AVIATION/ MAK REPORTS ON KATEKAVIA FL9357

Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) has released its final inquiry report into the August 3 crash of KATEKAVIA Flight 9357 at Igarka, Russia. On that date, Flight 9357 was on Domestic Antonov 24RV Service from Krasnoyarsk to Igarka, with 11 passengers and 4 crew members onboard. The Antonov crashed on approach to Igarka, killing all 11 passengers and the Flight Attendant. Both Pilots and the Flight Engineer survived. In their report, MAK said the failure by the crew to abort an approach in poor weather led to the crash. The crew allowed the AN24 to descend below the minimum safe altitude of 100m (330ft) despite the absence of reliable visual contact with the approach lights of the runway. It had been attempting an NDB approach in darkness, when the twin-engined aircraft started deviating to the right of the glidepath to Igarka's runway 12. The AN24 was banking about 10-15 degrees to the right when it collided with trees, at a height of some 6m, about 480m from the threshold of the runway and over 230m to the right of the centreline. Investigation of the accident has been hampered by incomplete flight-recorder data. The cockpit-voice recorder stopped operating around an hour into the flight. But, MAK states that the flight did not receive reliable support from meteorological services. It said that the automated measurements of the weather conditions, notably the height of the cloud base, "contradicted" the observations of 2 other AN24 crews, ground personnel, and rescuers at the crash site. MAK refers to the fatal loss of a UTAIR Tupolev TU134 on approach to Samara in March 2007 and says that the timely implementation of recommendations to improve meteorological support could have prevented the Katekavia crash. Pilots of another Katekavia AN24, which attempted the approach 10 minutes after the ill-fated flight, opted to execute a low-level go-around and divert to an alternate Airport. MAK states that this crew similarly "violated the requirement" to abort the approach earlier in the descent.