The controllers error put the plane off course. Two seriously injured passengers were unable to move, and they burned alive as the fire overtook them. Although it was not designed to withstand a crash, it survived mostly intact, and was able to stand in for the ruined FDR. He then found two other survivors near the wreckage, a man named Pierre Lota and an 8-year-old boy who had been traveling with his father named Romain Ducloz. It also brought about a re-imagination of how airlines ought to handle the giant technological leap to the Airbus A320, and forced Airbus to rework how the A320 presented information to pilots. Three passengers were killed. So, the controller, who is aware now of the captains frustration, offers another option that will save them a bit of time: he offers to vector them to a navigational waypoint on the approach to runway 05 known as ANDLO, located at 5,000 feet. Strasbourg Airport had two runways: runway 05, which ran southwest to northeast, and runway 23, which ran the opposite way. Back in the cockpit of Flight 148, the plane is nearing its destination. There were 90 passengers and four other crew members on board. To understand what happened next, a brief explanation of the Airbus A320s descent modes is necessary. This change in turn required a considerable investment from the airline for this shift to be managed effectively. All but one of these were seated at the back of the plane. It took four hours for rescuers to locate the burning wreckage, and during that time, one of the planes black boxes were destroyed by fire exposure. The captain, who can hear the exchange, becomes frustrated with the possibility of waiting. Now, as he neared Runway 05, he calculated that a flight path angle of -3.3 would be needed to land. Operators should have methods to ensure that two inexperienced pilots are not placed together. The captain agrees with this idea, and so ATC gives them instructions on navigating toward the waypoint: he asks them to turn left to heading 230 degrees. Its stated goals were low fares and punctuality, both of which helped it cater to business travelers and put it into direct competition with Frances TGV high speed rail network. In Hecquets defense, it was easy to forget as the mode change button was not located near the associated display. To start descending, Captain Hecquet calculated the flight path angle of -3.3 degrees and had entered it into the flight management system. 29 years ago Monday, 20th of January, 1992 - France : Air Inter Flight 148, a domestic scheduled passenger flight from Lyon. Of the 68 occupants on board, 60 perished. His instructions were for them to turn left onto a heading of 090 degrees, followed quickly by a second command to turn to 051 degrees (northeast) in line with the runway. This is probably because he was focused on the planes lateral position. Air Inter 148 survivor Nicolas Skourias and the eight-year-old survivor he discovered after the plane crashed The wreckage of Air Inter Flight 148 in the Vosges Mountains. The first rescuers, a group of Gendarmes, arrived at 22:49 after being led to the wreckage by the same survivor and a journalist. The first, Vertical Speed mode, allowed pilots to control the plane by entering a compass heading and a desired rate of descent (in hundreds of feet per minute). 10. If a pilot requests a change in descent rate larger than a certain threshold, the A320s computer will incrementally work up to the requested change instead of responding instantaneously. The crash of Air Inter flight 148 represented a watershed moment in French aviation safety. Survivors. It is featured in season 2, episode 5, of the TV show Why Planes Crash, in an episode called "Sudden Impact". Published Jan 17, 2021 FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 03: Illustration: airports in Orly, France On September 03, 1993 - Orly airport, Air Inter plane. [1] Accident. Flight 148 was now headed toward the airport but remained slightly to the left of the approach path, a course which would take it over the cloud-shrouded top of 2,710-foot Mount Sainte-Odile. And searchers are right to locate the plane sooner than later because, unknown to them, there are survivors and they desperately need rescue. In fact, Captain Hecquet had just 162 hours on the type, while First Officer Cherubin had just 61 hours, and he first flew passengers on the A320 less than a month earlier. 8. Season 9. Eighty-seven people were feared dead in last night's crash. The crash uncovered deadly flaws in regulations, cockpit design, and human nature. Survivors carried down the snow-covered mountainside on stretchers included a 13-month-old girl who was unscathed and a 9-year-old boy. Recommendations in the final investigation report presented changes that would fortify the layers of the Swiss Cheese. Air Inter Flight 148, an Airbus A320-111, crashes into a mountain near Strasbourg, France, killing 87 of the 96 people on board. Casualties were brought to a makeshift medical center. The controller advised that if the flight crew were to go ahead with their plan, they would be holding off traffic that was waiting to take off. Along with a flight attendant who also survived, Nicolas and Pierre found blankets from the plane to give to the other shivering survivors, and the men even built shelters for some of the more badly injured. At the time, the active landing runway was Runway 05, which meant the pilots had to execute a non-precision approach by manually working out the descent profile. Air Inter never responded to the letter. Find out why the Airbus A320 operating Air Inter flight 148, flew into a mountain while circling to land at Strasbourg Airport, France.Check out my Official . Nicolas reads their shock and can tell they didnt think anyone could have survived this kind of crash. And third, Cherubins comfort in the A320 likely allowed him to place too much trust in the planes automated systems, leading him to deprioritize monitoring tasks. So, Hecquet was forced to abandon his plan and revert to a non-precision approach directly to Runway 05, as initially suggested by Cherubin and the controller. 12. In what would prove to be a catastrophic error, Captain Hecquet forgot to press the mode change button, leaving the flight management system in HDG/VS mode. (December 2018) Click [show] for important translation instructions. They were found hours after the crash, freezing in the sub-zero conditions of the mountain. Three factors came together in that moment. and First Officer Jol Cherubin, 38, who had logged 3,600 hours . Because the plane was technically climbing at the exact instant that the captain input the steep descent, the onboard computer interpreted this as an emergency and pushed the plane toward the selected rate even quicker than it otherwise would have. It is the perfect case study of how humans interact with their environment in ways that the creators of that environment, and indeed the human actors themselves, never intended. Nine survivors banded together to keep each other alive through the freezing cold night while rescuers struggled for hours to find the plane. Flight 148 continued to descend like a bat out of hell, headed straight for the fog-bound summit of Mount Ste.