Accident description
Last updated: 24 May 2013
| Status: | Preliminary - official |
| Date: | 24 JAN 2012 |
| Time: | 08:30 |
| Type: | McDonnell Douglas MD-83 |
| Operating for: | Gryphon Airlines |
| Leased from: | Swiftair |
| Registration: | EC-JJS |
| C/n / msn: | 49793/1656 |
| First flight: | 1989 |
| Engines: | 2 Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219 |
| Crew: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 6 |
| Passengers: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 85 |
| Total: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 91 |
| Airplane damage: | Substantial |
| Location: | Kandahar Airport (KDH) (Afghanistan) |
| Phase: | Landing (LDG) |
| Nature: | International Scheduled Passenger |
| Departure airport: | Dubai Airport (DXB/OMDB), United Arab Emirates |
| Kandahar Airport (KDH/OAKN), Afghanistan | |
| Flightnumber: | 094 |
A McDonnell Douglas MD-83 passenger plane, EC-JJS, sustained substantial damage in a landing accident at Kandahar Airport (KDH), Afghanistan. The airplane was operated by Swiftair under an ACMI arrangement with the Gryphon Airlines.
Flight SWT094 departed Dubai Airport (DXB) at 06:08 local time on a scheduled service to Kandahar with the first officer as pilot flying. The en route part of the flight was uneventful. Kandahar approach cleared them for an RNAV (GPS) approach to runway 05, providing a direct vector to the FALOD Initial Approach Fix and to descend to 6000 ft.
Runway in use was runway 05, and wind was reported from 060° at 17 kt gusting to 24 kt, visibility 1200 m, scattered clouds at 2700 ft and broken clouds at 3000 ft, temperature 1°C, dewpoint -7°C and QNH 1018 mbar.
They flight reached FALOD (IAF) under the cloud cover and the crew established visual contact with runway at 500 ft above minimums.
At that point the airplane was fully configured for landing with flaps 40 and a speed of Vref +5. The target speed associated with a landing weight of 136,000 lbs was estimated at 140 KIAS (135 +5). The autopilot was engaged until the runway was in sight and the autothrottle until the landing. Since the captain had more operational experience at the destination airfield, he decided to take over the controls and fly the last phase of the approach. The PAPI was out of service, meaning they only had visual references to the runway and above the ground during the final part of the approach. During short final they corrected the deviation from the runway centerline by adjusting their path from right to left. During the flare, the crew noticed the airplane was shifting to the left, threatening to take them off the runway, as a result of which the captain applied a right bank angle. This caused the right wing tip to strike the ground before the wheels made contact with the ground. The captain regarded the maneuver as a hard landing, although the first officer thought they might have struck the runway. On exiting the runway, the airport control tower ordered the crew to stop and informed them of the damage they experienced.
The wing had contacted the ground some 20 m prior to the threshold, resulting in five threshold lights being destroyed by the aircraft.
Events:
Sources:
Official accident investigation report
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Photos
Map
This map shows the airport of departure and the intended destination of the flight. The line between the airports does not display the exact flight path.
Distance from Dubai Airport to Kandahar Airport as the crow flies is 1230 km (769 miles).
Distance from Dubai Airport to Kandahar Airport as the crow flies is 1230 km (769 miles).
This information is not presented as the Flight Safety Foundation or the Aviation Safety Network’s opinion as to the cause of the accident. It is preliminary and is based on the facts as they are known at this time.
