2015 Senegal mid-air collision

Coordinates: 13°32′N 12°29′W / 13.53°N 12.48°W / 13.53; -12.48
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2015 Senegal mid-air collision
Accident
Date5 September 2015 (2015-09-05)
Summary
Ouagadougou Airport, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
DestinationLéopold Sédar Senghor International Airport, Dakar, Senegal
Occupants7
Passengers4
Crew3
Fatalities7
Survivors0

On 5 September 2015, CEIBA Intercontinental Flight 071, a

Hawker Siddeley HS-125 air ambulance jet operated by Senegalair
. The 737 was slightly damaged and managed to land safely at Malabo, but the HS-125, after remaining airborne for almost an hour with the crew unresponsive, eventually crashed into the ocean, killing all seven people on board.

Accident

The two aircraft collided at 18:13 approximately 130 km (80 mi) east of

flight data recorder as a brief oscillation and an uncommanded yaw promptly corrected by the autopilot.[2]

It is believed that air ambulance 6V-AIM was struck on the fuselage, resulting in the loss of cabin pressure and the incapacitation of the crew. The HS-125 continued flying for a further 55 minutes without the crew responding to any of the several attempts made to contact them. It flew past Dakar, its intended destination, before presumably running out of fuel and crashing into the Atlantic Ocean around 110 km (70 mi) west of Dakar. The wreckage was not recovered.[3]

The crew of the CEIBA 737 in the meantime had assessed that their aircraft was operating normally, and decided to skip the scheduled stopover at Cotonou, Benin, and instead continue directly to Malabo (the airline's operating base), where it landed without further incident.[4][5]

Aircraft

The CEIBA aircraft was a

Hawker Siddeley HS-125-700A, Senegalese registration 6V-AIM, that had been in service since 1979.[3][6]

Passengers

Of the deceased victims, three were

Democratic Republic of Congo and France.[7]

Investigation

In August 2017, the Senegalese

Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA Sénégal) released a final report stating that the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the HS-125 crew to maintain the assigned flight level, which the crew had correctly acknowledged and read back to the air traffic control.[8]

The report also noted that there had been previous incidents involving 6V-AIM in which a significant discrepancy was registered between the altitude indicated by the plane's altimeters and

pitot-static system that may also have contributed to the accident. The report also lists as a possible contributing factor a failure by Senegalair's crew and maintenance staff to comply with established procedures, mentioning several previous detected instances.[9][4]

Both aircraft were equipped with

TCAS collision avoidance system, and the CEIBA 737's unit was subsequently analysed and found to be working correctly. Despite this, the CEIBA crew received no TCAS warnings prior to the collision, a circumstance that according to the report could have been the result of the HS-125's instrument failure and resulting discrepancy between the altitude information shown on the altimeter and the one fed to the transponder and TCAS systems.[10]

Aftermath

The 737-800 was repaired and returned to service with CEIBA Intercontinental. In January 2019, the aircraft was re-registered to Ethiopian registration as ET-AWR.

better source needed
]

See also

References

  1. ^ BEA Sénégal 2017, Annex 1.
  2. ^ BEA Sénégal 2017, section 1.11.3.
  3. ^ a b "ASN Aircraft accident Hawker Siddeley HS-125-700A 6V-AIM Dakar, Senegal". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  4. ^ a b Hradecky, Simon (21 August 2017). "Accident: Ceiba Intercontinental B738 over Senegal on Sep 5th 2015, midair collision with ambulance jet (updated)". The Aviation Herald. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  5. ^ Kaminski-Morrow, David (22 August 2017). "BAe 125 altimeter flaw suspected after 737 mid-air collision". FlightGlobal. Archived from the original on 14 August 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  6. ^ "ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 737-8FB (WL) 3C-LLY Tambacounda". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  7. ^ BEA Senegal, p. 13 (PDF p. 14).
  8. ^ BEA Sénégal 2017, section 3.2.1.
  9. ^ BEA Sénégal 2017, section 3.2.2.
  10. ^ BEA Sénégal 2017, p. 108.
  11. ^ "ET-AWR Ceiba Intercontinental Boeing 737-800". www.planespotters.net. Retrieved 25 May 2022.

Sources

External links
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