Lauda Air Flight 004

Lauda Air Flight 004 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight between Bangkok, Thailand, and Vienna, Austria. On 26 May 1991, the thrust reverser on the No.1 engine of the Boeing 767-300ER operating the flight deployed in flight without being commanded, causing the aircraft to spiral out of control, break up, and crash, killing all 213 passengers and the 10 crew members on board. It was the deadliest aviation incident involving a Boeing 767 at the time and the deadliest aviation incident in Thai history. The crash marked the aircraft type's first fatal incident and third hull loss.[1][2][3] Lauda Air was founded and run by Formula One world motor racing champion Niki Lauda. Lauda was personally involved in the accident investigation.

Lauda Air Flight 004
A Lauda Air Boeing 767-3Z9ER similar to one involved
Accident
Date26 May 1991 (1991-05-26)
SummaryIn-flight break-up caused by uncommanded thrust reverser deployment
SitePhu Toei National Park, Suphan Buri, Thailand
14°57′N 99°27′E
Aircraft
Aircraft typeBoeing 767-3Z9ER
Aircraft nameMozart
OperatorLauda Air
RegistrationOE-LAV
Flight originKai Tak Airport, Hong Kong
StopoverDon Mueang Int'l Airport, Bangkok, Thailand
DestinationVienna International Airport, Vienna, Austria
Occupants223
Passengers213
Crew10
Fatalities223
Survivors0

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 767-300ER that was powered by Pratt & Whitney PW4060 engines and delivered new to Lauda Air on 16 October 1989.[4] The aircraft was registered OE-LAV and was named Mozart.[5]:21

History of the flight

At the time of the accident, Lauda Air operated three weekly flights between Bangkok and Vienna.[6] On 26 May 1991, at 23:02 ICT, flight NG004 (originating from Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport), a Boeing 767-3Z9ER, took off from Don Mueang International Airport for its flight to Vienna International Airport with 213 passengers and ten crew, under the command of American Captain Thomas J. Welch (48) and Austrian First Officer Josef Thurner (41).[5]:4[7][8][9][10][11] At 23:08, Welch and Thurner received a visual warning indicating that a possible system failure would cause the thrust reverser on the number one engine to deploy in flight. Having consulted the aircraft's quick reference handbook, they determined that it was "just an advisory thing" and took no action.[1]

At 23:17, the number one engine reversed thrust while the plane was over mountainous jungle terrain in the border area between Suphan Buri and Uthai Thani Provinces in Thailand. Thurner's last recorded words were, "Oh, reverser's deployed".[12][5]:55 Just after Thurner said this, the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) recorded a shuddering sound, followed by a metallic snap. Lift on the aircraft's left side was disrupted due to the reverser deployment, and the aircraft immediately began a diving left turn. The CVR recorded a second metallic snapping sound, followed by various alarms and Welch's last recorded words, which were, "Jesus Christ!" followed by "here, wait a minute", and then, "damn it!" Following this, the CVR recorded an increase in background noise, followed by several loud bangs, and then stopped recording. The aircraft went into a diving speed of Mach 0.99, and may have broken the sound barrier. The aircraft broke up in mid-air at 4,000 feet (1,200 m).[13] Most of the wreckage was scattered over a remote forest area roughly one square kilometre in size, at an elevation of 600 m (2,000 ft), in what is now Phu Toei National Park, Suphan Buri. The wreckage site is about 6 kilometres (4 mi; 3 nmi) north-northeast of Phu Toey, Huay Kamin, Dan Chang District, Suphan Buri Province,[5] about 100 kilometres (62 mi; 54 nmi) northwest of Bangkok, close to the Burma-Thailand border.[6][14] Rescuers found Welch's body still in the pilot's seat.[15]

Recovery

Volunteer rescue teams and local villagers looted the wreckage, taking electronics and jewellery,[16] so relatives were unable to recover personal possessions.[17] The bodies were taken to a hospital in Bangkok. The storage was not refrigerated and the bodies decomposed. Dental and forensic experts worked to identify bodies, but twenty-seven were never identified.[18]

Speculation circulated that a bomb may have destroyed the aircraft. The Philadelphia Inquirer, citing wire services it did not identify, stated that "the search for a motive is difficult because politically neutral Austria has generally stayed out of most international conflicts – such as the Persian Gulf war – that have made other countries' airlines the targets of terrorist attacks."[19]

