| - | ACCIDENT DETAILS |
| Date: | March 31, 1992 |
| Time: | ? |
| Location: | Istres, France |
| Operator: | Trans Air, on charter for Kebo Air Cargo |
| Flight #: | ONK 671 |
| Route: | Luxembourg - Kano |
| AC Type: | Boeing 707 freighter |
| Registration: | 5N-MAS |
| cn / ln: | 18718 |
| Aboard: | 5 (passengers:2 crew:3) |
| Fatalities: | 0 (passengers:0 crew:0) |
| Ground: | 0 |
| Summary: | While cruising over the Alps, the aircraft encountered heavy turbulence and began a climb. Near Sederon, France, Engine #3 came off the wing due to fatigue in one mounting and overstress on the surviving three. It hit engine #4, knocking it off as well. The plane dived out of control until the pilots were able to recover. In clouds, they needed vectors to land safely but ATC could not help until the flight engineer realized he needed to switch the transponder's power supply from engine #4 to #1. The normal method of dumping fuel, left one tank full for similar reasons. While trying to line up for a Marseille approach, the plane came out of the clouds, the pilots spotted the long runway at Istres, and went there instead. When they lowered the flaps, fuel leaking from where engine #3 had been was ignited by broken wires. They landed safely but the wing was damaged beyond repair. The maintenance procedure for the engine mounts at that time was not adequate to detect fatigue in certain positions. |
Sources
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