Disaster in Benin

[ozzy72]

A 727 has crashed just after take-off in Benin.
The aircraft couldn't retract its undercarriage and clipped a building before plunging into the Atlantic some 100 meters from shore.
So far 96 are confirmed dead, and there are 20 survivors.
The plane was carrying 156 passengers and an unknown number of crew (the co-pilot did survive!)

[Smoke2much]

Bad at any time, seems worse at Christmas .

Will

[Dan]

awful...

[Mike Thurman]

Horrible that it should happen at this time of year...

[ATI_7500]

sounds like a problem with the hydraulics system...

[BFMF]

[chomp_rock]

Horrible that it should happen at this time of year...

Horrible for it to happen at any time of year!

[Polynomial]

this worlds going mad . . . . . . earthquakes and everything like that ..  .. ..

[Hagar]

Very sad.

I have bad memories of the 727 after a terrible fatal accident at Gatwick in January 1969.* This was put down to pilot error & might be unfair to the aircraft but I never liked it after that. From these statistics I found it doesn't have a particularly good safety record. http://www.airsafe.com/events/models/b727.htm

[quote]this worlds going mad . . . . . . earthquakes and everything like that ..

[RIC_BARKER]

This is African aviation at it's worst I'm afraid.

This particular aircraft had already been refused a Lebanese registration due to maintainance concerns.

Sounds like a case of gross overloading to me. 156 seats on board and 253 tickets sold. It was a warm afternoon at a temperature of 32 deg. C with a light breeze as the 727 taxied to runway 24. Runway 06/24 is an asphalt runway, measuring 2400 (7874 feet) meters with a 61m (199 feet) overrun zone. According to FAA runway length requirement calculations, a fully laden Boeing 727-200 with JT8D-9 engines and a 25-degrees flap setting would, given the weather and airfield elevation, need a runway length of approx. 8000 feet.

This is the second disaster like this in a month, and I don't for one minute think this is going to stop now.

Ric B.

[ATI_7500]

it can never be stopped...:-/

[chomp_rock]

Maybe nature is dishing out payback because we are destroying the world...