Plane crashes off Madeira Islands
Friday, September 12, 2003 Posted: 1225 GMT (
8:25 PM HKT)
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LISBON, Portugal (AP) -- Rescue crews searched the coast of Portugal's Madeira Islands on Friday after a Beechcraft airplane crashed into the sea, apparently killing all nine people on board, officials said.
The control tower at Funchal, Madeira's capital, lost contact with the twin-engine plane about seven minutes after it took off late Thursday, Air Force Operational Command spokesman Maj. Paulo Goncalves said.
The Beechcraft 200 was carrying eight Spaniards and a British pilot from the Madeira Islands, off northwest Africa, to the southern Spanish city of Malaga, Goncalves said.
Spanish state radio said the plane's passengers were from Malaga, and that five were members of the same family.
"It's unlikely there will be any survivors," Goncalves said.
Three children were among those on board, the Portuguese national news agency Lusa reported, but it did not provide their ages.
Crews retrieved the body of a woman passenger as well as wreckage from the plane, according to Goncalves.
The Airports and Navigation Authority said the control tower at Funchal International Airport received no mayday call from the pilot.
"There was no contact to indicate there were any problems or difficulties," said Pedro Gaspar, a spokesman for the authority. "The weather conditions at the time were perfect in terms of visibility and wind speed," he said by phone.
The plane rose to 2,000 feet (600 meters) after takeoff but then veered left and dropped to 900 feet (270 meters) before disappearing from the control tower's radar screen, Gaspar said, citing a report from Funchal airport officials.
Planes, helicopters and boats were searching rocky bays where the tide was expected to carry the bodies and plane debris.
The authorities were investigating the accident.
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WebPosted Sep 4 2003 07:18 PM PDT
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VERNON, B.C.
- The Transportation Safety Board is investigating the recent
attempt by an Air Canada jet to land at the Vernon Airport instead of at
Kelowna where it was scheduled to arrive.
The Air Canada pilots had their landing gear down and were just 700 metres from the ground, when they realized their mistake and pulled up.
Local flight instructor Tyler Chambers was on a routine flight in a small plane with a student when he saw the big jet over Swan Lake north of Vernon.
He says at first he wasn't too worried about it. But when the Airbus 319 turned towards the Vernon airport with its landing gear down, he knew something was wrong.
"I thought maybe he had either two things, double engine failure and this was the last resort, landing the airplane," he says. "Or he actually mistook the airport for the wrong one."
Bill Yearwood of the Transportation Safety Board says the fires in the Kelowna area could have played a role in the pilot's mistake.
"Because of the fires in the area, there was some restricted airspace close to the airport, and that precluded the full procedures in the instrument approach."
This means the pilots had to rely on their eyes more than their instruments to navigate towards the airport.
He says the changes were made to accommodate all the air tankers, water bombers and helicopters in the area.
The runway at the Kelowna Airport is 7.400 feet long. The Vernon Airport runway is less than half that – at 3,400 feet.
The Airbus 319 requires about 3,600 feet to land safely. If the big jet had gone off the end of the runway, it could have ended up in Okanagan Lake – just a few hundred feet south of the airport. |
