Breaking News… Crash!

Ok , what do we have now.

A cargo plane , full of passengers (mainly civilians) who didn’t have any seat nor seat belt.

The back door opened at FL300 and more than one hundred people were sucked out of the plane.

As we said at the very beginning : fishy.

I have the feeling that many Air transportation rules have been violated here !

My condoleances to the families 🙁

Not far off.10,058 meters is just about 33,000 feet.

TTP. Yes the IL76 does have an overhead crane system as does the AN124. The flooring on these aircraft varied as far as I recall. Most versions had the so called “ball matting” floor system with locking points for pallets located at strategic points on the freight deck floor. On all versions there was seating that folded out length ways along the cabin walls, there was also what looked like attatchment points down the centre of the cabin floor for additional lengthways seating for military use when required. These additional seating points were usually only present on the converted military examples that had the faired over rear gun poition and the aft gunners glazed cabin at the base of the fin. Pure “civil” versions have an entirely different tail cone section minus rear turret.

ah now we have 10,000 metres – slightly diffeant to 7,000 feet – is 10,000m about 30,000ft?

To clear a few things up….

The rear door of a cargo plane burst open over Congo, hurling dozens of soldiers, their wives and children to their deaths, while others survived by clinging to the aircraft as it returned to the airport, officials said Friday. There was confusion over the death toll. Two officials at the international airport said 129 people were feared dead. Later, a third official estimated the casualties were about one-half that, saying the exact figure may be difficult to determine because of an incomplete manifest. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

The plane, a Russian-built Ilyushin 76, lost its door at about 10,000 metres, roughly 45 minutes after takeoff Thursday night from Kinshasa, the capital of the central African country, said government spokesman, Kikaya Bin Karubi. Seven people were confirmed dead and military helicopters were searching the region for more casualties, the spokesman said. Karubi did not provide details but confirmed those who died had been “ejected from the plane.” People in Africa often travel on overcrowded, modified cargo planes that have few seats, leaving most passengers to cram in among belongings in the rear of the aircraft.

“They were traumatized,” said Kabamba Mbwebwe, a doctor who treated victims. “The door opened and the plane depressurized. Many were sucked out.” The flight crew managed to fly the plane back to the capital, where it could be seen the next day on the tarmac, missing a door. Nine survivors were treated for minor injuries and psychological trauma at Kinshasa General Hospital. It was not known how many people were on the plane or whether they had seats or seatbelts.

The privately owned plane apparently had been chartered to transport Congolese soldiers and their families from Kinshasa to the southeastern city Lubumbashi, a diamond centre. Soldiers regularly provide security in Congo cities, often traveling as a group between assignments. It was not immediately known why the door came open. The weather was clear. There was no suggestion of sabotage. The plane’s owner was not immediately identified. The logo reads: Ukrainian Cargo Airlines.

What are the chances that the new media interpreted the report wrong and rather than being 7000 feet it was 7000 meters? At 7000 meters, this situation would be a lot more severe and expected.

Not that the new media ever gets anything wrong when discussing aviation. 🙂

7000ft? 2333mts? At this altitude, there is very little pressure difference. To get litterally sucked out, you would have to be in region of 18000ft+. At 7000ft in a passenger aircraft the seatbelt sign should still be on! What are the chances these days of an IL-76 being in passenger variant anyway. There is very few left. I reckon the truth is that it was a special flight for these “special police” trying to fly low enough to avoid I.D.(I don’t think there is any radar out there!) and some rebels cought hold of the news and bang! Thats kind’a my theory anyway. Any others?

Interflug 62,
Yes the 141 has a winch as well, I may be wrong but was the IL-76 equipped with the over-head crane that ran the length of the cargo compartment? or was that the AN-124? Flew alot into Russia in the late 80’s early 90’s and had many tours of TU-134’s and 154’s as well as some propliners, but never any mil stuff as you would expect. It was an interesting period to be in the old USSR.

shows the negligence in some part of the world by there governments and the the rest of the globe.

Even with the cargo area pressurized the pressure differential would be negligible at 7,000 feet. So rapid decompression at that altitude wouldn’t have the force to really blow anyone out an opened hatch or door.

