Date:	Wednesday 4 March 2015
Time:	07:44
Type:	Airbus A330-303
Owner/operator:	THY Turkish Airlines
Registration:	TC-JOC
MSN:	1522
Year of manufacture:	2014
Total airframe hrs:	4139 hours
Cycles:	732 flights
Engine model:	General Electric CF6-80E1A3
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 235
Aircraft damage:	Substantial, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport (KTM) -   Nepal
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Istanbul-Atatürk International Airport (IST/LTBA)
Destination airport:	Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport (KTM/VNKT)
Investigating agency:	Nepal AAIC
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
An Airbus A330-303, operated by THY Turkish Airlines, suffered a runway excursion accident upon landing at Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport (KTM), Nepal.
Flight TK726 was a regular passenger service from Istanbul-Atatürk International Airport (IST) to Kathmandu, Nepal. The flight was the first international flight to scheduled to arrive that morning. After descending from cruising altitude, it entered a holding pattern at FL210 at 06:12 hours local time (00:27 UTC) until about 07:00 (01:15 UTC) when it was cleared for a VOR/DME approach to runway 02. This approach was abandoned at about the Missed Approach Point at 1DME and the aircraft performed a go around. The aircraft circled and positioned for a second approach to runway 02. The aircraft touched down to the left of the runway centerline with the left hand main gear off the paved runway surface. It ran onto soft soil and the nose landing gear collapsed.

The aircraft touched down at to the left of the centerline because the FMGS NAV database contained threshold coordinates for a proposed displacement of the runway 02 threshold. This was later withdrawn through a NOTAM, but had not been updated by the airline in the FMGS. Additionally, the coordinates that were initially published were inaccurate, causing the threshold coordinates to be offset to the left of the actual threshold. This had been noticed and reported by a previous Turkish Airlines flight on March 2. The changes to the FMGS had not been performed by the time TC-JOC landed at Kathmandu.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The decision of the flight crew to continue approach and landing below the minima with inadequate visual reference and not to perform a missed approach in accordance to the published approach procedure. Contributing factors were the probable fixation of the flight crew to land at Kathmandu, and the deterioration of weather conditions that resulted in fog over the airport reducing the visibility below the required minima."

02:50 UTC / 08:35 local time:
VNKT 040250Z 00000KT 3000 BR FEW015 09/09 Q1016 NOSIG

23:50 UTC / 05:35 local time:
VNKT 032350Z 00000KT 0500 FG VV/// 08/07 Q1013 NOSIG

Hemant Arjyal
Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation
Photos and videos of the accident
SKYbrary 

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