The Dutch investigation board headed by Pieter van Vollenhoven, examining the crash of the Boeing 737-800 Turkish Airlines flight TK1951 at Amsterdam Schiphol last week, released its preliminary report.

Simply put it was a combination of a faulty instrument, a breakdown in "artificial intelligence" (AI) of the plane, pilot error, and poor weather.

The instruments and "artificial intelligence"
The plane had a faulty radio altimeter (radalt). At 1,950ft altitude, one of the two radalts suddenly gave a wrong reading which fooled the autopilot into thinking the plane was just few feet above the runway. Since the auto-throttle was also engaged, which is a perfectly normal procedure, the autopilot reduced the engines thrust to 'retard' or 'idle' mode as we normally experience just before touchdown, except this was 2,000 ft up in the air. Naturally the plane started slowing down.

Distracted pilots
In the right seat the co-pilot was receiving training in making a landing by automatic pilot. The investigators say that too much time was spent exchanging information between the instructor and the trainee, and not enough was spent checking the actual readings which would have alerted the crew to the problem in time to override the automatic pilot.

Thick fog and low cloud may also have played a part in their failure to realise their actual height.

The plane slowed down in to a stall, which is when the alarms sounded. The pilots tried to spool the engines back up, but it was too late.

Turkish Airlines' maintenance conflict
Another fact has arisen. Two weeks ago, a serious conflict arose between the union representing maintenance workers and the management of Turkish Airlines. The union warned the management of serious shortcomings in the maintenance system, including inadequate staff to cope with the rapid growth of the airline fleet, which could lead to safety risks in the air.

Sharing the blame
The investigators have concluded that blame for the accident must be shared between Turkish Airlines THY, the pilots, and the manufacturer, Boeing. The involvement of human error means that there will be legal repercussions, civil and possibly criminal, but then the pilots have already paid the ultimate price.



Is time to return to the basics ?
For long airplane manufacturers have tried to reduce the workload on pilots by automating tasks. One could say, they are trying to design the pilot out of the cockpit. The pilots have become increasingly dependent on the computers and their AI. It has become a vicious cycle to the point, many pilots now feel they are flying a computer not a plane.

Since the second radalt was working fine, one would naturally pose the question, why did Boeing build in to their AI some failsafe when the two radalts are giving conflicting information? Should Boeing not have put more thought in to this situation? A simple "whoop whoop" alarm that alerts pilots especially in this situation of conflicting instrument information before putting the engines in to idle?

Across the blogosphere I have seen many Boeing fans criticising the AI on the Airbus "Fly By Wire" system, and citing the June 26, 1988 crash of an Air France Airbus A320 as AI gone haywire.

It appears, that Boeing's AI is not much smarter either. Is it time for both these plane manufacturers to return towards the basics and give more control to the pilots? Machines are fallible, but it is humans who pay the price.

Share your thoughts via a comment.

In the mean while, Turkish Airlines has made an offer of compensation. Full details are in this release.

March 2nd, the crew of a Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-400 freighter, registration 9V-SFK performing freight flight SQ7344 from Nairobi, Kenya to Amsterdam Schiphol, Netherlands, declared an emergency reporting a fire alert and automatic activation of the cargo fire suppression system and diverted to Munich, Germany.

The aircraft landed safely, and the crew remained on board while the emergency services checked the aircraft after which they could not determine if there has been any fire or not.

The airplane was subsequently towed off the northern runway and subject to a detailed inspection. As per Singapore Airlines, the airplane was carrying flowers, mangos, other fruit and vegetables. It appears that the emanations by the mangos caused the smoke detectors to trigger, resulting in a false alert.

The airplane was allowed to take off again and reached Amsterdam with a delay of approximately 8 hours.

In India, the mango is the king of fruits and thousands of tons are grown, sold, and consumed each year. The Alphonso mango is a prized export in markets as far as the United States. No reported problems with Indian mangos or their emanations.