The percentage of casualties is extremely high in this accident. An aircraft even of that size would have it’s cabin altitude equalize within a few seconds. It seemed from the article that the situation developed at a pace that allowed the pilots to announce to the passengers to move to the front all the while people were still falling out the rear.

At 7000′ there’s a chance that they were still climbing which would put the aircraft in a nose high attitude. When the cargo door opened, the passangers were basically dumped out of the rear of the aircraft. The pilots might have been unaware the severity of the problem in the back. A light up front saying the cargo door isn’t locked shut doesn’t necessarily mean the door is hanging open. The pilots could have assumed the door was closed but not locked, made an announcement for everyone to move forward away from the door and continued to climb (if they were doing so).

Anyone know if the cargo floor of the Il-76’s have rollers on them? It could be tough to stop yourself if your standing or sitting on some well greased rollers. Not only would you have to contend with that but the 100 people pushing down on you that couldn’t stop themselves because of the rollers.

I know this is a matter of backseat driving but it’s just a thought.

I think it’s bad reporting. I don’t see people getting sucked out of the aircraft at those sort of heights.

It’s strange timing though, I have just got back from London and during the flight I went for a quick walk downstairs. I was chatting to the the cabin crew by door 2 left and as I was looking out of it I thought what would happen if the door blew open. Mind you we were at 37000 feet.

Scary thought.

TTP Hi mate….I’m afraid that my only experience with the C141 is seeing them overfly my house going into Mildenhall air base, and they are one of my favourite heavylifters. By what you say the rear door systems on both types seem very similar. The inner door on the IL76 also takes a long time to close and locks with a thud that you can feel through the floor even if you are at the front of the aircraft. I was told by an Aeroflot loadmaster that it can be opened in flight providing the main cabin was not pressurised at the time, the same for the C141 I suspect. One really good system on the IL76 was the electrically operated winch! This was a real boon for the onload of tricky cargo and it ran the entire length of the freight deck, I’m not sure if C141 has this. My own opinion on this incident is that the aircraft may be one of many badly maintained specimens that are flying these days. We used to see one through Stansted that was based in Sudan quite often and its state and appearance made your “toes curl”!

Interflug,

Your description of the IL-76 ramp/door sounds very familiar to this C-141 pilot, We have essentially the same system on the Starlifter. The “bulkhead door” you describe is indeed a pressure door, beyond which the rest of the tail is unpressurized. I’m curious about the speed and altitude of this accident. I have opened the doors on the 141 hundreds of times in-flight with troops on board at altitudes exceeding 10K and speeds in the vicinity of 150-170 knots, with no adverse effects, thats what its designed to do!! also at least on the 141 the opening of the rear door takes a little time, at least enough to get away from it! I wonder if the IL-76 is much different?

Sad news. I seem to remember that when we used to ramp the IL76s at STN that at the rear of the main deck situated just inside the ramp area was a huge swing down door with massive hydraulic locking pins which formed a bulkhead between the freight cabin and the rear loading ramp. Now the closure of that bulkhead door was an integral part of the ramp closure process, at least it was on the Aeroflot and Uzbek examples. I’m pretty sure that you can’t close one securely without the other so goodness knows what went wrong here.

Very sad news indeed. 🙁

Perhaps one of our resident pilots can help? Even if the aircraft was at 7,000 feet, didn’t one report suggest a hydraulic problem leading to the opening of the ramp? Wouldn’t the loss of hydraulic pressure lead to the aircraft being very difficult (if not almost impossible) to control? With the aircraft lurching about the sky and no-one strapped in the passengers were probably flung out of the aircraft rather than sucked out.

Either way, a tragedy.

Regards,

kev35

They said on the radio news broadcast in my car this evening that the plane was at 10,000 ft????

Perhaps a few of them were leaning against the door when it happened?

I’m just thinking . If this plane was flying at 7000 feet , is this high enough to suck people out because of the depressurization?

If they just herd 200+ people onto a plane like cattle, what makes you think they have lawyers?