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Crash: Henan Airlines E190 at Yichun on Aug 24th 2010, impacted terrain short of runway and burst into flames
By Simon Hradecky, created Tuesday, Aug 24th 2010 16:34Z, last updated Friday, Jun 29th 2012 14:23Z

B-3130 on fire
B-3130 on fire
A Henan Airlines (former Kunpeng Airlines) Embraer ERJ-190, registration B-3130 performing flight VD-8387 from Harbin to Yichun (China) with 91 passengers and 5 crew, burst into flames after the aircraft impacted terrain short of landing runway 30 at 21:36L (13:36Z). 42 people perished, 7 people received serious injuries and 47 minor injuries. All injured have been taken to local hospitals.

Yichun's emergency services said, that 43 bodies were recovered, 53 people were rescued alive. The black boxes have been recovered with no visible damage.

China's Civil Aviation Authority (CAAC) said shortly after the crash, the Embraer ERJ-190 registration B-3130 with 91 passengers (thereof 5 children) and 5 crew came to a rest approx. 1500 meters from the runway while landing at 21:36L, more than 40 people have been rescued, rescue operations continue. An accident investigation team has been dispatched to Yichun.

On Aug 25th the CAAC said, that 42 people died and 54 survived. The black boxes have been recovered and have been sent to Beijing for analysis.

Local Authorities said on Aug 25th, that visibility at the time of the accident was less than 300 meters (1000 feet) due to fog. The airplane was cleared to land, the crew reported they had the approach lights in sight. The captain of the flight is among the survivors.

The NTSB reported on Aug 26th, that the Embraer ERJ-190 registration B-3130 (engines CF34) impacted terrain about 1500 meters short of runway 30 resulting in 42 fatalities, 7 serious and 47 minor injuries. The NTSB assigned an Accredited Representative to assist the investigation as State of engine design and manufacture.

The CAAC reported subsequently, that crew fatigue was not an issue, the crew was in compliance with regulations regarding duty times. The captain (40) had been with the Air Force and joined Shenzhen Airlines in 2003 to fly Boeing 737s, converted to the Embraer ERJ-190 after the acquisition of Henan Airlines and became captain on the Embraer ERJ-190 on June 20th 2010. It was his first flight into Yichun.

The Airport Authority of Yichun countered claims, that the airport would be unsafe in night time operation, stating that the airport's instrument approach procedures as well as runway and approach lighting fully complied with international regulations. An ILS system was planned, the plans had been approved by CAAC and acquisition of land and preparations necessary to build the ILS system had already been completed, the airport hoped to get the ILS operational by end of the year. The airport's general manager was waiting for a delegation to arrive on flight VD-8387 and observed the (landing) lights of the aircraft approaching the field, when the lights suddenly disappeared. When he contacted the tower, tower told him radio contact with the aircraft had been lost. Tower reported, that the crew had indicated to clearly see the runway lights before tower cleared the flight to land.

Shenzhen Airlines, parent company of Henan Airlines, confirmed the accident and said, there were 91 passengers and 5 crew on board.

Aviation Sources in China said on Aug 24th, that at the time of the accident fog prevailed with a visibility of 300 meters. The airplane touched down approx. 1000 meters from the runway. On Sep 1st the sources reported, that the airplane touched down on rising ground 1200 meters before the runway with the left hand main gear, which collapsed at that point, a wing truncated a tree of 15cm diameter, the right hand gear touched down and collapsed, then the nose gear impacted ground and was torn off followed by the engines. The terrain is about 20 meters (70 feet) above the runway level. (Editorial note: 1200 meters before the runway threshold the airplane should be at 256 feet/78 meters on a 3 degree glideslope.)

A passenger said, that it had been a very smooth flight when the airplane touched down hard and was rocked around. The airplane was distorted and holes were in the fuselage after it came to a stand still. The passenger climbed out of a hole. About 1 or 2 minutes after stand still the airplane erupted in huge ball of fire.

Footage on state-run TV station CCTV shows the airplane came to rest in rugged brushland terrain approximately 500 meters before the runway and some distance from the approach lights well aligned with the runway centerline. The airplane had touched down some distance further out according to the wreckage trail.