-Odile. Flight 148 is being commanded by 42-year-old Captain Christian Hecquet and 37-year-old First Officer Jol Cherubin. Image source: Getty Images On the 20th of January 1992, Air Inter flight 148 departed Lyon, France, on a domestic flight to. The plane, an Airbus A-320, was en route from Lyon to Strasbourg when radio contact was lost shortly before the scheduled landing at 7:25 p.m. (1:25 p.m. EST), officials said. Sensing the great public scrutiny that was about to befall the investigation into a crash of a brand-new A320, the BEA asked several international air accident investigators to join their team. But here is where things go wrong. [1][2], 1992 plane crash in the Vosges Mountains, France, F-GGED, the aircraft involved in the accident, seen in January 1991. 3. Eighty-seven of the 96 people on board were killed, while the remaining nine were all . However, Hecquet remained flying slightly left of the approach path, taking the A320 over the 2,700-foot (823-meter) Mont Sainte-Odile, which was covered in thick clouds. Google gives a higher weight to Medium articles than to reddit posts and there aren't really that many search results about a lot of these crashes. The wreckage was located shortly before midnight. An A-320 crashed into a forest on June 26, 1988, while executing a low pass during an air show at Habsheim, France. Following the crash, Airbus changed the display values so that if a pilot selected a descent rate in feet per minute, the entire four-digit number was displayed instead of just two digits (which is how the angle value was displayed). (A novel and interesting idea, but it has never been implemented.). A long investigation failed to single out one particular reason why the Air Inter Airbus A320 crashed into the Sainte-Odile mountain as it approached Strasbourg Airport in eastern France on January 20, 1992. Captain Hecquet exclaimed, ANDLO, now theyre starting to mess me about, but he complied anyway, since an approach to runway 23 didnt necessarily conflict with an instruction to overfly ANDLO. Captain Hecquet calculated that once aligned with the runway, they would need to descend at an angle of 3.3 degrees. Flight 148, commanded by Captain Christian Hecquet and First Officer Jol Cherubin, [2] departed Satolas Airport in Lyon, France. Air Inters emphasis on punctuality may have pushed the pilots into accepting an approach that dramatically increased their workload, and quite probably affected the controllers decision to offer this approach to them in the first place. The A320 upgrade was a massive technological leap for the airline and for its pilots. On the evening of the 20th of January 1992, 90 passengers and 6 crew boarded this flight, operated by a state-of-the-art Airbus A320. The pilots experience level is significant considering that the Airbus A320 was easily the most technologically advanced airliner of its time, and employed a novel philosophy surrounding the role of the pilots and the role of automation. The crash of Flight 148 ultimately highlighted issues surrounding how humans interact with the environment under stress, the importance of ergonomics and intuitive design, and the need for strict enforcement of regulations. After an accident in the US state of Virginia in 1974, the United States was the first country to mandate such systems. Despite having suffered any mechanical damage in the crash, fire from outside the plane destroys this section. Emergency services scrambled to evacuate the injured while reporters interviewed survivors at the crash site on live TV. Neither pilot noticed the mistake, even though -3,300 feet per minute is an extreme rate of descent rarely seen during normal flight. The plane, put into service in December 1988, had no record of mechanical trouble and was checked earlier Monday, the airline said. The airline set up a center at Lyon's Satolas airport for relatives of those aboard the plane. He chose a seat near the back of the plane, a choice that unknowingly saved his life. By obeying them immediately, Captain Hecquet completed the turn too early, passing ANDLO on the left instead of overflying it. The entire search and rescue operation was predicated on the assumption that it would be easy to find a crashed airliner in a populated area an assumption which proved not to be true. But the reason this article is 4,000 words long and not 1,000 is because the Air Inter disaster is a microcosm of all the factors affecting human error in aviation. He convinces them to follow him back, and it is there that the journalists discover what is left of Flight 148. Air Inter Flight 696Y was a scheduled revenue passenger flight from Lyon-Bron Airport to Clermont-Ferrand Auvergne Airport, France. But not everyone perished. These recommendations included the following: 1. Fortunately, investigators were able to retrieve some flight data using the quick access recorder, a device normally used by maintenance workers for diagnostic purposes. However, at that time the active landing runway was 05, which required a so-called non-precision approach in which the pilots would need to manually work out the descent profile. Landing there would mean making a so-called non-precision approach in which the pilots would need to manually work out the descent profile. [5] departed Lyon-Satolas (now called Lyon-Saint-Exupry Airport) at 17:20 UTC. As a workaround, Hecquet devised a plan to approach the airport as if he were landing on Runway 23 so that he could use the ILS, then loop around to land on Runway 05 visually. About 1,000 people searching the area were slowed by rain and snow. The flight was operated on an Airbus A320, which had been recently introduced at the time. Cherubin questioned Hecquet, who responded that it would take an extra ten minutes to execute such an approach. Emergency response plans should be updated to ensure that radar track information is presented to the relevant authorities within half an hour of the initiation of the search for a missing aircraft. Now the plane is going too fast to land, so the captain applies the speed brakes to slow them down. Airbus blamed pilot error in both accidents, but some aviation officials suggested a computer malfunction. The lateral position of the aircraft therefore consumed the pilots attention, to the detriment of other tasks. Regulators should look into the possibility of installing warnings at airports that will alert controllers when a plane descends below the minimum descent altitude. In just seconds, and with no time for the pilots to react, the landing gear of the plane first strikes the tops of trees before it continues to plummet downward through branches, careening across the forest floor. 1992 Air Inter Flight 148 crashed in the Vosges Mountains in France while circling to land at Strasbourg Airport. One man seated in row 14 was thrown out of the plane and regained consciousness still strapped into his seat, embedded in the snow. Flight IT-5148, which left Lyons at 6:30 P.M., was carrying 90 passengers and a crew of 6, Air Inter said. One man seated in row 14 was thrown out of the plane and regained consciousness still strapped into his seat, embedded in the snow. Furthermore, no one had been out on the top of Mount Ste.