Flydubai Boeing 737-8KN plane crash
Rostov on Don, Russia
Updated on
The Boeing 737-800 operated by Flydubai took off from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for a passenger flight to Rostov on Don, Russia. 55 passengers and 7 crewmembers were onboard. The plane crashed during landing at Rostov on Don airport. There are no survivors: all the 62 people onboard were killed.
Bad weather conditions with low visibility and strong winds were prevailing at Rostov on Don airport at the time of the accident. The Boeing 737 has first attempted to land but aborted the approach due to weather and entered a hold initially at 8000 feet. After 30 minutes at 8000 feet the aircraft climbed to FL150. After about 2 hours of holding the aircraft commenced another approach to Rostov's runway 22 with winds from 240 degrees at 27 knots (14 m/s) gusting 42 knots (22 m/s).
The second approach was flown manually in flight director mode. At 720 feet of height and 2,42 NM (4,5 km) before the runway threshold the crew decided to go around. the crew applied the go-around procedure : engines accelerated to TOGA, landing gear retracted and flaps reduced to 15 degrees.
Climbing through a height of 1900 feet at nose up attitude of 18 degrees the pilot flying pushed the yoke forward resulting in a nose down movement and an increase in airspeed above 200 kts. The engine thrust was reduced for a brief period resulting in a speed decrease, then engine thrust was increased again to TOGA.
At a height of 2950 feet a simultaneous nose down control input and a stabilizer nose down deflection occurred resulting in the aircraft, after having reached 1000 meters/3300 feet, to begin to descend and experience a vertical acceleration of -1.0G.
According to Flight Data Recorder, the nose down trim input came from the stabilizer trim switch at the control column and lasted for 12 seconds while the cockpit voice recorder recorded specific noise of the trim wheels rotating.
The following crew recovery actions did not allow to avoid an impact with the ground. The aircraft impacted the runway about 120 meters past the runway threshold with a speed of more than 324 kts and more than 50 degrees pitch nose. The Boeing 737 was pulverised.