Investigation
Niki Lauda traveled to Thailand to assist in the investigation

The flight data recorder was completely destroyed, so only the cockpit voice recorder was of use. Pradit Hoprasatsuk, the head of the Air Safety Division of the Thailand Department of Aviation, stated, "the attempt to determine why the reverser came on was hampered by the loss of the flight data recorder, which was destroyed in the crash".[20] Upon hearing of the crash, Niki Lauda traveled to Thailand. He examined the wreckage and estimated that the largest fragment was about five metres (16 ft) by two metres (6.6 ft), which was about half the size of the largest piece in the Lockerbie crash.[21] In Thailand, Lauda attended a funeral for 23 unidentified passengers, and then traveled to Seattle to meet with Boeing representatives.

The official investigation, led by Thailand's Aircraft Accident investigation Committee, took about eight months, and was released with the "probable cause" stating: "The Accident Investigation Committee of the Government of Thailand determines the probable cause of this accident to be [an] uncommanded in-flight deployment of the left engine thrust reverser, which resulted in loss of flight path control. The specific cause of the thrust reverser deployment has not been positively identified."[22] Different possibilities were investigated, including a short circuit in the system. Due in part to the destruction of much of the wiring, no definitive reason for the activation of the thrust reverser could be found.[5]

As evidence started to point towards the thrust reversers as the cause of the accident, Lauda made simulator flights at Gatwick Airport which appeared to show that deployment of a thrust reverser was a survivable incident. Lauda said that the thrust reverser could not be the sole cause of the crash.[23] However the accident report states that the "flightcrew training simulators yielded erroneous results"[5]:21 and stated that recovery from the loss of lift from the reverser deployment "was uncontrollable for an unexpecting flight crew".[5]:41

The incident led Boeing to modify the thrust reverser system to prevent similar occurrences by adding sync-locks, which prevent the thrust reversers from deploying when the main landing gear truck tilt angle is not at the ground position.[5][24] Aviation writer Macarthur Job has said that "had that Boeing 767 been of an earlier version of the type, fitted with engines that were controlled mechanically rather than electronically, then that accident could not have happened".[12]

Lauda's visit with Boeing

Lauda stated, "what really annoyed me was Boeing's reaction once the cause was clear. Boeing did not want to say anything."[22] Lauda asked Boeing to fly the scenario in a simulator that used different data as compared to the one that Lauda had performed tests on at Gatwick Airport.[25] Boeing initially refused, but Lauda insisted, so Boeing granted permission. Lauda attempted the flight in the simulator 15 times, and in every instance he was unable to recover. He asked Boeing to issue a statement, but the legal department said it could not be issued because it would take three months to adjust the wording. Lauda asked for a press conference the following day, and told Boeing that if it was possible to recover, he would be willing to fly on a 767 with two pilots and have the thrust reverser deploy in air. Boeing told Lauda that it was not possible, so he asked Boeing to issue a statement saying that it would not be survivable, and Boeing issued it. Lauda then added, "this was the first time in eight months that it had been made clear that the manufacturer [Boeing] was at fault and not the operator of the aeroplane [or Pratt and Whitney]."[22]

Previous testing of thrust reversers

When the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) asked Boeing to test activating the thrust reverser in flight,[26] the FAA had allowed Boeing to devise the tests. Boeing had insisted that a deployment was not possible in flight. In 1982 Boeing conducted a test wherein the aircraft was flown at 10,000 feet, then slowed to 250 knots, and the test pilots then deployed the thrust reverser. The control of the aircraft was not jeopardized. The FAA accepted the results of the test.[27]

The Lauda aircraft was traveling at a high speed (400 knots) and at almost 30,000 feet when the left thrust reverser deployed, causing the pilots to lose control of the aircraft. James R. Chiles, author of Inviting Disaster, said, "the point here is not that a thorough test would have told the pilots Thomas J. Welch and Josef Thumer [sic] what to do. A thrust reverser deploying in flight might not have been survivable, anyway. But a thorough test would have informed the FAA and Boeing that thrust reversers deploying in midair was such a dangerous occurrence that Boeing needed to install a positive lock that would prevent such an event." As a result of their findings during the investigation of Lauda Flight 004, additional safety features such as mechanical positive locks were mandated to prevent thrust reverser deployment in flight.[28]

