MASwings

De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter

A de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 310, operated by MASwings, sustained substantial damage in an accident at Kudat Airport (KUD), Malaysia. The copilot and one passenger died, four others were injured. MASwings flight MH3002 operated on a domestic flight from Kota Kinabalu Airport (BKI) to Kudat. The captain was the pilot flying for this sector and the first officer was pilot monitoring. As the aircraft was approaching Kudat Airfield, Kudat Tower reported the weather conditions to be: wind at 270 degrees at 17 kts gusting 31 kts. The aircraft continued the approach on runway 04 and leveled off at 500 feet with flaps set at 10°. At this point the crew noticed that the approach for runway 04 had a strong tail wind. This was evident from the indicated airspeed observed by the crew which indicated 100 kts where the airspeed for flaps 10° should be 65kts. The windsock also indicated a tail wind. Noticing the approach for runway 04 was a tail wind condition, the crew decided to go around at a height of 500ft. Maintaining runway heading, the crew initiated a go around climbing to 1,000ft making a left tear drop and reposition for runway 22. On the approach for runway 22 the captain informed the first officer that if they could not land they would return to Kota Kinabalu. The aircraft was aligned with the centerline of runway 22 and 20° flaps was set. The aircraft continued to descend to 300ft. At this point the wind appeared to be calm as the aircraft did not experience any turbulence and the captain told the first officer that he was committed to land. Upon reaching 200ft the captain called for the flaps to be lowered to full down. As they were about to flare the aircraft to land, approximately 20ft above the runway, the aircraft was suddenly hit by a gust of wind which caused the aircraft to veer to the right with the right wing low and left wing high and the nose was pointing 45° to the right of runway 22. The crew decided to go around by applying maximum power; however the aircraft did not manage to climb successfully. The flaps were not raised and were still in the full flaps down position as the crew thought the aircraft was still low hence the flaps were not raised. The aircraft continued to veer to the right with right wing low and managed to only climb at a shallow rate. The aircraft failed to clear the approaching trees ahead and was unable to continue its climb because the airspeed was reducing. The presence of a full flaps configuration made it more difficult for the aircraft to climb. As the aircraft was on full power on both the engines, it continued to fly almost perpendicularly in relation to the runway and at a low height above the ground. The aircraft hit a tree top at the airfield perimeter fencing, disappeared behind the row of trees, hit another tree behind a house. It hit the right rear roof of the house, ploughed through the roof top of the kitchen, toilet and dining area, hit the solid concrete pillars of the car garage and finally hit the lamp post just outside the house fence. It swung back onto the direction of the runway and came to rest on the ground with its left engine still running. A woman and her 11-year old son who were in the living room at the time escaped unhurt.