OV735 From Estonia, joined Jan 2004, 860 posts, RR: 2 Posted (2 years 9 months 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 2626 times:
Today evening (25 August), an Exin An-26 experienced a failure during takeoff from Tallinn, causing the aircraft to belly-land on the runway. The four crew members escaped unharmed, the runway is blocked and all flights delayed/canceled/diverted. It was a scheduled cargo flight to Helsinki on behalf of DHL.
Given that this is the second such incident in a relatively short while (in March, another Exin An-26 suffered an engine failure on approach to Tallinn, and crashlanded on a frozen lake - link), is it possible that the airline might be blacklisted in EU, and thus forced to end its operations?
BlueFlyer From United States of America, joined Jan 2006, 3129 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (2 years 9 months 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 2507 times:
Whether or not an airline is blacklisted has little to do with how often it crashes. It has to do with maintenance practices and records, aircraft inspection, adherence to standards, how the country of registration enforces such standards, etc...
If the two crashes are due to shoddy maintenance, or lack thereof, they could possibly be blacklisted if EU officials conclude that it is endemic and cannot be fixed in a short period. If the airline has done everything it was supposed to do to maintain their aircraft and they still crashed due to some factor beyond their control, there's no risk of them being blacklisted.
BuyantUkhaa From Mongolia, joined May 2004, 2781 posts, RR: 3 Reply 2, posted (2 years 9 months 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 2497 times:
Quoting OV735 (Thread starter): is it possible that the airline might be blacklisted in EU, and thus forced to end its operations?
Exin seems to be a Polish airline from what I could find on the web. Blacklisting in principle only is done with non-EU airlines, as EU airlines would just have their licences revoked. I know that one Bulgarian airline was blacklisted (and there may be others), but this to me rather sounds like EASA/JAA not having sufficient control (yet) at the time over the Bulgarian regulator.
gabrielchew From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2005, 2512 posts, RR: 13 Reply 4, posted (2 years 9 months 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 2272 times:
I'm in TLL right now waiting for my flight to Stockholm. All flights seem to be running (well, mine is a little delayed). This mornings MUC flight on LH was cancelled, however. Very nice terminal here in TLL by the way.
Aesma From France, joined Nov 2009, 4811 posts, RR: 9 Reply 5, posted (2 years 9 months 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 2089 times:
2 engines failures on the same type in 6 months, for a small fleet, surely is worrying and "bad luck" is difficult to believe. Moreover, how come they end up in crashes ? In March the plane was performing a go around due to a gear problem when the engine failed ! If those are unrelated failures it very much smells "garbage plane" to me.
Can't the An-26 fly at least level with only one engine ? According to specs it should have enough power.
OK, forget half I said, it wasn't engine failure here, but the gear collapsed during the T/O roll, reportedly because the flight engineer retracted the gear at rotation, too early. What a mistake ! http://avherald.com/h?article=430171a8&opt=0
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OV735 From Estonia, joined Jan 2004, 860 posts, RR: 2 Reply 6, posted (2 years 9 months 3 days 2 hours ago) and read 1985 times:
This seems to be somewhat similar to the An-24 incident in Yakutsk earlier this year, when the F/E retracted the gear too early in the takeoff roll (link).
Quoting BuyantUkhaa (Reply 2): Exin seems to be a Polish airline from what I could find on the web. Blacklisting in principle only is done with non-EU airlines, as EU airlines would just have their licences revoked. I know that one Bulgarian airline was blacklisted (and there may be others), but this to me rather sounds like EASA/JAA not having sufficient control (yet) at the time over the Bulgarian regulator.
Yes, you're probably right about that one.
Quoting BlueFlyer (Reply 1): Whether or not an airline is blacklisted has little to do with how often it crashes.
Two such incidents in a short while, compared to a fleet of 5 and around 10 daily flights, should in any circumstance raise some questions regarding the airline's operating practices.
WROORD From United States of America, joined Mar 2009, 812 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (2 years 9 months 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 1887 times:
Quoting OV735 (Reply 6): Two such incidents in a short while, compared to a fleet of 5 and around 10 daily flights, should in any circumstance raise some questions regarding the airline's operating practices
..and both happened in TLL...that is indeed strange. I think they should dump the AN-26 and replace it with something else. It does not make sense why 3 or 4 people have to operate a small plane like that. Morover, it seems as most procedures are manual exposing to human error.
OV735 From Estonia, joined Jan 2004, 860 posts, RR: 2 Reply 9, posted (2 years 9 months 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 1746 times:
Quoting traveler_7 (Reply 8): By the way, is it possible to restore last plane or it also will be written off?
Probably yes, since it seems the damage to the airframe was minimal, however the starboard prop was damaged, possibly causing damage to the engine as well. We'll have to wait and see. As I understand, they are currently working on getting the aircraft back on its own landing gear.
Quoting WROORD (Reply 7): ..and both happened in TLL...that is indeed strange. I think they should dump the AN-26 and replace it with something else. It does not make sense why 3 or 4 people have to operate a small plane like that. Morover, it seems as most procedures are manual exposing to human error.
The An-26, despite being somewhat less economical than newer analogues (ATR or ATP for example), is much easier to handle, as it was designed as a freighter from scratch. In the DHL configuration, they carry the cargo on pallets, which can be onloaded/offloaded within a few minutes.
What is interesting about the takeoff on An-26, is that the nosegear is lifted off the ground well before actually reaching rotation speed, to reduce vibration in the cockpit. This might probably cause the perception of flight for the F/E, leading him to prematurely retract the gear without the captain's order.
traveler_7 From Estonia, joined May 2000, 540 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (2 years 9 months 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 1623 times:
Quoting OV735 (Reply 9): Probably yes, since it seems the damage to the airframe was minimal, however the starboard prop was damaged, possibly causing damage to the engine as well. We'll have to wait and see. As I understand, they are currently working on getting the aircraft back on its own landing gear.
So it looks like this time they will get their metal back. Interesting, would they replace the aircraft lost in feb. here in Tallinn with son An-26 or will go with something else or will continue to operate 5 aircraft fleet?
I wouldn't be surprised if the local aviation authorities went after Exin now, with two near-crashes in such a short while. They seem to have an appetite for operators of Soviet types.
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