Avioimpex Flight 110 - Misplaced Pages

1993 aviation accident

Avioimpex Flight 110
Accident
The aircraft involved in the crash, seen at Düsseldorf Airport in April 1993
Date	20 November 1993
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain
Site	Trojani, near Ohrid Airport, Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia 41°11′06″N 20°46′34″E / 41.185°N 20.7761°E / 41.185; 20.7761
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Yakovlev Yak-42
Operator	Avioimpex
IATA flight No.	M4110
ICAO flight No.	AXX110
Call sign	IMPEX 110
Registration	RA-42390
Flight origin	Geneva International Airport
Destination	Skopje Airport
Occupants	116
Passengers	108
Crew	8
Fatalities	116
Injuries	0
Survivors	0

Avioimpex Flight 110 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Avioimpex that crashed on 20 November 1993 while flying from Geneva to Skopje. Before the disaster, Flight 110 had deviated from Skopje International Airport to Ohrid Airport due to a blizzard in the Macedonian capital. The plane, a Yakovlev Yak-42, was carrying 108 passengers and eight crew, and crashed about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi; 3.8 nmi) east of Ohrid Airport. All 116 people on board were killed as a result of the crash. One passenger lived for eleven days after the disaster but succumbed to his injuries. Most of the victims were Yugoslav citizens of Albanian ethnicity.

The crash was Macedonia's third aviation disaster in 16 months, and remains the country's deadliest. A subsequent investigation established the cause of the accident as pilot error.

Flight

Flight 110 was an international scheduled passenger flight originating in Geneva, Switzerland with a final destination of Skopje, Macedonia. Due to a blizzard at Skopje, Flight 110 was diverted to Ohrid Airport.

Cleared for an approach to Runway 02, the Yak-42 was approximately 2,300 feet (700 m) too high to carry out a successful landing, so a missed approach procedure was executed. Shortly afterwards the crew of Flight 110 radioed that they were not receiving the VOR signal. Air Traffic control was unable to satisfy the request for a bearing and the pilot of Flight 110 advised that he could not see the runway lights. Shortly thereafter Flight 110 crashed killing 115 of the 116 people on board. One passenger, a 23-year-old Serbian man, survived but was badly injured.

Passengers and crew

Eighty percent of the passengers were citizens of Yugoslavia, mostly ethnic Albanians, while the remainder were citizens of Macedonia. The four members of the flight crew were Russian and the four cabin crew members were Macedonian. Among the passengers was a French United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) official in his mid-20s who had just returned from an assignment in war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Aftermath

Due to Flight 110 being the third aviation disaster in a sixteen-month period to take place in his country, Minister of Urban Planning, Civil Engineering, Communications and Ecology Antoni Pesev [mk; bg] resigned. The pilots association complained of broken equipment and poor safety standards at both Skopje and Ohrid Airports.

On 1 December 1993, the initial survivor died without ever regaining consciousness in the days following the crash of Avioimpex Flight 110.

Flight 110 remains the deadliest aviation disaster to ever take place in Macedonia.

Cause

The cause of the crash was attributed to a violation of the airport traffic pattern by the crew of Flight 110, who initiated a turn into rising terrain. A contributing factor was their decision to proceed with the approach even though they were not receiving a navigational signal due to being out of range of the VOR station. In addition, the air traffic controller's transmissions were spoken in Macedonian, but the crew of the aircraft communicated in Russian and English.

References

Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Yakovlev Yak-42D RA-42390 Ohrid Airport (OHD)". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
"Many feared dead in Macedonia crash". Lewiston Morning Tribune. Associated Press. 21 November 1993. Retrieved 27 September 2019 – via Google News.
"Crash survivor recovering". Observer-Reporter. Associated Press. 24 November 1993. Retrieved 27 September 2019 – via Google News.
Testorides, Konstantin (21 November 1993). "Macedonia plane disaster kills 115". The Independent. Associated Press. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
"Plane Crash in Macedonia Kills 115; 1 Survivor". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. 22 November 1993. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
"Official resigns over plane crash". Star-News. 23 November 1993. Retrieved 27 September 2019 – via Google News.
"Crash survivor dies". The Vindicator. 1 December 1993. Retrieved 27 September 2019 – via Google News.
Ranter, Harro. "North Macedonia air safety profile". www.aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
Gero, David (1996). Aviation Disasters Second Edition. Patrick Stephens Limited. p. 227.
"Avioimpex Flight 110". www.planecrashinfo.com. Retrieved 14 July 2020.

External links

Avioimpex Flight 110 at Planecrashinfo.com

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1993 (1993)
Jan 6 Lufthansa Cityline Flight 5634Feb 8 Tehran mid-air collisionFeb 11 Lufthansa Flight 592Mar 5 Palair Macedonian Airlines Flight 301Mar 31 Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 46EApr 1 Alan Kulwicki Swearingen crashApr 6 China Eastern Airlines Flight 583Apr 14 American Airlines Flight 102Apr 18 Japan Air System Flight 451Apr 24 Indian Airlines Flight 427Apr 26 Indian Airlines Flight 491Apr 27 Zambia national football team plane crashMay 19 SAM Colombia Flight 501Jul 1 Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 724Jul 23 China Northwest Airlines Flight 2119Jul 26 Asiana Airlines Flight 733Jul 31 Everest Air Dornier 228 crashAug 12 Llyn Padarn helicopter crashAug 18 American International Airways Flight 808Aug 26 Sakha Avia Flight 301Aug 28 Khorog Tajikistan Airlines Yakovlev Yak-40 crashSep 14 Lufthansa Flight 2904Sep 21 Sukhumi airliners attacksOct 26 China Eastern Airlines Flight 5398Oct 27 Widerøe Flight 744Nov 4 China Airlines Flight 605Nov 13 China Northern Airlines Flight 6901Nov 20 Avioimpex Flight 110Nov 26 Auckland mid-air collisionDec 1 Northwest Airlink Flight 5719Dec 26 Kuban Airlines Flight 5719
1992 ◄ ► 1994

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1993 (1993)

Jan 6 Lufthansa Cityline Flight 5634Feb 8 Tehran mid-air collisionFeb 11 Lufthansa Flight 592Mar 5 Palair Macedonian Airlines Flight 301Mar 31 Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 46EApr 1 Alan Kulwicki Swearingen crashApr 6 China Eastern Airlines Flight 583Apr 14 American Airlines Flight 102Apr 18 Japan Air System Flight 451Apr 24 Indian Airlines Flight 427Apr 26 Indian Airlines Flight 491Apr 27 Zambia national football team plane crashMay 19 SAM Colombia Flight 501Jul 1 Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 724Jul 23 China Northwest Airlines Flight 2119Jul 26 Asiana Airlines Flight 733Jul 31 Everest Air Dornier 228 crashAug 12 Llyn Padarn helicopter crashAug 18 American International Airways Flight 808Aug 26 Sakha Avia Flight 301Aug 28 Khorog Tajikistan Airlines Yakovlev Yak-40 crashSep 14 Lufthansa Flight 2904Sep 21 Sukhumi airliners attacksOct 26 China Eastern Airlines Flight 5398Oct 27 Widerøe Flight 744Nov 4 China Airlines Flight 605Nov 13 China Northern Airlines Flight 6901Nov 20 Avioimpex Flight 110Nov 26 Auckland mid-air collisionDec 1 Northwest Airlink Flight 5719Dec 26 Kuban Airlines Flight 5719

1992 ◄ ► 1994

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