Crossair Flight 3597
Encyclopedia
Crossair
Flight LX 3597 was an Avro RJ100 regional airliner, registration HB-IXM, on a scheduled flight from Berlin
, Germany
to Zurich
, Switzerland
that crashed during its approach to land at Zurich Airport on 24 November 2001. Twenty-four of the thirty-three people on board were killed.
with 28 passengers, 3 flight attendants, and a two-man cockpit crew consisting of Captain Hans Ulrich Lutz and First Officer Stefan Lehrer. Upon arrival in Zurich about an hour later, it was cleared to approach runway 28 in poor visibility conditions due to low clouds; the cockpit voice recorder captured the transmission of a previously-landing Crossair flight informing the tower that they could not see the runway until 1.3 miles (2.1 km) away. At 22:07 CET, the plane crashed into a wooded range of hills near the small town of Bassersdorf
, around 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) short of the runway, where it broke apart and went up in flames. Of the 33 people on board (28 passengers and 5 crew), 24 died (among them the cockpit crew and one flight attendant), while nine (seven passengers and two flight attendants) survived.
(CFIT) caused by a series of pilot error
s and mistakes. Captain Lutz had originally been scheduled to land on runway 14, the main landing runway at Zurich, a runway equipped with an Instrument Landing System (ILS)
that handles virtually all tasks associated with landing an airplane, including using the plane's auto-pilot to control the angle and speed of descent; all the pilot is required to do in an ILS landing is to ensure that the Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA) allows the non-flying pilot to determine if the runway is in sight before completing the landing. The CVR records Lutz and Lehrer discussing "the 14 approach" as well as Lutz's request that Lehrer call out the height when the plane reaches 100 feet above MDA. However, Flight 3597 was behind schedule and would not reach Zurich until after 2200 CET. This delay forced Flight 3597 to change its landing plan. Zurich Air Traffic Control Tower, in order to comply with a new Swiss law designed to reduce airport noise from approaching aircraft over southern Germany in the late evening hours, must redirect all flights on final approach to switch from the ILS-equipped runway 14 to the less-accurate Visual Operating Rules (VOR)
/Distance Measuring Equipment (DME)
-controlled runway 28. This runway change forced Captain Lutz to abandon his planned ILS approach and required First Officer Lehrer to consult the Jeppesen
chart for runway 28 to get a new set of approach information, including the most crucial information for any approach, whether under ILS or VOR/DME rules: The MDA. Sometimes referred to as the Minimum Safe Altitude (MSA), the MDA, which was 2400 feet (731.5 m) for runway 28, is not only the height that defines the point at which a pilot or flight crew must determine whether or not they can see the runway, it defines the minimum height required to safely fly above any obstructions or terrain in the flight's path. The chart also gives directions on the speed and slope needed to ensure the descent will bring the plane to MDA after the plane has successfully cleared all terrain and obstructions, at which point the pilot is required to maintain MDA until the non-flying pilot reports that the runway is in sight, allowing the pilot to complete the landing visually and safely. Although both pilots were based in Zurich and the CVR picks up Lutz's query to Lehrer about Lehrer's familiarity with "the 28 approach", Lutz put the plane into an overly-steep descent that brought flight 3597 to MDA far too soon. When Lehrer reported the plane reaching 100 feet above MDA, the CVR records Lutz asking Lehrer, "Do we have ground contact?" Lehrer hesitated before replying "Yes". However, flight simulators programmed with the time of day, terrain, and weather Lutz was facing at that time allowed investigators to determine that the only ground Lutz or Lehrer could see was the ground of the hilly terrain over which the plane was flying. Upon reaching MDA of 2400 feet (731.5 m), Lutz declared that he had "ground contact" and would continue on, then deliberately descended the plane below the minimum descent altitude (MDA) without having the required visual contact with either the approach lights or the runway;, a major piloting error that ultimately led directly to the crash. The fact that Lehrer made no attempt to prevent the continuation of the flight below the minimum descent altitude also directly contributed to the crash. Lutz made an additional error by not monitoring his Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) as he made his approach; the CVR recorded Lutz's running narrative on nearly every move he made in the cockpit, but did not record any readout of the DME after a check, verified by Lehrer, at 6 miles (9.7 km) from runway 28. Moments before the crash, Lutz's running commentary indicated to investigators that Lutz must have thought he was at or near 1.3 miles (2.1 km) from runway 28 because he expressed frustration that the other crew said they could "see the runway at 1.3 miles (2.1 km)"; instead, Lutz was over 4 miles (6.4 km) from the runway, and could not possibly have seen the runway due to the presence of a hill, below the MDA of 2400 feet (731.5 m), that would have obscured his view. It was into this hill that flight 3597 eventually crashed. The report revealed that the pilot had failed to perform correct navigation and landing procedures on previous occasions, but no action had been taken by the airline.
