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TAROM Flight 371
TAROM Flight 371 was a scheduled international passenger flight, with an Airbus A310 from Otopeni International Airport in Romania's capital Bucharest to Brussels Airport in Brussels, Belgium. The flight was operated by TAROM, the flag carrier of Romania. On 31 March 1995, the Airbus A310-324, registered as YR-LCC, entered a nose-down dive after takeoff and crashed near Balotești in Romania, killing all 60 people on board.
Investigation of the crash revealed that a faulty auto-throttle reduced the left engine to idle during climb and coincidentally the captain became incapacitated (possibly by a heart attack). The First Officer was unable to respond properly to the situation as according to the French BEA he confused his Attitude Direction Indicator with the one on Soviet-built planes he spent most of his career flying which was different than on the A310. It was also the deadliest plane crash in TAROM's operational history.
The aircraft involved was an Airbus A310-324 registered as YR-LCC with serial number 450 and named Muntenia. It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW4152 turbofan engines and had logged in 31,092 flight hours and 6,216 takeoff and landing cycles.
The aircraft was carrying 49 passengers and 11 crew members. Thirty-two of the passengers were from Belgium, nine from Romania, three from the United States, two from Spain, and one each from France, Thailand, and the Netherlands.
The captain of the flight was 48-year-old Liviu Bătănoiu. He had a total of 14,312 flying hours, with 1,735 on the Airbus A310. He graduated from the Aurel Vlaicu Military Aviation School in 1969. His last training on the type was on 12 November 1994 in a Swissair facility in Zurich, Switzerland.
The first officer was 51-year-old Ionel Stoi. He had a total of 8,988 flying hours, 650 on the A310. The A310 was the first and only airplane that he had flown with a Western style Attitude Direction Indicator (ADI), which works oppositely from the ADIs on Soviet-built planes he had spent most of his career flying. He graduated from the Aurel Vlaicu Military Aviation School in 1968. His last simulator training on the type was on 21 September 1994, carried out at a Swissair facility in Zurich.
TAROM Flight 371 took off at 09:06:44 local time (06:06:44 UTC) from runway 08R, with First Officer Stoi as the pilot flying. The crew knew about a pre-existing anomaly with the thrust levers, with Captain Bătănoiu stating that he would guard the throttles during the climb. Stoi then asked Bătănoiu to retract the flaps and slats. Bătănoiu retracted the flaps, but failed to retract the slats. Noticing this, Stoi asked his captain what was wrong. After Bătănoiu told First Officer Stoi he felt sick, he groaned then fell silent, apparently having lost consciousness. To make matters worse, the plane's left engine moved itself back into idle, resulting in asymmetric thrust as the right engine remained at climb power. Worse still, the speed of the aircraft began to decrease and the aircraft was banking sharply to the left. Preoccupied with trying to wake Bătănoiu, Stoi did not notice the rapidly increasing left roll.
At 09:08:18 local time, the engine thrust asymmetry reached its maximum value of 0.42 and the aircraft was now banking severely to the left at an angle of 45.09 degrees. When Stoi realized the deteriorating situation he reacted instinctively and attempted to engage the autopilot but disengaged seconds later with an audible warning and the aircraft began to lose altitude rapidly. Flight 371 began to dive towards the ground with a continuous thrust reduction on Engine No. 2. The aircraft rolled as its airspeed continued to increase. Stoi's inexperience with Western style ADIs and the thick cloud cover led him to not know which way the plane was banking and therefore couldn't apply sufficient corrective action to recover the aircraft. Upon seeing the No. 1 Engine Pressure Ratio (EPR) gauge at 0.95, he cried out "That one has failed!" At this point, the aircraft was now nose diving with a pitch angle of -61.5 degrees. The aircraft violently crashed into the ground with tremendous force at 09:08:34 near Balotești with a speed of 324 knots (600 km/h; 373 mph), just 89 seconds after takeoff and 27 seconds after Captain Bătănoiu becoming incapacitated. The aircraft was completely destroyed on impact, with over 30,000 litres (8,000 US gallons) of JET-A1 lighting up, killing everybody on board instantly.
