Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 was a scheduled international Afriqiyah Airways passenger flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to Tripoli, Libya. On 12 May 2010 at about 06:01 (04:01 UTC) while on approach to Tripoli International Airport, the aircraft operating the flight, an Airbus A330, crashed about 1,200 metres (3,900 ft; 1,300 yd) short of the runway. Of the 104 passengers and crew on board, 103 were killed. The sole survivor was a 9-year-old Dutch boy.
The crash of Flight 771 was the deadliest aviation disaster in Libya since the crash of Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 1103 in 1992. This was also the third hull-loss of an Airbus A330 involving fatalities, occurring eleven months after the crash of Air France Flight 447. The crash was also the first fatal accident in the operational history of Afriqiyah Airways.
The investigation, led by the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority, concluded that the crash was caused by pilot error. Following a series of misunderstandings between the pilots, the flight failed to stabilise its approach, causing the already fatigued crew to execute a missed approach. While initiating the go-around, they suffered somatogravic illusion. They then applied nose-down input at low altitude and caused the aircraft to slam onto terrain.
Background
Aircraft
The aircraft involved was an Airbus A330-202 registered as 5A-ONG with serial number 1024, fitted with two General Electric CF6-80E1A4 engines. It entered service with Afriqiyah Airways on 15 September 2009. At the time of the accident, it had logged approximately 2,175 hours total flying time in 572 take-off and landing cycles. It was configured for a capacity of 230 passengers and 13 crew, including 30 business class seats and 200 economy class seats.
Crew
The flight crew consisted of:
- The captain was 57-year-old Yousef al-Saadi (pilot monitoring,PM). He was hired by Afriqiyah Airways in 2007 and had logged 17,016 flight hours, 516 of which were logged on the Airbus A330.
- The first officer was 42-year-old Tareq Abu-Shawashi (pilot flying, PF). He had 4,216 flight hours, including 516 hours logged on the Airbus A330.
- The relief first officer was 37-year-old Nazem al-Tarhuni. He had 1,866 flight hours, 516 of which were logged on the Airbus A330.
All three crew members had logged 516 hours on the Airbus A330.
Accident
Flight 771 was an international long-haul flight that originated at O. R. Tambo International Airport in South Africa's largest city of Johannesburg to Tripoli International Airport in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. There were 93 passengers and 11 crew members on board. Most of the passengers were Dutch citizens returning from holiday in South Africa. After arriving in Libya, the majority of the passengers would have boarded two other aircraft, one of which was bound to Düsseldorf and the other to Brussels. On this flight, al-Saadi was the monitoring pilot, while Abu-Shawashi was in charge of the aircraft controls.
Approach
Flight 771 entered Libyan airspace at around 5 a.m. The crew immediately sought information about the weather and asked for clearance for an approach to Tripoli, which was approved by the ATC. The weather was reported as good, with calm wind and visibility up to 6 kilometres (20,000 ft). They were cleared for descent to 9,000 feet and continued their approach to the airport.
With several minutes left until the flight's arrival at Tripoli, the crew started their approach briefing. Since Tripoli was the home base for Afriqiyah Airways, the crew had been familiarised with their approach and thus decided to end the briefing earlier, only commenting on several things, including the active runway, the locator beacon, and the aircraft's faulty autobrake system. The crew then performed the approach checklist very briefly and tried to stabilise the approach.
Approximately 8 nautical miles from the airport, al-Saadi stated that they should do the "NAV approach". Afterwards, Captain al-Saadi asked the first officer to track the "FPA", which would show the aircraft's relative position to the airport's navigation. When it was 7 nautical miles from the extended runway centreline, the aircraft was established for an approach. At 5:29, al-Saadi contacted Tripoli ATC, which cleared the flight to continue to Tripoli and to report the runway in sight.
According to the approach charts, using a non-precision approach, the crew had to locate the airport's locator, denoted as beacon "TW", before they could be approved for landing. The flight crew discussed which runway approach procedure they would use. When the landing procedure was selected, Abu-Shawashi immediately activated the procedure, and the aircraft began its final descent. When Abu-Shawashi was trying to confirm said procedure to the captain, a call from another Afriqiyah Airways pilot, who had just landed in Tripoli, was received. The pilot alerted the flight crew of Flight 771 that the weather had deteriorated and the airport was covered with mists. While al-Saadi was preoccupied with radio communication, Abu-Shawashi decided to continue the procedure. The aircraft then passed the beacon at 1,000 ft and the crew began searching for the runway.
The flight eventually reached the decision altitude of 720 feet. By this time, the crew had to decide on whether to continue or discontinue the approach. Despite having no runway in sight, al-Saadi commanded to continue the descent. At 6:01 local time, the aircraft had descended to 280 feet (85 m) above ground when the terrain awareness and warning system sounded a "too low terrain" alarm in the cockpit. Al-Saadi, who was startled by the warning, frantically ordered Abu-Shawashi to do a go-around. The autopilot was immediately turned off and their landing attempt was abandoned.
Go-around and crash
Following al-Saadi's order to go-around, First Officer Abu-Shawashi immediately set the thrust levers to TO/GA power and the pitch was raised to around 12.3° nose up. The landing gear and the flaps were retracted. Al-Saadi, still surprised by the sudden decision to abort the approach, failed to conduct the necessary callouts for the go-around, prompting Abu-Shawashi to question him.