The investigation report states that other factors also contributed to the accident:
show Mayday
(known as Air Emergency in the US, Mayday in Ireland and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and the rest of the world). The episode is entitled "Cockpit Failure".
Crossair
Crossair Ltd. Co. for Regional European Air Transport was a regional airline headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France, near Basel, Switzerland...
Flight LX 3597 was an Avro RJ100 regional airliner, registration HB-IXM, on a scheduled flight from Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
that crashed during its approach to land at Zurich Airport on 24 November 2001. Twenty-four of the thirty-three people on board were killed.
Accident
The flight departed Berlin Tegel Airport at 21:01 CETCentral European Time
Central European Time , used in most parts of the European Union, is a standard time that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time . The time offset from UTC can be written as +01:00...
with 28 passengers, 3 flight attendants, and a two-man cockpit crew consisting of Captain Hans Ulrich Lutz and First Officer Stefan Lehrer. Upon arrival in Zurich about an hour later, it was cleared to approach runway 28 in poor visibility conditions due to low clouds; the cockpit voice recorder captured the transmission of a previously-landing Crossair flight informing the tower that they could not see the runway until 1.3 miles (2.1 km) away. At 22:07 CET, the plane crashed into a wooded range of hills near the small town of Bassersdorf
Bassersdorf
Bassersdorf is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Zurich, located in the district of Bülach, and belongs to the Glatt Valley .- History :...
, around 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) short of the runway, where it broke apart and went up in flames. Of the 33 people on board (28 passengers and 5 crew), 24 died (among them the cockpit crew and one flight attendant), while nine (seven passengers and two flight attendants) survived.
Notable passengers
- The lead singer of the Eurodance group La BoucheLa BoucheLa Bouche was a Eurodance/Dance-pop duo formed by Frank Farian in Germany in 1994, originally consisting of Melanie Thornton and Lane McCray, scoring two major worldwide hits in the mid-1990s with "Be My Lover" and "Sweet Dreams"....
, Melanie ThorntonMelanie ThorntonMelanie Janene Thornton was an American pop singer who found fame in Germany and fronted the Eurodance group La Bouche, who found success with the singles "Be My Lover" and "Sweet Dreams" in the mid-1990s. She forged a moderately successful solo career in Germany before her death...
, was one of those killed in the crash. - The German pop group Passion FruitPassion Fruit (band)Passion Fruit was a Eurodance/bubblegum dance group consisting of three girls of German, Spanish and Dutch descent:*Maria Serrano Serrano *Nathaly van het Ende...
was aboard flight 3597; two of the singers died, while the third singer and the band's manager survived with injuries. - Peter Hogenkamp, founder and CEO of Swiss commercial blog service company Blogwerk AG, and his wife Jacqueline Badran were originally seated one row behind the trio of Passion Fruit, but moved to the rear of the plane in-flight in order to rest in a more quiet area in the sparcely-populated cabin. One of the portions of the fuselage that broke open as a result of the crash did so almost directly in front of them, and they were able to escape the plane largely unharmed. During an interview for the Canadian Discovery ChannelDiscovery ChannelDiscovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
show MaydayMayday (TV series)Mayday, also known as Air Crash Investigation in the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia and Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the United States, is a Canadian documentary television programme produced by Cineflix investigating air crashes, near-crashes and other disasters...
