Boeing 747 Cargo Jet Crashes in Canada
Thursday, October 14, 2004


HALIFAX, Nova Scotia "” A Boeing 747 cargo jet bound for Spain with a crew of seven crashed in a fireball after its tail section apparently broke off during takeoff at Halifax International Airport (search) early Thursday. All aboard were feared dead.

The MK Airlines (search) jet loaded with lawn tractors and 58 tons of lobster and fish crashed shortly before 4 a.m. local time into a largely wooded area near an industrial park north of Halifax, said Steve Anderson, a spokesman for the carrier in Sussex, England.

The flight had originated from Bradley International Airport (search) near Hartford, Conn., and stopped in Halifax for refueling en route to Zaragoza, Spain.

"Right now, we can confirm that there are believed to be no survivors as a result of the downed airplane," said Constable Joe Taplin of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (search).

The tail of the jet lay in a field at the end of the runway, inside the fence surrounding the airport. The rest of the plane cut a wide, V-shaped swath through woods and brush and came to rest in pieces less than a mile away. The tops of several trees and power poles were sheared off.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,135412,00.html

Seven dead as cargo jet crashes in Halifax


By DARREN YOURK
Globe and Mail Update

Officials have begun a preliminary investigation into why a Boeing 747 cargo jet lost its tail and crashed shortly after takeoff early Thursday morning from Halifax International Airport.

The jet, owned by British cargo carrier MK Airlines, was bound for Zaragoza, Spain, when it ran off runway 06 at about 3:56 a.m. local time and veered into a wooded area. The RCMP confirmed the plane's seven crew members -- six men from Zimbabwe and one man from South Africa -- died in the crash.

"We're going to be going 24 hours, around the clock during this investigation," Constable Joe Taplin told reporters Thursday afternoon. "It is still a major crime incident. The RCMP and Halifax Regional Police integrated major crime unit will be heading up the investigation until it can be determined otherwise what happened during the accident."

The Transportation Safety Board has also sent a team of investigators to the site. The independent agency began its work after the site was been declared safe by emergency workers.

Board spokesman Bill Fowler said it was far too early to say what caused the crash, but preliminary evidence suggests the weight of the plane was not an issue.

"We have no information to say one way or another," Mr. Fowler said. "We'll just let the investigation follow its normal course."

"...We're gathering data. We're looking for abnormalities. I haven't got enough information to make any comment or speculate what may have been the cause."

Images show the tail in a field at the end of the runway with the rest of the plane in pieces about a kilometre away.

The wings snapped off and lay in brush, which was still burning in places several hours later. A mangled engine and a charred portion of fuselage lay nearby.

It took some 60 firefighters and 20 trucks nearly three hours to control a fire caused by burning jet fuel on the ground.

The aircraft, which was travelling from Hartford, Conn., stopped in Halifax to refuel and was loaded with tractors, lobsters and fish. For the past 18 months, MK has been doing this flight twice a week.

"This is a fairly conventional flight for us," MK spokesman Steve Anderson told globeandmail.com. "We move fish out of Halifax to the Spanish market for Canadian fishermen."

The crash was the fourth for the cargo company in 12 years and the second involving fatalities. All three previous crashes were in Nigeria.

The information on the previous crashes is listed on a website for the Aviation Safety Network, an independent aviation safety watchdog.

An MK representative is headed for Halifax for a press briefing at 7:30 p.m. local time.

The Halifax airport was closed for several hours, but has resumed operations with a single runway open. All passengers are advised to check with their airline or the airport's website for the status of flights.

Transport Minister Jean Lapierre issued a statement on the crash Thursday morning.

"On behalf of the Government of Canada, I would first like to say that my thoughts are with the families of the people involved in this tragic accident," Mr. Lapierre said.

"Transport Canada takes all transportation accidents seriously, and we are co-operating fully with the Transportation Safety Board in its investigation."

With a report from Canadian Press

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041014.w3crash1014a/BNStory/National/

Cargo plane crashes part of worrying trend in aviation - safety expert

Michael Tutton
Canadian Press


Thursday, October 14, 2004


HALIFAX (CP) - The fiery airplane crash that killed seven crew in Halifax on Thursday is the latest of a worrying series of accidents involving cargo jets, says an aviation safety expert.

An eyewitness said it appeared the jet that crashed, an MK Airlines 747-200, was dragging its tail on the runway before it hit a series of towers at the edge of the airport, sheering off its huge tail.

The fuselage and wings of the aircraft flew over a rural side road, ripping through utility poles and trees before bursting into flames in a wooded area about 1,000 metres from the runway.