Yichun's Lindu Airport [ZYLD] in the Heilongjiang province of China about 165nm northeast of Harbin Airport was opened to operation only on Aug 27th 2009 (construction began in 2008), the current route operated is Beijing-Harbin-Yichun. The airport, located 9km (4.8nm) from the city center in the Yichun Forest at approximate coordinates N47.8 E129.0, is capable to accept Airbus A320, Boeing 737 and similiar aircraft with a runway length of 2300 meters (7540 feet) and width of 45 meters (150 feet). The runway 12/30 features PAPIs for both ends, VOR/DME and NDB approaches are available for both ends.

The local weather station reported fair weather (few cloud), 20km visibility, calm winds (<4 knots), temperature at 27 degrees c and dew point 24 with 81% humidity two hours prior to the accident. 5 accident station reported light rainshowers 30km visibility, 30 26 (71% humidity).


Metars for Yichun's Lindu Airport:
ZYLD 241600Z 00000MPS 0600 FG NSC 13/13 Q1015 =
ZYLD 241500Z 00000MPS 0600 FG NSC 13/13 Q1015 =
ZYLD 241400Z 15001MPS 1000 BR NSC 12/12 Q1014 =
ZYLD 241300Z 15001MPS 8000 NSC 13/13 Q1014 =

The remains in daylight the following day (Photo: AFP/Yun kong yc):
The remains in daylight the following day (Photo: AFP/Yun kong yc)

View from crash site towards runway in daylight:
View from crash site towards runway in daylight

View from crash site towards runway:
View from crash site towards runway

The wreckage in the night of the accident:
The wreckage in the night of the accident

The wreckage in the night of the accident

Map, Satellite Image from 2004 (Graphics: Google Earth):
Map, Satellite Image from 2004 (Graphics: Google Earth)



By Simon Hradecky, created Friday, Jun 29th 2012 14:21Z, last updated Friday, Jun 29th 2012 14:40Z

China's State Administration of Work Safety (CSAWS) released their final report in Chinese into the crash concluding the probable causes of the crash were:

- In violation of the airline's flight operation manual the captain attempted the approach to Yichun below required visibility. The airport reported 2800 meters of visibility while the manual required 3600 meters of visibility to begin the approach.

- In violation of regulations by the Civil Aviation Authority the crew descended below minimum descent altitude although the aircraft was operating in fog and visual contact with the runway had not been established.

- Despite the aural height announcements and despite not seeing the runway the crew continued the landing in the blind without initiating a go-around resulting in impact with terrain.

Contributing factors were:

- The airline's safety management is insufficient:

* part of the flight crew arbitrarily implement the company's operations manual as the company does not follow up outstanding problems. Records suggest frequent deviations from approach profiles, i.e. deviation above or below glide slopes, excessive rates of descents and unstable approaches.

* crew rostering and crew cooperation: Each of the crew was flying into Yichun for the first time despite the known safety risks at the airport, the communication and cooperation within the crew was insufficient, the crew members did not monitor each other in order to reduce human errors.

* the airline's emergency training did not meet requirements, in particular the cabin crew training did not provide for hands on training on E190 cabin doors and overwing exits. Alternate means by the airline did prove ineffective and did not provide the quality China's Civil Aviation Authority requires thus leaving cabin crew unprepared to meet required cabin crew emergency response capabilities.

- Parent company's Shenzhen Airlines oversight insufficient

* Shenzhen Airlines, after having taken over Henan Airlines in 2006, did not provide sufficient funding and technical support affecting the stability and safety of staff and quality management.

* Air China, holding stock into Shenzhen Airlines, installed a safety supervisor but failed to address the safety management issues with Shenzhen and Henan Airlines.

- No supervision by China's Civil Aviation Authority

* the license to operate the flight from Harbin to Yichun was granted without route validation and without safety management in violation of regulations.

* to solve the lack of cabin crew flight attendants were certified although not meeting the relevant requirements for air transport operations.

* the regional office of the Civil Aviation Authority did not communicate to their superiors that they had approved the domestic operation of the route from Harbin to Yichun permitting non-standard procedures.