May be the Dutch importer should buy Indian mangos instead of African ones.

Read the incident report at AVHerald.

These powerful images made on the mobile phone seconds after the Turkish Airlines flight crashed at Amsterdram Schiphol airport. Video from Heart of the Netherlands.

Turkish Airlines THY released the names of their staff killed in crash of their Boeing 737-800 flight TK 1951 at Amsterdam, Schiphol.

A total of nine persons perished, including 3 pilots, 1 flight attendant and 5 passengers.

The pilots who died were Captain Hasan Tahsin Arısan, Murat Sezer and Olgay Ozgur and the flight attendant Ulvi Murat Eskin.

The bodies of victims will be brought to Turkey in a private flight after they are received from the officials of the Netherlands.

At the same time the airline announced compensation for the dead and injured.

Turkish Airlines will make payment of 50,000 Euros to the family members of our passengers and crew members who lost their lives in the crash, as well as the payment of from 5,000 Euros up to 10,000 Euros to those who are being treated in the hospitals. Those calling on this subject, please call +90 800 219 80 35 in order to receive information.

Turkish Airlines has just released a statement refuting rumours in the media, circulating after the crash of their Boeing 737-800 VT-JGE at Schiphol airport near Amsterdam yesterday, and clarifying their aircraft maintenance procedures.

The maintenance work of our aircraft has been carried out according to appropriate procedures.

It has become an absolute necessity to make the statement given below over the news coverage regarding the plane crash of Istanbul- Amsterdam Flight Number TK 1951:

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft involved in the accident was made in 2002, of which the last C class maintenance was completed on 22 October, 2008, and the last A class maintenance was done on 19 February 2009. Our aircraft have flown for 52 hours following the maintenance. All the maintenance work of the aircraft has been executed according to its scheduled program.

The allegation put forth in those news stories regarding the flight of this aircraft to Madrid is incomplete. In above mentioned incident, as soon as the pilot reported a malfunction of the “Master Caution Light”, the aircraft was taken out of service and the part was replaced on 23 February,2009. The aircraft had successfully accomplished landing and taking off for 8 times subsequent to the part replacement.

In reference to the issue of flaps in those news items, the component called Bonding Jumper of left Krueger Flap was changed on 28 October, 2008 and then the aircraft kept its flight service with no problems what so ever.

Being uncompromising in flight safety Turkish Airlines has been applying all those processes of maintenance under the directions of both international and domestic aviation authorities as well as the manufacturers of aircraft. The news articles covering technical defects can be easily misleading and our sole expectation is that this type of comment should be avoided.

And again, we offer our condolences to the families and friends of the passengers and crew members who lost their lives, and a speedy recovery to those passengers who are being treated for injuries. We pray for the souls of the deceased to rest in peace.

Turkish Airlines
Media Relations

I can understand the vicarious human nature to try and flush out all the gory details, especially nowadays, in our well sanitised lives. Even I suffer from it, but I have never accepted the need to speculate on reasons for air crashes or incidents, before proper investigations by the safety boards, are complete. It is a dis-service to the hundreds of people who work diligently to keep our skies safe.

You will observe, at Bangalore Aviation, I never post speculative reports about air crashes.

As usual, your comments are most welcome.

A Turkish Airlines (THY) Boeing 737-800 registration TC-JGE performing flight TK1951 crashed at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport at 10:30 local (09:30Z)

The plane carrying 135 passengers on a flight from Istanbul, broke in to three parts when attempting to land on Runway 36L near motorway A9.

There is a massive presence of emergency vehicles and crew on the scene, and there are reports of survivors. There are conflicting reports of casualties. Turkish Airlines officials claim no casualities.



All flights at Schipol have been suspended or cancelled.

