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Lufthansa Flight 540

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1974 aviation accident in Nairobi, Kenya
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Lufthansa Flight 540
D-ABYB, the 747 involved, seen in July 1970
Accident
Date20 November 1974 (1974-11-20)
SummaryCrashed shortly after takeoff due to pilot error and design flaw
SiteJomo Kenyatta Int'l Airport, Nairobi, Kenya
1°19′09″S 36°55′39″E / 1.3192°S 36.9275°E / -1.3192; 36.9275
Aircraft
Aircraft typeBoeing 747-130
Aircraft nameHessen
OperatorLufthansa
IATA flight No.LH540
ICAO flight No.DLH540
Call signLUFTHANSA 540
RegistrationD-ABYB
Flight originFrankfurt Airport, Frankfurt, West Germany
StopoverJomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, Kenya
DestinationOR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa
Occupants157
Passengers139
Crew18
Fatalities59
Injuries55
Survivors98

Lufthansa Flight 540 was a scheduled commercial flight for Lufthansa, serving the Frankfurt–Nairobi–Johannesburg route.

On 20 November 1974, the Boeing 747-130 that was operating as Flight 540 was carrying 157 people (139 passengers and 18 crew members) crashed and caught fire shortly after taking off from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi for the last leg of the flight, resulting in the deaths of 54 passengers and 5 crew members. This was the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 747.

Aircraft and crew

Aircraft

D-ABYB, the Lufthansa 747-100 involved, seen at Nuremberg Airport in 1970.

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 747-130 registered as D-ABYB and was named Hessen. It was the second 747 to be delivered to Lufthansa. It made its first flight on 30 March 1970 and was delivered to Lufthansa on 13 April the same year. The aircraft was powered by four Pratt and Whitney JT9D-7 turbofan engines. The aircraft had 16,781 flying hours at the time of the accident.

Crew

The flight crew consisted of 53-year-old Captain Christian Krack (who had more than 10,000 flight hours, with 1,619 hours on the Boeing 747), 35-year-old First Officer Hans-Joachim Schacke (3,418 flight hours, with more than 2,000 hours on the Boeing 747) and 51-year-old Flight Engineer Rudolf "Rudi" Hahn (13,000 hours of flying experience). The cabin crew consisted of 17 regular flight attendants and 1 assistant stewardess, who was responsible for childcare. Lufthansa only offered the so-called Mickey Mouse Service on the route from Frankfurt to Johannesburg.

Accident

As the aircraft was making its takeoff from runway 24 at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, the pilots felt a buffeting vibration. The captain continued the climb and retracted the landing gear. However, as this was being done, the aircraft started to descend and the stall warning system light came on. The aircraft continued to descend and approximately 3,700 feet (1,100 m) from the end of the runway, the 747 airplane crashed in the grass. It then struck an elevated access road and broke up. The left wing exploded and fire spread to the fuselage. 54 of the 139 passengers and 5 of the 18 crew members died.

Cause

The cause of the crash was determined to be a stall caused by the leading edge slats (strictly speaking, outboard variable camber leading-edge slats and inboard Krueger flaps) having been left in the retracted position. Even though the trailing edge flaps were deployed, without the slats being extended the aircraft's stall speed was higher and the maximum angle of attack was lower. As a result, the aircraft was unable to climb out of ground effect. The flight engineer was found to have failed to open the slat system bleed air valves as required on the pre-flight checklist. This prevented bleed air from flowing to the 747's pneumatic slat system and, since the leading edge slats on the 747 are pneumatically driven, kept it from deploying the leading edge slats for takeoff. The takeoff warning system, which would have sounded an alarm if the flaps had not been set for takeoff, did not have a separate warning that the slats' pneumatic valve had not been opened by the flight engineer.

The faulty state of the slats should by design have been indicated by yellow warning lights: one for the pilot, and eight for the flight engineer. However, both crew members stated in court that these lights had been green. Three possible explanations have since been offered for this inconsistency: that the morning sun was blinding the cockpit crew and thus hampered color perception, that a construction error could have caused green lights despite the retracted slats, and that the crew lied. None of these possibilities could be conclusively proven. The flight crew was blamed for not performing a satisfactory pre-takeoff checklist, but the accident report also faulted the lack of adequate warning systems that could have alerted the crew to the problem. Two previous occurrences of this error had been reported, but in those cases the pilots had been able to recover the aircraft in time. After this third, deadly incident, Boeing added systems to warn pilots if the slat valve had not been opened prior to takeoff.

Captain Krack and flight engineer Hahn were dismissed from Lufthansa shortly after, but their dismissals were overturned by a labor court, as no investigation report was available to rule out the possibility of a technical defect.

Flight engineer Hahn was charged with criminal negligence, but was acquitted in 1981. The accident was the first fatal crash involving a Boeing 747.

However, there are reliable indications that Lufthansa was already aware of possible problems with (false) displays concerning the slats a good six months before the Nairobi crash. Other airlines such as British Airways therefore equipped their aircraft with an additional warning system, which Lufthansa did not.

See also

Bibliography

  • Moorhouse, Earl (1982). Wake Up, It's a Crash! The story of the first ever 747-Jet disaster. A survivor's account. London: Corgi. ISBN 0-552-11932-6.