- China's Civil Aviation Authoritiy safety management loopholes

* On July 27th 2009 the meteorological database system administrator mistakenly had entered the airport identifier ZYID instead of ZYLD which prevented special weather reports from being entered into the system. Henan Airlines' dispatch therefore could not brief and remind the crews accordingly.


The captain (40, ATPL, no experience data provided) was pilot flying, the first officer (27, CPL) was pilot monitoring. The aircraft was enroute at 6300 meters of altitude/FL206 about 170km/92nm from Yichun when the crew first contacted Yichun airport and was advised visibility was 2800 meters/9200 feet due to fog, which was concentrated at the aerodrome. The crew subsequently conducted a briefing for the VOR/DME approach into runway 30 and specifically mentioned the minimum descent altitude was 440 meters/1443 feet. The aerodrome controller again advised that the vertical visibility was good however the horizontal visibility was poor. The aircraft subsequently overflew the aerodrome, the tower controller was able to see the aircraft. While the aircraft entered the procedure turn the first officer commented the runway was very bright. After completing the procedure turn the crew reported the runway in sight, tower cleared the flight to land on runway 30 and again reminded the crew of the minimum descent altitude of 440 meters. About 40 seconds later the first officer commented "we have to bear this mist", the CSAWS analysed the aircraft entered low level fog at that point, 15 seconds later the autopilot was disengaged with the captain steering the aircraft manually.

42 seconds after the autopilot was disengaged the aircraft descended through 440 meters (MDA) although the aircraft was flying in low level fog and there was no visual contact with the runway. 21 seconds later, 1.6nm from touchdown at an altitude of 335 meters the first officer called a high rate of descent reminding the captain to reduce the sink rate. Another 6 seconds later the GPWS called 50, 40, 20, 10 and the aircraft impacted the ground. 5 seconds after the GPWS called 50 the ELT transmitter activated alerting the tower also monitoring the emergency frequency, 32 seconds later the tower alerted emergency services having lost contact with the aircraft. Tower attempted to contact the aircraft for another 13 minutes without reply.

More than 1000 rescue workers were deployed in the meantime, the first responders reaching the crash site 2 minutes 15 after tower raised the alert. Rescue operations were finished 3.5 hours after the alert after rescue of 54 people and the recovery of 42 bodies. 37 people received serious, 17 minor injuries. One of the serious injured later succumbed to serious burns in Yichun hospital.

The investigation determined the aircraft hit trees 1110 meters before the runway threshold, the main wheels contacted ground 1080 meters short of the runway threshold, the engines came to rest 870 meters short of the threshold with the main portion of the fuselage coming to rest 690 meters short of the threshold at position N47.7478 E129.0428. The fuel wing tank ruptured in the crash sequence leaking and distributing fuel. Smoke filled the cabin rapidly, the survivors escaped through the left rear door, the cockpit's left sliding window and a gap in the fuselage, while all other doors could not be opened due to deformation of the fuselage and the smoke barrier.

The investigation released a number of safety recommendations, at the first and foremost:

Implement "Safety First" as responsibility of all aviation enterprises to correctly grasp the relationship between safety and development as well as safety and effectiveness.

Detail Map with newer satellite images (Graphics: AVH/Google Earth):
Detail Map with newer satellite images (Graphics: AVH/Google Earth)


Reader Comments: (the comments posted below do not reflect the view of The Aviation Herald but represent the view of the various posters)


By (anonymous) on Wednesday, Jul 4th 2012 13:52Z

YOU...MEAN BOY! LOL



By (anonymous) on Wednesday, Jul 4th 2012 07:16Z

to bad he could only squint, he might have been able to see the terrain.


Daniel H
By (anonymous) on Sunday, Jul 1st 2012 16:07Z

Don't you know the chinese? If they have it their way, in a while we all will be speaking Mandarin

Shame on you! I'm alreadytaking classes ;-)

Have a nice sunday


@zhenxin cui
By Daniel H on Saturday, Jun 30th 2012 15:36Z

Perhaps China's State Administration of Work Safety could have done themselves and the rest of the World a favor and printed a copy of their report in English. I am sure Simon would have appreciated it.




translation mistake
By zhenxin cui on Friday, Jun 29th 2012 19:00Z

I think the final report was not proper translated, had so many mistakes.

for example
-No supervision by China's Civil Aviation Authority

should be:
-Insufficient supervision by China's Civil Aviation Authority




By yozefb on Friday, Jun 29th 2012 15:52Z

I am currious as to what was captain thinking about when "the GPWS called 50, 40, 20, 10" while he hasn't runway in sight ?