Passengers and crew
NationalityPassengersCrewTotal
Austria74983
Hong Kong52—52
Thailand39—39
Italy10—10
Switzerland7—7
China6—6
Germany4—4
Portugal3—3
Taiwan3—3
Yugoslavia3—3
United States213
Hungary2—2
Philippines2—2
United Kingdom2—2
Australia1—1
Brazil1—1
Poland1—1
Turkey1—1
Total21310223

The passengers and crew included 83 Austrians: 74 passengers and nine crew members.[29][30] Other nationalities included 52 Hong Kong residents,[30][31] 39 Thai, 10 Italians, seven Swiss, six Chinese, four Germans, three Portuguese, three Taiwanese, three Yugoslavs, two Hungarians, two Filipinos, two Britons, three Americans (two passengers and the captain), one Australian, one Brazilian, one Pole, and one Turk.[30][32]

Josef Thurner, the copilot, once flew as a copilot with Niki Lauda on a Lauda Boeing 737 service to Bangkok, a flight that was the subject of a Reader's Digest article in January 1990 that depicted the airline positively. Macarthur Job stated that Thurner was the better known of the crew members.[33] Thomas J. Welch, the captain, lived in Vienna,[30] but originated from Seattle, Washington.[32]

Notable victims include:

  • Clemens August Andreae, an Austrian economics professor,[34] was leading a group of students from the University of Innsbruck on a tour of the Far East.[35]
  • Pairat Decharin, the Governor of Chiang Mai Province, and his wife.[15][36] Charles S. Ahlgren, the former U.S. consul general to Chiang Mai, said "That accident not only took their lives and that of many of Chiang Mai's leaders, but dealt a blow to many development and planning activities in the town."[37]

Aftermath

About a quarter of the airline's carrying capacity was destroyed as a result of the crash.[38] Following the crash of OE-LAV, the airline had no flights to Sydney, on 1, 6, and 7 June. Flights resumed with another 767 on 13 June.[39] Niki Lauda said that the crash in 1991 and the period after was the worst time in his life.[22] After the crash, bookings from Hong Kong decreased by 20% but additional passengers from Vienna began booking flights, so there were no significant changes in overall bookings.[31]

In early August 1991, Boeing issued an alert to airlines stating that over 1,600 late model 737s, 747s, 757s, and 767s had thrust reverser systems similar to that of OE-LAV. Two months later, customers were asked to replace potentially faulty valves in the thrust reverser systems that could cause reversers to deploy in flight.[40]

At the crash site, which is accessible to national park visitors, a shrine was later erected to commemorate the victims.[41] Another memorial and cemetery is located at Wat Sa Kaeo Srisanpetch, about 90 kilometres (56 mi; 49 nmi) away in Mueang Suphan Buri District.[42]

