Remembering Turkish Airlines Flight 1951

TURKISH AIRLINES AIRBUS A330-303 TC-JNT (MSN 1476)

Turkish Airlines Flight 195 was a passenger flight traveling from Istanbul-Atürk Airport (ISL/LTBA) to Amsterdam-Schiphol International Airport (AMS/EHAM). It crashed during landing at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, the Netherlands on the 25th of February 2009, resulting the deaths of nine passengers and crew, including all three pilots. The aircraft crashed into a field about 1.5 km (0.9 mi) north of the Polderbaan runway 18R, prior to crossing the A9 motorway inbound, at 09:26 UTC (10:26 CET), having flown from Istanbul, Turkey. The aircraft broke into three pieces on impact. The wreckage did not catch fire.

The Dutch Safety Board has reached the following main conclusion:

During the accident flight, while conducting the approach using the instrument landing system with the right autopilot engaged, the left altimeter system displayed an incorrect height of -8 feet on the primary flight display. This value of -8 feet triggered the activation the retard flare mode of the autothrottle, causing thrust of both engines to be reduced to a minimal value (approach) in preparation for the final of the landing.

Due to the approach heading and altitude provided to the crew by air traffic control, the localizer signal was intercepted at 5.5 NM from the runway threshold with the result that the glide slope had to be intercepted from above. This obscured the fact that the autothrottle had entered the retard flare mode. In addition, it increased the crew's workload. When the aircraft passed 1000 feet height, the approach was not stabilised so the crew should have initiated a go around. The right autopilot (using data from the right radio altimeter) followed the glide slope signal. As the airspeed continued to drop, the aircrafts pitch attitude kept increasing. The crew failed to recognise the airspeed decreasing, and the pitch increase until the moment the stick shaker was activated. Subsequently the approach to stall recovery procedure was not executed properly, causing the aircraft to stall and crash.

Aircraft Information:

Airline: Turkish Airlines 

Code: TK/THY

Aircraft: Airbus A330-303 

Registration: TC-JGE

Serial Number: 329789

Engine: 2 x CFMI CFM56-7B26

First Flew: 21/01/2002

Age: 7.1 Years