Luxair Crash of 2002

An analysis of a human-error related aviation accident.

November 6 marked the twentieth anniversary of this tragic human-error accident of 2002. On this day, Luxair flight 9642 was scheduled to depart from Berlin and arrive in Luxembourg before noon. As the aircraft got closer to its destination, a wall of fog formed and became more severe by the minute. Eventually, the aircraft would go missing from radar and crash in a field near the destination airport. According to the accident report derived later, the aircraft had been instructed to hold due to the wall of fog. After a few minutes in the hold, the flight was cleared to begin its descent (Rasque, 2022). The co-pilot then began the before-approach checklist without announcing it. In contrast, the Captain announced he intended to go around after passing the final approach point but the co-pilot did not react and continued with the checklist. The RVR (Runway Visual Runway) value, which corresponded exactly to the required landing minima, triggered a sudden reversal of the captain’s decision, who then chose to resume the approach without announcing it. This was abnormal since no procedure exists to capture the glide slope from above after having passed the final approach point. The captain then, without saying anything, brought the power to idle and at the same time pulled the ground range selectors in order to be able to bring the power levers slightly further back into a position that corresponds to a setting below idle. This information is confirmed by the value of the left and right turbine RPM parameters, which were below the idle minimum, and by the identified relevant noises on the cockpit voice recorder. This action was prohibited in flight.

Immediately after the landing gear was lowered, the pitch angle of the two propellers simultaneously reached a value that is lower than the minimum values for flight. This propeller pitch setting brought a rapid decrease in speed and altitude and the left engine stopped. Shortly after, the right engine stopped as well (Aerossurance, 2018).

Overall, the human error in this accident consisted of the non-standard task sharing, poor communication between the Captain and the co-pilot, and tasks being performed by the suggestion of the co-pilot and not by command of the Captain. This human error resulted in the loss of twenty out of the twenty-two souls aboard the aircraft.

References

Aerossurance. (2018, February 10). Luxair F50 Loc-I accident 6 November 2002. Aerossurance. https://aerossurance.com/safety-management/luxair-f50-accident-2002/

Rasqué, D. (2022, June 11). 2002 Luxair Plane Crash Worst Aviation accident in Luxembourgish history. RTL Today - 20th anniversary. https://today.rtl.lu/news/luxembourg/a/1988543.html