ČSA Flight 001
 Ilyushin Il-18B in ČSA livery | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | July 28, 1976, 9.37 CEST |
| Summary | Pilot error and/or technical failure |
| Site | Lake Zlaté piesky near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia |
| Aircraft type | Ilyushin Il-18B |
| Operator | ČSA |
| Registration | OK-NAB |
| Passengers | 73 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 76 |
| Injuries | 3 |
| Survivors | 3 (passengers) |
ČSA flight 001 registration OK-NAB was an Ilyushin Il-18B 4 engine turboprop, operating as a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Prague's Ruzyně airport to Bratislava-Ivanka Airport, both in Czechoslovakia, which crashed into the Zlaté Piesky Lake while attempting to land in Bratislava on July 28, 1976. All 6 crew members and 70 out of 73 passengers died.
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 225 km/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 set thrust reversal at the no. 2 and no. 3 engine (inboard engines) 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 tried to restart the no. 4 engine at 40m, but the ensuing right bank due to asymmetric 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]
Investigation
The investigators published [2] the causes as follows:
- use of thrust reversal at altitude under 1 000 m
- improper manipulation with thrust levers of inner engines
- speed reducing under allowed limit at final approach
- erroneous feathering of 4-th engine prop
- lack of banking the plane to the working engines side
- immediate cause was the attempt to start 4-th engine at low speed and altitude
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 out alive, of whom two later died in the hospital.
Controversy
Surviving passenger Jaromír Kratochvíl later claimed in an interview that flight captain requested emergency landing in Brno but it was rejected because of the Vietnamese delegation visiting the city and an emergency landing would harm the image of the country. He also claimed that Vienna airport offered an 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.
See also
- List of notable accidents and incidents on commercial aircraft
- TABSO Flight 101 - Ilyushin Il-18B crash at Bratislava in 1966