See also

Notes
  1. Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
  2. Ranter, Harro. "Boeing 767". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  3. Ranter, Harro. "Thailand air safety profile". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  4. airfleets.net – Boeing 767 – MSN 24628 – OE-LAV retrieved 3 July 2016
  5. "Accident Report". rvs.uni-bielefeld.de. Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee. Archived from the original on 27 May 2011. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  6. Tummachartvijit, Tavorn. "Cause of airliner explosion Sought". Associated Press The Dispatch. 27 May 1991. 1A and 6A.
  7. "Excerpts from Lauda News Conference on Crash of Boeing 767 With AM-Thailand Crash". AP NEWS. Associated Press. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  8. Lewis Jr M.D, Joseph W. (28 October 2016). Last and Near-Last Words of the Famous, Infamous and Those In-Between. AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-5246-4787-2.
  9. "Two Doomed 767S Were Partners On Assembly Line". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  10. "Lauda 004 air crash". www.pilotfriend.com. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  11. "Lauda Air 004 CVR Transcript". www.tailstrike.com. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  12. Job, Macarthur (1996). Air Disaster Volume 2, Aerospace Publications, ISBN 1-875671-19-6: pp.203–217
  13. Chiles, p. 309.
  14. "More Than 200 Believed Killed As Plane Crashes in Thai Jungle". Associated Press. 27 May 1991. Retrieved on 27 January 2013.
  15. "UN drug man 'not Thai bomb target'". The Independent. Thursday 30 May 1991. Available on LexisNexis.
  16. Johnson, Sharen Shaw. "Scavengers complicate crash probe". USA Today. 29 May 1991. News 4A.
  17. Krausz, Tibor (10 December 2019). "Pilgrimage to Thai plane crash site for aunt killed 28 years ago: 'I'm here for you. You're no longer alone.'". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  18. Finlay, Victoria. "Relatives return to crash site for memorial service". South China Morning Post. Tuesday 25 May 1993. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  19. "Looting May Hurt Jet-crash Probe; Airline Chief Denies Extortion Plot". Inquirer Wire Services at The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1. Retrieved on 26 May 2013.
  20. Archive. Associated Press. 31 August 1993. Retrieved on 16 March 2014.
  21. "Looting may have hidden clues to crash". The Advertiser. Thursday 30 May 1991.
  22. Lauda, Niki (interview by Maurice Hamilton). "Niki Lauda: 'People had lost their loved ones yet no one was telling them why'". Observer Sport Monthly at The Guardian. 29 October 2006. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  23. "Owner Rejects Thrust as Cause of Air Crash". The New York Times. 7 June 1991. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
  24. Acohido, Byron. "Boeing Thrust Reversers Had History Of Glitches". Chicago Tribune.
  25. Williamson, Hank (2011). Air Crash Investigations: Suddenly Falling Apart The Crash Of Lauda Air Flight NG 004, ISBN 9781257505401: p. 40.
  26. Chiles, p. 112–113.
  27. Chiles, p. 113.
  28. Chiles, p. 114.
  29. Traynor, et al. "Crash teams investigate plane blast". The Independent. 28 May 1991.
  30. Wallace, Charles P. "'All Evidence' in Thai Air Crash Points to Bomb". Los Angeles Times. 28 May 1991. 2. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  31. Finlay, Victoria. "Jet tragedy families wait on pay". South China Morning Post. 25 May 1993. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  32. "Pilots' Final Words". Associated Press]. The Seattle Times. 6 June 1991. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  33. Job, p. 204. "Of all the crew, Josef Thurner was perhaps the better known thanks to having been copilot to Niki Lauda himself on a Boeing 737 service to Bangkok which became the subject of a highly affirmative article on the airline and its history in the January 1990 issue of Reader's Digest [...]"
  34. "Lauda Air-Absturz in Thailand jährt sich zum 20. Mal." [Lauda Air Crash in Thailand marks its 20th anniversary] (in German) Die Presse. 26 May 2011. Retrieved on 14 February 2013.
  35. Parschalk and Thaler, p. 394(in German) "Sechs der zehn Südtiroler Opfer sind Studenten der Innsbrucker Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften aus Klausen, Gröden, Olang, Mals und Kiens, die unter der Leitung von Clemens August Andreae an einer Exkursion nach Fernost teilgenommen hatten. Die anderen vier Südtiroler Todesopfer – alle aus Bozen – sind zwei Beamte sowie ein Berufsmusiker mit seiner chinesischen Frau und dem in Bozen geborenen Töchterchen der beiden." [English: Six of the ten victims of South Tyrol are students of the Innsbruck Faculty of Economics from Klausen, Val Gardena, Olang, Mals and Kiens, who had participated in an excursion to the Far East under the guidance of Clemens August Andreae. The other four South Tyrolean fatalities - all from Bolzano - are two civil servants and a professional musician with his Chinese wife and the Bolzano-born daughter of the two."]
  36. รายนามผู้ดำรงตำแหน่งผู้ว่าราชการจังหวัดเชียงใหม่ [List of incumbent governor of Chiang Mai Province]. chiangmai.go.th (in Thai). Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  37. "Special Messages from 8 U.S. Consuls General in Chiang Mai". (Archive) Department of State. Retrieved on 15 February 2013. Thai version, Archive
  38. Traynor, Ian. "Lauda's driving ambition brings triumph and disaster in tandem". The Independent. 28 May 1991.
  39. Aircraft, Volume 71. p. 44. "LAUDA AIR/LDA: Following the still unexplained loss of B767-329ER OE-LAV [24628] Mozart, there were no flights to Sydney by the Austrian carrier on 1, 6 and 7 June. Services resumed on 13 June with B767-3T9 (ER) OE-LAU [23765 xN6009F]
  40. Lane, Polly and Acohido, Byron. "Boeing Tells 757 Owners To Replace Part – Faulty Thrust-Reverser Valve Blamed In 767 Accident That Killed 223". Seattle Times. Monday, 9 September 1991. Retrieved on 15 February 2013.
  41. Paknam Web – Phu Toei National Park Archived 8 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  42. "Lauda Air Crash, 26 May 1991: Thailand's Worst Ever | Thai Blogs". Retrieved 29 September 2019.

References

Further reading
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