On 4 April 2011, Georgian Airways Flight 834, a Bombardier CRJ100 passenger jet of Georgian Airways operating a domestic flight from Kisangani to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), crashed while attempting to land at Kinshasa Airport. The aircraft, which was chartered by the United Nations, was trying to land during a thunderstorm. Of the 33 people on board, only one person survived. The incident remains the United Nations' deadliest aviation disaster. It is also the third-deadliest air disaster involving the CRJ100/200, behind Comair Flight 5191 and China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210.
The government of the DRC set up an investigation commission to probe the crash. It concluded that the aircraft had encountered a microburst moments after initiating a go-around, causing it to rapidly lose its altitude. Even though the crew's weather radar had depicted severe weather activity around the airport, the crew did not discontinue their flight to Kinshasa. Following the rapid altitude loss, the crew failed to recover the aircraft due to its very low altitude.
Aircraft
The aircraft was a Bombardier CRJ100ER, registered as 4L-GAE with a manufacturer serial number of c/n 7070. On 13 May 2008, under a lease agreement, the aircraft was chartered by the United Nations for its MONUSCO mission in the DRC.
Accident
Flight
Flight 834 was a domestic passenger flight from Kisangani, the capital of Orientale Province, to the national capital of Kinshasa, operated by the flag carrier of Georgia, Georgian Airways. It was carried out with a Bombardier CRJ100ER, which was chartered by the United Nations for its missions in Congo following the outbreak of conflicts in the area. The flight had been operated by Georgian Airways since 2008. Being chartered by United Nations, it was given the callsign "UNO".
UN flights were frequent in Congo, occurring more than hundreds of times a week as one of the best available means of transportation in the country; the flying route had been one of the most used in the country. Flights operated by United Nations were frequently used to transport journalists and staffs of various non-governmental organizations.
On 4 April 2011, the aircraft was assigned to carry out a flight from Kisangani to Kinshasa. In Kisangani, a total of 29 passengers boarded the aircraft. There were four crew members, consisted of Captain Alexei Hovhanesyan, First Officer Suliko Tsutskiridze, a flight attendant and a ground engineer. All of the crew members were Georgian citizens. The captain was reportedly a Georgian-Armenian. The captain and pilot in command was 27-year-old Alexey Hovhanesyan, who had 2,811 flight hours, including 1,622 hours on the CRJ100 (217 hours as captain and 1,405 as a first officer). He had just been promoted to captain of the CRJ100 approximately three months before the accident. The first officer was 22-year-old Suliko Tsutskiridze, who was far less experienced than Captain Hovhanesyan, having logged only 495 flight hours, with 344 of them on the CRJ100. The other crew members were identified as cabin crew Guram Kepuladze and ground engineer Albert Manukov.
The aircraft took off from Kisangani at 12:18 p.m local time with an estimated time of arrival at 13:55 p.m. The weather briefing for Kinshasa did not indicate any significant development of severe weather for the next two hours.
Approach
At 13:39 p.m., the crew requested to descend to 10,000 feet (3,000 m) and were later asked to report back after being cleared by the ATC. Following their clearance, they realized that severe weather condition had formed around Kinshasa. Captain Hovhanesyan stated that the aircraft would have to go around the weather system to avoid it. His co-pilot, First Officer Tsutskiridze, decided to observe the developing weather condition.
13:44:39 Captain Hovhanesyan: Damn! Now we will go around this shit!
13:44:43 First Officer Tsutskiridze: Yes, when will we have gone around it.
13:45:07 Hovhanesyan Or we will go around it from here, we will see, by distance
13:45:11 Tsutskiridze: It... I would say... It sees..
13:45:17 Hovhanesyan: What?
13:45:21 Tsutskiridze: This has almost crossed already, this on runway so will cross, We still need to fly for 10 minutes
13:45:45 Tsutskiridze: Check 250... Let's go (*)
13:45:59 Tsutskiridze: Oh, OH! Look how large it is!!!
Tsutkiridze was shocked to see the size of the storm, even could be heard once when he said that the entire ground surface was covered by "magenta" (the radar indication of possible strong thunderstorm activity). The discovery angered both pilots as the weather would complicate their landing attempt. During their conversation on the possible attempts to avoid the weather, personnel in Kinshasa asked the crew to report back on their position. The controller then cleared Flight 834 to conduct a straight-in approach to the localizer of Runway 24 of Kinshasa's N'djili Airport.
Captain Hovhanesyan, still angry with the weather condition in the area, asked his co-pilot to request the latest weather information in Kinshasa. Following their request, the controller in Kinshasa stated that the airport was being pounded with thunderstorm activity with winds at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph). The crew later discussed on the possible ways to approach the airport. Meanwhile, the airspeed continued to increase, nearly reaching 250 knots (460 km/h; 290 mph). The aircraft then descended to 3,500 feet (1,100 m). First Officer Tsutskiridze later said that he had seen the runway on one o'clock position. The crew reported back to the tower and the controller wished the crew a good landing.
Accident
The autopilot was turned off and the aircraft turned towards the runway. The crew configured the aircraft for landing and the passengers and other crews in the cabin were asked to prepare themselves. Approximately 2 nautical miles (3.7 km; 2.3 mi) from the airport, the crew successfully aligned the aircraft with the runway. The aircraft, however, came in at a speed that was above normal, causing the overspeed warning to sound. While the crew was trying to reduce speed, a squall line from the northeast arrived at Kinshasa. Heavy rain began to strike the aircraft. The aircraft continued to descend, passing over the airport's minimum descent altitude. First Officer Tsutkiridze stated that he could not see the runway anymore and suggested Captain Hovhanesyan go around, to which he agreed.