-Odile to witness the accident. On 20 January 1992, the aircraft operating the flight, an. This was, in fact, untrue. However, the systemic causes of the crash went far deeper than these discrete events. More than 1,000 rescuers searched the area today, but officials held out little hope any other survivors would be found. 13. Air Inter Flight 148 has just departed from the airport in Lyon, France at 5:20 local time on the evening of January 20, 1992. There, all the seats, as well as the passengers, are ejected into the front portion of the plane. This meant that monitoring the automation required the pilots to not merely look at the values displayed on their instruments, but consciously perform mental assessments of their significance that become instantaneous and automatic only once a pilot has accrued several hundred hours on the type. The fact that this happened is an extreme coincidence. Because the plane was technically climbing at the exact instant that Hecquet requested this steep descent, the computer interpreted this as an emergency and pushed the plane toward the selected rate more quickly than it otherwise would have. Read more F-GJVF Read more Crash of an Airbus A320-111 on Mt Sainte-Odile: 87 killed Date & Time: Jan 20, 1992 at 1920 LT Type of aircraft: Airbus A320 Operator: Registration: F-GGED Flight Phase: Landing (descent or approach) Flight Type: Scheduled Revenue Flight Survivors: Yes Site: Mountains Schedule: Lyon - Strasbourg MSN: 15 YOM: 1988 Air Inter Flight 5148 ( IT5148 / ITF5148) was a scheduled passenger flight from Lyon Satolas Airport to Strasbourg Airport in France. Victims: 87:96. . Captain Hecquet calculated that once aligned with the runway, they would need to descend at an angle of 3.3 degrees. 87 of the 96 onboard were killed. Only nine of the 96 people onboard survived. January 20, 1992 Air Inter Flight 148 was a scheduled passenger flight from Lyon-Saint-Exupry Airport to Strasbourg Airport in France. The mode change button was not located near the associated display or the input knob, making it easier to forget. He entered this into the computer without switching the mode to TRK/FPA. This ends up sealing the fate of Flight 148. Airline: Air Inter, Flight # 148. Second, the plane was also descending too fast to pass over the mountains. Until a deafening crash began to erupt throughout the cabin. A French passenger plane carrying 96 people crashed in snow and fog on a wooded ridge in eastern France Monday night. Rescuers today recovered both of the plane's black boxes, which contain information about the flight's final moments. Only 9 people onboard survived. Cherubin alerted Hecquet, who didnt respond. He then used the input knob to enter -33, but because the system was in vertical speed mode (the first mode), his entry of -33 was read as -3,300 feet per minute (which is also 1000 meters per minute) instead of -3.3 degrees. A small V/S indication near the knob on the display panel revealed the current descent mode, but it could be hard to see because the displays for both modes are on the same window. At the exact moment that Captain Hecquet selected the descent rate of -3,300 feet per minute, a pocket of turbulence caused the plane to climb for about half a second. Youre turning inside, look! The human brain can only keep track of so many tasks at once, and in a moment where the pilots were focusing on lining up with the runway, extending the landing gear, setting the flaps, and communicating with air traffic control, monitoring took a back seat. Location: Strasbourg, France. However, they were relatively new to flying the newly developed Airbus A320. The cockpit disintegrated, the wings broke off and caught fire, and the front of the fuselage peeled like a banana and folded under the plane. Flight 148 was Air Inters regular commuter flight from Lyon in southeastern France to Strasbourg in the northeast, near the German border. Flight 148 was headed for Strasbourg Airport, which had two runways: Runway 05 extended southwest to northeast while Runway 23 ran in the opposite direction. It teaches important lessons about information presentation, task saturation, and trust in automation. In the aftermath of the crash, the French BEA launched one of the most exhaustive investigations in its history, studying the disaster from every possible angle. Thus, instead of telling the aircraft to descend at an angle of -3.3, his input of -33 was understood by the computer as a descent. 3. Now here on Flight 148 a passenger will make a similar choice. Even though it was too late to save those who died on Flight 148, Air Inter installed GPWS on its aircraft even before the investigation wrapped up. Soon, the pilots announce to the cabin that they are preparing for descent, and on that cue, flight attendants begin to prepare the cabin for landing. France was one of the only countries that didnt require such systems, and Air Inter was one of the last major airlines that hadnt installed them. Meanwhile, as soon as the controller realized the plane was missing, an emergency plan sprang into action. Its capacity ranges from 130 to 179 passengers. Sections of this page. The second mode, called Track/Flight Path Angle, or TRK/FPA, allowed pilots to create a specific vector, or track, along which they wanted the plane to fly. On 20 January 1992, the Airbus A320 operating the flight crashed into the slopes of the Vosges Mountains, France, near Mont Sainte-Odile, while on a non-precision approach at Strasbourg Airport. It took rescuers four hours to reach the crash site, which is later deemed to have taken too much time, and the evacuation of survivors from the mountain took even more time. This Day in History. He guided them back to the crash site, whereupon they alerted the authorities to its location, more than four hours after the crash. On the surface level, it is easy to narrow ones understanding of the accident solely to Captain Hecquets failure to change the descent mode. A group of amateur radio enthusiasts was recruited to search for the signal from the planes emergency beacon, but the transmitter had been destroyed in the crash and did not broadcast. This meant that the plane could be anywhere in the vicinity of its last known position, and given that it went down in mountainous terrain, these arent very helpful data points. Earlier in its life, it was headquartered in the 1st arrondissement of Paris.. Air Inter was incorporated on 12 November 1954. In its final report, the commission of inquiry made a long list of revolutionary recommendations to ensure that such an accident never happens again. As this is a quick, fifty-minute flight, this route is flown frequently by business travelers. Cota said pieces of the plane continued to explode for about an hour. Jump to. Eighty-seven of the 96 people on board were killed, while the remaining nine were all injured. They were still adjusting to the A320s advanced digital cockpit