In a blog I wrote here on September 8 entitled
"Some random thoughts on Hockey's darkest day ever ..." I noted that
September 7, 2011 would for all time no doubt be sadly remembered as the darkest day of all in hockey with the tragic loss of an entire team ...
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (Локомотив Яросла́вль) of the
KHL ... in a horrendous airplane takeoff accident of a
Як-42Д that crashed into the
Volga River about a mile from
Yaroslavl-Tunoshna Airport (Аэропорт Туношнаon Яросла́вль) on a flight to
Minsk to open the club's 2011-12 season.
Among the
43 lives it took (only the flight engineer survived) were those of former NHL players
Pavol Demitra, Karel Rachůnek, Ruslan Salei, Josef Vašíček, Karlis Skrastins, Alexander Vasyunov, Alexander Karpovtsev and
Igor Korolev as well as that club's new head coach, 52-year old
Brad McCrimmon, one of the steadiest blueliners in NHL history during his 18-year playing career before spending the last thirteen seasons as an NHL assistant coach with the
Islanders, Flames, Thrashers, and
Red Wings.
In my blog last week I also opined that I suspected that this accident would most likely eventually be found to
"have been 100% preventable" and that its
"probable cause" would be determined to be a product of the dismal safety standards practiced by many civil aviation carriers in Russia (and tolerated by their regulators) such as Moscow based
"Yak-Service" (Як Сервис), the operator of the Як-42Д (Registration: RA-42434, c/n 17-05) tri-jet accident aircraft it flew under the name of
"Proton Airlines" (Протон Авиалинии) that made this terrible loss even more devastatingly tragic.
Proton Airlines (Протон Авиалинии)
Operator: Yak-Service (Як Сервис)
Type: Yakovlev-42D (Як-42Д)
Reg: RA-42434
Although the official investigation is far from complete, the facts that have already started to come out informally seem to be confirming my earlier expressed concerns about some of the "third world" practices of Russian commercial aviation, and that this was an
"accident waiting to happen" sooner rather than later.
This charter carrier, which only operated a fleet of four second hand short haul 32-passenger Як-40's developed in the mid 1960's, and one late 1970's designed medium range, 100-passenger Як-42Д (the accident aircraft), had already been banned twice (in 2009 and again in 2010) from operating within the
European Union because of
"major safety deficiencies affecting flight operations" and not having
"serviceable ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization)
mandatory equipment necessary for international commercial air transport." Flying a team on such a carrier would never be allowed to happen in the NHL.
The accident took place at about 3:50 PM R2T when the Як-42Д took off in clear weather for the 540-mile flight to
Minsk but failed to accelerate to takeoff rotation speed
(VR). Instead of aborting the takeoff when failing to reach
V1 (the predetermined
"Go/No-Go" or
"critical engine failure recognition" speed) or any other time when they still had enough runway to stop (although incredibly the Як-42Д model is
NOT equipped with
engine thrust reversers), the crew continued the doomed takeoff roll and overran the otherwise way more than adequate
9,800-foot runway (RWY 23) by some several hundreds of feet before desperately rotating and attempting to climb out. With insufficient flying speed, however, the plane quickly stalled and struck a nearby navigational aid tower structure (runway localizer), burst into flame, broke in two, and crashed into the Volga near where it joins the smaller Tunoshna River.
From the start of the takeoff roll the flight had lasted less than a minute.
"I heard from (former Red Wing) Igor Larionov about the plane crash," Mark Howe, McCrimmon's long time defensive partner with the Flyers in the mid 1980's, wrote to me in an email last night,
"and he said it was pilot error. The Russian President was 10 minutes from landing at the airport and the pilots of the ill fated plane was given the option of taking off in just a couple of minutes or having to wait for an hour or so before take off. Apparently they hurried and things were not prepared as they should have been. He said the plane over shot the runway by at least 500 feet on take off and then hit a radio tower before all went fatally wrong. Not always sure what info is true when coming out of Russia, but Igor is quite credible and I suspect that is what happened. As we suspected, what a tragic loss that should have been avoided."
According to a story in the major Moscow daily newspaper
"Moskovsky Komsomolets" (Московский комсомолец), a source close to the investigation confirms that such pilot error is the leading official theory at this point.
