D-ARWE Challenger destroyed on take-off

German registered Challenger Jet D-ARWE, on departure runway 05 at Kazakhstan’s Almaty Airport. Early reports, 1 passenger killed, well known German business person Lars Windhurst survived, both pilots and flight attendent survive and are hospitalized.

Short translation of the report of the Office of Prosecutor of Kazakhstan:
Immediately after take-off the aircraft banked right, the wing struck the ground. Then the aircraft deviated to the right, hit the concrete perimeter fence, crashed, broke up and caught fire.

Aircraft was operated/owned by Jet Connection and was enroute to Hong Kong as Flight Exec JCX-826. Accident occured in early hours Dec 26/07.



Montrose, CO Challenger crash, Part Deux?..

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20041128-0

Possibly Montrose Part 3

In Jan 2002 a Challanger 604 operated by Epps crashed during takeoff in the UK. probablal cause was associated with frost on the wings.

See caa.co.uk/docs/33/factor200439.pdf

Wing contaminated Challenger crashes…

Part I. 4 Jan 2002 - Birmingham, UK
Part II. 28 Nov 2004 - Montrose, CO US
Part III. 26 Dec 2007 - Almaty, Kazakhstan

The cause of Part III TBD…

Seems there is much confusion over the fatality in this crash. Half the news reports state a pilot was lost, the other half say the sole passenger. It seems a crew of 3 including a flight attendant, and 1 passenger.

News reports do state the passenger was Lars Windhorst, who is considered to be a young Bill Gates in Germany, and thus, a big news story about to break in Germany.

Foreign News foreign language, but lists aircraft ID and persons on board.

N873G CL600 - Crash during icing conditions.

NTSB Brief

How safe is the Challenger aircraft seems to be involved in a lot of fatal crashes

The challenger has been in service for 20 years and over 700 have been built. So that rate of incidence isn’t that bad.

However, the aircraft does have some funky handling characteristics at low speed when full of fuel due to its supercritical wing.

They are really safe until you crash, then only moderatly safe. Alot of people walked away from the above referenced crashes. One slid off at Teterboro last year (?) and I think everyone walked away.

*One thing I recall from the Montrose accident is the kid wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. He might have walked away otherwise.