Alex Richman, president of an aviation safety software firm based in Halifax, said the crash Thursday was the fourth for MK Airlines in 12 years, though it was only the second one involving a fatality. All three previous crashes were in Nigeria.

"One crash is too many, and a history of four crashes in a small number of years is statistically very unusual," said Richman, who has researched air crashes since 1991.

Richman says there's a pressing need to examine the safety records of cargo airlines to see if regulations need to be tightened.

"The planes are older, the planes fly at night, the nature of the operation often involves flight crews that change frequently from job to job, and there is a high pressure to perform on time," said Richman, president of Halifax-based Algo Plus Consulting.

The National Transportation Safety Board, based in Washinton, D.C., has compiled figures that show there were 116 cargo plane crashes in the United States between January 1999 and January 2004.

No figures were immediately available for Canada.

The figures "set off alarm bells," said Richman.

The 747-200 jet that crashed at the Halifax International Airport was originally built in 1980 as a combination passenger and cargo-carrying plane. Two-thirds of the aircraft was for passengers, while the remainder was used for cargo.

At some point in the past 24 years, it was converted to a cargo-only plane.

The flight was carrying 53,000 kilograms of silver hake and lobster, according to Kim West, spokeswoman for Worldwide Aviation, a shipping firm based in Waverley, N.S.

There was also an unknown quantity of lawn tractors, tractor parts and computer gear picked up from a prior stop in Hartford, Conn.

The plane had also just refueled in Halifax, adding to its weight.

However, Ross Wilson, a spokesman for the airline, said the aircraft was not overloaded.

"At the moment, everything we're talking about is speculation," he said.

The maximum payload of a standard Boeing 747-200 cargo jet is 90,000 kilograms, said Jim Proulx, spokesman for the Boeing Company.

He was unable to confirm if a converted jet has the same maximum payload, though aviation web sites indicate some 747-200s can carry up to 110,000 kilograms.

Proulx also declined to comment on whether the crash of the MK Airlines 747 had any similarities to other crashes of the aging aircraft.

"We're unable to comment on the cause of the crash," he said. "I can tell you we're helping them in the investigation."

http://www.canada.com/travel/story.html?id=87a8f0e7-bb69-42f4-9007-5b16e129bf55

Friday, October 15, 2004
˜Like Dante's Inferno'
By Richard Dooley, Peter McLaughlin & David Redwood – The Daily News with CP



TRAGIC FLIGHT: Firefighters poke through the wreckage of a Boeing 747 cargo plane after it crashed in a ball of flame yesterday while trying to take off from Halifax International Airport, killing seven aboard. (Photo: PAUL DARROW)

HALIFAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

A firefighter emerged from the thin pall of black smoke, the acrid smell of jet fuel hanging in the air.

"It was like Dante's Inferno," said the Halifax regional fireman, as he emerged from a gravel pit that became the final resting place of a doomed cargo jet.

Hours earlier, the Boeing 747 raced down Runway 06, trailing a shower of sparks.

It tried to take off with its 53,000-kilogram load of lobsters, fish and lawn tractors, bound for Spain.

It didn't make it.

Airport workers watched in horror as the jet's tail hit an earthen mound topped by navigation towers and snapped off, sending the plane careening into thick brush.

"Probably the last couple of hundred feet, there was nothing but bright white sparks like you've never seen before," said Paul Sharpe, a JetsGo worker who talked to an eyewitness moments after the crash at 3:52 a.m.

"He said there was a bit of an explosion when the tail of the aircraft hit ... and the rest was history. He just never got high enough to clear those towers."

The tail of the wide-body jet lay in a field at the end of the runway, inside the fence surrounding the airport property.

"The aircraft basically didn't take off," said Steve Anderson, an airline spokesman in Sussex, England.

"She continued her (takeoff run) and ran off the runway and ran into woods."

The careening fuselage sheared the tops of power and telephone lines, cutting a wide swath through the woods, before the biggest chunk of the fuselage came to rest at the eastern edge of the quarry "” a kilometre from the end of the runway.

Scores of firefighters hurried to the scene to put out the masive blaze created by thousands of litres of jet fuel.


One firefighter, who like the rest were under orders not to talk to the media, said the debris field was a surreal mix of seafood and off-road vehicles.

"It was filled with lobsters, ATV parts and tires," said one firefighter, who wouldn't give his name.

"It was hard to discern what were mechanical parts and what was part of the plane."

The huge aircraft, which stopped in Halifax to refuel and take on cargo, was loaded with lawn tractors, parts, computer gear and 53,000 kilograms of lobster and fish bound for Zaragosa.