displays and had not yet had time to develop an instinctive understanding of what looked right and what didnt. While heading back away from the airport towards ANDLO, the crew prepared for the approach by re-programming the computer and calculating the appropriate descent profile. The A320 was the first fully fly-by-wire aircraft, in which pilot inputs are fed to computers that then move the control surfaces. At the time of the accident, France only just started mandating that all aircraft should be fitted with GPWS technology, and Air Inter had not begun the process of installing such systems. Nicolas and Pierre instinctively took care of Romain, getting him close to one of the many crash fires that were safe enough to stand near with heat. Once the plane came to a stop, Nicolas quickly made his way out of the wreckage and discovered that he was, amazingly, unhurt. Suddenly, illuminated by the planes lights right before the eyes of both pilots, is a forest and theyre heading straight for it. An astronomically unlikely coincidence completed the sequence and sealed the fate of flight 148. 4. This page was last edited on 12 June 2023, at 15:20. The Final Blow. Flight IT-5148, which left Lyon at 6:30 p.m. (12:30 p.m. EST), was carrying 90 passengers and a crew of six, Air Inter said. The Airbus A-320, produced by a European aviation consortium, is a twin-turbofan plane, designed for short- or medium-range flights. There were only 9survivors, 8 passengers and 1 crew member. Fortunately, investigators were able to retrieve some flight data using the quick access recorder (QAR), a device normally used by maintenance workers for diagnostic purposes. The type boasted never-before-seen features, such as side-stick controls and several autopilot modes. On 20 January 1992, the Airbus A320 operating the flight crashed in the Vosges Mountains, France, near Mont Sainte-Odile, while circling to land at Strasbour. Unfortunately, he failed to convey his intentions to the First Officer and the air traffic controller. There were only 9 survivors. The planes transmitter was not relaying any signals, and no one had witnessed the plane go down. The crash site was found more than four hours later by journalists. 28 years ago. When the mountaintop loomed out of the fog a split second before impact, there wasnt even enough time to scream. Emergency Room. Airbus A320-111. The investigation looked into the abnormally long time taken to find the crash site and identified several deficiencies there as well. ATC Memes. In 2006, 14 years after the tragedy, the French court investigating the 1992 Air Inter Flight 148 fatal crash cleared six defendants from air traffic control, the airline, and a key aviation safety agency who were charged with manslaughter related to the crash. Two of the survivors were critically injured. Nepal plane crash: All 22 feared dead, no survivors found in Tara Air flight crash| Oneindia News. 2. aircraft registration number. Air Inter said it did not know what caused the crash. 40 seconds after the descent began, Hecquet commented, Well have to watch it doesnt descend. However, before he could take this thought any farther, Cherubin once again redirected his attention to their lateral position. | Column, Florida confirms it was behind California migrant flights, California officials say Florida arranged travel of 2 migrant flights, Motorcyclist dead after Hillsborough drunk driver makes U-turn in front of him, FHP says, DeSantis releases heavily redacted proposals from companies seeking Florida migrant flights contract, Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, has died in federal prison, DeSantis so far quiet about migrant flights to California, DeSantis vows to restore the name of Fort Bragg, named for confederate, Former border guards guilty in Berlin killing. But the last heading the controller gave the pilots was actually incorrect and put them on a course over the mountains. Air Inters decision to upgrade to the A320 from its previous fleet of 1960s-era Dassault Mercure and Caravelle 212 aircraft represented a massive technological leap, management of which required considerable investment from the airline. They initially dont believe him when he tells them he was on the plane. Still, a crash was not inevitable. The rear section of the plane just in front of the tail section also breaks off and catches fire, which burns quickly through the walls and flooring. This crash resulted in 154 deaths and 18 survivors. First Officer Cherubin noticed this and said, Were going youre turning inside, look. This means they are turning inside of the ideal flight course, meaning, getting off course. The captain needed to put the plane into the second mode (flight path angle), which would put the plane onto a vector that would take it to the runway threshold, including a flight path angle of -3.3 degrees. The 20-month-old girl was the only person to emerge unscathed from the wreckage of the state-run Air Inter flight, police said. survivor. Crew: 1 person. The controller immediately notices that the plane has gone missing from radar, and he urgently initiates a call for search and rescue. Date: January 20, 1992. Survivors: 9: Aircraft type: Airbus A-320-111: Operator: Air Inter: Air Inter Flight 148 was a scheduled airline flight on January 20, 1992, that crashed in the Vosges Mountains, near Mont Sainte-Odile, while circling to land at Strasbourg Airport. Air traffic controllers knew this and would sometimes help out Air Inter crews by giving them shortcuts or expedited approaches. On January 20, 1992, Flight 148, a French domestic flight, took off from Lyon Satolas Airport at 17:20, commanded by Captain Christian Hecquet (42) and First Officer Jol Cherubin (37). A search began near the planes last reported location, and 1,000 people set out on foot to find it. airline. 6. At the time of the accident, the aircraft had accumulated a total of 6,316 airframe hours.[3][4]. Passengers: 8. First Officer Cherubin noticed this and said, Were going youre turning inside, look., Hecquet didnt respond, so Cherubin repeated his comment. Air Inter Flight 148 was a scheduled airline flight on 20 January 1992 that crashed in the Vosges Mountains, near Mont Sainte-Odile, while circling to land at Strasbourg Airport.Of 96 people on board, nine survived. The combination of these three elements put flight 148 on a collision course with Mount Ste.-Odile, while the absence of any of them would have allowed the plane to clear the mountain safely. Plane that crashed after DC fighter jet scramble registered to Florida company, 2 killed in Hillsborough crash after man drives through red light, Why would Tocobaga spirits want to protect Tampa Bay residents from hurricanes anyway? We went several hundred meters, careening left and right, forward and backward.". To make matters worse, the infrequency of non-precision approaches used by Air Inter meant that its pilots rarely had to switch from VS mode to FPA mode. The search and rescue operation commenced at 18:40. 