Basel - Hamburg

On July 10, 2002 at 08:42 PM, Basel - Hamburg experienced a crash involving Saab 2000, operated by Crossair, with the event recorded near Werneuchen Brandenburg.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

20 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 20 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 4, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 16, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The twin engine aircraft departed Basel-EuroAirport on a flight to Hamburg with 16 passengers and four crew members on board. While descending to Hamburg, weather conditions deteriorated rapidly and due to thunderstorm activity with heavy rain falls and strong winds, the crew was unable to land at Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Airport and decided to divert to Bremen. Unfortunately, weather conditions were so poor that the crew was unable to land in Bremen, Hanover and Berlin-Tegel Airport as well. Due to low fuel reserve, the crew informed ATC about his situation and was vectored to Werneuchen, a former Soviet military airfield some 60 km northeast of Berlin. Werneuchen's unlighted runway has a length of 2,400 metres but has no approach aids. ATC warned the crew about the presence of a one metre high earth embankment across the runway, some 900 metres past the runway threshold which was there to avoid illegal car races. The remaining runway was still used for general aviation. Due to limited visibility caused by poor weather conditions, the crew was unable to see and avoid the earth embankment. After landing, the aircraft impacted the earth embankment, causing the undercarriage to be torn off. The aircraft slid on its belly for few dozen metres before coming to rest in the middle of the runway. All 20 occupants evacuated the cabin, among them two were slightly injured. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Aircraft reference details include registration HB-IZY, MSN 2000-047, year of manufacture 1997.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 52.6461°, 13.7411°.