The burned and crumpled fuselage looked like a blackened skeleton. Blue smoke drifted out of the debris, as firefighters spent most of the morning hosing down the wreckage and brush that was still burning near the plane.

The jet's crumpled wings lay against a bank of the pit.

Dave Carroll, a volunteer firefighter, said he arrived to fight the fire, only to see a large "fireball in the bushes."

His face smeared with soot, Carroll said he'd never seen such wreckage and was saddened by the fact "it was such a big plane and there were lives lost.

"It's one of those things you hope you never come to a second time."


All seven crew members aboard MK Airlines Flight 1602 were killed in the crash. They were from Zimbabwe, Britain and Germany.

Earlier, the plane, arriving from Hartford, Conn., had landed at the airport to take on fuel and load fish and lobsters bound for Zaragoza.

The Ghana registered Boeing 747-200 was a former passenger jet converted to carry cargo.

It's believed the plane is about 24 years old.

Investigators are looking closely at the maintenance records and history of the aircraft.

Investigators do know the plane carried less than a full load of aviation fuel, about 89,000 kilograms, when it attempted to take off, heading south along a runway that runs more or less parallel with Highway 102. But something went horribly wrong before the plane reached the end of Runway 06.

"All I seen was just the nose going up. You could see it was like it was almost dragging the behind," Darren McLaughlin told ATV News.

"It was still going down and the next thing you know ... the power went out so it was completely dark, and the plane just blew up."

Airport firefighters drove through a security gate near the end of the runway to get at the fiercely burning wreckage.

The crash site is near the Aerotech Industrial Park. The nearest homes are several kilometres away.


Transportation Safety Board lead investigator Bill Fowler said investigators aren't ruling out anything at this stage of the investigation, including whether a flock of birds struck the plane, or if the plane was too heavy for the length of the runway it was using.

He said all possibilities are being examined. Fowler added that speculation about the cause of the crash is premature until investigators have a chance to physically look at the wreckage and find the plane's flight data recorders. The jet used depleted uranium as ballast, but Fowler said it poses no health risk.

The cause of the pre-dawn crash wasn't known, but Sharpe lent support to unconfirmed reports that the 747 didn't have enough runway to take off safely.

He said the plane was supposed to leave from the end of a 2,700-metre runway, but entered through a taxiway at the 2,000-metre mark.

"From where she left, they only had about 6,000 feet and it just wasn't enough runway," he said.

Another report said it was possible the plane's tail struck the runway as it began to lift off.


John Power, MK Airlines operations manager, arrived in Halifax last night and gave a brief statement.

"The families and all of MK are grieving the loss of our friends and our fellow airmen," said Power.

Power did not release their names, but he confirmed the victims were four British nationals, two Zimbabwe nationals and one German.

All seven men lived in either Zimbabwe or South Africa.

Power said his first job is to help crash investigators.

"I'm not here to defend. I'm here to try and support this investigation," he said.

RCMP spokesman Const. Joe Taplin visited the crash site just after daybreak yesterday.

He said the sight of the charred wreckage and the sickening smell of smoke and burned aviation fuel is something he'll never forget.

"It's disturbing to see what actually took place here," he said.

"You can see where there was lots of fire on this aircraft."

Airport spokeswoman Pat Chapman said airport firefighters were on the scene within three minutes of the crash.

"We knew there was crew on board, so our priority was get to that as quickly as possible," she said.

When firefighters arrived at the crash site, they were confronted with intense heat and fireballs from the ignited aviation fuel.

"There was a lot fire, a lot of smoke and flame," said Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Services spokesman Mike LeRue.

He said the ground was covered with fuel when the first firefighters arrived.

The major part of the fuselage was burning along with trees and scattered pieces of aircraft.

Firefighters say they were lucky the crash happened near an access road, allowing trucks to get close to the wreck to spread fire suppressant foam (Foam is used to extinguish burning aviation fuel).

The fire was under control about 31â„2 hours after the crash.

The smell of fuel hung heavy in the air as firefighters struggled through brush to get at the flames.

Five fire trucks and six firefighters from the airport broke through a security fence at the south end of the airport to get at the crash site.

The fire was so intense that firefighters arriving at the airport called for backup from nearly every available fire hall in the area.

Twenty trucks and more than 60 firefighters were on the scene to put out the flames.


All flights in and out of Halifax International Airport were cancelled or delayed for several hours while emergency crews put out the fires.

About 17 flights were cancelled.

The cargo jet had clipped telephone and power poles, knocking out electricity for more than two hours for the area.

Flights resumed on one runway around 8 a.m. and schedules returned to normal around noon, said an airport official.

The crash is the only one in the airport's history involving loss of life, Chapman said.

