Bek Air Flight 2100
The aircraft involved in the crash pictured in 2018, one year before the crash
Accident
Date27 December 2019 (2019-12-27)
SummaryCrashed on takeoff in icy weather and ice on the wings, Pilot error
SiteNear Almaty International Airport, Almaty, Kazakhstan
43°21′55″N 77°04′17″E / 43.36528°N 77.07139°E / 43.36528; 77.07139
Aircraft
Aircraft typeFokker 100
OperatorBek Air
IATA flight No.Z92100
ICAO flight No.BEK2100
Call signBEKAIR 2100
RegistrationUP-F1007
Flight originAlmaty International Airport, Kazakhstan
DestinationNursultan Nazarbayev International Airport, Kazakhstan
Occupants98[1]
Passengers93
Crew5
Fatalities13[2]
Injuries66
Survivors85

Bek Air Flight 2100 was a domestic passenger flight from Almaty to Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, operated by a Fokker 100 that crashed on 27 December 2019 while taking off from Almaty International Airport.[3] Of the 98 people on board – 93 passengers and five crew,[1][4] 13 died in the crash and 66 were injured.[4][5] The Kazakhstani government started investigations on the same day.[5]

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft involved was a Fokker 100, built in 1996, which was previously flown by Formosa Airlines, Mandarin Airlines, Contact Air, and OLT Express Germany, before joining the Bek Air fleet in 2013 as UP-F1007. The aircraft was leased to Kam Air in September 2016, then returned. The aircraft was also leased to Safi Airways in February 2017, returned to Bek Air, and finally leased to Air Djibouti in December 2018, before being returned again. The aircraft remained in service with Bek Air until the day of the accident which destroyed it.[6][7] The airworthiness certificate of the aircraft had been renewed on 22 May 2019.[8]

The captain was 58-year-old Marat Ganievich Muratbaev and the first officer was 54-year-old Mirzhan Gaynulovich Muldakulov.[9]

Accident

The aircraft crashed into a building just after takeoff from Almaty International Airport in Kazakhstan. The plane took off from runway 05R and lost altitude shortly afterwards. During take-off, its tail was reported to have hit the runway twice.[1][10] It reportedly turned to the right and hit a concrete perimeter fence, before impacting a two-floor building in a residential area, close to the perimeter track, around 7:22 am local time.[1] The front of the aircraft broke away from the main fuselage, sustaining significant damage, and the tail broke off at the rear.

One of the survivors, businessman Aslan Nazarliev, stated he had seen ice on the wings. In a telephone conversation, he said, "The left-wing jolted really hard, I noticed that then jolted the right, and the plane began swinging as a boat."[10] Nazarliev continued, "When we took off, the plane began to shake very hard and I knew it was going to fall ... All the people who stepped on the wing fell, because there was ice. I cannot say that [before taking off] the wings were not sprayed with antifreeze, but the fact is that there was ice."[11] The temperature at the time was −12 °C (10 °F) and visibility was 1,000 m (3,300 ft), with thick fog close to the scene.[7][12]

Victims

Thirteen people, including the captain and first officer, who died in hospital nearly a month after the accident, were killed, and 66 were injured.[13] The passengers consisted of 85 adults, five children, and three infants; there were five crew.[1][8]

Nationality Passengers Crew Total
Kazakhstan 89 5 94
Kyrgyzstan 1 0 1
China 1 0 1
Ukraine 2 0 2
Total93598

Investigation

According to the Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan the preliminary results made by the commission of investigation found that the airplane struck the runway surface twice with its tail with 300-400 meters between the two tail-strikes.

At the end of the runway the aircraft made a sharp turn to the right. The landing gear had already been retracted at this time. The runway surface conditions were perfect.

The commission was looking for human factors or technical malfunctions. The flight data and cockpit voice recorders were recovered from the crash site. The captain died, while the first officer at that time was hospitalized for serious injuries so both pilots were unable to say what happened.[13]

Another pilot had reported 3 hours before the accident that frost had accumulated on the slats and tanks of his aircraft but the rest of the wings were free from frost. However, it was reported that other aircraft parked during the night had accumulated significant amounts of ice. During take-off, while climbing to 1,000 feet, there was a temperature inversion with a rise of temperature of 11 degrees Celsius.[13]

Final report

On 29 April 2022 the final report was released which stated that the probable cause of the crash was the result of an asymmetrical loss of lift from the wings during take-off which caused the airplane to stall soon after leaving the runway.

The airplane fell immediately after take off from the runway and contacted the snow-covered ground. It destroyed the perimeter fence of the airport and collided with a two-floor private building 10 meters from the airport fence.

As a result of the collision, due to excessive forces, impact destruction and compression there were 11 fatalities among the passengers, 1 fatality of a member of the flight crew and 47 passengers injured.

The loss of lift of the wings was caused by the icing accumulated on the ground.

