PAKISTAN INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES AIRBUS A320 CRASHES

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This YouTube video, which seems to be from a reputable source, covers the crash. The few seconds of eerie music at the beginning detracts from it slightly - but get to the nitty-gritty a few minutes in.
Incredibly it looks like the aircraft first attempted a landing with its undercarriage retracted - The engines scrapped along the runway, the pilots tried to go around again but the engines failed.
 
"Pakistan media is reporting Pakistan International Airlines Flight PK8303 landed gear up and the crew muscled it back into the air before it crashed on a second landing attempt, killing 97 of 99 people aboard on Friday. According to reports gathered by the Aviation Herald, the A320 slid on its nacelles at the airport in Karachi for more than a thousand feet before it became airborne again. Sometime during the go-around the engines quit and the aircraft crashed just short of the airport in a residential area. Four people on the ground were taken to a hospital with burns but nobody was killed."
 
Absolutely incredible - Who would have thought such a thing would be possible on a modern airliner. What terror for the poor passengers in window seats who saw the first attempted landing and understood what was happening. - Other news outlets are starting to confirm the story - like this one from Sky News...
Pakistan plane crash: Video shows jet scraped runway during landing attempt
 
Tragedy that s starting to look like it should've never happened :(
Sounds like one of those accidents where one thing leads to another and ends up in a WTF situation. I saw a guy called Kevin Clementson lose his life at Mallory Park in the Transatlantic Series. He fell off the bike but was on the track, half of the field had passed him (he was laid behind the bike) when he suddenly stood up and tried to run off the track and was struck by 2 or 3 riders in a fraction of a second. The rule in motorcycle racing is the same as for a jockey stay still and let people avoid you like horses avoid a fallen rider. Why he tried to leave the track I will never know, horrible to watch. If the plane had just landed wheels up the outcome would have been much better.
 
I'm amazed no one on the ground was killed. The wreckage pictures I've seen indicate it landed right in the thick of things.
 
Juan Browne (Blancolirio Channel) posted an ADS-B profile showing a dive from too close and too high and trying to catch the glideslope from above, with AS and VS way too high to throw out much drag. No possibility of a stabilized approach, and no attempt at a go around until too late. No CVR readout at the time, but the implication was "A- -holes & Elbows" in the cockpit and possibly a PNF too intimidated to call for a go around, despite way out of parameters.
Sounds like ATC may have dumped them in high and fast, compounded with poor cockpit training and procedural discipline, and perhaps a lethal dose of testosterone poisoning.
The Beech 1900s I used to fly could have made a stabilized approach from where they started but it was a lightweight turboprop with tons of drag available and higher Vlo and Vfo speeds.
 
The thing that puzzles me is how they could have ignored the cacophony of noise being made as a result of the gear not being down.

I would tend to agree, but sometimes you can "space out" or become too occupied with something else. Complacency and human factors can be a killer.

A while back I was going out flying, and I was getting ready to take the active runway. I had to wait for a plane that was on final approach to land first. So I sat there monitoring my instruments and gauges, and I happened to look up as he was coming in. At about a hundred feet over the ground, he still had not lowered his gear. I call to him on the radio, and told him to "check gear", "check gear". Almost immediately he went full power, and called for a go-around. I took the active right after, and took off for my flight. Later I spoke to the pilot. He said the warnings went off, but he was in the "zone" and totally missed it. He also had skipped the checklist out of complacency.
 
yup, I know. Human factors. We do a course on it every two years as a result of compliency.
 

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