Turkish Airlines Takes Lessons From Katmandu Crash involving Airbus A330-300

Turkish Airlines Takes Lessons From Katmandu Crash involving Airbus A330-300

Whats Happened...

On the data of 5th March, 2015, Turkish Airlines flight TK-726 took off from İstanbul Ataturk Airport with a brand new Airbus A330-300 to Katmandu in Nepal at 20:25 at local time. Tail number TC-JOC was carrying 224 passengers and 11 cabin crew and headed to Katmandu’s Tribhuwan International Airport in Nepal.

Due to heavy fog and skiddy runway The plane on a seven-hour flight circled for half hour over Nepal before it made a second attempt to land. During the second try, the landing gears collapsed and the plane nose-dived on the runway at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. The runway was slippery after two days of rain and there was dense fog at the time.

No passengers on the flight were seriously hurt in the incident but some were given medical attention after evacuation.

One-year-old aircaft will be scrapped.

According to the local media, Turkish Airlines and Airbus has concluded their almost one year long investigation in Nepal and finally decided to be scrapped.  TC-JOC named “Gobeklitepe” had joined the fleet less than 1 year ago before the accident happened.

No ILS (instrumented landing system) was available.

Media reported that there was no ILS available at the airport. As known, Katmandu is 1400 meter above the see level and inside the Himalayas and Everest and almost always has heavy fog during the morning time.

The question is why the captains insisted on landing even though the runway was very slippery and having heavy fog, almost impossible for having visual landing.  

What Was My Findings, Questions and Critics:

Based on the very limited information received from the accident area my findings/questions were as below.

1)     Why this flight was scheduled for having landing at morning even though it was very obvious that every morning there are heavy fog makes it almost impossible for visual landing.

2)     Why flight schedule has been changed after the accident

3)     Why cabin crew insisted on landing even though there is no ILS and fog. Did they have any pressure for landing due to fuel efficiency

4)     The airline had 737-900 series narrow body aircraft which are capable for long haul flights such as İstanbul-Katmandu. Narrow body aircrafts would make it much easier for landing under these circumstances.  

Whats been changed since?

Turkish Airlines has decided to carry the flight time 5 hours ahead therefore will get rid off the negative whether conditions. The flight schedule will be applicable after 1^st of May, 2016. This is a very crucial and correct decision, however it is still very late decision.

Let’s hope there is no other accident until date. The second important things is the pilots were dismissed. Therefore, another question to Turkish Airlines:

Are the pilots are still guilty or have you found someone else for these wrong decisions? Will you re-hire the pilots and compensate their financial and mental losses?

Photo Credits: Spotter-Aviation-Pibracais