3 helicopters, 24 motorcycles and 950 people from the Police Nationale, National Gendarmerie, Scurit Civile, as well as 24 amateur radio operators participated in the search and rescue operation. [1], The pilots had no warning of the imminent impact because Air Inter had not equipped its aircraft with a ground proximity warning system (GPWS). Crews worked in 20-degree temperatures to remove injured people and bodies from the crash site in the Vosges mountains near Mont Sainte-Odile, 30 miles southwest of Strasbourg near the German border. The first officer had been with Air Inter since 1999 and had more than 3600 hours of flying experience. As the hours ticked away, Nicolas understood that their chances of being rescued were growing smaller. However, Cherubin assumed that they would execute the non-precision approach into runway 05 and began configuring the computer accordingly. Two seriously injured passengers survived the initial breakup but were unable to move, and they burned alive as the fire overtook them. Runway 05 lacked an ILS. The tail section of the plane slams down next, and when it does, it breaks off. By the time both boxes were retrieved from the burning tail section, the flight data recorder (or FDR) had been destroyed by intense exposure to the fire, and the cockpit voice recorder (or CVR) had suffered some minor damage. Based in Australia, Airbus A220, Airbus A320, Airbus A330, Airbus A340, Airbus A350, Airbus A380. The first people evacuated were evacuated, according to the final investigative report, "either on the backs of men, or with arms or even with the help of makeshift stretchers. Two of the survivors died while being transferred down the mountain into ambulances. As the survivors grew weaker, some of them set out to get help. Fire immediately bore down on what remained of the passenger cabin, forcing the passengers to flee. (The A320 display was modified so that a descent rate of -3300 shows up as -3300 instead of simply -33.). While both Captain Hecquet and First Officer Cherubin were experienced pilots, they were new to the A320: Hecquet had 162 hours on the type, and Cherubin had only 61 hours. Among them was Nicolas Skourias, a graduate student who had suffered only minor injuries in the crash. Next, the captain initiates the landing sequence, and the pilots adjust the flaps and lower the landing gear. Cherubin was more outgoing, excelled at improvisation, and appeared more at ease with the A320. Air Inter flight 148 left Lyon at 5:20 p.m. and headed north on the short, 50-minute flight to Strasbourg. (Photo by Etienne DE MALGLAIVE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images) We thought we would take a look at Air France's domestic arm, Air Inter, to see what happened to the airline and why it is no longer flying. Jump to navigation Jump to search. As a result, the crew received no warning whatsoever that they were about to crash. The plane comes down on its left side, skidding across the ground, its left side engine and wing breaking off. If you recall, we covered a story where this happened, the infamous Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash in the Andes, which we told in episode 2. 2010. Flight 148, commanded by Captain Christian Hecquet, 42, who had logged 8,800 hours including 100 hours on A320. The BEA also finds that a ground proximity warning system (or GPWS) could have saved everyone, but flight 148 didnt have one. Since runway 05 does not allow for a full autopilot approach, the pilots still must manually calculate the angle of descent. There should be a recording device that records pictures of the cockpit instruments in flight, to be used in the investigation of accidents. Media in category "Air Inter Flight 148" The following 4 files are in this category, out of 4 total. Air Crash Investigations - The Final Blow (Air Inter Flight 148) MediaEntertainment. A dozen amateur radio enthusiasts, who had been listening to emergency personnel chatter, decided to join the search efforts. This would help the pilots align the plane for landing. He then used the input knob to enter -3.3 degrees. ATC denied the pilots approach request, saying there would be a significant delay because of conflict with several aircraft departing on Runway 05 and instead offered vectors for the VOR/DME approach for Runway 05, which the pilots accepted. The A320 is the only commercial aircraft that uses computers capable of operating all flight controls. 15. By the time investigators got their hands on them, the flight data recorder had been destroyed, and the cockpit voice recorder had suffered some minor damage. Certification rules regarding the ergonomics of cockpit instruments and automation should be improved. This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in French. [8] All but one of the survivors were seated toward the back of the plane. "We fell into the forest and were brought to a stop by the trees," said Cota, 45. First Officer Cherubin informs air traffic control (or ATC) of this plan. 11. This meant that a large portion of the manpower searching for the plane was allocated to areas that probably could have been ruled out from the beginning. This allowed repeated incidents of incorrect descent mode selections to go largely unnoticed. As a result of this recommendation, Air Inter began training pilots on these topics. When introducing a new aircraft with a new design philosophy, operators should teach pilots about that philosophy and how it will affect crew communication and allocation of tasks. [8] The flight data recorder was upgraded so that it was able to withstand higher temperatures and for longer. First Officer Cherubin also failed to make the required altitude callouts as the plane descended. Delta Air Lines Pilot Recruiting. The Syndicate of Navigation Personnel, a national union, issued a statement questioning the efficiency of the guidance system aboard the A320s. In what would prove to be a catastrophic error, Captain Hecquet forgot to press the mode change button, leaving the flight management system in the first mode. The computer system that paired pilots on regular flights did not take their experience level into account, occasionally resulting in dubious pairings like Hecquet and Cherubin. Investigators should have the legal authority to ensure the safety of flight recorders immediately, without waiting for police to give them permission. Jean-Cyril Spinetta, president of Air Inter, said no signs of trouble were detected in a check of the plane early Monday. Flight IT-5148, which left Lyon at 6:30 p.m. (12:30 p.m. EST), was carrying 90 passengers and a crew of six, Air Inter said. On Feb. 14, 1990, a 3-month-old A-320 crashed while preparing for landing in Bangalore, India, killing 92 people. Few details about the passengers were available, although most reportedly were business travelers. Press alt + / to open this menu. What they discovered was that the crash occurred as a result of the convergence of a poorly designed user interface, inexperienced pilots, and the fundamental nature of human psychology. Due to their mutual dislike of one another, they spoke as little as possible, causing each man to perform his duties without telling the other what he was doing. In 1979, the International Civil Aviation Organization observed the success of this policy in the US and mandated it globally. