Seville - Seville

On May 9, 2015 at 12:57 PM, Seville - Seville experienced a crash involving Airbus A400M, operated by Airbus Industrie, with the event recorded near Seville-San Pablo Andalusia.

The flight was categorized as test and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

6 people were known to be on board, 4 fatalities were recorded, 2 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 66.7%.

Crew on board: 6, crew fatalities: 4, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. Brand new, the aircraft just came out from the manufacturer in Seville and was engaged in its first post assembly test flight. After take off from Seville-San Pablo Airport Runway 09 at 1254LT, the crew completed a 90° turn to the left bound to the north. Shortly later, three of the four engines (engines n°1, 2 and 3) got stuck at high power. The crew attempted to control the power setting to the normal mode but those three engines failed to respond. The crew reduced the engine power after selecting the thrust levers to idle. The regime of those three engines remained blocked in idle so the crew decided to return to the airport for an emergency landing. On approach, the aircraft collided with power lines, stalled and crashed in an open field located 1,6 km north of the airport, bursting into flames. Two crew members were rescued while four others were killed. The aircraft was totally destroyed by a post crash fire. The aircraft was following a test program prior to its delivery to the Turkish Air Force (Türk Hava Kuvvetleri).

Aircraft reference details include registration EC-403, MSN 023, year of manufacture 2015.