On 20 August 2008 a McDonnell Douglas Md82 owned by the charter company Spaniards takes off from Madrid airport to Gran Canaria. But the plane that just took off, only 40 feet high, will crash on the runway, catching fire and killing 154 people.
The dynamics of the accident
On August 20, 2008 at 10:13 a.m. a domestic flight from Barcelona lands at Madrid Airport. The aircraft of the Spanish airline Spanair is being refueled and is allowed to start the engines at 1.06 p.m. and take off for Gran Canaria. The plane moves to the runway at 1:24 p.m., but the pilots notice one overheating the air temperature sensor and contact the control tower.
The plane is then examined by the technicians, who disable the probe a process that could easily have been carried out as the probe in question was not essential to the flight. Finally, on 14/23/19, after completing the checklist, the pilots increase the power of the engines, ready for takeoff. But on 14/24/23 the plane crashed to the ground right after take off causing the death 154 passengers including one Italian. Rescuers who arrived at the scene will miraculously save 18 people from the flames.
Investigations and causes of the disaster
the investigations To determine what caused the crash of Flight 5022, the manufacturers of the aircraft engines, with the help of the National Transportation Safety Board, Boeing and Pratt & Whitney were entrusted to the Comisión de Investigación de Accidentes and Incidentes de Aviación Civil (Ciaiac). The first report was issued on October 6, 2008. Investigators found the main factor that caused the tragedy Thanks to flight data recorderor the black box found after the accident.
The aircraft had taken off with the flaps at 0 degrees instead of 11 degrees as per procedure and thealarm that should have warned about the flaps not opening, didn’t work. Movable components on the wing, the landing flaps of an aircraft, are essential to increase lift during phases such as takeoff and landing. That is, they prevent the aircraft from stalling. No other anomalies were found on board and in 2009 another report highlighted that the accident was caused by a failure to lower the flaps essential for takeoff.
the Cockpit Voice Recording revealed that the checklist that the pilots perform before takeoff did not check whether the landing flaps were actually extended, but rather the entry “Adjust and check flap / slat lever and lights was omitted. The pilots were heard saying: “Flap and Slat: correct values without checking.
As the website AviationCoaching reports, during the “Takeoff Imminent Verification Checklist” one of the pilots assumed that the flap were positioned at 11 degrees when retracted instead. The error is due to several factors: the plane was delayed by 45 minutes and it was very hot, so the pilots made sure to start the engines, turn on the air conditioning and take off. Secondly, one more unfortunate coincidence must be added to the pilots’ error: the alarm, which did not signal the 0 degree position of the flaps. This happened because the fuse, previously removed by the technician, controlled both the air detection probe and the alarm.
The final report
On July 26, the Ciaiac published the final report of the investigations, which highlighted that the causes of the Spanair Flight 5022 crash were due to a number of causes error the pilot. “The pilots lost control of the aircraft due to a stall immediately after takeoff due to improper configuration of the aircraft (flaps and slats were not deployed after a series of errors and omissions); also no ‘wrong configuration’ alarm occurred”.
And again: “The drivers did not recognize the stalemate and did not intervene adequately to correct the situation, but they made it worse by reducing engine power and increasing the angle of climb. The pilots did not realize the configuration error because they misapplied the checklist for selecting and verifying flap and slat position during takeoff preparation, and specifically: They did not actuate the flap control stick and slat when reading the appropriate step in the ‘checklist after the start’. You did not verify the position of the levers and the status of the flap and slat indicator lights when going through the “Posttakeoff checklist.
The 5022 plane crash was the only one involving a Spanair company aircraft, which closed its doors in 2012 economic problems.