Lauda Air Flight 004

Lauda Air Flight 004 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from Hong Kong, via Bangkok, Thailand, to Vienna, Austria. On 26 May 1991, the Boeing 767-300ER operating the route crashed following an uncommanded deployment of the thrust reverser on the No. 1 engine during the climb phase, causing the aircraft to enter an aerodynamic stall, uncontrolled dive, and in-flight breakup, killing all 213 passengers and ten crew members on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident involving the Boeing 767, and the deadliest aviation accident in Thailand's history. The accident marked the 767's first fatal incident and third hull loss. Formula One world motor racing champion Niki Lauda, who founded and ran Lauda Air, was personally involved in the accident investigation.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 767-300ER, the 283rd Boeing 767 built, At the time of the incident, the No. 2 engine had been on the airframe since assembly of the aircraft (7,444 hours and 1,133 cycles) whereas the No. 1 engine (with the faulty thrust reverser) had been on the aircraft since October 3, 1990 and had accumulated 2,904 hours and 456 cycles. At 23:02 ICT on 26 May 1991, the Boeing 767-3Z9ER operating as Flight 004 (originating from Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport) departed Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok for its passenger service to Vienna International Airport with 213 passengers and 10 crew under the command of American captain Thomas John Welch (48) and Austrian first officer Josef Thurner (41). Both pilots were regarded as very competent. At 23:08, Welch and Thurner received a visual warning indication on the EICAS display that a possible system failure would cause the thrust reverser on the No. 1 engine to deploy in flight. After consulting the aircraft's Quick Reference Handbook, they determined that the alert was "coming on and off" and that it was "just an advisory thing". The pilots took no remedial action, possibly believing that the indication was false, but also with the knowledge that the 767 could land safely with only one operational reverser. Most of the wreckage was scattered over a remote forest area roughly in size, at an elevation of , in what is now Phu Toei National Park, Suphan Buri. The wreckage site is about north-northeast of Phu Toey, Huay Kamin (), Dan Chang district, Suphan Buri province, Rescuers found Welch's body still in the pilot's seat.

Recovery

Volunteer rescue teams and local villagers looted the wreckage, taking electronics and jewellery, so relatives were unable to recover personal possessions. The bodies were taken to a hospital in Bangkok, but the storage was not refrigerated, and the bodies decomposed. Dental and forensic experts worked to identify bodies, but 27 were never identified.

Speculation circulated that a bomb may have destroyed the aircraft, as some eyewitnesses had reported seeing a large fireball surrounding the aircraft, the result of the disintegration of the right wing during the dive. However, a terrorist motive was believed unlikely, as Austria was politically neutral with a reputation of avoiding international conflicts such as the recent Gulf War.

Investigation

thumb|[[Niki Lauda travelled to Thailand to assist in the investigation.]]

The flight data recorder was completely destroyed, so only the cockpit voice recorder could be analysed. Thailand's Air Safety Division head Pradit Hoprasatsuk stated that "the attempt to determine why the reverser came on was hampered by the loss of the flight data recorder, which was destroyed in the crash". Upon hearing of the crash, Niki Lauda traveled to Thailand. He examined the wreckage and estimated that the largest fragment was about by , which was about half the size of the largest piece resulting from the Lockerbie bombing. Lauda attended a funeral for 23 unidentified passengers in Thailand and then traveled to Seattle to meet with Boeing representatives.

The official investigation, led by Thailand's Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee, lasted approximately eight months and resulted in a conclusion of probable cause: "The Accident Investigation Committee of the Government of Thailand determines the probable cause of this accident to be [an] uncommanded in-flight deployment of the left engine thrust reverser, which resulted in loss of flight path control. The specific cause of the thrust reverser deployment has not been positively identified." Multiple possibilities were investigated, including a short circuit in the electrical system. However, the destruction of much of the wiring meant that investigators could not arrive at a definitive reason for the activation of the thrust reverser. However, the accident report states that the "flight crew training simulators yielded erroneous results" Aviation writer Macarthur Job has stated that "had that Boeing 767 been of an earlier version of the type, fitted with engines that were controlled mechanically rather than electronically, then that accident could not have happened". the FAA had allowed Boeing to devise the tests. Boeing had insisted that a deployment was not possible in flight. In 1982, Boeing conducted a test in which the aircraft was flown at , slowed to , and then the test pilots deployed the thrust reverser. The control of the aircraft was not jeopardized, and the FAA accepted the results of the test.

The Lauda aircraft was travelling at a TAS  of at in the climb to when the left thrust reverser deployed, causing the pilots to lose control of the aircraft. James R. Chiles, author of Inviting Disaster, said: "[T]he point here is not that a thorough test would have told the pilots Thomas J. Welch and Josef Thurner what to do. A thrust reverser deploying in flight might not have been survivable, anyway. But a thorough test would have informed the FAA and Boeing that thrust reversers deploying in midair was such a dangerous occurrence that Boeing needed to install a positive lock that would prevent such an event."

