page_title: 1997 Namibia mid-air collision
section_title: Investigation and aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: 1997 Namibia mid-air collision / Investigation and aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Ehrenfriedhof Wilhelmshaven, Gedenkstein zur Flugzeugkollision vor Namibia 1997. Namentlich erwähnt werden: Oberleutnant zur See Gerhard Bernotat, Kapitänleutnant Dietmar Eisenberg, Fregattenkapitän Uwe Gerhard, Fregattenkapitän Bernd Graichen, Kapitänleutnant Werner Jllg, Stabsbootsmann Siegfried Kaiser, Oberleutnant zur See Detlef Kernchen, Stabsbootsmann Franz-Bernd Krimphove-Eiting, Oberstabsbootsmann Karl Hermann Marquardt, Kapitänleutnant Thomas Schneider, Stabsbootsmann Wolfgang Schreck, Leutnant zur See Gunnar Winterboer. Die Besatzung und ein mitfliegender Techniker werden auf dem Stein nicht erwähnt!
context_page_description: On 13 September 1997, a German Air Force Tupolev Tu-154M observation aircraft and a United States Air Force C-141B Starlifter transport aircraft were destroyed in a mid-air collision while cruising at 35,000 feet off the coast of Namibia. All 33 people on board both aircraft were killed. At the time of the collision, the Tupolev was flying on a southerly route from Niamey, Niger, to Cape Town, South Africa, while the C-141 was heading northwest from Windhoek, Namibia, to Ascension Island.
  Neither aircraft was equipped with TCAS collision avoidance systems, and although both crews had filed a flight plan, the German aircraft was not in contact with Namibian air traffic control and controllers were unaware of its presence in Namibian airspace. Furthermore, the Tupolev was flying at the wrong altitude, according to its flight plan and to the semicircular rule.
  The subsequent US Air Force inquiry concluded that the German crew was responsible for the accident, citing pilot error and inadequate air traffic control that contributed to the fatal lack of separation.
context_section_description: In 1997, the United States Air Force appointed Colonel William H. C. Schell Jr. to lead the investigation into the collision. A final report with the board's conclusions was released in March 1998. The investigation blamed primarily the German crew, who were cruising at 35,000 feet in breach of the semicircular rule, which states that an aircraft heading in a southeasterly direction must fly at an altitude of either 29,000, 33,000, 37,000 or 41,000 feet. The Luftwaffe also acknowledged that its aircraft was at fault in the crash in its own investigative report.
  In addition the report cited systemic problems in Africa's air traffic control system as contributing factors to the accident, blaming faulty communications equipment that prevented the German aircraft's flight plan from being transmitted through the proper channels and negligent controllers in Luanda who failed to pass on the aircraft's position to Namibian ATC. Another substantially contributing factor was the complicated and sporadic operation of the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network (AFTN).
  The report stated that if either aircraft had been equipped with a TCAS it is highly likely the crash could have been avoided, reading, "the presence of a fully operational TCAS on either aircraft could have prevented the accident." One day before the release of the report, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen announced that the military would begin the installation of TCAS on its aircraft.
  The lack of a TCAS on the German aircraft brought considerable pressure on Germany's Federal Ministry of Defence to install collision avoidance systems on its aircraft. Despite being listed on the Project Objective Memorandum of the C-141B for five years, installation of the TCAS began on a small number of the aircraft soon after the crash.
caption: Memorial plaque to the passengers of the Luftwaffe Tu-154M
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