At least 40 bodies have been recovered after an aircraft with 72 people on board crashed near Pokhara International Airport in Nepal on Sunday morning.
The Yeti Airlines twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft with 68 passengers and four crew members departed from Kathmandu and met with an accident while landing, in the country's worst crash in over three decades
Stall and incipient spin on final? Asymmetric power, engine out below Vmca?
Re: Yeti Airlines Crash
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 11:32 am
by TheGreenAnger
Some appalling post crash video footage doing the rounds. Do some people have no respect for the living or the dead.
Crash: Yeti AT72 at Pokhara on Jan 15th 2023, lost height on final approach
By Simon Hradecky, created Sunday, Jan 15th 2023 08:11Z, last updated Sunday, Jan 15th 2023 09:37Z
A Yeti Airlines Avions de Transport Regional ATR-72-212A, registration 9N-ANC performing flight YT-961 from Kathmandu to Pokhara (Nepal) with 68 passengers and 4 crew, was on final approach to Pokhara's International Airport's runway 12 when the aircraft stalled, impacted ground between the old Pokhara and the new Pokhara International Airport, fell into a ravine and burst into flames about 1.2nm ahead of the runway threshold at about 11:05L (05:20Z). 32 bodies have so far been recovered from the crash site.
A Rescue Operation is in progress.
The aircraft carried 57 Nepalis, five Indians, four Russians, two Koreans, and an Australian, an Irish, an Argentinian and a French.
Pokhara's new International Airport was opened on Jan 1st 2023 to replace the old domestic Airport.
Looking at the video again seems to show that the flaps are up!
Re: Yeti Airlines Crash
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 5:04 pm
by Fox3WheresMyBanana
I think you have it, TGA.
Looking at assorted images, the flaps should be reasonably obvious if they were down, and that looks like a clean wing to me too.
Re: Yeti Airlines Crash
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 7:01 pm
by TheGreenAnger
I must admit that I was shocked that I was the only person commenting here on this!
At least there is now one sensible comment here from a respected pilot apart from my own graceless assumptions.
Re: Yeti Airlines Crash
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 7:31 pm
by 4mastacker
As someone totally unqualified to comment on the causes of this tragedy, I shall leave the investigation to the official experts.
Sorry man, I didn't mean it that way, but I realise that this is no longer an aviation based interest site.
Re: Yeti Airlines Crash
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 8:36 pm
by John Hill
Yes, it does appear even to me that the flaps are not deployed, at least not on the port side. But what about the starboard wing?
Re: Yeti Airlines Crash
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 9:14 pm
by Fox3WheresMyBanana
It's almost impossible for flaps to deploy asymmetrically - it's a basic design requirement that they be interlinked to prevent this.
If only one side had deployed, the aircraft would have had problems immediately.
The aircraft is clearly pointing in quite a different direction to the one it's traveling in. This indicates a high angle of attack. It is a further indicator of no flap deployment, which tends to, by design, lower the nose to align the fuselage better with the flightpath, for improved visibility.
Swept wing approaches in the Tornado (done for practice in case the wings ever got jammed back) had very silly alphas, about 16 degrees IIRC, such that one could not actually see the runway for much of the approach. You just worked off seeing grass either side of the nose, which meant the runway must be in front! This angle of attack looks almost as bad. It should have been very obvious in the cockpit that something was wrong.
It's hard to make out but there appears to be some low cloud in the direction the aircraft is turning towards on finals. Could that have prompted some excessive control movements at low IAS?
Re: Yeti Airlines Crash
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 10:27 pm
by Fox3WheresMyBanana
I think the white stuff is a reflection of the window coaming in the window.
There may be one stage of flap deployed, 15 degrees, but no more.
Watching this video, it appears to be a 30 degree landing flap selection at about 6 miles.
Note the drop in nose attitude as full flap is selected.
Re: Yeti Airlines Crash
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2023 5:22 am
by Ex-Ascot
No worries TGA I am here but waiting for more info. Fox is correct you can't have asymmetric flaps. There is now an interview with a pilot who saw it go in. He said no sign of fire or engine failure. He said that he didn't know what the pilot did wrong.
The weather was clear from all the clips I have seen. If we are in the guessing game I will also go for flaps. Don't know how they could do it. I have mentioned on this forum before and others have agreed with me after the landing checks on short finals I did a personal three point check of flaps, gear and cleared to land.
Edit. 96 posts on TOP and they haven't got further than us. Seems that the Capt was approaching retirement and the female F/O had just 100 hrs.
Re: Yeti Airlines Crash
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2023 6:24 am
by ExSp33db1rd
.......... you can't have asymmetric flaps.
At least not by design, but Murphy is always with us. I've experienced Leading Edge flaps, fortunately not the trailing edge flaps, going out on the Port side only, not a great effect and we just retracted the lot and applied the relevant speed corrections.
Re: Yeti Airlines Crash
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2023 8:45 am
by Mrs Ex-Ascot
The Guardian is reporting that both Black boxes have been recovered and seem to be in good condition.
Re: Yeti Airlines Crash
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2023 9:22 am
by k3k3
I vaguely remember an incident of asymmetric flaps on an Argosy in the seventies.
Re: Yeti Airlines Crash
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2023 10:00 am
by Boac
Doesn't everyone know about 'foolproof systems events that cannot happen'?