Contributory factors

Other factors that caused the crash were:

  • Lack of analysis of the conditions at Almaty International Airport by the crew causing a failure to decide to make a more effective inspection of the entire airplane, in particular a tactile inspection of the leading edges of the wings.
  • The operators Safety Management System (SMS), only contains general provisions, specific measures were not implemented. This made it difficult to make timely identification and avoidance of risks affecting the safety of flight.
  • The collision with the two-storey building affected the consequences severely.[13]

Aftermath

The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, declared the following day, 28 December 2019, a national day of mourning and said, "all those responsible will be severely punished in accordance with the law".[8][14] Kazakh authorities suspended Bek Air's flight authorization after the accident.[15]

In late January 2020, the Aviation Administration of Kazakhstan (AAK) revealed serious safety violations at the airline. The AAK found that Bek Air pilots routinely neglected to perform a walk-around and inspect for airframe ice before take-off, and had skipped these procedures on the accident flight, in violation of operations manuals from both the aircraft manufacturer and the airline.

Despite flying in a region with severe winters, the airline conducted no special training for winter operations.

Bek Air mechanics routinely swapped parts between aircraft without keeping detailed records, and data plates had been removed from aircraft engines and other parts, hindering verification of service histories. The condition of the airline's fleet was assessed as poor.[16]

On 17 April 2020, citing the airline's failure to correct the safety violations discovered during the investigation, the AAK recalled the company's air operator's certificate and the airworthiness certificates of its remaining Fokker 100 aircraft.[17]

In May 2021, the Talgar District Court of Almaty sentenced a real estate agent and five building officials — including the former head of the Department of Land Relations of Talgar — to prison for the illegal and fraudulent sale of building sites close to the airport. Bek Air had said that the crash would have been less severe if building restrictions around the airport had been enforced.[18]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Hodge, Nathan; Renton, Adam; Britton, Bianca (27 December 2019). "Kazakhstan flight with almost 100 onboard crashes, killing at least 12 people". CNN. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  2. ↑ "Accident: Bek F100 at Almaty on Dec 27th 2019, lost height shortly after takeoff and impacted building after two tailstrikes". www.avherald.com. The Aviation Herald. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  3. ↑ Troianovski, Anton; Nechepurenko, Ivan; Matsnev, Oleg; Victor, Daniel; Tarabay, Jamie (26 December 2019). "Kazakhstan Plane Crash Kills at Least 12 People". The New York Times. Moscow and Hong Kong. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  4. 1 2 Mercy, Smail (28 December 2019). "Путаницу с количеством жертв при крушении самолета Bek Air признали чиновники" [Misunderstanding of the number of victims of the Bek Air plane crash acknowledged by government officials] (in Russian). Tengri News. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  5. 1 2 "12 killed, dozens hurt after jetliner crashes in Kazakhstan". AP News. 27 December 2019. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  6. ↑ "Bek Air UP-F1007 (Fokker 70/100 – MSN 11496) (Ex B-12292 D-AFKC)". www.airfleets.net. Airfleets aviation. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  7. 1 2 "Bek Air flight Z92100 crashes shortly after take off from Almaty". Flightradar24. 27 December 2019. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  8. 1 2 3 Boon, Tom (27 December 2019). "Fokker 100 Crashes In Kazakhstan Leaving At Least 15 Dead". Simple Flying. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  9. ↑ "Стали известны имена пилотов разбившегося самолета Bek Air" [The names of the pilots of the crashed Bek Air plane became known]. www.inform.kz (in Russian). KAZINFORM. 27 December 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  10. 1 2 Chadwick, Lauren (27 December 2019). "Survivor describes moment jet crashed into building in Kazakhstan". euronews.
  11. ↑ "Al menos 12 muertos en un accidente de avión de pasajeros en Kazajistán: "Supe que se iba a caer"" [At least 12 dead in a plane crash in Kazakhstan: "I knew it was going to fall"]. ELMUNDO (in Spanish). 27 December 2019. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  12. ↑ "Dozens survive Kazakhstan plane crash". BBC News. 27 December 2019. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  13. 1 2 3 4 "Accident: Bek F100 at Almaty on Dec 27th 2019, lost height shortly after takeoff and impacted building after two tailstrikes". avherald.com. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  14. ↑ "President Tokayev declares 28 December a national day of mourning". www.inform.kz. 27 December 2019.
  15. ↑ "Bek Air grounded after fatal Fokker 100 accident at Almaty". FlightGlobal. 27 December 2019. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  16. ↑ Sadikhova, Nargiz (21 January 2020). "Kazakhstan's Aviation Administration Reveals Violations in Kazakh Bek Air Operations". en.trend.az. Baku, Azerbaijan: Trend News Agency. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  17. ↑ Sadikhova, Nargiz (17 April 2020). "Operations certificate of Kazakhstan's Bek Air recalled following plane crash". en.trend.az. Baku, Azerbaijan: Trend News Agency. Retrieved 23 April 2020. "Since Bek Air JSC failed to fulfill instructions to rectify violations issued by AAK and the Main Transport Prosecutor's Office, the operator certificate of Bek Air JSC is recalled," the report said... AAK together with the Main Transport Prosecutor's Office conducted an unscheduled audit of the Bek Air... extreme violations of the law were identified that impacts flight safety.
  18. ↑ Smakova, Amina (12 May 2021). "The court handed down a verdict in the case of illegal land transfer near Almaty airport, where the Bek Air crash occurred". informburo (in Kazakh). Retrieved 12 December 2022.
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