He obvisously was looking for a ground, and managed to find it.




@Zheng: senior officials on board
By Pete T on Friday, Jun 29th 2012 15:17Z

This reminds me of the crash involving the Polish President a few years back. Maybe the Captain felt pressure to land so as to not inconvenience the senior officials.



@Zheng Qiugui
By Daniel H on Friday, Dec 23rd 2011 05:31Z

Dear Zheng,

Thank you very much for your insightful and informative posts. They have been very helpful in putting this terrible accident into perspective. I appreciate your efforts.

Happy Landings,

Daniel


make safety top priority
By Shi on Tuesday, Sep 7th 2010 09:57Z

China’s top leaders have given aviation regulators (CAAC) a clear mandate to make safety their top priority and told the chief executives of the nation’s airlines that they would be held personally responsible for any crashes, said Peter Harbison, the chairman of the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation in Sydney.


Good Safety Record in China Aviation
By Wang Gong on Tuesday, Sep 7th 2010 09:46Z

African airlines have the worst safety record, with a "hull-loss" (a destroyed plane) accident rate 25-times higher than the U.S., based on the FAA research. The hull-loss rate for European airlines was slightly higher than U.S., and Chinese airlines were about the same as the U.S. But airlines based in Asia (excluding China), had fatal-accident rates roughly five times higher than the U.S.
So 1st-tier e.g. Air China, China Southern and China Eastern Airline with single-aisle and wide-body aircraft are top worldclass. 2nd-tier such as Shenzhen Airlines are closer to Asian average, and 3rd-tier regional carriers such as Henan Airlines have a tendency to go to African safety levels, which will be stopped by CAAC.


Re-establish the Honour of Chinese Airline Pilots
By Zheng Qiugui on Monday, Sep 6th 2010 17:14Z

In 2006 China had 11,000 commercial pilots and many more have been added since then, today maybe 15,000. But CAAC says it cannot guarantee it has already got rid of all the underqualified pilots.


Airline Pilots in China "embellished" their Flight Histories and Resumes
By Shi on Monday, Sep 6th 2010 16:54Z

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has launched an investigation into the qualifications of commercial pilots. CAAC identified more than 200 of them had falsified resumes and "embellished" flight history records in the years 2008-2009. Shenzhen Airlines, the parent company of Henan Airlines, reportedly had 103 of the pilots with faked work histories on the payroll. Airline management has re-screened many pilots and sent them for re-training.
CAAC will further investigate into the qualifications of flight trainers, air traffic controllers and technical service personnel.


Crew Qualifications
By Of No Importance on Monday, Sep 6th 2010 16:40Z

The BBC has a piece titled "Chinese pilots lied about flying records" that seems to be related. Should be easy to find with their website's search function.


causes?
By alex on Saturday, Sep 4th 2010 13:55Z

it looks to me like the accident was caused by a wrong approach to landing


Flight Simulator Training for Yichun Airport
By Zheng Qiugui on Friday, Sep 3rd 2010 10:39Z

Is the Data Set for the new Yichun Lindu Airport already included in the
- E190 Flight Simulators used by Henan Airlines and
- A320 Flight Simulators used by China Southern Airlines?
Did the captain Qi Quanjun undergo flight simulator training for landing at Yichun Airport, before he made his first and disastrous flight into this airport?