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The court found the manufacturer and operator liable and has ordered them to pay as-yet-undetermined compensation to the relatives and survivors. It was not known if Hecquet was among the survivors. Aircraft: Airbus A320-111. Survivors were "waiting in the cold for help for several hours," Jean-Pierre Stucki, a correspondent for French television channel TF1, said from the scene. Several more passengers and a flight attendant at the back of the plane escaped the worst of the impact, finding themselves with their seats still attached to the floor even though the roof and walls had been torn away. Lastly, the BEA found that had the A320 been fitted with a ground proximity warning system (GPWS), everyone onboard could have been saved. This required pressing the mode change button to switch to TRK/FPA mode, then entering -3.3 degrees using the input knob. Pilots should be trained in crew resource management (which was not previously required in France). Machine translation, like DeepL or Google . He said the pilot, Christian Hecquet, 42, had flown for more than 9,000 hours. Odile in the Vosges Mountains, which is just 12 miles (or 19 km) from the runway. Both pilots were not very well-prepared to fly in these conditions and neither one of them could serve as a more senior pilot. When they reached this waypoint, the controller cleared flight 148 for a non-precision approach to runway 05. While the captain is focused on their descent speed, the first officer was more worried about their position relative to the runway and felt that Captain Hecquet was not working hard enough to get them back on track. He eventually encounters journalists who have joined the search and who are there to cover the crash. The planes cockpit and forward fuselage strike next, and the cockpit disintegrates, the right wing breaks off and catches fire, and the front of the fuselage peels back like a banana and folds under itself. This also contributed to Cherubins failure to make the required altitude callouts. The plane went down near Mont Sainte-Odile, a 2,500-feet peak in the Vosges mountains 30 miles southwest of Strasbourg near the German border. Although both were experienced pilots, they were new to the A320: Captain Hecquet had 162 hours on the type, while First Officer Cherubin had just 61 hours and first flew passengers on the A320 less than a month earlier. Air Inter Flight 148 was a scheduled passenger flight from Lyon-Saint-Exupry Airport to Strasbourg Airport in France. Air Crash Investigations - Control Catastrophe (Independent Air Flight 1851) . 20 January 1992 - Air Inter 148. The A320 flight computer had two navigation modes. Rescuers must basically search more than 12 square miles (or 19 square kilometers) for the missing plane. The BEA made dozens of recommendations for better pilot training that spent more time on the transition from legacy aircraft to the automated A320; greater durability in the black boxes to sustain fire exposure; having a GPWS on every aircraft; and the redesign of the autopilot displays that more distinctly differentiated between modes. Up to this point, Hecquet had been using HDG/VS mode to steer the plane onto the various compass headings given to him by air traffic control. They expected help to arrive in 30 minutes to an hour but it did not. Cherubin was also not a passive subordinate; he frequently corrected his captains mistakes and carried out procedures without having been told to do so, both traits that Hecquet found annoying. Despite air and ground searches, the wreckage was proving to be hard to find. There were 90 passengers and four other crew members on board. Experts hoped the recordings of flight data and cockpit voices would shed light on what went wrong. The result was that Cherubin and Hecquet engaged in as little discussion as possible, even when it came to important aspects of the flight. F-GGED . Air Inter Flight 5148 (IT5148/ITF5148)[lower-alpha 1] was a scheduled passenger flight from Lyon Satolas Airport to Strasbourg Airport in France. Back in the cockpit, as the plane continues its descent and is about 15 miles (or 25 km) from the airport, the controller continues to walk Flight 148 through instructions to help them align with the runway. The controller asks if Flight 148 wants to hold at 5,000 feet (or 1500 m) and wait for the traffic. However, several factors conspired to prevent the pilots from noticing the problem. As a result, the black boxes were exposed to an intense fire for a long period of time. This was exacerbated by imprecise commands from the controller and a lack of communication between Hecquet, Cherubin, and the controller surrounding each individuals intentions. The A320 flight computer had two navigation modes. And he used those exact words. On January 20, 1992, with 90 passengers and 6 crew onboard, Air Inter 148 crashed into the side of the Vosges Mountain range, just 19 kilometers from the runway. And finally, Air Inter had no system capable of aggregating pilots reports of in-flight incidents and analyzing trends in this data to find areas that should be improved. There were other factors that made them a problematic pair besides their inexperience, however. Air Inter Flight 5148 (IT5148/ITF5148)[a] was a scheduled passenger flight from Lyon Satolas Airport to Strasbourg Airport in France. Known for its short haul flights, Air Inter catered to frequent business travelers. 103 YOUR RATING Rate Documentary Crime History A 1992 crash in France's Vosges Mountains is examined, detailing the difficulties in finding the downed plane and then finding reasons for the accident. Pilots should undergo a minimum amount of training on non-standard approaches greater than that which they currently receive. The captain thought he entered -3.3 degrees; instead, he inadvertently instructed the plane to descend at an astonishing rate of -3,000 feet per minute. France was one of the only countries that didnt require such systems at the time, and Air Inter was one of the last major airlines that hadnt installed them because of the false warnings that had been generated by the system in the past. Captain Hecquet responded with a Yeah, yeah, and switched to a more easterly heading to get back in line with the runway. No distress signal was sent before the plane crashed. The police, suspicious of the civilian investigators, initially barred them from entering the site until they had carefully documented everything. Nicolas had no idea that the plane was flying too low and too fast everything to him seemed normal. Only runway 23 had an instrument landing system (ILS) that could automatically guide the plane all the way down to its threshold; runway 05 lacked such a system. It was also the first jetliner to have several never-before-seen manually selectable autopilot modes. In light of this information, Captain Hecquet abandoned his plan and agreed to loop back around to ANDLO for a non-precision approach to runway 05, as both Cherubin and the controller had originally suggested. But the investigation quickly runs into challenges. Role of Pilots, Air Traffic Controllers, and Their Training/ExperienceCaptain Christian Hecquet and First Officer Jol Cherubin had more than 12,000 flighthours combined. Hecquet was described as a slow learner, but competent once he acquired the necessary skills, while Cherubin was described as an average pilot, with no exceptional abilities or marked shortcomings. However, those who knew him noted that he was academically adept and passionate about his job. By preoccupying himself with the lateral position, he neglected to think about their vertical position. 