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TAROM Flight 371
TAROM Flight 371 was a scheduled international passenger flight, with an Airbus A310 from Otopeni International Airport in Romania's capital Bucharest to Brussels Airport in Brussels, Belgium. The flight was operated by TAROM, the flag carrier of Romania. On 31 March 1995, the Airbus A310-324, registered as YR-LCC, entered a nose-down dive after takeoff and crashed near Balotești in Romania, killing all 60 people on board.
Investigation of the crash revealed that a faulty auto-throttle reduced the left engine to idle during climb and coincidentally the captain became incapacitated (possibly by a heart attack). The First Officer was unable to respond properly to the situation as according to the French BEA he confused his Attitude Direction Indicator with the one on Soviet-built planes he spent most of his career flying which was different than on the A310. It was also the deadliest plane crash in TAROM's operational history.
The aircraft involved was an Airbus A310-324 registered as YR-LCC with serial number 450 and named Muntenia. It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW4152 turbofan engines and had logged in 31,092 flight hours and 6,216 takeoff and landing cycles.
The aircraft was carrying 49 passengers and 11 crew members. Thirty-two of the passengers were from Belgium, nine from Romania, three from the United States, two from Spain, and one each from France, Thailand, and the Netherlands.
The captain of the flight was 48-year-old Liviu Bătănoiu. He had a total of 14,312 flying hours, with 1,735 on the Airbus A310. He graduated from the Aurel Vlaicu Military Aviation School in 1969. His last training on the type was on 12 November 1994 in a Swissair facility in Zurich, Switzerland.
The first officer was 51-year-old Ionel Stoi. He had a total of 8,988 flying hours, 650 on the A310. The A310 was the first and only airplane that he had flown with a Western style Attitude Direction Indicator (ADI), which works oppositely from the ADIs on Soviet-built planes he had spent most of his career flying. He graduated from the Aurel Vlaicu Military Aviation School in 1968. His last simulator training on the type was on 21 September 1994, carried out at a Swissair facility in Zurich.
TAROM Flight 371 took off at 09:06:44 local time (06:06:44 UTC) from runway 08R, with First Officer Stoi as the pilot flying. The crew knew about a pre-existing anomaly with the thrust levers, with Captain Bătănoiu stating that he would guard the throttles during the climb. Stoi then asked Bătănoiu to retract the flaps and slats. Bătănoiu retracted the flaps, but failed to retract the slats. Noticing this, Stoi asked his captain what was wrong. After Bătănoiu told First Officer Stoi he felt sick, he groaned then fell silent, apparently having lost consciousness. To make matters worse, the plane's left engine moved itself back into idle, resulting in asymmetric thrust as the right engine remained at climb power. Worse still, the speed of the aircraft began to decrease and the aircraft was banking sharply to the left. Preoccupied with trying to wake Bătănoiu, Stoi did not notice the rapidly increasing left roll.
At 09:08:18 local time, the engine thrust asymmetry reached its maximum value of 0.42 and the aircraft was now banking severely to the left at an angle of 45.09 degrees. When Stoi realized the deteriorating situation he reacted instinctively and attempted to engage the autopilot but disengaged seconds later with an audible warning and the aircraft began to lose altitude rapidly. Flight 371 began to dive towards the ground with a continuous thrust reduction on Engine No. 2. The aircraft rolled as its airspeed continued to increase. Stoi's inexperience with Western style ADIs and the thick cloud cover led him to not know which way the plane was banking and therefore couldn't apply sufficient corrective action to recover the aircraft. Upon seeing the No. 1 Engine Pressure Ratio (EPR) gauge at 0.95, he cried out "That one has failed!" At this point, the aircraft was now nose diving with a pitch angle of -61.5 degrees. The aircraft violently crashed into the ground with tremendous force at 09:08:34 near Balotești with a speed of 324 knots (600 km/h; 373 mph), just 89 seconds after takeoff and 27 seconds after Captain Bătănoiu becoming incapacitated. The aircraft was completely destroyed on impact, with over 30,000 litres (8,000 US gallons) of JET-A1 lighting up, killing everybody on board instantly.