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Air Safety
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May 11, 1976, a British Airways Boeing 747 with 104 passengers and a crew of 18 aboard makes contact with the tree tops of a rubber plantation while on final approach to Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The following accident investigation transcripts, by courtesy of the Accidents Investigation Branch of the British Dept of Trade, reveal how a fundamental series of potentially fatal errors were made by the flight commander. Now read on . . .
The accident occurred during a manually flown approach to Runway 15, at night, and in good weather. The commander had elected to follow an approach procedure using the VOR and MF beacons. The aircraft descended substantially below the normal flight path and hit trees 2.2nm before the runway threshold. Following a successful overshoot the aircraft landed on Runway 33 without further incident and without injury to passengers or crew.
It is concluded that the accident was caused by insufficient monitoring of the aircraft flight path by the crew during the transition from a let-down procedure to the visual phase of a landing approach at night, inadequate planning and poor execution of the approach by the commander coupled with an approach procedure which did not allow a stabilised approach. A prolonged audio warning and possibly tiredness were contributory factors.
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