Experience at new regional Airports
By Li Hanzhou on Thursday, Sep 2nd 2010 09:49Z

In 2009 Yichun Lindu Airport handled 10,252 passenger from its opening in August 27 last year. It is designed for 140,000 pax per year. Had there been any disaster preparedness drills at this airport yet?
E.g. Xinjiang, the far-flung western Uygur autonomous region with 13 airports in operation, will open four more before the end of this year and is hoping to build another five before 2015.
"A lack of planning in airport construction, inadequate facilities and unexperienced management could pose threat to flight safety," said an executive with China Southern Airlines, the only carrier that still flies to Yichun (with A320) after Henan Airlines flights were suspended after the crash.


why not copy good safety procedures ?
By Mark on Thursday, Sep 2nd 2010 08:52Z

Chinese copy everything. Why did Henan Airlines not copy the good safety procedures of China Southern Airlines: no nighttime landing at Yichun Airport until ILS is installed and operational?


Management Responsibility: "The captain... It was his first flight into Yichun."
By Shi on Thursday, Sep 2nd 2010 08:30Z

Henan Airlines opened the route between Harbin and Yichun only two weeks ago with three flights a week arriving at nightime. When an airline opens a new route with challenging nighttime landing at a new air strip not even with fuel supplies somewhere close to Siberia, it should be SOP for the management
to initiate a flight crew Training. The chief pilot would make a sunshine daytime landing into this new airport, with follow-on captains and FOs as PNF. In internal reviews they would establish the safety procedures for this new destination (same as China Southern one year ago).
We can now understand why Henan's board of directors fired the airline's general manager on the next day and appointed an acting manager to replace him. The replacement Cao Bo served as the chief pilot of Shenzhen Airlines, the parent company of Henan Airlines. And Liu Hang, chairman of the board of supervisors of Henan Airlines, had to makee repeated apologies
at a press conference in Yichun last week.


@anonymous
By PeterPan on Thursday, Sep 2nd 2010 08:02Z

You are absolutely right.The post before mine was not there when I posted that specific post.OTOH,I do stand by what I said to a certain degree,maybe not applicable to this airport,but certainly to everywhere else,hence the Tripoli A330 quote.Okay,this was an inexperienced- to this field crew and they did not make it on this occasion...


@ PeterPan
By (anonymous) on Wednesday, Sep 1st 2010 21:51Z

PeterPan said "Why is it that everytime there is an accident or a crash everyone put their blinkers on,and forget that these legs are routinely flown a 1000 times over?
Its not the 1st time, the same crew on the same type & very plane, in the same or even worse circumstances,the same G/controllers even,have flown this leg before as with many 1000`s other flights across the world and at this airport."

Actually it was the Captain's first flight into that airport and he was a new Captain with the airline and new on the the aircraft type. Not to mention the airport is still relatively new. Why is it that people who don't know what they are talking about get on here and act like they do?


Firefighters and Ambulance at Yichun Lindu Airport ? Safety Procedure ?
By Zheng Qiugui on Wednesday, Sep 1st 2010 10:26Z

The Ground Service Manager at Yichuan Airport said he was waiting with 40 service personnel for the arrival of the senior officals onboard the Henan Airlines flight. They immediately rushed to the crash site in front of the airport perimeter fence providing first aid until arrival of the rescue team "half an our later" (!).
Certainly only one or two flights arrived at Yichuan Airport daily, but pls can anybody tell us if it was standard safety procedure to have one firefighter truck and one ambulance car in standby close to runway for flight operations at this regional airport?
When a Lufthansa Cargo MD11 crashlanded in Saudi Arabia on 2010-Jul-27, "emergency services reached the aircraft within 35 seconds".
But this was at Riyadh Royal Capital Airport, and not at a Chinese regional airport 100 miles away from the border to Siberia.



Henan name-change...
By PeterPan on Sunday, Aug 29th 2010 21:37Z

Government officials in China's Henan province have ordered Henan Airlines to change its brand, after this crash upon landing,and it having a great negative impact on the province.

The Henan Administration for Industry and Commerce says the carrier was registered in 2007 as Kunpeng Airlines - at the time, it was 51%-owned by Shenzhen Airlines -but became Henan Airlines late in last year.

The administration now says that it will "revoke" the right to the name, and order the company to "restore its original corporate name", Kunpeng Airlines...


