Rwanda: CRJ-100ER hits VIP building . . . PHOTO . .

Aviation Aviation News
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http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd208/robbreid/5Y-JLD2.jpg , , http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd208/robbreid/5Y-JLD1.jpg

5Y-JLD c/n 7197 12 year old CRJ-100ER of JetLink Express
operated by RwandaAir.

KIGALI, RWANDA (BNO NEWS) – At least several people were injured after a RwandAir commuter plane slammed into a wall in Rwanda’s capital on Thursday afternoon, airline officials told BNO News.

The accident happened around 12.53 p.m. local time at Kigali International Airport after the aircraft, a 57-seat Bombardier CRJ100 plane, made an emergency landing at the airport. The aircraft is officially owned by Kenya-based JetLink Express but is operated by RwandAir.

Local media reports initially claimed the plane had crashed after take-off, but officials denied those reports. “It didn’t crash,” JetLink’s commercial manager told BNO News by telephone. Officials with both JetLink Express and RwandAir had different versions of what exactly took place.

RwandAir Acting-CEO Jack Ekl told BNO News that the plane reported a problem shortly after it had taken off from Kigali airport. After making a safe emergency landing at the airport where it took off, the aircraft taxied to the parking bay of the airport. “Just as they stopped the aircraft, the engine suddenly went to one-hundred percent power,” Ekl said. JetLink’s commercial manager said it had struck the wall of the airport’s VIP Lounge, but said no one inside the building was injured.

A total of fifteen people were on board the aircraft, including five crew members. “[All passengers] came out on their own power,” Ekl said, adding that everyone was taken to a local hospital for observation. Ekl believed one of the passengers, a woman, had passed away at the hospital, but said he had not yet received confirmation from officials.

The plane’s co-pilot remained trapped inside the aircraft about 4.5 hours after the accident, and the captain suffered a broken leg. Besides the captain and co-pilot, two flight attendants and one aircraft mechanic were on board. Ekl said the passengers existed of nine adults and one infant.

Ekl added that investigative teams from Kenya would respond to investigate the accident, and said that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) from the United States might investigate as well. A spokesman for the NTSB in Washington, D.C. said it had not yet received information about the incident and could not say if it would respond to investigate.

The NTSB often assists to investigate plane crashes and other serious accidents that occurred in foreign countries.

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Hey Rob - if I may ask, how do you get all this info on these crashes? Don’t get me wrong - I love it; you’re a wealth of knowledge on little known incidents outside the US. I just can’t figure out what you do - that you’d know about all of these and be on top of every single one. I’d figure that you had something to do with the NTSB or FAA, but you’re in Canada, so that rules that out. I’ve been wondering about this since I became a member. Either way, thanks for the info and all the hard work!

  • jam
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He’s not in Canada…he’s covertly operating in a dark room in the Pentagon. Getting all his intel via satlink. And he’s actually a mole for FA staff as well. Ya you cant fool me… :laughing:

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update from ASN;

A Canadair CRJ-100ER RegionalJet passenger plane, 5Y-JLD, operating for Rwandair Express, was substantially damaged when it struck an airport building at Kigali Airport (KGL), Rwanda. One passenger was killed.

The airplane operated on a scheduled international flight to Entebbe Airport (EBB), Uganda.

Two minutes after take-off, the pilot requested to return because of unspecified technical problems. The airplane landed safely and taxied back to the apron.

However, when the plane reached it’s parking spot in fron of the VIP lounge, the pilot reported that the engines had failed to stop and were running at " 100 percent power" according to the Rwandair Chief Operating Officer.

The airplane moved forward, knocking over blast fences until it smashed through the concrete wall of the airport building. The nose gear collapsed and the nose was burried inside the building up to and including the forward passenger doors.

Weather reported about the time of the accident (12:30 local, 10:30 UTC): HRYR 121030Z VRB03KT 9999 BKN030 24/18 Q1018 NOSIG= [Wind variable at 3 knots; unlimited visibility; Broken clouds at 3000 feet; temperature 24 degrees C, dew point 18 degrees C; 1018 MB]

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That would be scary… :open_mouth:

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How the hell’d they get 57 seats onto a CRJ?

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Ryanair is probably asking the same exact thing! They’re in Rwanda. They’re probably a good bit skinnier than we are over here. Who knows, they might have even had a few stuck in the baggage compartments.

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What? No duck tape comments yet? :stuck_out_tongue:

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Why? Did they hit a duck as well? :open_mouth:

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In my own weird view, it appears to me that the nose gear collapsed prior to it crashing into the building. Anybody else see that?

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I see what you mean. With the fuselage on the ground, the hole in the bricks is snug over the top.

I can imagine one way for the gear to remain intact at the moment of collision AND still get that final outcome:
=> the nose cone poked a hole in the wall at the usual height, starting small;
=> the nose gear collapsed when it met the wall at ground level;
=> before the hole around the nose got wider, the fuselage descended;
=> then the plane finished pushing into the wall.
At the end, the top of the fuselage happened to match the top of the small hole made by the nose, or perhaps widened the hole as it finished going in.

However, it’s also possible the gear collapsed before contact with the wall.

Pilots must have thought they were cooked – watching that wall come in through the windshield.

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It had to have contacted/rode across something that sheared the nose gear prior to impaling the building. Notice in the top picture that the main gear is canted aft, and that the forward wing box is separated from the fuselage. Something ripped pretty hard at the bottom of the airplane…

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Can it be fixed?

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And the left main tires are blown also. I’d guess it jumped a curb at a pretty good rate of speed just prior to introducing itself to that building.

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Anybody know how fast it was going?

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"The airplane moved forward, knocking over blast fences until it smashed through the concrete wall of the airport building. The nose gear collapsed and the nose was burried inside the building up to and including the forward passenger doors. "

I am no expert, but i’d imagine blast fences would not be good on the parts of the plane that appear to have been damaged before the plane hit the wall, so the wording of the story might be off a little I guess.

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The airplane moved forward, knocking over blast fences until it smashed through the concrete wall of the airport building.

:blush: I now that additional info posted in robbreid’s second post. That would certainly explain the wingbox being ripped loose… :open_mouth: