Bek Air Flight 2100

Bek Air Flight 2100 was a domestic passenger flight from Almaty to Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, operated by a Fokker 100 that crashed on 27 December 2019 while taking off from Almaty International Airport. Of the 98 people on board – 93 passengers and five crew, 13 died in the crash and 66 were injured. The Kazakh government started investigations the same day.
Aircraft and crew
The aircraft involved was a Fokker 100, built in 1996, which previously was flown by Formosa Airlines, Mandarin Airlines, Contact Air, and OLT Express Germany, before joining the Bek Air fleet in 2013 as UP-F1007. The aircraft was leased to Kam Air in September 2016, then returned. The aircraft was also leased to Safi Airways in February 2017, returned to Bek Air, and finally leased to Air Djibouti in December 2018, before being returned again. The aircraft remained in service with Bek Air until the day of the accident, which destroyed it. The airworthiness certificate of the aircraft had been renewed on 22 May 2019.
The captain was 58-year-old Marat Ganievich Muratbaev and the first officer was 54-year-old Mirzhan Gaynulovich Muldakulov.
Accident
The aircraft crashed into a building just after takeoff from Almaty International Airport in Kazakhstan. The plane took off from runway 05R and lost altitude shortly afterwards; during take-off, its tail was reported to have hit the runway twice. It reportedly turned to the right and hit a concrete perimeter fence, before impacting a two-floor building in a residential area, close to the perimeter track, around 7:22am local time. The front of the aircraft broke away from the main fuselage, sustaining significant damage, and the tail broke off at the rear.
One of the survivors, businessman Aslan Nazarliev, stated he had seen ice on the wings. In a telephone conversation, he said, "The left-wing jolted really hard, I noticed that then jolted the right, and the plane began swinging as a boat." Nazarliev continued, "When we took off, the plane began to shake very hard and I knew it was going to fall ... All the people who stepped on the wing fell, because there was ice. I cannot say that [before taking off] the wings were not sprayed with antifreeze, but the fact is that there was ice." The temperature at the time was and visibility was , with thick fog close to the scene.
Victims
Thirteen people, including the captain and first officer, who died in hospital nearly a month after the accident, were killed, and 66 were injured. The passengers consisted of 85 adults, five children, and three infants; there were five crew.
Investigation
According to the Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan the preliminary results made by the commission of investigation found that the airplane struck the runway surface twice with its tail with 300-400 meter between the two tailstrikes. At the end of the runway the airframe make a sharp turn to the right, the landing gear was already retracted at this time. However the runway surface conditions were perfect. The commission was looking for human factors or technical malfunctions. The flight data and cockpit voice recorders were recovered from the crash site. The captain died, while the first officer at that time was hospitalized for serious injuries so both pilots were unable to say what appened.
Also there was reported by another pilot that 3 hours before the accident during about 2 hours some white frost had accumulated on the slats and tanks of its airplane but on the rest of the wings was free from white frost. However, it was reported that other airplane parked during the night had accumulated significant amount of ice. During take-off, while climbing to 1,000 feet a temperature inversion occurred with a rise of the temperatures of 11 degrees.
Final report
On 29 April 2022 the final report was released stated that the probable cause of the crash were:
The accident was the result of an asymmetrical loss of the load-bearing properties from the wing during take-off which caused the stalling of the airplane soon after leaving the runway;
The airpane collapsed immediately after taking off from the runway and rolled to the snow-covered ground, destroing perimeter fence of the airport and collided with a two-floor private building 10 meters from the airport fence;
As results of collision,due to overloading forces, impact destruction and compression make the results of 11 fatalities from the passengers and one member of the flight crew and the injuring of 47 passengers;
The loss of the load-bearing properties of the wings was caused by the icing on the ground.
Contributory factors
Other factors that determined the crash was:
Lack of analysis of the conditions at Almaty International Airport by the crew that are not made sufficient conclusions to make a more effective inspections of the entire airplane in particular the tattile inspections on the leading edges of the wings;
The operators Safety Management System (SMS), only contains general provisions, specific measures were not implemented. This make difficult a timely identification and allowing to avoid existing risks that affecting the safety of flight;
The collision with the two-floored building affected the consequence severity.
Aftermath
The president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, declared the following day, 28 December, a national day of mourning and said, "all those responsible will be severely punished in accordance with the law". Kazakh authorities suspended Bek Air's flight authorization after the accident.
In late January 2020, the Aviation Administration of Kazakhstan (AAK) revealed serious safety violations at the airline. The AAK found that Bek Air pilots routinely neglected to perform a walk-around and inspect for airframe ice before take-off, and had skipped these procedures on the accident flight, in violation of operations manuals from both the aircraft manufacturer and the airline. Despite flying in a region with severe winters, the airline conducted no special training for winter operations. Bek Air mechanics routinely swapped parts between aircraft without keeping detailed records, and data plates had been removed from aircraft engines and other parts, hindering verification of service histories. The condition of the airline's fleet was assessed as poor.
On 17 April 2020, citing the airline's failure to correct the safety violations discovered during the investigation, the AAK recalled the company's air operator's certificate and the airworthiness certificates of its remaining Fokker 100 aircraft.
In May 2021, the Talgar District Court of Almaty sentenced a real estate agent and five building officials—including the former head of the Department of Land Relations of Talgar—to prison for the illegal and fraudulent sale of building sites close to the airport. Bek Air had said that the crash would have been less severe if building restrictions around the airport had been enforced.
See also
Palair Macedonian Airlines Flight 301
References
External links
Final accident report - Department on Investigation of Aviation Accidents and Incidents, Kazakhstan
The passenger plane crash in Kazakhstan. Online report. RIA Novosti
- By informburo kz
(Computer graphics video showing the accident flight) - Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development (Kazakhstan)
2019 disasters in Kazakhstan
21st century in Almaty
Accidents and incidents involving the Fokker 100
Aviation accidents and incidents in 2019
Aviation accidents and incidents in Kazakhstan
December 2019 events in Asia
Airliner accidents and incidents caused by ice