[condor]

From video on SM: the right side engine had caught fire and then the plane crashed.

*

The Co-pilot Anju Khatiwada: her husband had died in a crash in 2006. She trained in the US to be a pilot, using the insurance money. And now this. Sad.

[driver52001]

The plane seemed to have entered a stall at the minimum altitude before landing. One of the videos shows the aircraft nose pitch up very high before its left wing banks almost 90 degree before crashing. Classic symptoms of a stall. What led to it will be known hopefully after the investigation, whether it was pilot error or a malfunction. The weather was clear. Maybe pilot error with wrong landing configuration or a malfunction somewhere.

[fhdowntheline]

It was a clear day - were they not given the correct vectors? ATC conversation would be critical here. Remember the US Bangla accident where the plane went all over the airfield before veering off while making an impossible attempt to land.

[arijitkanrar]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

It was a clear day - were they not given the correct vectors? ATC conversation would be critical here. Remember the US Bangla accident where the plane went all over the airfield before veering off while making an impossible attempt to land.

ATC cannot prevent a stall. The video from the ground shows a possible stall.

The US Bangla incident primarily resulted from a senior captain completely disoriented, harboring mental stress, trying to salvage a severely unstable approach when the right thing to do was to go around. Not sure how ATC could have helped in that scenario as well.

[driver52001]

Originally Posted by arijitkanrar

trying to salvage a severely unstable approach when the right thing to do was to go around.

Many crashes during landings have happened across the world because pilots decided against going around despite a highly unstable approach without any technical problem. If this plane had no issue, the only factor that led to the crash on this one is simply pilot error. They may have skipped critical landing checklists due to stress or overconfidence. A simple flap not set to the correct position by a few degrees can drastically change landing speed and lift.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by arijitkanrar

ATC cannot prevent a stall. The video from the ground shows a possible stall.

The US Bangla incident primarily resulted from a senior captain completely disoriented, harboring mental stress, trying to salvage a severely unstable approach when the right thing to do was to go around. Not sure how ATC could have helped in that scenario as well.

ATC conversations may reveal if the plane was having any difficulties , if ATC had spotted that the plane was deviating from the glideslope etc. Why did it make a hard left with a nose up attitude? Were they trying to correct their height ? We have seen incidents where pilots were too high and then made a huge correction only to end up in a disaster (PIA A320 Karachi). Did the pilots make a mistake in not applying adequate thrust to maintain airspeed and lift ?

[V.Narayan]

A generic and very preliminary video on the crash. Does not add to what little we know but still worth a watch for those interested. Till we get the black box readouts everything is a guess.

https://www.google.com/search?q=yeti...id:1JCRrVTVPS8

[sandeepmdas]

Probing Agency Blames Faulty Engine for Fatal Accident of Yeti Airlines ATR-72.

"pilot has to incline the propeller blade using the liver that is in the cockpit."

https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/tops...27ebf87f2aebac

[skanchan95]

Yeti Airlines flight 691 preliminary report released

Investigators with the Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission of Nepal released their preliminary report on the crash of Yeti Airlines flight 691 this week. The report details the sequence of events that led to the crash based on data from the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder.

Yeti flight 691 was the third flight of the day for the flight crew, which consisted of two captains. They had flown one round trip between Kathmandu and Pokhara before the accident flight. On Yeti 691 the pilot flying (PF) was the captain undergoing familiarization for landing in Pokhara, while the pilot monitoring (PM) was acting as the instructor pilot.

Yeti flight 691 sequence of events
The take off, climb, cruise, and initial descent from Kathmandu to Pokhara was uneventful. As the pilots prepared for landing at 10:56:12 (UTC +5:45), they selected flaps 15 and lowered the landing gear.

15 seconds after extending the flaps, the PF disengaged the autopilot at 721 feet above ground level.

The PF then called for “FLAPS 30” at 10:56:32, and the PM replied, “Flaps 30 and descending”. The flight data recorder (FDR) data did not record any flap surface movement at that time. Instead, the propeller rotation speed (Np) of both engines decreased simultaneously to less than 25% and the torque (Tq) started decreasing to 0%, which is consistent with both propellers going into the feathered condition.

Based on the Nepalese investigator’s preliminary report it appears the PM (right seat) moved the prop levels to feather (FTR) instead of moving the flaps level to 30 at this point.




At 10:56:54 after descending below 500 AGL one of the pilots moved the flaps to the 30 degrees position.

Through the rest of the flight, the pilots noted that there was no power coming from the engines, while the aircraft descended. The stick shaker was activated twice, the final time at 10:57:26 and the aircraft “banked towards the left abruptly.” Consistent with the last available ADS-B data received, the FDR and CVR stopped recording at 10:57 local time (5:12 UTC).

[itwasntme]

Looks like 100% human factor by the PF who feathered the props instead of Slats 30.

Too low to correct as well I guess, and damnable luck to crash into the gorge. Flip side is that had they not crashed into the gorge, there would have been far more casualties in that densely populated neighbourhood.

Karma, I tell you for all on board. May they RIP.

[fhdowntheline]

So after throttling down to idle, neither pilot noticed the reduction in the overall NVH level in the cockpit ? Shouldnt PM have been monitoring the gauges ? Or were they both looking out for the runway on the LHS ?

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Looks like 100% human factor by the PF who feathered the props instead of Slats 30.
.

No, it was the PM who should have moved the flaps, but for some reason moved the props to feather. Interestingly, the PM was a captain himself and was acting as instructor to familiarise the other pilot (PF) whom herself was also captain.

Both experienced pilots, one very experienced on this type of plane.

Jeroen

[itwasntme]

Sincere apologies, indeed the experienced PM fatally erred.

[no_fear]

To the aviation gurus on the thread,

Don't pilots have to go through a check list before landing. With the engines at feathered positions and no flaps, was the checklist protocol not followed at all?

Really sad if human error was the principal cause.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by no_fear

Don't pilots have to go through a check list before landing. With the engines at feathered positions and no flaps, was the checklist protocol not followed at all?

Really sad if human error was the principal cause.

Yes, there are check lists and no doubt there is one for the landing for this particular aircraft. But there are a couple of things to bear in mind.

It all depends on aircraft type and to some extend company policy too.

Adjusting power settings and flaps is something that needs doing whilst still in the process of landing. Ideally a plane needs to be in final landing configuration and stabilised as it calls several miles out from the runway. At this airport I understand there is no straight in approach, you have to make a sharp turn to align to the runway.

The preliminary report reads

The flight crew then carried out the “Before Landing Checklist” before starting the left turn onto the base leg.

Only after this turn would they start dialing in additional flaps. That’s when it went wrong. If you read the full report it is clear that there were multiple indication something went wrong. The pilots were heard saying they lost power. But they never figured out what it was. It is difficult to understand why two experienced pilots got it so wrong. But it is not the first time and it won’t be the last. As long as you have humans at the controls you will have accidents caused by humans. Even though aviation is incredibly safe, most of the few fatal accidents have a human error element in it, or are simply caused by human error. It remains the weak link.

Some might consider it a good case to argue a case of no pilots in the cockpit. A computer would not have made this mistake!