Air China Flight 129
| Occurrence | |
|---|---|
| Date | April 15 2002 |
| Summary | Controlled flight into terrain |
| Site | Busan, Korea |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 767-200ER |
| Operator | Air China |
| Registration | B-2552disaster |
| Passengers | 155 |
| Crew | 11 |
| Fatalities | 128 |
| Injuries | 38 |
| Survivors | 38 |
Air China Flight 129 (CCA129, CA129) was a flight from Beijing Capital International Airport, Beijing, China to Gimhae International Airport, Busan, South Korea. On April 15, 2002, the jet on this route crashed into a hill near Busan, killing 128 of 166 on board.
Disaster
The Boeing 767-200 took off at 0837 local time (0037 UTC). After nearly 2 hours in flight, it arrived near Gimhae airport in light rain and mist. At 1120 local time (0220UTC), CA129 received clearance to land at runway 36L from Gimhae tower, but the aircraft circled the runway again after a missed approach due to low visibility. After an attempt to circle-to-land on runway 18R (the same runway from the opposite direction), the crew concentrated too much on the weather and ATC communications while going below the Minimum Safety Altitude (MSA), and crashed into a hill at 1140 local time (0240UTC). The aircraft broke into parts and caught fire. 38 survived including the captain.
Aircraft
- Model: Boeing 767-2J6/ER
- Registration: B-2552disaster
- Previous Registrations: N60659
- MSN/CN: 23308/127
- Engine: Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7R4E4
- Year of Delivery: 1985
Crew Members
- Flight Crew:
- Captain: Wu Xinlu (吴新禄), 6000 hours on Boeing 767, 5 times to Busan, received captains license on 23 November, 2001;
- First Officer: Gao Lijie (高立杰);
- First Officer: Hou Xiangning (侯向宁);
- Flight Attendants:
- Ye Hongxia (叶红霞), Wang Zi (王泽), Zhang Wanhua (张婉华)、He Zhen (贺珍), Xu Liya (许丽雅), Du Dazheng (杜大正), Luo Rui (罗睿) and Sun Jiayue (孙嘉悦).
Passengers
Among the 155 passengers, 135 were from Korea, 19 from China and 1 from Uzbekistan.
Weather
Weather at the time of crash was poor. According to the METAR record at Gimhae airport, visibility was below 4000 meters with light rain and mist.
Accident Report
The official accident report was released in May 2005. The Probable Cause read:
- The flight crew of flight 129 performed the circling approach, not being aware of the weather minima of wide-body aircraft (B767-200) for landing, and in the approach briefing, did not include the missed approach, etc., among the items specified in Air China’s operations and training manuals.
- The flight crew exercised poor crew resource management and lost situational awareness during the circling approach to runway 18R, which led them to fly outside of the circling approach area, delaying the base turn, contrary to the captain’s intention to make a timely base turn.
- The flight crew did not execute a missed approach when they lost sight of the runway during the circling approach to runway 18R, which led them to strike high terrain (mountain) near the airport.
- When the first officer advised the captain to ascend again for landing, about 5 seconds before impact, the captain did not react, nor did the first officer initiate the missed approach himself.
What Happened to the Flight Number?
Despite this accident, Air China did not change the flight route designator for its Beijing - Busan route. Two days after the accident, another 767 served as flight 129 and safely carried 106 passengers from Beijing to Busan, although the flight was delayed for 10 hours and 10 minutes due to bad weather. Although Air China runs a Boeing 767-200 and a Boeing 777-200 on this route now, the flight route designator remains flight 129.