"The commission investigating the crash has established that the plane started its takeoff run with the parking brake set,” the official said.
“The engines were powerful enough to get the plane moving along the runway, but the aircraft could not pick up the takeoff speed."
According to the source, data from flight recorders (CVR) reveals that before takeoff
"the captain, Andrey Solomentsev, asked co-pilot Sergei Zhevelov to take over the takeoff as he was feeling unwell. As it is the commander’s duty to release the parking brake, the pilots may have forgotten to do so in the swap."
“Nowadays, the qualification of co-pilots leaves much to be desired,” veteran Russian test pilot
Sergey Knyshov told the newspaper.
“If a captain suddenly feels bad, he has no choice, even if he knows he can’t rely on his co-pilot. It is nearly similar to a suicide. Russian pilots have no right to get sick. In other countries, a pilot has a right to refuse to fly three times a year without giving any reason. But in Russia it is – get some pills and move on – that’s it.”
The
Russian Federal Agency of Air Transport and the
Interstate Aviation Committee are reported to be considering insufficient in type flight experience on the part of the air crew was also a possibly contributing factor to the crash.
“We are investigating the possibility of a pilot error of the crew," an Agency investigator commented.
"The lack of experience on this type of aircraft could possibly be the cause of the tragedy. The captain had around 1,400 hours of in type flight experience while the co-pilot had only recently cross-trained for this type of aircraft from a smaller Як-40 and had only around 420 hours of flight experience."
No sports team in North America -- professional, college, amateur, or otherwise -- would ever be permitted to travel on such a carrier. Based on this, and the dismal EMS response to the fatal October, 2008 incident involving 19-year old
New York Ranger 1st round draft pick
Alexei Cherepanov while playing for
Avangard Omsk in a KHL game against
Vityaz Chekhov, players and other hockey people should really think long and hard about playing or coaching in the KHL until that league insists on a world class support structure.
Brad McCrimmon, a friend for more than a quarter of a century, will be laid to rest tomorrow (Saturday, September 17) at
Our Lady of Sorrows Church in
Farmington, MI.
RIP Beast, and the rest of those who perished so tragically with you last week. What makes these many great losses infinitely worse, however, is the possibility that they were suffered completely
needlessly as well.
Update added on September 19.
The
Interstate Aviation Committee investigators have reported the following new information:
The aircrew attempted to rotate the aircraft during the takeoff roll at a speed of approximately 185 km/h. The elevator was set to pitch upof 9-10 degrees (about half way) but the aircraft failed to respond. Six seconds later thrust settings were increased to maximum take-off power but despite this increase acceleration slowed significantly which appears to have been the result the appearance of unexplained braking force. (The aircrew apparently never attempted to abort the take off.)
The maximum speed reached was approximately 230 km/h but the aircraft failed to become airborne until 400 meters after exiting the far end of runway 23 at an elevator deflection of 13-14 degrees and stabilizer pitch of 9.5 degrees up. The aircraft failed to climb, struck the localizer antenna structure, pitched up to an angle to 20 degrees for 2-3 seconds and stalled. Its maximum recorded height was 5-6 meters.
Possible contributing causes under consideration: Inadvertent application of brakes during takeoff; weight & balance error (CG too far forward); inadvertent deployment of spoilers; trim set incorrectly; inadequate crew coordination and/or misunderstanding of instructions.
Update added on September 21.
According to Agence France-Presse:
"Russia may recall the licenses of 30 smaller airlines in response to a recent spate of plane crashes that officials blamed on poor safety procedures, the Federal Air Transport Agency said.
"The announcement came just days after President Dmitry Medvedev ordered his government to shut down unreliable airlines after the latest disaster last week killed 44 people, including all travelling members of the Lokomitiv Yaroslavl hockey team.
"Federal Air Transport Agency chief Alexander Neradko said his agency had prepared the paperwork needed to annul the licenses of three air carriers, whose names he said would be disclosed later.
"He said 30 companies in all had failed a twice-yearly safety and financial standing review, making them the "prime candidates" for having their licenses revoked.
" 'There are 30 companies in the fourth category of risk,' Russian news agencies quoted Neradko as saying."
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