Lauda's visit with Boeing

Lauda stated: "What really annoyed me was Boeing's reaction once the cause was clear. Boeing did not want to say anything." Boeing initially refused, but Lauda insisted, so Boeing granted permission. Lauda attempted the flight in the simulator 15 times, and in every instance, he was unable to recover. He asked Boeing to issue a statement, but the company's legal department replied that it would take three months to adjust the wording. Lauda asked for a press conference the following day and told Boeing that if it was possible to recover, he would be willing to fly a 767 with two pilots and have the thrust reverser deploy in air. Boeing told Lauda that it was not possible, so he persuaded Boeing to issue a statement saying that such a scenario would not be survivable. Lauda then added that "this was the first time in eight months that it had been made clear that the manufacturer [Boeing] was at fault and not the operator of the aeroplane [or Pratt and Whitney]". Other nationalities included 52 Hong Kong residents, 39 Thai, 10 Italians, 7 Swiss, 6 Chinese, 4 Germans, 3 Portuguese, 3 Taiwanese, 3 Yugoslavs, 2 Hungarians, 2 Filipinos, 2 Britons, 3 Americans (two passengers and the captain), 1 Australian, 1 Brazilian, 1 Pole and 1 Turk.

First officer Josef Thurner had once flown as a copilot with Niki Lauda on a Lauda Air Boeing 767 service to Bangkok, a flight that was the subject of a Reader's Digest article in January 1990 that depicted the airline positively. Macarthur Job stated that Thurner was the better known of the crew members. Captain Thomas J. Welch lived in Vienna was leading a group of students from the University of Innsbruck on a tour of the Far East.

Pairat Decharin, the governor of Chiang Mai province, and his wife. Charles S. Ahlgren, the former U.S. consul general to Chiang Mai, said: "That accident not only took their lives and that of many of Chiang Mai's leaders, but dealt a blow to many development and planning activities in the town."
Princess (Chet Ton dynasty).

Aftermath

thumb|Flight 004 Memorial near Suphanburi

The airline lost about a quarter of its capacity a result of the crash. Following the crash of OE-LAV, the airline operated no flights to Sydney on 1, 6 and 7 June. Flights resumed with another 767 on 13 June. Niki Lauda said that the crash and the ensuing period constituted the worst time in his life, even worse than the recovery from injuries that he had sustained after a crash in the 1976 German Grand Prix.

At the crash site, which is accessible to national park visitors, a shrine was erected to commemorate the victims. Another memorial and cemetery is located at Wat Sa Kaeo Srisanpetch, about away in Mueang Suphan Buri district.

In popular culture

The crash of Flight 004 was featured in an edition of ITV's The Cook Report entitled "Don't Shoot the Pilot" in 1993 and in the second episode of Season 14 of the Canadian documentary television series Mayday, titled "Testing the Limits".

Notes

References

Citations

Accident Report — Lauda Air Flight 004 (Archive) — Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee, Ministry of Transport and Communications Thailand, Prepared for World Wide Web usage by Hiroshi Sogame (十亀洋 Sogame Hiroshi), a member of the Safety Promotion Committee (総合安全推進 Sōgō Anzen Suishin) of All Nippon Airways
Aircraft, Volume 71. Royal Aeronautical Society Australian Division, 1991.
Chiles, James R. Inviting Disaster. HarperCollins, 8 July 2008. , 9780061734588.
Job, Macarthur. Air Disaster, Volume 2. Aerospace Publications, 1996. , 9781875671199.
Parschalk, Norbert and Bernhard Thaler. Südtirol Chronik: das 20. Jahrhundert. Athesia, 1999.

External links

"การสอบสวนอากาศยานประสบอุบัติเหต" Department of Civil Aviation (Archive)
"Lauda Air B767 accident report" Ministry of Transport & Communications Thailand (in English)
"Computer-Related Incidents with Commercial Aircraft The Lauda Air B767 Accident". (Archive) Bielefeld University. 26 May 1991.
Lauda Air Flight 004 (Index of articles) — South China Morning Post
"flugzeugabsturz_20jahre.pdf" (Archive) University of Innsbruck. — Includes list of University of Innsbruck professors, assistants, and students who died on Flight 004
Last flight of the Mozart (Der Todesflug der Mozart, German) — Austrian Wings — Austria's Aviation Magazine
PlaneCrashInfo.com — Lauda Air Flight 004
Cockpit Voice Recorder transcript and accident summary
Grand Prix History — Biography on Niki Lauda (Contains information about Flight 004)