ATR72-600

Wings Air

On 25 December 2016, an ATR 72-600 aircraft registered PK-WGW was being operated by PT. Wings Abadi Airlines (Wings Air) as a scheduled passenger flight from Husein Sastranegara International Airport (WICC), Bandung to Ahmad Yani International Airport (WAHS), Semarang with flight number WON 1896. On board the aircraft were two pilots, two flight attendants and 68 passengers. There was no report or record of aircraft system malfunction prior to the departure. The aircraft departed from Bandung at 1734 LT (1034 UTC). The Pilot in Command (PIC) acted as Pilot Flying (PF) and the Second in Command (SIC) acted as Pilot Monitoring (PM). The flight from departure until commenced for landing approach was uneventful. At 1112 UTC, at night condition, the air traffic controller of Semarang Approach unit (approach controller) informed to all traffic that the rain was falling over the airport and the pilot confirmed whether the rain was heavy and was replied that it was slight rain. At 1115 UTC, the flight held over waypoint KENDA for separation with another aircraft and maintained altitude of 4,000 feet. Two minutes later, the flight was approved to descend to altitude of 3,000 feet. At 1118 UTC, the approach controller issued clearance for RNAV approach to runway 13 and advised the pilot to report when leaving waypoint KENDA. One minute later, the pilot reported leaving waypoint KENDA and the approach controller instructed to continue approach and to contact to the air traffic controller of Semarang Tower unit (tower controller). At 1120 UTC, the pilot advised to the tower controller that the aircraft was on final and the runway was in sight. The tower controller instructed to continue the landing approach and advised that the surface wind direction was 190° with velocity of 15 knots, altimeter setting 1,008 mbs and the runway was wet. At 1121 UTC, the tower controller had visual contact to the aircraft and issued landing clearance, the pilot read back the clearance and requested to reduce the approach light intensity. The tower controller reduced the light intensity and confirmed whether the intensity was appropriate then the pilot affirmed. At 1124 UTC, the aircraft touched down and bounced. After the third bounce, the pilot attempted to go around and the aircraft touched the runway. The tower controller noticed that the red light on the right wing was lower than the green light on the left wing. The aircraft moved to the right from the runway centerline and stopped near taxiway D. The tower controller realized that the aircraft was not in normal condition and pressed the crass bell then informed the Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) personnel by phone that there was aircraft accident near the taxiway D. At 1126 UTC, the pilot advised the tower controller that the aircraft stopped on the runway and requested assistance. The tower controller acknowledged the message and advised the pilot to wait for the assistance. While waiting the assistance, the pilot kept the engines run to provide lighting in the cabin. At 1129 UTC, the tower controller advised the pilot to shut down the engines since the ARFF personnel had arrived near the aircraft to assist the evacuation. Passenger evacuation completed at approximately 10 minutes after the aircraft stopped.

TransAsia Airways

The twin turboprop took off from runway 10 at 1052LT. While climbing to a height of 1,200 feet, the crew sent a mayday message, stating that an engine flamed out. Shortly later, the aircraft stalled and banked left up to an angle of 90° and hit the concrete barrier of a bridge crossing over the Keelung River. Out of control, the aircraft crashed into the river and was destroyed. It has been confirmed that 40 occupants were killed while 15 others were rescued. Three occupants remains missing. A taxi was hit on the bridge and its both occupants were also injured. According to the images available, it appears that the left engine was windmilling when the aircraft hit the bridge. First investigations reveals that the master warning activated during the initial climb when the left engine was throttled back. Shortly later, the right engine auto-feathered and the stall alarm sounded.

Lao Airlines

A first approach procedure to runway 15 was aborted by the crew due to insufficient visibility. On the circuit to complete a second approach in bad weather conditions, the ATR72-600 crashed some 8 km short of runway and was completely submerged in the Mekong River. None of the 49 occupants (44 pax and 5 crew) survived, among them 7 French citizens and 6 Australians. Aircraft left Vientiane at 1445LT and should arrive in Pakse one hour later. Aircraft was built and delivered to Lao Airlines in March this year. First crash involving an ATR72-600 series. Up to date, worst accident in Laos. The Laotian Authorities released the following key sentences of analysis: "Under IMC conditions, with no reference to the ground, the SOPs lead to conducting an instrument approach. In Pakse the VOR DME approach procedure is in force. There is no radar service. The flight crew has to fly to the initial approach fix or the intermediate fix at an altitude above 4600ft, then start the descent to 2300ft until final approach fix. Finally the flight crew descends to the minima (990ft), if visual references with the ground are available and sufficient the flight crew may continue until touchdown. If ground visual references are not available or not sufficient, the flight crew may level off up to the missed approach point and then must start the missed approach procedure. From the FOR data, the flight crew set 600 ft as the minima. This is contrary to the published minima of 990 ft. Even if the flight crew had used the incorrect height as published in the JEPPESEN Chart at that time the minima should have been set to 645 ft or above. The choice of minima lower than the published minima considerably reduces the safety margins. Following the chart would lead the flight crew to fly on a parallel path 345 ft lower than the desired indicated altitude. The recordings show that the flight crew initiated a right turn according to the lateral missed approach trajectory without succeeding in reaching the vertical trajectory. Specifically, the flight crew didn't follow the vertical profile of missed approach as the missed approach altitude was set at 600 ft and the aircraft system went into altitude capture mode. When the flight crew realized that the altitude was too close to the ground, the PF over-reacted, which led to a high pitch attitude of 33°. The aircraft was mostly flying in the clouds during the last part of flight."