fight for survival of centuries-old traditional rural ways of life...
.
News agencies reported Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin
Igor Levitin
Igor Yevgeniyevich Levitin is a Russian political figure who has been Minister of Transport since March 9, 2004.Between 1973 and 1980 Levitin served in the Soviet armed forces in Odessa and then with the Armies Southern Division...
as saying the pilots advised air traffic control
Air traffic control
Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...
lers they had landed successfully, but that radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
contact then broke off suddenly. Speaking before flying from Moscow to Irkutsk, Levitin was also quoted as saying the runway was wet after rain.
Causes of the accident
Airbus said the aircraft involved in the accident had registered number , previously N812PA and MSN (Manufacturer Serial Number) 442. It was delivered new in June 1987 to Pan American World AirwaysPan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991...
and later to Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...
after Pan Am's bankruptcy in 1991. Prior to service in S7, Airbus Industrie and Aeroflot
Aeroflot
OJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines , commonly known as Aeroflot , is the flag carrier and largest airline of the Russian Federation, based on passengers carried per year...
had flown the aircraft. It had accumulated more than 52,000 flight hours in more than 10,000 flights. It was powered by Pratt & Whitney
Pratt & Whitney
Pratt & Whitney is a U.S.-based aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation . Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation and military aviation. Its headquarters are in East Hartford, Connecticut, USA...
PW4152
Pratt & Whitney PW4000
|-See also:-External links:* * *...
engines.
According to Airbus, the aircraft was properly maintained. The most recent A Check, or maintenance check, on the aircraft was on 1 June, Sibir said. A C Check, which involves a more thorough overhaul, was carried out 12 July in Frankfurt last year.
According to the final results of the investigation, the accident was not caused by the left engine thrust reverser's non-deployment due to a Minimum Equipment List (MEL) authorized reverser deactivation - The thrust reverser in question was inoperative in line with MEL requirements prior to the accident.
When the pilot slowed down the plane by using wheel braking and deploying the righthand engine thrust reverser, the lefthand engine thrust lever
Thrust lever
Thrust levers are found in the cockpit of aircraft, and are used by the pilot, copilot, or autopilot to control the power output of the aircraft's engines....
was inadvertently advanced, causing the plane not to decelerate as per a normal landing. The crew was unaware the thrust lever had been inadvertently advanced until late in the accident cycle. The aircraft veered off the runway and hit a concrete barricade at the speed of approximately 100 km/h (62 mph).
A preliminary report was issued by the Russian MAK the week of September 25, 2006, blaming the accident on pilot error, and finding that there was no problem with the engines or the aircraft.
The English translation of the accident final report, on page 115, stated the following conclusion:
INTERSTATE AVIATION COMMITTEE
FINAL REPORT ON THE RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION OF THE ACCIDENT, page 115
The cause of Sibir A-310 F-OGYP accident was the erroneous and uncontrolled actions by the crew during rollout after landing in a configuration with one engine reverser deactivated. After touchdown, the Captain, while acting on the reverse thrust lever of the right engine, inadvertently and uncontrollably moved the throttle lever for the left engine, whose thrust reverser was deactivated, from the "idle" to the significant forward thrust position. Inadequate monitoring and call-outs of airplane speed and engine parameters by the Co-pilot made it impossible for the crew to perform the necessary actions, either by moving the left throttle back to idle or shutting down the engines. The crew had enough time to recognize the situation.
External links
- Final accident investigation report (Archive) - Interstate Aviation Committee - English translation done by and hosted by the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation CivileBureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de l'Aviation CivileThe Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile is an agency of the French government, responsible for investigating aviation accidents and making safety recommendations based on what is learned from those investigations. It is headquartered in Building 153 on the grounds...
(BEA). - Investigation and final report - Interstate Aviation Committee (Archive)
- Final report (Archive) - The Russian version is the version of record
- Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation CivileBureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de l'Aviation CivileThe Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile is an agency of the French government, responsible for investigating aviation accidents and making safety recommendations based on what is learned from those investigations. It is headquartered in Building 153 on the grounds...
- "Accident in Irkutsk on 11 july 2006." (Archive)
- S7 Airlines notice about the accident