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China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303 was a
domestic flight A domestic flight is a form of commercial flight within civil aviation where the departure and the arrival take place in the same country. Airports serving domestic flights only are known as domestic airports. Domestic flights are generally ...
from
Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqi ...
to
Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...
,
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
. On June 6, 1994, the aircraft operating the flight, a
Tupolev Tu-154M The Tupolev Tu-154 (russian: Tyполев Ту-154; NATO reporting name: "Careless") is a three-engined, medium-range, narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian ...
, broke up in-flight and crashed as a result of an
autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator' ...
malfunction which caused violent shaking and overstressed the
airframe The mechanical structure of an aircraft is known as the airframe. This structure is typically considered to include the fuselage, undercarriage, empennage and wings, and excludes the propulsion system. Airframe design is a field of aerospa ...
. All 160 people on board were killed. As of 2023, it remains the deadliest airplane crash ever in mainland China.


Aircraft

The aircraft was a Tupolev Tu-154M (registration B-2610, factory 86A740, serial no. 0740). It was completed by the Kuibyshev Aviation Plant (KuAPO) on December 22, 1986, and was immediately transferred to the
Civil Aviation Administration of China The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC; ) is the Chinese civil aviation authority under the Ministry of Transport. It oversees civil aviation and investigates aviation accidents and incidents. As the aviation authority responsible f ...
(CAAC). On July 1, 1988, due to reorganization, CAAC transferred the aircraft to
China Northwest Airlines China Northwest Airlines Co., Ltd. (中国西北航空公司) was an airline based in China, with its headquarters in Xi'an, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China. It started operations in 1989. In 2002, the airline, along with China Yunnan Air ...
. The aircraft was powered with three
Soloviev D-30 The Soloviev D-30 (now the Aviadvigatel PS-30) is a Soviet two-shaft low-bypass turbofan engine, officially referred to as a "bypass turbojet". It is probably the single most important turbofan engine developed in the Soviet Union. Development o ...
KU-154-II
low-bypass turbofan The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the ''turbo'' portion refers to a gas turbine engine which achieves mechanical ...
engines from the Rybinsk Engine Plant. On the day of the accident, the aircraft had 12,507 flying hours and 6,651 takeoff and landing cycles.


Passengers and crew


Crew

The flight crew consisted of captain Li Gangqiang, instructor captain Xin Tiancai, first officer Yang Min, navigator Zhang Nanjing, and flight engineer Kang Youfa. There were also nine flight attendants on board.


Passengers


Accident

The aircraft took off from
Xi'an Xianyang International Airport Xi'an Xianyang International Airport is the main airport serving Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, as well as the whole Guanzhong area. Covering an area of , it is the largest airport in Northwest China, and the second largest airport in Northern Chi ...
at 8:13 on June 6, 1994. At the time, it was raining, but this did not cause a delay in departure. Twenty-four seconds after take-off, the crew reported that the aircraft was "floating" and making an abnormal sound, but were still able to maintain a speed of . Three minutes after take-off, the plane flew over Xi'an City and turned southeast. The crew then reported an unstable pitch-up to 20° and 30° at 8:16:24 and 8:16:58, respectively. At 8:17:06, while over Mingdu Township, Chang'an County,
Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...
, the aircraft became unable to maintain its assigned attitude. The crew then temporarily engaged the autopilot, which unexpectedly caused the aircraft to turn right. At 8:22:27, with the aircraft travelling at , the stall warning activated. The aircraft then banked dangerously to the left, and dropped from feet to in 12 seconds, at a speed of . At 8:22:42, the aircraft disintegrated in mid-air above the suburb of Tsuitou Village, Mingyu Township. All 146 passengers and 14 crew died, most on impact. Wreckage landed to the southeast of the airport, scattered over of farmland.


Investigation

Poor maintenance was the probable cause of the accident. The previous evening, the autopilot yaw-channel had been erroneously connected to the bank control, and the bank-channel to the yaw controls, while undergoing maintenance at an unapproved facility.


Aftermath

This crash, as well as the crash of China Southwest Airlines Flight 4509 in 1999, resulted in China's decision to retire the Tupolev Tu-154. All Tu-154s in China were removed from service on October 30, 2002. In 2003, China Northwest airlines merged into
China Eastern Airlines China Eastern Airlines Corporation Limited (), also known as China Eastern, is an airline headquartered in the China Eastern Airlines Building, on the grounds of Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in Changning District, Shanghai. It i ...
. Flight 2303 is still in use by China Eastern Airlines for their Xian-
Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...
flight.


See also

* Air Astana Flight 1388


References

{{Aviation accidents and incidents in 1994 June 1994 events in Asia 1994 disasters in China Aviation accidents and incidents in 1994 Aviation accidents and incidents in China Accidents and incidents involving the Tupolev Tu-154 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by maintenance errors Airliner accidents and incidents caused by design or manufacturing errors