(known as Air Emergency in the US, Mayday in Ireland and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and the rest of the world) entitled "Cockpit Failure", Hogenkamp admits that his and his wife's survival were largely due to "luck", but also hypothesized that their original desire for rest drove them to change seats and sides of the plane to get away from the rambunctious behavior of the members of Passion Fruit, "so the Passion Fruits may have saved our lives."
Investigation
The investigation concluded that the accident was a controlled flight into terrainControlled flight into terrain
Controlled flight into terrain describes an accident in which an airworthy aircraft, under pilot control, is unintentionally flown into the ground, a mountain, water, or an obstacle. The term was coined by engineers at Boeing in the late 1970s...
(CFIT) caused by a series of pilot error
Pilot error
Pilot error is a term used to describe the cause of an accident involving an airworthy aircraft where the pilot is considered to be principally or partially responsible...
s and mistakes. Captain Lutz had originally been scheduled to land on runway 14, the main landing runway at Zurich, a runway equipped with an Instrument Landing System (ILS)
Instrument Landing System
An instrument landing system is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway, using a combination of radio signals and, in many cases, high-intensity lighting arrays to enable a safe landing during instrument...
that handles virtually all tasks associated with landing an airplane, including using the plane's auto-pilot to control the angle and speed of descent; all the pilot is required to do in an ILS landing is to ensure that the Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA) allows the non-flying pilot to determine if the runway is in sight before completing the landing. The CVR records Lutz and Lehrer discussing "the 14 approach" as well as Lutz's request that Lehrer call out the height when the plane reaches 100 feet above MDA. However, Flight 3597 was behind schedule and would not reach Zurich until after 2200 CET. This delay forced Flight 3597 to change its landing plan. Zurich Air Traffic Control Tower, in order to comply with a new Swiss law designed to reduce airport noise from approaching aircraft over southern Germany in the late evening hours, must redirect all flights on final approach to switch from the ILS-equipped runway 14 to the less-accurate Visual Operating Rules (VOR)
Visual flight rules
Visual flight rules are a set of regulations which allow a pilot to operate an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better than basic VFR weather minimums, as specified in the rules of the...
/Distance Measuring Equipment (DME)
Distance Measuring Equipment
Distance measuring equipment is a transponder-based radio navigation technology that measures distance by timing the propagation delay of VHF or UHF radio signals....
-controlled runway 28. This runway change forced Captain Lutz to abandon his planned ILS approach and required First Officer Lehrer to consult the Jeppesen
Jeppesen
Jeppesen is an American company that specializes in navigational information, operations management solutions and flight training products and services...
