Date: 25 November
Aircraft: Aérospatiale/Aeritalia ATR-72
Description: During take-off, the captain’s seat moved suddenly backwards causing him to lose control of the aircraft. It suffered a runway excursion and there was damage to the propeller blades of one engine when it impacted barbed wire at the airport perimeter fence.
Location: Accra-Kotoka Airport (ACC), Ghana
Fatalities: Nil
Date: 27 November
Aircraft: Embraer EMB-550 Legacy 500
Description: The corporate jet sustained substantial damage when it landed hard, causing the right main landing gear to puncture the wing.
Location: Paris-Le Bourget Airport (LBG), France
Fatalities: Nil
Date: 2 December
Aircraft: Boeing 777-35EER
Description: While taxiing to the departure runway, the flight crew followed the wrong line marking and struck two light poles. The leading edge of the right wing and outboard slats were substantially damaged.
Location: Toronto-Pearson International Airport, ON (YYZ), Canada
Fatalities: Nil
Date: 8 December
Aircraft: Airbus A321-231
Description: The in-flight entertainment (IFE) satellite antenna caught fire during maintenance. The fire was extinguished but the roof was burnt through and the cabin suffered severe damage.
Location: Doha-Hamad International Airport (DOH), Qatar
Fatalities: Nil
Date: 13 December
Aircraft: Aérospatiale/Aeritalia ATR-42
Description: The aircraft collided with trees and terrain shortly after take-off and was destroyed. There were 25 occupants. Six passengers and one crew member sustained serious injuries and one passenger was killed.
Location: W of Fond-du-Lac Airport, SK (ZFD), Canada
Fatalities: 1
Date: 14 December
Aircraft: Cessna 510 Citation Mustang
Description: The aircraft crashed in wooded terrain 16 km north-east of the airport and all three occupants were killed.
Location: Sieberatsreute, Waldburg, Germany
Fatalities: 3
Date: 19 December
Aircraft: Antonov TVS-2MS
Description: The aircraft banked sharply to the right after take-off and crashed. Four of the 13 occupants were killed.
Location: Naryan-Mar Airport (NNM), Russia
Fatalities: 4
Date: 23 December (image above)
Aircraft: Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander
Description: The aircraft crashed into a hillside at 9500 ft. The pilot was tracking across the Sarawaget ranges not above 10,000 ft when he impacted the ridge in a steep nose-down, right-wing low attitude. During a search for the aircraft, the right aileron was found hanging from a tree near the top of the ridge and the remainder of the wreckage was found 150 metres away. The pilot, the sole occupant, initially survived the crash but bad weather prevented a recovery until 26 December. By that time, the pilot had died from his injuries.
Location: South of Dinangat Village, Papua New Guinea
Fatalities: 1
Date: 27 December (image above)
Aircraft: Cessna 525 CitationJet
Description: The aircraft went off the runway after landing in snow and crashed into an airport fence and highway barrier before stopping in a corn field 280 metres away. The aircraft suffered substantial damage including the left wing separating near the wing root and impact damage to the vertical stabiliser. The occupants received minor injuries.
Location: Michigan City Airport, IN (MGC), USA
Fatalities: Nil
Date: 31 December
Aircraft: Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
Description: The aircraft was destroyed after crashing into wooded terrain during the initial climb. All 12 occupants suffered fatal injuries.
Location: near Punta Islita, Costa Rica
Fatalities: 12
Date: 5 January
Aircraft: Boeing 737-8CT (WL) and Boeing 737-8FH (WL)
Description: Two Boeing 737-800 aircraft collided on the ground. One had just landed following a flight from Mexico and was taxiing to the terminal when it was stopped with the engines and APU running. Another Boeing aircraft was being towed to an alternate position on the infield. Two ground personnel were in the cab of the tow vehicle and they were told by the controller to pushback at their discretion. The aircraft under tow began to move back and the APU contacted the right wing of the stationary aircraft. A fire rapidly ensued. The tow vehicle operators pulled their aircraft back towards the gate to separate the two and an evacuation was ordered of the stationary aircraft and all passengers were evacuated safely.
Location: Toronto-Pearson International Airport, ON (YYZ), Canada
Fatalities: Nil
Date: 7 January (image above)
Aircraft: Cessna 208 Caravan
Description: During take-off the aircraft failed to clear a fence and crashed into a house and several cows. The aircraft was destroyed. Local reports suggest the aircraft had 18 passengers and two crew while the airline said there were nine passengers and two crew on board.
Location: Akobo, South Sudan
Fatalities: 1 fatality on the aircraft and 1 on the ground
Date: 13 January (image above)
Aircraft: Boeing 737-82R (WL)
Description: The aircraft went off the left side of the runway after landing in rain and stopped down a steep slope with the tail sticking out about five metres above the runway level. The number two engine broke off and fell into the sea. The 168 occupants evacuated through the rear and over wing emergency exits.
Location: Trabzon Airport (TZX), Turkey
Fatalities: Nil
Date: 16 January (image above)
Aircraft: British Aerospace BAe-748-347 Srs. 2A
Description: The aircraft suffered a left-hand landing gear collapse while taxiing. There were no injuries.
Location: Jessore Airport (JSR), Bangladesh
Fatalities: Nil
Date: 18 January (image above)
Aircraft: Convair CV-580F
Description: The undercarriage of the aircraft collapsed during a maintenance engine test. The propellers contacted the ground, causing substantial damage. The fuselage was also damaged.
Location: Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport, TX (BRO), US
Fatalities: Nil
Date: 20 January (image above)
Aircraft: Let L-410UVP and Embraer EMB-120ER Brasilia
Description: The two aircraft collided on the tarmac when the EMB-120 was taxiing to a parking position on the apron and sped up instead of slowing down. The number one engine impacted the right-hand fuselage of the other aircraft. A fuel spill occurred but there was no fire.
Location: Mogadishu Aden Adde International Airport (MGQ), Somalia
Fatalities: Nil
You can make a 100 airframes all identical right down to the colour of the toilet flush button but you will never make one human the same as another, accidents happen, always have & always will, just earn from them.
The Cessna 208 with “eighteen passengers and two crew” (NO!!!, just NINE passengers…) was the most interesting of the lot. I’ve certainly heard of some bush pilots who have been ASKED to take a few extra passengers (W&B be…). I only actually KNOW of the few who’ve become memorialized in accident reports who succumbed to the urgings, however.
I worked on an accident back around 2001 where the pilots seat moved backwards on the rails, just like what is described in the Aérospatiale/Aeritalia ATR-72 accident. There was a condition where the pin holding the seat in place fit into a hole that was at the tolerance limit. With the right amount of force, the pin could dislodge from the hole. There was a solution on the market at the time to prevent this. It was a clamp that fit onto the rail which prevented the seat from moving past a certain point. Had this device been installed, the seat travel would have been limited. Maybe this type of low-cost device should be considered on all small aircraft with seats that are adjustable on rails.