The final report is this work:

  • "Report on Accident to Boeing 747 Registered D-ABYB which occurred on 20th November 1974 at Nairobi Airport, Kenya." East African Community Accident Investigation Branch (Nairobi), 1976. Worldcat entry.
  • "Commander" by Heino Caesor, Lufthansas formerly safety pilot who investigated the crash of flight 540, ISBN 978-3735755599
  • "Lufthansa Flug 540: Der erste Jumbo-Absturz", by Patrick Huber, Austrian aviation expert and journalist, ISBN 978-3-759875-25-9

References

  1. "Vor 50 Jahren: Lufthansa-Flug 540 stürzt in Nairobi ab". bild.de (in German). 20 November 2024. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  2. Spaeth, Andreas (19 November 2014). "Nairobi 1974: Lufthansa-Boeing "Hessen" stürzte ab". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  3. ""Lufthansa Flug 540: Der erste Jumbo-Absturz" online kaufen | Thalia". www.thalia.de (in German). Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  4. "Commander (Buch III) von Heino Caesar - faltershop.at". FALTERSHOP (in German). Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  5. ""Lufthansa Flug 540: Der erste Jumbo-Absturz" online kaufen | Thalia". www.thalia.de (in German). Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  6. "Tankstopp in den Tod - der letzte Start der "Hessen"". Austrian Wings (in Austrian German). 20 November 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  7. Bowman, Martin W. (2014). Boeing 747: A History: Delivering the Dream. Barnsley, South Yoorkshire: Pen & Sword Books Ltd. ISBN 9781783030392.
  8. "Tankstopp in den Tod - der letzte Start der "Hessen"" [Refueling to death - the last start of the "Hessen"]. Austrian Wings (in German). 20 November 2014. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  9. "Tankstopp in den Tod - der letzte Start der "Hessen"". Austrian Wings (in Austrian German). 20 November 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  10. ""Lufthansa Flug 540: Der erste Jumbo-Absturz" online kaufen | Thalia". www.thalia.de (in German). Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  11. Caesar, Heino (2014). Commander. ISBN 978-3735755599.
  12. Spaeth, Andreas (19 November 2014). "Nairobi 1974: Lufthansa-Boeing "Hessen" stürzte ab". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  13. "Die Widersprüche des Lufthansa-Absturzes von Nairobi". aero.de (in German). 20 November 2024. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  14. "Tankstopp in den Tod - der letzte Start der "Hessen"". Austrian Wings (in Austrian German). 20 November 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  15. "Vor 50 Jahren: Lufthansa-Flug 540 stürzt in Nairobi ab". bild.de (in German). 20 November 2024. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  16. ""Lufthansa Flug 540: Der erste Jumbo-Absturz" online kaufen | Thalia". www.thalia.de (in German). Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  17. "Absturz des Lufthansa-Flugs 540 in Nairobi: „Da war nur Feuer um mich"". FAZ.NET (in German). 20 November 2024. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  18. "Crash of a Boeing 747-130 in Nairobi: 59 killed". www.baaa-acro.com. Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  19. Spaeth, Andreas. "Lufthansa-Unglück 1974. Absturz nach 35 Sekunden" [Lufthansa Accident 1974. Crash after 35 seconds]. Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  20. "Grün oder Gelb" [Green or Yellow]. Der Spiegel (in German). Vol. 33, no. 8. 19 February 1979.
  21. ^ "Case Study: Lufthansa - Flight 540 - Boeing 747-130, November 20, 1974" (PDF). Blue Skies: GainJet Aviation Safety Magazine (3). GainJet Aviation. 13 January 2022.
  22. "The First B-747 Goes Down Just After Takeoff". avstop.com. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  23. "Mit viel Mut und Traurigkeit" [With much courage and sadness]. Der Spiegel (in German). Vol. 51. 14 December 1981. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  24. "Tankstopp in den Tod - der letzte Start der "Hessen"". Austrian Wings (in Austrian German). 20 November 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  25. "Die Widersprüche des Lufthansa-Absturzes von Nairobi". aero.de (in German). 20 November 2024. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  26. "747-Absturz: Versagte die Lufthansa bei der Hölle von Nairobi? - WELT". DIE WELT (in German). Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  27. ""Lufthansa Flug 540: Der erste Jumbo-Absturz" online kaufen | Thalia". www.thalia.de (in German). Retrieved 1 December 2024.

External links

External images
image icon Pre-crash photos of the airliner at airliners.net
image icon Pre-crash photos of the airliner at JetPhotos.com
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1974 (1974)
Jan 6 Commonwealth Commuter Flight 317Jan 6 Aeroflot Flight H-75Jan 24 Togo crashJan 26 Turkish Airlines Flight 301Jan 30 Pan Am Flight 806Feb 22 Delta Airlines Flight 523Mar 3 Turkish Airlines Flight 981Mar 13 Sierra Pacific Airlines Flight 802Mar 15 Sterling Airways Flight 901Apr 4 Francistown Wenela Air Services Douglas DC-4 crashApr 18 Court Line Flight 95Apr 22 Pan Am Flight 812Apr 27 Aeroflot Il-18 crashJul 10 EgyptAir Tupolev Tu-154 crashJul 23 British Airways bombing attemptAug 9 Buffalo 461Aug 9 Norfolk mid-air collisionSep 8 TWA Flight 841Sep 11 Eastern Air Lines Flight 212Sep 15 Air Vietnam Flight 706Oct 30 Panarctic Oils Flight 416Nov 20 Lufthansa Flight 540Dec 1 TWA Flight 514Dec 1 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231Dec 4 Martinair Flight 138Dec 22 Avensa Flight 358
1973   ◄    ►   1975
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