Airbus makes emergency landing after losing all comms and nav

mikea

mikea

Touchdown! Greaser!
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On August 14th 2008 a Turkish Airlines Airbus A310-300, registration TC-JDA, was performing flight TK1123 from Istanbul (Turkey) to Lagos (Nigeria) with 196 passengers, but went missing while on approach to Lagos at around 10pm Lagos local time. The airplane later landed at the airport of Lome (Togo), about 120nm (nautical miles) west of Lagos.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Togo reported the following day, that the airplane had lost all navigation instruments and communication radios, so that the commander decided to turn west along the coast knowing, that they had chances to visually find the airports of Cotonou (Benin), Lome (Togo) or Accra (Ghana). An Air France flight taking off Lome had prompted, that the runway lights at Lome were switched on, enabling the Turkish Airlines crew to see the runway. As TK1123 descended and maneouvered very low over Lome in order to not loose sight of the runway again, the tower controllers understood the airplane was in trouble. TK1123 landed safely on Lome's runway, the crew not knowing, where they had actually touched down.

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http://avherald.com/h?article=40d2752c&opt=0
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Woah.
 
>in order to not loose sight of the runway

"loose"?! oy.
 
What was that discussion a while back about pilotage being obsolete?
 
I could understand where loosing nav and coms in IMC would be a big, fat, hairy deal. But from the sounds of it there guys were VFR. Then again, does anyone actually publish charts for Africa?
 
I am suspicious that there were one or more people on the flight that couldn't afford to be seen disembarking in Lagos.

Or maybe I've been watching too many movies....

-Skip
 
steingar said:
I could understand where loosing nav and coms in IMC would be a big, fat, hairy deal. But from the sounds of it there guys were VFR. Then again, does anyone actually publish charts for Africa?
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Yeah, but finding an airport flying night VFR in Africa isn't exactly like finding the next McDonalds on the Interstate. :hairraise::hairraise::hairraise:
 
flyersfan31 said:
Yeah, but finding an airport flying night VFR in Africa isn't exactly like finding the next McDonalds on the Interstate. :hairraise::hairraise::hairraise:
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Ya Know Anymouse would know best but my guess is it may actually be easier than one would think. If they light up the field its not gonna get lost in as much light pollution as you would have in more populated areas like in Europe and here.
 
AdamZ said:
Ya Know Anymouse would know best but my guess is it may actually be easier than one would think. If they light up the field its not gonna get lost in as much light pollution as you would have in more populated areas like in Europe and here.
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I'd agree with this point, but the point being "if" they light it up. What's to say that they're actually going to leave a beacon, or the runway lights, on all night long for planes coming by?
 
All good points. Africa could really be another world compared to what we're used to.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I'd agree with this point, but the point being "if" they light it up. What's to say that they're actually going to leave a beacon, or the runway lights, on all night long for planes coming by?
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Not likely. This goes back a few years but when I traveled across India by bus, the railroad crossing gates went down according to schedule but didn't go up until the train had passed. Chaos.

-Skip
 
Skip Miller said:
Not likely. This goes back a few years but when I traveled across India by bus, the railroad crossing gates went down according to schedule but didn't go up until the train had passed. Chaos.

-Skip
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What could possible be dee problem?

:hairraise:
 
mikea said:
What could possible be dee problem?
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I don't see a problem. The culture instills a little down to earth self preservation in the people and evolution takes care of the slackers. They have places to go however they're also smart enough to not be standing on the track when the train actually arrives.

That said, I would not want to be an EMT in that situation in this country - smunch city.
 
fgcason said:
I don't see a problem. The culture instills a little down to earth self preservation in the people and evolution takes care of the slackers. They have places to go however they're also smart enough to not be standing on the track when the train actually arrives.

That said, I would not want to be an EMT in that situation in this country - smunch city.
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I think to a large extent life there is based on the principle you see here occasionally, "If he dies, we'll just make more," like when I saw the mega-SUV ahead where the kid was STANDING behind the front seat, or quoting Jay Leno about his 55 Buick, "No padded dash on this car! In those days they said if you hit the dash they just hose it off and sell it to the next guy!" :D

BTW, YouTube has plenty more videos of close calls and not so close misses there.
 
AdamZ said:
Ya Know Anymouse would know best but my guess is it may actually be easier than one would think. If they light up the field its not gonna get lost in as much light pollution as you would have in more populated areas like in Europe and here.
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Maybe -- but we're talking pretty significant distances here. Plus, there's a whole lot of scary stuff on the ground.
 
AdamZ said:
Ya Know Anymouse would know best but my guess is it may actually be easier than one would think. If they light up the field its not gonna get lost in as much light pollution as you would have in more populated areas like in Europe and here.
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Lome is the capital of Togo with an airstrip long enough to accomidate an Airbus. I'd guess it would be pretty lit up at night.
 
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