Man or Machine - What Killed Kenya Airways Flight 431?

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Man or Machine - What Killed Flight 431?

Source: Africa News Service Publication date: Feb 24, 2000

Nairobi - Investigators probing the January 30 crash of a Kenya Airways aeroplane are examining a broad range of possible causes, including crew actions and mechanical systems on the Airbus A310 passenger jet.

The airline's technical manager in Nairobi, has, however, ruled out mechanical failure, saying corrective measures relating to a suspect part involved in an earlier Airbus accident "must have" been carried out. Experts on three continents studying the accident are sure to give consideration to the possibility of an engine malfunction as the reason why the aircraft plunged into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, killing 169 people.

The jet engines on the Airbus A310 were manufactured by General Electric in the United States. They are the same model (CF6-80C2) as those installed on an American Airlines' Airbus 300 that experienced an engine fire shortly after takeoff from San Juan, Puerto Rico on July 9, 1998.

That plane, bound for Miami and carrying 252 passengers and crew, managed to return safely to the San Juan airport with its left engine aflame. Minor injuries were sustained by 28 people as a result of an emergency evacuation following the landing.

No reports have been made of any engine trouble, including fire, in the case of KQ 431. The investigation of that crash has not yet been narrowed to focus on any specific possibility. "Based on all the information we have at this point in the investigation, there is nothing to even remotely suggest that there is engine involvement in the Kenya Airways accident," said Mr. Rick Kennedy, a spokesman for General Electric Aircraft Engines. "The case in Puerto Rico involved a fire. There is nothing to indicate the Kenya Airways accident involved a fire."

General Electric dispatched its own specialists to Cote d'Ivoire shortly after the Kenya Airways plane went down. Mr. Kennedy said it was his understanding that they have now returned home.

The engine fire on the American Airlines Airbus, which is similar but not identical to the Kenya Airways plane, was found to have been caused by improper installation of an engine bolt.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates civil aviation accidents in the United States, suggested in a report last November that both American Airlines and an engine overhaul facility in Germany failed to ensure installation of the correct part to prevent fuel leakage onto hot engine parts. The Safety Board also cited a failure by General Electric Airline Engines to specify the proper bolt and to correct an error concerning the part in the engine's service manual. The report further noted that Airbus Industrie, the plane's manufacturer, had failed to provide complete information about in- flight engine fire procedures for both the A300, involved in the American Airlines incident, and the A310, the model that fell into the Atlantic last month.

In an earlier report on the American Airlines mishap, the Safety Board said it "supports the corrective actions taken by General Electric Aircraft Engines and the US Federal Aviation Administration after the incident to address the causes of the engine fire." Airbus had likewise taken action in response to uncertainty about crew procedures in the case of an engine-fire warning, the Safety Board added. Notifications issued by US aviation officials about problems with particular types of aircraft are sent to foreign carriers that operate those planes, said a Safety Board spokeswoman.

Ruling out mechanical problems, Kenya Airway's technical director, Mr. Steve Clarke, said in Nairobi that if the manufacturers were informed of the default in the American Airbus, they "must have" carried out corrective measures and duly informed operators.

He said there was a procedure which manufacturers followed in notifying operators of such matters. "I am sure Kenya Airways was informed and action taken."

There have however only been five accidents involving the Airbus A310 since it came into operation in 1982, and several of those were attributed to pilot error.

Investigators looking into the KQ 431 crash are also examining the record of the plane's crew. Such a review is automatic, especially since errors on the part of pilots and other cockpit personnel are cited as the cause of more than two-thirds of all fatal air accidents. Recent research indicates, however, that some crashes blamed on crew mistakes may actually have resulted from computer malfunctions. International civil aviation standards require that flight crews undergo regular medical checks - every six months after they reach the age of 40. These examinations do not generally include in-depth psychological analysis, but rules prohibit pilots with indications of alcoholism, drug dependency or serious psychological problems from flying commercial airliners. In the United States, a pilot is not allowed to fly within 12 hours of drinking alcohol.

Fatigue among flight crews is thought to be a key cause of operational errors. US aviation standards permit pilots to work as much as 14 hours a day, and some critics argue that shifts as long as that result in significant loss of alertness. One flight expert recently suggested that pilot fatigue played a major role in a June 1999 American Airlines accident in Arkansas that killed nine people.

According to Kenya's Civil Aviation Act, cap 394, pilots are not allowed to fly more than 105 hours in 28 consecutive days. Sources at the DCA said while airlines monitor the number of hours their pilots fly, the authority also carries out independent investigations and any pilot who exceeds the limit has his/her licence suspended; continued infringements can lead to the licence being cancelled.

Investigations into the crash of flight KQ431 were initially stalled after there were also arguments over where the black box, which could contain vital leads to the possible cause of the crash, should be taken for decoding.The manufacturers wanted it to go to France. Kenya Airways wanted it to go to the UK. An agreement has since been reached that the black box be decoded in Canada.

An aviation expert in the UK, Mr. David Learmount, who works for Flight International magazine, said that there were only three countries that have the proper expertise to deal with the contents of the black box: Britain, the United States and Canada, where the KQ black box has been sent.

Most aircraft carry two crash-protected flight recorder black boxes. The first is the Flight Data Recorder and it records information such as time, altitude, air speed, speed, acceleration etc. The second is the Cockpit Voice Recorder, which records sounds from the cockpit such as pilots' conversations, flight announcements and engine noises. The survival of both is critical to investigators and thus the two recorders are located in the most "crash- survivable" part of the aircraft, usually the tail. They are also housed in titanium boxes with very high resistance to shock, impact heat and corrosion.

Aviation experts say that although there are concerns that there will be more accidents in the future, particularly over European airspace - due to the high number of planes now flying - accident rates are currently falling.

1996 was the worst year in recent history for fatalities in air accidents, when 1,945 people lost their lives. The Aviation Safety record said that since then 1,235 people lost their lives in 1997, 1,325 in 1998 and 674 last year.

Critics also say that a combination of more crowded skies and ageing aircraft could lead to more accidents in future, but both aircraft manufacturers and airlines say lessons have been learned from accidents of the past.

*Additional reporting by Tom Amoro in Nairobi and Paul Redfern in London. Publication date: February 21-27, 2000

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-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 25, 2000


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