5. However, if the plane is climbing and the pilot commands a descent, or vice versa, the computer interprets this as an emergency situation and gives the pilot greater authority by using a higher threshold and larger increments, resulting in more rapid compliance with the desired rate of descent. Contact me via @Admiral_Cloudberg on Reddit, @KyraCloudy on Twitter, or by email at kyracloudy97@gmail.com. The airline was a quasi-public entity, with several government-run enterprises holding a large stake, but it acted as a private corporation. As a result of this recommendation, Air Inter forbade pilots with less than 300 hours on type from flying together. 7. These commands were somewhat hasty. Most or all of the survivors were seated in the rear of the plane, rescuers said. The factors that caused Air Inter Flight 148 to crash in the Vosges mountains in 1992 on its descent into Strasbourg Airport, prompting a frantic search for survivors Air Crash Investigation: The Final Blow episode 7. season 8. First, the controller gave the pilots an incorrect heading while vectoring them to runway 05, which put Flight 148 on a course directly over the mountain as opposed to parallel to them. Director George D'Amato Writers Andre Barro Bernard Vaillot Carl Knutson Stars Jonathan Aris Stephen Bogaert Burke Lawrence These included improvements to training requirements, systems and equipment refinements, and certification rules around cockpit design. At any moment, one of the pilots could have noticed that the descent mode was wrong, that their altitude was too low, or that their descent rate was abnormally high. However, ICAO doesnt have legal supremacy over sovereign countries, and France did not bring its regulations into compliance with the ICAO rule, citing the number of false alarms produced by the systems. Once the wrong mode had been selected, it was difficult for pilots to detect this mistake directly. [1][9][10], The story of the disaster was featured on the ninth season of Cineflix television show Mayday in the episode entitled "The Final Blow" (also known as Air Crash Investigation as episode entitled "Crashed and Missing" or "Doomed to Fail" (S09E07)).[7]. The airline set up a center at Lyon's Satolas airport for. Emergency locator beacons should be stronger. [7], Accident investigators recommended 35 changes in their report. Get all the latest aviation news right here on Simple Flying, Writer - Nicole holds a bachelor's degree in aviation management and has worked in the CEO's office of a major flag carrier. air inter. For these reasons, the crash of Air Inter flight 148 remains highly relevant to this day. Other pilots who interacted with Hecquet and Cherubin on the day of the flight noted that they had opposite personalities and did not get along well. The crash was a rough and violent breakup, and it instantly killed both pilots and most of the passengers. Oneindia. Due to high terrain, only Runway 23 was equipped with an Instrument Landing System (ILS). Two of those who survived were critically injured. The BEA finds that Air Inter underestimated the amount of training pilots needed to effectively transition to the A320, and in fact, rushed large numbers of pilots through training to get them back to the skies and flying. Air Inter was Frances leading domestic airline for several decades, during which it was sometimes the only airline serving certain major domestic routes. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. On January 20, 1992, Flight 148, a French domestic flight, took off from Lyon Satolas Airport at 17:20, commanded by Captain Christian Hecquet (42) and First Officer Jol Cherubin (37). And compounding the problem is the fact that the airports radar isnt recorded. And so, he did what so many other survivors have had to do: he leaves the crash site on foot in hopes of encountering searchers in the forest that he could lead back to the crash site. . Both pilots were relatively new to the A320 with a combined total of only 300 hours in the aircraft,[6] but both were familiar with Strasbourg Airport as both had flown into the airport many times. The controller comes back and informs the pilots that if this is the plan they want to use, then there will likely be a delay because three other planes are currently preparing to depart from runway 05. Using the first mode, pilots could control the aircraft by entering a compass heading and the desired rate of descent. Cherubin responded by saying, I dont know why you dont try a 05 VOR DME [non-precision approach]. Hecquet responded that such an approach would require a loop back away from the airport that would add ten minutes to the flight, although this was not in fact true. The first part of the flight proceeded normally until it neared Strasbourg and the crew began to plan their descent. Only runway 23 had an instrument landing system (ILS) that could automatically guide the plane all the way to landing, and because of this capability, Captain Hecquet wanted to land on this runway. Airbus modified the interface of the autopilot so that a vertical speed setting would be displayed as a four-digit number, preventing confusion with the Flight Path Angle mode. 2021-10-27 15-01-30 mont-sainte-odile.jpg. The Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) found that Flight 148 crashed because the pilots left the autopilot set in Vertical Speed Mode instead of Flight Path Angle Mode and then set "33" for "3.3 descent angle", resulting in a high descent rate of 3,300ft (1,000m) per minute into terrain. The pilots configure the plane for landing and program its autopilot to land on the runway at Strasbourg. Operators should have programs in place to analyze flight data for trends affecting safety, and should inform regulatory authorities of any significant findings. Each layer of the Swiss Cheese represents the different factors and groups of people that are involved in the industry: the airline, pilots, technical crew, rules and regulations, and so on. Stay informed: Sign up for our daily and weekly aviation news digests. Eighty-seven of the 96 people on board were killed, while the remaining nine were all injured. emphysema. You should have rolled out on 070 [degrees].. The plane, put into service in December 1988, had no record of mechanical trouble in 6,312 hours of flying time. The smoking debris was strewn about a snowy pine forest. Regulators should look into the possibility of making flight recorders even more fire resistant. First of all, the pilots were under a high workload, particularly in the lateral plane, because they repeatedly changed their approach plan. The flight computer had two navigation modes: Heading/Vertical Speed (HDG/VS) and Track/Flight Path Angle (TRK/FPA). Air Inter Flight 148 crashed in 1992 This is a plane crash that occurred on January 20th. Tonight, onboard are 90 passengers who are in the hands of 6 crew members, including 2 flight crew and 4 cabin crew attendants. The crash site of Flight 148 with a memorial plaque Accident investigators recommended 35 changes in their report. Both pilots had extensive experience flying Air Inters legacy fleet of 1960s-era Mercure and Caravelle aircraft. Approximately 49 feet (or fifteen meters) down from the rear cabin floor was the central section of fuselage. Lastly, the pilots did not receive very extensive training on non-precision approaches on the A320. To facilitate the transition to the newer aircraft, Mercure and Caravelle pilots like Captain Hecquet and First Officer Cherubin were retrained in large numbers to fly the A320. Two A-320s have crashed since the aircraft went into service in 1988. It touches on fundamental human weaknesses that all too often were not taken into account when designing procedures and systems. 44:01. Introduced in the early 1990s, the Swiss Cheese Model is a scientific principle used to evaluate risks in various fields, including healthcare and engineering. The plane was off course, the captain selected a descent rate that was much too steep, and an obscure safety system reduced the delay in reaching said descent rate. On 27 October 1972, the aircraft operating the flight, a Vickers Viscount 724, crashed during the final approach to Clermont Ferrand Auvergne Airport. Only after Cherubin had done this did Hecquet mention that he wanted to start with an ILS approach to runway 23, at which point he overrode Cherubins previous inputs. On 20 January 1992, the Airbus A320 operating the flight crashed into the slopes of the Vosges Mountains, France, near Mont Sainte-Odile, while on a non-precision approach at Strasbourg Airport. Before its merger with Air France, the airline was headquartered in Paray-Vieille-Poste, Essonne. Eleven people initially survived the crash, including a 2-year-old girl, who escaped any sort of injury and was found wandering nearby. Flight 148 plowed headlong into the forested mountainside, careening through dense pines for several hundred meters. Air Crash Investigations - Pressure Point (Japan Air . There should be clear and obvious differences in the display when in different descent modes. Although it was not designed to withstand a crash, it survived mostly intact, and was able to stand in for the ruined FDR. This Day in History. The A320 was flying too high to comply, and thus Cherubin stated their actual intention. But they are not alone. At 18:20:33 UTC, Flight 148 crashed into the slopes of Mont Sainte-Odile at 2,620ft, 10.5 nautical miles from the airport. Captain Hecquet found another option: he planned to program the autopilot to land on runway 23 so he could use the ILS to guide him to the airport, and then once he had the airport in sight, the captain would take over the controls, and then loop around to make a visual landing on runway 05. Accessibility Help. But finding the plane would prove to be one of the greatest challenges related to this crash. A more effective strategy is to start at the flights last known location and work outward until the plane is found. On January 20, 1992, Flight 148, a French domestic flight, took off from Lyon Satolas Airport at 17:20, commanded by Captain Christian Hecquet (42) and First Officer Jol Cherubin (37). 87 of the 96 onboard were killed. For many years after the crash, survivor Nicolas Skourias only flew when he could wear the same coat he had been wearing the night of the crash. At 6:19 p.m., the crew began the next stage of their descent down to the runway. Then, with the help of a safety system, the captain accidentally sent the plane into a steep descent by using the wrong computer mode. 2. thought . Presentation of information regarding an aircrafts vertical plane should be just as prominent as that regarding its lateral plane, to encourage pilot awareness of altitude and descent rate. The BEA finds there had been several incidents at Air Inter in which pilots accidentally selected a steep descent rate after using the wrong descent mode, only to discover their mistake when they broke through the bottom of the cloud base. Source: Air Disasters Twitter, Air Inter 148 survivor Nicolas Skourias and the eight-year-old survivor he discovered after the plane crashed, The wreckage of Air Inter Flight 148 in the Vosges Mountains. PorschephileGT3 1 yr. ago By the time the emergency response teams arrived, 87 people had died, with just nine survivors. Strasbourg Airport had two runways: runway 05, which ran southwest to northeast, and runway 23, which ran the opposite way. Jan 21, 1992 AP MONT SAINTE-ODILE, France - Two of the nine known survivors of a French jetliner's crash into a snowy ridge described a terrifying 10 to 15 seconds of plowing through trees, then. Aircrash Investigation - Mayday. On 20 January 1992, Air Inter Flight 148 crashed into the Vosges Mountains while circling to land at Strasbourg Airport killing 87 people. Air Inter, which works closely with Air France, said it had no indication what caused the crash. But on July 25, 2000, Read More, Exclusive for Podcrashers: When the Space Race began, the United States and the Soviet Union Read More, Summary: On a quiet December morning in 1960, the streets of New York city turned Read More, Air Inter Flight 148s Hasty Descent Toward Death, 2023 Take to the Sky: The Air Disaster Podcast, Patreon Episode: The Unsolved Bombing of Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 21, Episode 149: The 1977 Tenerife Airport Disaster, Layover Episode: The 1970 Wichita State Football Team Plane Crash, Episode 148: Air Canada Flight 143 The Gimli Glider, Episode 147: Air France 4590 and the Story of the Concorde. It made the decision to upgrade its fleet to the Airbus A320, which was the first fully automated, fly-by-wire aircraft, in which pilot inputs are fed to computers that then move the control surfaces. Furthermore, training was insufficient as Air Intel trained its pilots in large groups. 9. However, in the early 1990s France finally mandated that all airplanes have GPWS technology with a deadline in 1992. Despite that finding, the court did find Airbus and Air Inter parent Air France liable for damages. Eleven people initially survived the crash, including a 2-year-old girl, who escaped any sort of injury and was found wandering nearby. There had been several incidents at Air Inter in which pilots accidentally selected a steep descent rate after using the wrong descent mode, only to discover their mistake when they broke through the bottom of the cloud base. The input values should be displayed with their associated units of measurement, instead of simply a number. 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