13:56:30 Tsutskiridze: No. Nothing in sight. Let's go around!
13:56:32 Hovhanesyan: Go-around, flaps 8.
13:56:33 Tsutskiridze: Okay.
13:56:34 Tsutskiridze: Flaps 8.
13:56:38 Tsutskiridze: United Nations 834, going around.
The aircraft's nose was pitched up and its altitude began to increase. During the climb, the rain suddenly intensified as the aircraft was struck by a microburst. The wind shear warning blared inside the cockpit and the nose started to pitch downwards at an angle of 7 degrees in a matter of seconds. Hovhanesyan ordered Tsutkiridze to retract the flaps; however, the aircraft continued to lose altitude. Before the crew managed to perform any recovery actions, their altitude was already too low.
13:56:45 Tsutskiridze: Damn it!!!
13:56:48 Aircraft warning : Wind shear! Wind shear! Wind shear!
13:56:49 Hovhanesyan: Flaps up!
13:56:49 Aircraft warning: Wind shear! Whoop whoop pull up!
13:56:50 Tsutskiridze: Okay! Flaps up!
13:56:52 Tsutskiridze: C'mon! Speed!! Speed!!! a-a....
The aircraft flew across the runway and slammed onto the ground to the left of N'djili Airport's Runway 24, shortly before 14:00 local time (13:00 UTC), at a speed of 180 knots (330 km/h; 210 mph) with 10 degree nose down. The undercarriage immediately separated and the aircraft skidded across the ground before it finally flipped over. During the process, various parts of the aircraft began to shear off, including the tail. It continued to slide and eventually came to rest at a distance of 400 metres (1,300 ft; 440 yd) from its initial impact point.
A total of nine people were extricated alive from the wreckage. However, several survivors were pronounced dead on arrival and the others succumbed to their injuries. The sole survivor was Francis Mwamba, a Congolese journalist. He was seriously injured with a reported spinal fracture. Due to the severity of his injuries, he was flown to South Africa for further treatment.
Passengers
The majority of those on board Flight 834 were staff from the United Nations. The aircraft manifest listed 20 UN workers. The passengers included UN peacekeepers and officials, humanitarian workers and electoral assistants. The official UN news bulletin reported that 14 of the passengers were members of MONUSCO. Others were from various UN entities, such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), World Food Programme (WFP), and United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). Five non-UN passengers were staff from non-governmental organizations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or from other international organizations. UN reported that the non-UN passengers of Flight 834 were staffs from the DRC government, Congolese electoral commission, International Criminal Court, International Rescue Committee and Pacific Architects and Engineers.
Officials confirmed that the passengers were from 14 nationalities, including Congolese, South Africans, Bangladeshi, Belgians, Ivorians, Malians, Ghanaian, Beninese, Burkinabe, Haitian, Kenyan, Mauritanian, Santomean and Senegalese.
Among the passengers was Mendes Masudi, an official adviser to the Foreign Minister of the DRC.
Response
UN mission in Congo immediately established a task force to investigate the accident. Counsellors were provided and a hotline was established for the relatives of the victims. Then-head of MONUSCO, Roger Meece, visited the crash site in N'djili Airport along with other senior UN officials from MONUSCO. He expressed his shock for the extent of damage of the crash.
The UN Security Council, United Kingdom and the United States have offered their condolences for the accident. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also issued a letter containing his sorrow of the crash and the other recent deadly incidents involving UN staff in Afghanistan, Ivory Coast and Haiti. In response to the crash, a wreath-laying ceremony was to be held in New York's UN headquarters. Flags of the UN were to be flown at half-mast in every UN offices around the world.
Investigation
Severe weather
The METAR in force at the time showed thunder showers and rain. According to a United Nations official, the aircraft "landed heavily, broke into two and caught fire". An eyewitness suggested windshear as a cause. Alain Le Roy, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, indicated that the poor weather was a key element in the cause of the crash.
Radar visuals on the weather at Kinshasa confirmed the presence of inclement conditions in the area at the time of the crash. The depicted squall line was described as severe and fast-moving with very low cloud base. Moving with a speed of 40 to 50 km/h (22 to 27 kn; 25 to 31 mph) from the northeast to the southwest, the system grew in size when it reached Kinshasa. The fast-moving nature of the weather system was the reason for the rapid visibility deterioration in Kinshasa, where in just 10 minutes the visibility had largely dropped from 8,000 metres (26,000 ft) to just 500 metres (1,600 ft). A significant increase in wind speed was also noted. The weather system deepened and eventually grew in size. This was also confirmed by the cockpit recording in which First Officer Tsutkiridze expressed his shock at the large coverage of the weather system. Imagery from the area showed the colour "magenta", which indicated possible strong thunderstorm activity.
Kinshasa's N'djili Airport was not provided with a weather radar, so the radar controller could not predict or relay information on the rapidly unfolding severe weather conditions to the crew of Flight 834. Despite this, Air Traffic Control (ATC) had warned the crew on the prevailing weather conditions at the airport with "Thunderstorm over the station", though the observance of squall line was not reported. However, the warning seems to have been ignored by the crew possibly due to the ATC personnel's slight accent.
Due to the size of the storm, the crew had to go around it. As a result, the crew were unable to intercept the airport's localizer and to maintain their aircraft within the localizer path. They eventually managed to intercept the localizer at a distance of two nautical miles from the airport. The deteriorating visibility prompted the crew to execute a go-around but the squall line then produced microbursts with vertical gusts of up to 40–50 feet per second (12–15 m/s). Data from the FDR corroborated this finding; vertical G fluctuations and yaw damper movements were recorded on the device.