ČSA Flight OK-NAB was an Ilyushin Il-18V 4 engine turboprop, operating as a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Prague's Ruzyně airport to Bratislava-Ivanka Airport, both in Czechoslovakia, which crashed into the Zlaté Piesky Lake while attempting to land in Bratislava on July 28, 1976. All 6 crew members and 71 passengers died. Two passengers survived.

Crash

The flight departed Prague airport at 8:52 (CEST) and proceeded routinely to Bratislava. At 9:35:10 (CEST) the flight was cleared by Bratislava tower to land on runway 22. For reasons that are unclear, the crew executed a highly unstabilized ILS instrument approach to runway 22, with rates of descent as high as 22 instead of 10m/s; speeds varying from 435 to 225km/h instead of 269 km/h; and flap selection directly from 0 degree to full flaps instead of in gradual increments. As they approached the runway, the crew inadvertently deployed the no. 2 and no. 3 engine (inboard engines) thrust reversal while still airborne. The thrust reversal caused the no. 3 engine to fail and the crew then inadvertently feathered the no. 4 prop, losing all thrust on the right side of the aircraft. At 50m above the runway threshold the crew attempted to execute a go around. They were able to restart the no. 4 engine at 40m, but the ensuing right bank due to asymmetric thrust increased; the aircraft then lost control and struck lake Zlaté piesky in a 60 degree right bank and a 60 degree nose down attitude.

Probable cause

The investigators published the most probable cause as the engine failure and pilot error.

Rescue operation

The plane crashed into a densely populated area and rescue operations started immediately after the crash. Svazarm divers tried to help, but most passengers drowned or died due to crash forces, except four who were pulled alive, of which two later died in the hospital.

Controversy

Surviving passenger Jaromír Kratochvíl later claimed in an interview that flight captain requested emergency landing in Brno but it was rejected because of the Vietnamese delegation visiting the city and an emergency landing would harm the image of the country. He also claimed that Vienna airport offered an emergency landing permission but communist authorities rejected it. It is unclear how a surviving passenger would be aware of the captain's actions during the flight, or how searching for an alternate emergency landing site relates to an unstablilized approach with inadvertent thrust reversal deployment at Bratislava.

See also

• List of notable accidents and incidents on commercial aircraft
• TABSO Flight 101 - Ilyushin Il-18B crash at Bratislava in 1966

References

External links

• Aviation safety network
• Information about the plane crash
• GoogleMap aerial view of Bratislava airport and accident site