Malév Flight 110

The flight from Budapest, Hungary had been delayed by more than an hour due to poor weather conditions.[3] The flight eventually took off and had reached its destination at Kiev-Borispol Airport in Ukraine however, the weather conditions had created heavy fog and poor visibility of only 1800 meters.[4] These conditions made the crew unable to land on their first attempt.[5] It would have been advised that the plane either return to land at Budapest or at another nearby airport, but the pilot chose to keep circling and try to land at Kiev-Borispol Airport.[6] The airplane also signaled that the plane's generator had failed and forced the crew to switch to the battery's auxiliary power[7] however, subsequent investigation found that this was a false signal which could have been rectified but it was not.[8] The crew did inform ground control of this situation but they did not report that it was a clear emergency according to protocol.[9] In the event of such an emergency, it is recommended for crew to shut down excessive energy consumers like refrigerators, kitchen heaters or cabin lighting in order to allow the airplane to operate on batteries for longer, at least sixty minutes, but this did not happen on Flight 101 so the battery life decreased by half.[10] Protocol was followed to safely lower the aircraft for a final attempt at descent but visibility had reduced even more, to 700 meters, and the pilot was told incorrect yet crucial information about the conditions.[11] The plane deviated significantly from the advised flight-path and flew over the airport, losing integral radio and radar connection with ground-control.[12] Battery power would have been significantly depleted, likely causing instrument malfunctions and leaving the crew unaware of critical information for a safe landing in the weather conditions.[13] Investigation revealed that the plane sank too low to avoid collision and the drawn right wingtip hit the ground at a speed of about 550-580 km/h causing the aircraft to break into multiple pieces, killing all abord instantly.[14] It was impossible to identify the victims from the wreckage but it was known that there were 8 crew members and 41 passengers on board.[15] After an investigation, officials determined that the crash was caused by an unfortunate series of events involving pilot error, mismanagement of the situation by the ground crew, aircraft malfunctions, and poor conditions.[16]

• https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19710916-2
• http://iho.hu/hir/a-kijevi-katasztrofa-titkai
• http://www.bacs-kiskun-leveltar.hu/V3/SP07_mbn/Tanulmanyok/szbe-02t-1.html