No Fuel Supply at Yichun Lindu Airport
By Shi on Sunday, Aug 29th 2010 15:45Z

The remote airport has no fuel supplies and industry insiders say a plane filled with enough fuel to cover the return trip is a possible reason for flames to spread fast. Had the plane landed safely in Yichun on Tuesday night, it should have flown back to Harbin by 11pm with the fuel left in tanks.
The accident on 2010-Aug-16 of a Colombian Aires B737 crash-landing short of the runway on a remote Caribbean island during tropical storm at nighttime demonstrates that an aircraft can break in three pieces, no fire, and only one out of 125 passengers perished on way to hospital.
After the ERJ-190 crashlanded most pax survived in the aft cabin almost undamaged. The extra fuel for the return flight - however - caused a disastrous fire killing many pax trapped in the wreckage and so hot consuming most of the aircraft metal structure. So fuel supply at remote airports is a survivability feature for pax same as low-flammable materials for aircrafts interiors.


@Rick
By Tony on Sunday, Aug 29th 2010 03:18Z

Thanks so much. Im 100% agree with you. So if you want to fly domestically in everywhere please decide carefully. International flight is usually tightly oversighted by worldwide community.


repetitive flying...
By PeterPan on Saturday, Aug 28th 2010 23:46Z

Why is it that everytime there is an accident or a crash everyone put their blinkers on,and forget that these legs are routinely flown a 1000 times over?
Its not the 1st time, the same crew on the same type & very plane, in the same or even worse circumstances,the same G/controllers even,have flown this leg before as with many 1000`s other flights across the world and at this airport.
Its just on THIS day SOMETHING that does not normally happen,happened: "Impacted terrain short of runway and burst into flames"
Same as the A330 in Tripoli,of which the FDR`s revealed absolutely nothing untowards and we are still scratching our heads....




Henan Airlines Crew Experience Landing at Yichun
By Zheng Qiugui on Saturday, Aug 28th 2010 13:23Z

After opening of Yichun Airport in August last year China Southern Airlines (a worldclass international airline) decided to operate only daytime flights into Yichun Airport because of safety concerns. It was the only airline at the airport for 11 months.
Regional carrier Henan Airlines opened the route between Harbin and Yichun only two weeks ago with three flights a week arriving at nightime. So all Henan Airlines aircrew staff had no more than six flights experience into the challenging nightime landing at Yichun Airport.
This includes second-class captain Qi Quanjun, demoted from captain to copilot at Shenzhen Airlines, former military pilot, with some 38 high-ranking government officials in the cabin on this ill-fated flight.


@ Tony
By Rick on Saturday, Aug 28th 2010 06:43Z

The PIC and the Airline he is flying for are end responsible.

The authority will approval an airline for flight by means of the AOC and the Operations Specifications, this will state the limitation of the approval, area of operations (world wide, asia, whatever the airline can and wants), if they do ETOPS, much more and also if they are Low visibility approved (through training). But should the airline need to operate within their limitation, if they do not (should this be the case here), the autorities will fine them or revoke/suspend the approval.

Obviously if there is a problem with the airport, the approach procedures or the way the airline was approved/reviewed, then things can come back to the authorities.



By tony on Saturday, Aug 28th 2010 03:10Z

Many of local sources focuse to PIC performance and airline competency particularly in the fog or below visibility landing experience. Is it careless in low enforcement? Who is the most responsible in this case? Airline, CAA, airport authority or even aircraft manufacterer?


now 17 of the victims in critical condition
By Li Hanzhou on Friday, Aug 27th 2010 19:57Z

By late Friday, 32 severely injured survivors had been transferred from Yichun to hospitals in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province. Doctors said 17 of the victims still faced life threatening dangers with serious burns or head and chest wounds.


Captain demoted at Shenzhen Airlines
By Zheng Qiugui on Friday, Aug 27th 2010 11:29Z

A source close to Qi the pilot said he used to work for Shenzhen Airlines, the parent company of Henan Airlines, and resigned after he was demoted from captain to copilot. "Frankly speaking, Qi's landing skills were so-so," said the source, who works at Mohe, another regional airport on China's northern border. "He became captain again at Henan Airlines."
And the airport was shrouded in thick fog throughout the rescue operation on Tuesday night. Until 5am Wednesday, visibility was no more than 300 meters.


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