chart for runway 28 to get a new set of approach information, including the most crucial information for any approach, whether under ILS or VOR/DME rules: The MDA. Sometimes referred to as the Minimum Safe Altitude (MSA), the MDA, which was 2400 feet (731.5 m) for runway 28, is not only the height that defines the point at which a pilot or flight crew must determine whether or not they can see the runway, it defines the minimum height required to safely fly above any obstructions or terrain in the flight's path. The chart also gives directions on the speed and slope needed to ensure the descent will bring the plane to MDA after the plane has successfully cleared all terrain and obstructions, at which point the pilot is required to maintain MDA until the non-flying pilot reports that the runway is in sight, allowing the pilot to complete the landing visually and safely. Although both pilots were based in Zurich and the CVR picks up Lutz's query to Lehrer about Lehrer's familiarity with "the 28 approach", Lutz put the plane into an overly-steep descent that brought flight 3597 to MDA far too soon. When Lehrer reported the plane reaching 100 feet above MDA, the CVR records Lutz asking Lehrer, "Do we have ground contact?" Lehrer hesitated before replying "Yes". However, flight simulators programmed with the time of day, terrain, and weather Lutz was facing at that time allowed investigators to determine that the only ground Lutz or Lehrer could see was the ground of the hilly terrain over which the plane was flying. Upon reaching MDA of 2400 feet (731.5 m), Lutz declared that he had "ground contact" and would continue on, then deliberately descended the plane below the minimum descent altitude (MDA) without having the required visual contact with either the approach lights or the runway;, a major piloting error that ultimately led directly to the crash. The fact that Lehrer made no attempt to prevent the continuation of the flight below the minimum descent altitude also directly contributed to the crash. Lutz made an additional error by not monitoring his Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) as he made his approach; the CVR recorded Lutz's running narrative on nearly every move he made in the cockpit, but did not record any readout of the DME after a check, verified by Lehrer, at 6 miles (9.7 km) from runway 28. Moments before the crash, Lutz's running commentary indicated to investigators that Lutz must have thought he was at or near 1.3 miles (2.1 km) from runway 28 because he expressed frustration that the other crew said they could "see the runway at 1.3 miles (2.1 km)"; instead, Lutz was over 4 miles (6.4 km) from the runway, and could not possibly have seen the runway due to the presence of a hill, below the MDA of 2400 feet (731.5 m), that would have obscured his view. It was into this hill that flight 3597 eventually crashed. The report revealed that the pilot had failed to perform correct navigation and landing procedures on previous occasions, but no action had been taken by the airline.
The investigation report states that other factors also contributed to the accident:
- The range of hills the plane crashed into was not marked in the JeppesenJeppesenJeppesen is an American company that specializes in navigational information, operations management solutions and flight training products and services...
approach chart used by the crew. - Despite the hilly terrain surrounding it, the approach to runway 28 was not equipped with a Minimum Safe Altitude WarningMinimum Safe Altitude WarningMinimum Safe Altitude Warning is an automated warning system for air traffic controllers . It is a ground-based safety net intended to warn the controller about increased risk of controlled flight into terrain accidents by generating, in a timely manner, an alert of aircraft proximity to terrain...
(MSAW) system, which triggers an alarm if a minimum safe altitude is violated. - The airport's means of determining visibility were inadequate for runway 28.
- The visual minimums at the time of the accident were actually inappropriate for using the standard approach to runway 28.
Dramatization
The story of the disaster was featured on the tenth season of Canadian Discovery ChannelDiscovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
show Mayday
Mayday (TV series)
Mayday, also known as Air Crash Investigation in the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia and Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the United States, is a Canadian documentary television programme produced by Cineflix investigating air crashes, near-crashes and other disasters...
(known as Air Emergency in the US, Mayday in Ireland and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and the rest of the world). The episode is entitled "Cockpit Failure".
See also
- Crossair Flight 498Crossair Flight 498Crossair Flight LX498 was a commuter flight from Zurich, Switzerland to Dresden, Germany that crashed two minutes after takeoff in the Swiss municipality of Niederhasli on 10 January 2000. The seven passengers and three crewmembers aboard the two-turboprop engine Saab 340 aircraft all died on...
- Henan Airlines Flight 8387Henan Airlines Flight 8387Henan Airlines Flight 8387 was a flight from Harbin Taiping International Airport to the new Yichun Lindu Airport, both located in Heilongjiang province, China. On the night of August 24, 2010 it crashed on approach to Yichun Lindu with 91 passengers and 5 crew members on board...
External links
- Final report on the crash - Aircraft Accident Investigation BureauAircraft Accident Investigation BureauAircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is the Switzerland bureau of aircraft accident investigation. The bureau is headquartered on the grounds of Payerne Airport and in Payerne.-External links:* *...
- Crossair Status of the Accident Investigation