By the end of the day, activity at the airport was back to normal.

But Runway 06 remained closed. It will stay closed today.


http://www.hfxnews.com/

Crew of 747 killed in Halifax airport fireball
'The aircraft basically didn't take off,' airline spokesman says


MIKE TUTTON
CANADIAN PRESS

HALIFAX - Reports were circulating this afternoon that a Boeing 747 that crashed on takeoff early today at Halifax International Airport, killing the seven crew members, didn't have enough runway to take off safely.

Maps, facts and photos
Trailing a shower of sparks as it dragged along the runway, the tail of the Boeing 747 snapped off seconds before the loaded cargo jet crashed into woods.

Workers at Halifax International Airport watched in horror as the tail of the giant aircraft hit an earthen mound topped by navigation towers at the end of the runway and broke, sending the plane careening into thick brush.

"Probably the last couple of hundred feet there was nothing but bright white sparks like you've never seen before," said Paul Sharpe, a JetsGo worker who talked to an eyewitness moments after the crash.

"He said there was a bit of an explosion when the tail of the aircraft hit . . . and the rest was history. He just never got high enough to clear those towers."

The tail of the wide-body plane, owned by MK Airlines Ltd. of Britain and Ghana, lay in a field at the end of the runway, inside the fence surrounding the airport property.

"The aircraft basically didn't take off," said Steve Anderson, an airline spokesman in Sussex, England. "She continued her (takeoff run) and ran off the runway and ran into woods."

The cause of the crash wasn't known, but Sharpe lent support to unconfirmed reports that the 747 didn't have enough runway to take off safely.

He said the plane was supposed to leave from the end of a 2,700-metre runway, but entered through a taxiway at the 2,000-metre mark.

"From where she left, they only had about 6,000 feet and it just wasn't enough runway," he said.

Bill Fowler, an investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, declined comment when asked if the plane took off from the wrong spot.

"I don't have any information to that effect," he said.

The fuselage and wings of the aircraft cut a wide, V-shaped swath through woods before coming to rest in pieces about a kilometre away.

"We've recovered some remains at the scene," said RCMP Const. Joe Taplin.

MK Airlines said the dead crew members were all men. Six were from Zimbabwe while the seventh was South African.

Taplin said the RCMP were treating the crash as a potential criminal investigation after reports of an explosion. He didn't elaborate.

Fowler said it's not unusual for police to take the lead in the early stages of investigations involving fatal crashes.

"We are providing technical assistance and we will continue to do so until that investigation changes, if it does, to a safety investigation," he said.

The tops of several trees and utility poles were sheered off. The jet's severed wings lay in the brush, which was still burning in places several hours later. A mangled engine and a charred portion of fuselage lay nearby.

There didn't appear to be casualties on the ground as there are no homes in the area.

"Our thoughts and our prayers go to the families of those killed in this tragedy," said Pat Chapman, a spokeswoman for the airport authority.

The Boeing 747-200, which was loaded with fuel for a flight to Spain, crashed shortly before 4 a.m. local time near an industrial park and quarry about 30 kilometres north of Halifax.

Pictures from the scene showed an orange glow in the pre-dawn sky. It took about 60 firefighters and 20 trucks about three hours to control a fire caused by burning jet fuel.

Dave Carroll, a volunteer firefighter, said he arrived to see a large "fireball in the bushes."

His face smeared with soot, Carroll said he'd never seen such wreckage and was saddened by the fact "it was such a big plane and there were lives lost."

"It's one of those things you hope you never come to a second time," he said.

The crash forced the airport to close for several hours, delaying or cancelling 17 flights. Power was temporarily knocked out, but flights resumed on one runway later in the morning.

Aside from the usual three-person crew in the cockpit, the plane was also carrying a loadmaster and a spare crew.

The weather at the time of the crash was good with a partly cloudy sky and light winds.

The huge aircraft, which stopped in Halifax to refuel and take on cargo, was loaded with lawn tractors, parts, computer gear and 53,000 kilograms of lobster and fish bound for Zaragosa, Spain.

Fowler said preliminary indications suggest the aircraft wasn't overloaded.

Anderson, the MK Airlines spokesman, said the company had never had problems with this particular aircraft.

"She's been an absolute gem," he said, noting the aircraft had been in service with the airline for about six years. He also said the company has been flying out of Halifax twice a week for the past 18 months.

The crash was the fourth for the cargo company in 12 years and the second involving fatalities. All three previous crashes were in Nigeria.

In 2001, one crew member was killed when a 747 went down about 700 metres short of the runway.

In 1996, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8F-55 struck trees during approach. There were no fatalities.