Just seconds after disengaging the autopilot, Abu-Shawashi suddenly made a nose-down input. During this time, he called out "flaps" as his flight display showed that the aircraft was about to reach excessive airspeed. Instead of correcting the aircraft's attitude, he kept his attention to the flaps, apparently becoming fixated as he had been involved in a previous overspeed incident in Tripoli. Captain al-Saadi retracted the flaps and informed the ATC that they were going to make a missed approach. The aircraft was going down as First Officer Abu-Shawashi kept the same nose-down input.
Al-Saadi, in an attempt to assist his co-pilot, remarkably made the same nose-down input, albeit not significant enough for the dual input warning to kick in. As the aircraft kept hurtling towards the ground, the ground proximity warning system sounded "too low terrain", "sink rate", and "pull up" alarms as the aircraft lost more height. Realizing that the aircraft would need to decrease its speed, Abu-Shawashi finally made a nose-up input. He, however, was still not aware that the aircraft was losing altitude, and instead was focusing on their preparation for another approach attempt.
Without warning, al-Saadi took over the control from Abu-Shawashi by pushing the side-stick priority button. He maintained a full nose-down input, while Abu-Shawashi pulled his sidestick to raise the pitch. Due to Airbus aircraft adding up side-stick inputs, his inputs ended up cancelling out the other pilot's inputs. While the aircraft was descending rapidly, the pilots finally saw the ground, which was approaching rapidly. Two seconds before impact, al-Saadi finally made a full nose-up input. With only 180 feet (55 m) left between the aircraft and the ground, recovery was impossible.
Two seconds later, the aircraft crashed into the ground at a speed of 262 knots (302 mph; 485 km/h), about 1,200 metres (3,900 ft; 1,300 yd) short of Runway 09, outside the airport perimeter. The aircraft was destroyed by the impact and post-crash fire.
Passengers
The passengers aboard Flight 771 were of various nationalities. All of the eleven crew members were Libyans. At least three passengers, one from Ireland and two from United Kingdom, held dual citizenship. The following list reflects the airline's passenger nationality count of the victims. The airline released the manifest on the morning of 15 May 2010; the airline sent the list to several related embassies.
* one South African passport holder, Bree O'Mara, had dual South African and Irish citizenships.
The sole survivor was a 9-year-old Dutch boy, Ruben van Assouw, from Tilburg, who was returning from a safari with his parents and brother (all of whom died in the accident). He was taken to Sabia'a Hospital, 30 kilometres (19 mi; 16 nmi) south-east of Tripoli and later transferred to Al-Khadhra Hospital, Tripoli, to undergo surgery for multiple fractures in both legs. Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Ad Meijer said the child had no life-threatening injuries. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and Captain Sabri Shadi, the head of Afriqiyah Airways, visited the boy while he was hospitalised in Libya. On 15 May, he was transferred by air ambulance to Eindhoven in the Netherlands. The boy was accompanied on the flight by his paternal aunt and uncle, who later gained custody of him.
Of the passengers, 42 were to continue to Düsseldorf, 32 to Brussels, 7 to London, and 1 to Paris. Eleven of the passengers had Libya as their final destination. Of the 71 passengers identified as Dutch by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 38 were travelling with the Stip travel agency, 24 were travelling with the Kras travel agency, and 9, including the survivor, had their tickets booked independently. One of the Dutch victims was Joëlle van Noppen, singer in the former Dutch girl group WOW!.
South Africa confirmed that at least nine of its citizens were on board Flight 771. Among them was Frans Dreyer, the brother of MP Anchen Dreyer.
On the evening of 12 May 2010, the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that one of its passport holders was on the plane, novelist Bree O'Mara.
Response
During the accident, the aircraft damaged a house on the ground. The homeowner, his wife, and their five children escaped unharmed. The house and a nearby mosque were scheduled to be demolished as part of the airport expansion plans.
After hearing the news of the crash, the Dutch government quickly established a crisis team. A flight carrying officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and personnel of the Dutch National Forensic Investigation Team would be flown on the next day. Netherlands gendarmerie, Royal Marechaussee, were also deployed to the crash site. The first body of a non-Libyan passenger was repatriated to the Netherlands on 27 May 2010. On 15 June, all of the bodies had been identified and repatriated to their respective countries. Libyan authorities then began clearing the accident site on 21 June.
Afriqiyah Airways issued a statement saying that relatives of the victims who wished to visit Libya would be transported and accommodated at Afriqiyah's expense. The Libyan authorities relaxed certain passport restrictions and guaranteed the granting of visas. By 15 May 2010 the airline opened the Family Assistance Centre in a hotel in Tripoli to care for family members and relatives of crash victims who were visiting Libya. The executive team of Afriqiyah, including the CEO and the chairperson of the board, met family members at the hotel. Some family members wanted to visit the crash site; they travelled to the site and placed flowers there.
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands expressed her shock at hearing the news. The President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, also offered his condolences. A national mourning was declared and flags were flown at half mast. As the crash happened during the campaigning season for the parliamentary elections, all events related to campaigning were suspended.
The Dutch Interior Ministry announced that a dedicated website for the families had been established, stating that the purpose of the website was to provide additional legal and moral support to the relatives. Relatives could receive approximately 20,000 euros in advance as preliminary compensation, which would be provided by Afriqiyah Airlines.
On 30 June, a national commemoration was held in Dr. Anton Philips Hall in The Hague. The service was attended by relatives of the victims, government officials and members of the Dutch Royal Family, including Queen Beatrix. Concerts and poem readings were conducted while victims' names were read out one by one. The memorial was televised on live TV. A national minute of silence was also observed during the service. The then-Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Jan Peter Balkenende, expressed his deepest sympathy to the families, later thanking the Libyan authorities for their good cooperation.