Dutch newspaper AD has published this photo of the crash.
TC-JGE, pictured below at Schipol was delivered by Boeing on March 27, 2002. Construction number CN29789. The plane named Tekirdag after the city in Thrace in Turkey, was powered by two CFM56-7B26 engines and had a capacity of 165 passengers.

METAR about accident time:
250925Z 20010KT 4500 BR SCT007 BKN008 OVC010 04/03 Q1027 TEMPO 2500=

Weather. Wind 200 deg/10 kts, visibity 4500m in mist, scattered clouds 700 ft.,broken clouds 800 ft, overcast 1,000 ft,temp. 4 deg. C, barometric pressure 1027QnH.

Some more pictures :


Update 1 - 18:00GMT

Video from Reuters

As per officials 84 people were taken to hospitals, including 25 who were severely hurt. Six in critical condition. Nine fatalities have been confirmed. The pilot and co-pilot are among the dead.

The bodies of three crew members in the cockpit are still in the plane's wreckage, as per investigators who need to complete their investigations before taking apart the cockpit.

The passenger count has been revised to 134 which includes, rather ironically, four employees of the plane manufacturer, Boeing.

This is the second crash of a plane just near the runway, recently. The previous one being the crash of a British Airways Boeing 777 at Heathrow.

Update 2 - 01:00GMT 26-Feb-09

Turkish Airlines issued the following statement

25.02.2009
Turkish Airlines regrets to confirm that its flight Number TK 1951 from Istanbul to Amsterdam the capital of The Netherlands was involved in an accident today near the Amsterdam Airport.

The aircraft, a B737-800 was during the landing when the accident occurred, at around 10:30 a.m. local time.

At this time, after the search and rescue operations, we have 9 casualties, and 50 passengers were injured. Turkish Airlines staff has been doing everything possible to assist the emergency services and local authorities.

There were 127 passengers and 7 crew members on board Flight Number TK 1951 and we are currently confirming the details of the passenger manifest for this flight.

Turkish Airlines has established a passenger information centre, and a toll-free number is available for family or friends of those who may have been on board Flight Number TK 1951. The phone number is: 0800 219 80 35. For those who are calling from outside Turkey, please call + 90 212 465 21 60.

Turkish Airlines will release further information as soon as it is available. Updated information will also be posted on the Turkish Airlines’ website, at www.thy.com

Update 3 - 17:00GMT 26-Feb-09

Turkish Airlines refutes speculation on reasons for crash.

Effective June 1, 2009, Delta Air Lines will change the aircraft and flight number on its Amsterdam to Mumbai service.

The current NW34/NW33 service operated by an Airbus A330-200 will be replaced by NW792/NW791 operated by a Boeing 767-300.

As per a press release Air France and KLM will operate "rescue" flights to Phuket on 1 and 2 December from Amsterdam and Paris-CDG respectively.

Due to the closure of Bankok's Suvarnabhumi international airport, Air France and KLM will operate one flight on 1st December and one flight on 2 December 2008 from Phuket Airport.

Departure from Phuket on 1 December:
Boeing 747-400 flight operated by KLM to Amsterdam
Departure from Phuket: 7pm
Arrival in Amsterdam: 4am on the next day.

Departure from Phuket on 2 December:
Boeing 747-400 flight operated by Air France to Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Departure from Phuket: 11:30pm on 2 December.
Arrival in Paris: 5:50am on the next day.

All passengers holding an Air France or KLM ticket may take one or other flight. For passengers booked on one of these flights, Air France and KLM will arrange for a bus transfer from Bangkok to Phuket (please contact Air France/KLM Agency in Bangkok).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

- IN THAILAND: CONTACT THE AIR FRANCE/KLM AGENCY IN BANGKOK: Vorawat Building 20th floor 849 Silom Road or the Call Center: 66 (0)2635 11 91

- IN FRANCE: 3654

LOG ON TO THE AIRFRANCE WEBSITE

Air France is keeping a close watch on the situation and will keep customers informed of any changes to the flight schedule in the next few days.