In 1992, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8 crashed and caught fire, also during final approach.

The information on the previous crashes is listed on a website for the Aviation Safety Network, an independent aviation safety watchdog.

The TSB has assembled a team of investigators in Ottawa. The board is an independent agency that investigates transportation accidents and prepares incident reports.

Fowler said the jet's flight data recorders had yet to be recovered.

The flight originated near Hartford, Conn., and the flight to Halifax was uneventful, Anderson said.

A pilot familiar with large planes said the tails of jets such as the 747 occasionally strike the ground during rotation - the point in the takeoff sequence when the pilot pulls back on the control stick, lifting the nose off the ground.

Large aircraft have so-called strike bars that protect the tail section when the pilot over-rotates and the tail strikes the runway.

"It doesn't happen that often," said the pilot, who didn't want his name used. "You can encounter turbulence right at rotation."

While tail strikes are uncommon, pilots can recover from them, he said.

Anderson confirmed the aircraft was in the process of rotating when it crashed.

In Ottawa, federal Transport Minister Jean Lapierre said "my thoughts are with the families of the people involved in this tragic accident."

Fowler said the downed jet was likely equipped with depleted uranium, a radioactive material often used as ballast in the rudders and wings of wide-body aircraft.

Depleted uranium is the dense, heavy waste produced during the making of nuclear fuel and weapons.

A 747 may contain as much as 1,500 kilograms of the material, which is denser than lead and 60 per cent as radioactive as natural uranium.

Fowler said "there is no threat or concern" about exposure to those working on the wreckage.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1097749024214&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154

Appears that it is a possibility that the plane was not traveling fast enough especially considering the heavy load it was carrying:

Investigators say crashed cargo jet not going fast enough to take off

Fri Oct 22, 6:50 PM ET Canada - Canadian Press


STEVE MACLEOD

HALIFAX (CP) - A Boeing 747 cargo jet that struggled to get in the air before crashing last week was travelling too slow to lift off safely.


Bill Fowler of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said Friday that the MK Airlines Ltd. plane was rolling up the runway at 240 kilometres an hour - about 55 km/h slower than it should have - when it crashed Oct. 14 at Halifax International Airport.


"In order to get to (296 km/h) within the runway available, they needed more thrust," Fowler said.


The jumbo jet was barely airborne when it rocketed off the end of the runway and crashed into woods, killing all seven crew members on board.


Fowler said a flight data recorder recovered from the wreckage last weekend has indicated the 747's four engines were functionally normally and wouldn't speculate on why the plane didn't have enough thrust.


However, the TSB issued an advisory Friday on the proper weighing of cargoes.


"The thrust was less than what was required or what we would have expected for the load," Fowler said in an interview.


The plane was loaded with lawn tractors, computer gear and 53,000 kilograms of seafood when it tried to leave Halifax for a flight for Spain. A 747 has a payload capacity of about 60,000 kilograms.


Investigators know the plane's tail hit the runway twice before hitting an earthen mound at the end of the runway and breaking off.


Fowler said the total weight of the cargo had not been accurately established "but we have not said at this point that this was a factor."


Investigators have determined that the shipping company didn't weigh the fully loaded pallets of seafood, providing the airline instead with an estimate based on the average weight of each box of seafood. That total wouldn't have included the weight of the wooden pallets carrying the seafood or other materials used in packing.


Fowler refused to speculate, however, that the jet may have been overloaded.


"We're not suggesting that. We don't have the information to let us go there," he said.


Fowler, the lead investigator in the crash, said there are a number of possible explanations for the low thrust of the engines. The absence of a working cockpit voice recorder will make determining the reason more difficult, he added.


The cockpit voice recorder, which monitors the conversations of the pilot and co-pilot, was also recovered but was too badly damaged to be of any use.


The plane's engines became an early focus of the investigation when Fowler revealed last week that two of them were replaced recently, raising questions about their state of repair.


Investigators are also examining whether the plane's cargo might have shifted on takeoff, making it impossible for the pilot to get in the air.





The board is also considering the account of at least one airport worker who suggested the pilot might not have taxied to the very top of the 2,700-metre runway before turning and beginning his takeoff.

The crash was the fourth in 12 years for MK Airlines, which is based in Britain and has a fleet of aircraft flying out of Ghana. Four Britons, two Zimbabweans and a German were killed in the crash.

The transcript of the final conversation between an air traffic controller and the pilot of a Boeing 747 won't be released to the public. The safety board says such transcripts are normally protected by federal law.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1845&ncid=737&e=1&u=/cpress/20041022/ca_pr_on_na/plane_down