Progress Multi Trade Air Flight 241 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from
Siem Reap
Siem Reap ( km, សៀមរាប, ) is the second-largest city of Cambodia, as well as the capital and largest city of Siem Reap Province in northwestern Cambodia.
Siem Reap has French colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old F ...
to
Sihanoukville,
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
. The flight was operated by regional airliner
PMTair
PMTair (Progress MulTi Air) was a Cambodian airline offering regularly scheduled domestic and international passenger and cargo services out of Phnom Penh International Airport.
History
PMTair was founded on 14 January 2003 and was owned by Progr ...
using an
Antonov An-24
The Antonov An-24 (Russian/Ukrainian: Антонов Ан-24) (NATO reporting name: Coke) is a 44-seat twin turboprop transport/passenger aircraft designed in 1957 in the Soviet Union by the Antonov Design Bureau and manufactured by Kyiv, Irku ...
. On 25 June 2007, the Antonov An-24, registered as XU-U4A, disappeared over the Cambodian jungle near Bokor Mountain in
Kampot Kampot may refer to:
*Kampot (city), a city in southern Cambodia
*Kampot, an alternative spelling of the Slavic drink Kompot
*Kampot Province, province of Cambodia
*Kampot Municipality, a municipality in Cambodia
*Kampot Airport, an airport in Cambo ...
while on approach to Sihanoukville. A massive search and rescue operation ensued with thousands of soldiers and police scoured the area. The aircraft was found to have crashed in southwestern
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
, northeast of
Dâmrei Mountains
The Dâmrei Mountains (literally the "Elephant Mountains", km, ភ្នំដំរី, Chuŏr Phnum Dâmrei), refer to a mountain range situated in south-western Cambodia, traversing around north-south as a succession of the Cardamom Mounta ...
. All 22 people on board, most of whom were
South Korean tourists, were killed. It remains as the second deadliest air disaster in Cambodian history.
An investigation was completed in March 2008. The investigation concluded that the crash had been caused by several factors, including the pilots' decision to continue their flight beyond their designated flight route, their decision to continue the descent in inclement weather condition, and poor management from PMTAir. Director of Flight Directors for Cambodian State Secretariat of Civil Aviation, Kao Sivoeun, however stated that investigators could not determine whether the airline or the pilots were the ones to blame.
Background
The aircraft was making a domestic passenger flight from
Angkor International Airport
Siem Reap International Airport ( km, អាកាសយានដ្ឋានអន្តរជាតិសៀមរាប; french: Aéroport international de Siem Reap) is an international airport serving Siem Reap, a popular tourist destin ...
in
Siem Reap
Siem Reap ( km, សៀមរាប, ) is the second-largest city of Cambodia, as well as the capital and largest city of Siem Reap Province in northwestern Cambodia.
Siem Reap has French colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old F ...
to
Sihanoukville International Airport
Sihanouk International Airport (formerly Sihanoukville International Airport; km, អាកាសយានដ្ឋានអន្តរជាតិខេត្តព្រះសីហនុ; french: Aéroport international de Sihanouk) , locate ...
in
Sihanoukville,
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
. Siem Reap was the main tourist hubs city to Sihanoukville in Cambodia. On the other hand, Sihanoukville was one of the most popular tourist destination in the country. The city was famous for its beaches and site of the famed
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat (; km, អង្គរវត្ត, "City/Capital of Temples") is a temple complex in Cambodia and is the largest religious monument in the world, on a site measuring . Originally constructed as a Hinduism, Hindu temple dedicated ...
temple complex.
Tourism industry in Cambodia has improved, and most of the tourists were from
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
. According to
Cambodia's Tourism Ministry, South Korea had the highest number of tourists visiting Cambodia in 2006. Around 221,000 South Koreans were among 2006's total of 1.7 million foreign visitors. The airline, PMTair, was a small Cambodian airline that began flying from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville in January 2007, a new route to spur the country's burgeoning tourism industry, which had been decimated due to the
country's prolonged civil war. According to PMTAir's website, the airline has six roundtrip flights a week between Siem Reap and
Incheon
Incheon (; ; or Inch'ŏn; literally "kind river"), formerly Jemulpo or Chemulp'o (제물포) until the period after 1910, officially the Incheon Metropolitan City (인천광역시, 仁川廣域市), is a city located in northwestern South Kore ...
and
Busan
Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...
.
Aircraft
The aircraft was an
Antonov An-24B, manufactured in
Ulan-Ude
Ulan-Ude (; bua, Улаан-Үдэ, , ; russian: Улан-Удэ, p=ʊˈlan ʊˈdɛ; mn, Улаан-Үд, , ) is the capital city of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located about southeast of Lake Baikal on the Uda River at its confluence wi ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
in 1969 with a manufacturer serial number of 99901908. It was owned by
UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
-based Aquiline International Ltd. and operated by PMTair. As of 25 June, the aircraft had accumulated a flying cycles of more than 25,000 cycles. It was equipped with two AI-24 turboprop engines. There were no recorded technical defects prior to the aircraft's accident flight.
Passengers and crew
There were 22 people on board the aircraft, though reports could not agree on the total number of passengers and crews. News media reported a total of 16 passengers and 6 crew members, however the official investigation report stated that there were 4 crew members and 18 passengers on board, without a confirmation on their nationalities. Of the passengers, thirteen were
South Koreans
This is a demography of the population of South Korea including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
In June 2012, South Korea's popul ...
and the other three were from the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
. The Korean passengers were part of a tour group. The crew was made up of 3 flight crew and 1 cabin crew, consisting of an
Uzbekistani pilot and a Cambodian co-pilot, a Cambodian flight engineer and a Cambodian flight attendant. The other flight attendants, all of whom were Cambodians, were listed as passengers.
The commander of Flight 241 was identified as 56-year old Nikolay Pavlenko and his co-pilot was identified as 42-year old Uth Chan Dara. During the flight, the co-pilot was the pilot flying. The flight engineer was identified as 43-year old Hean Chan Dara. Pavlenko was an Uzbekistan citizen and previously had undergone training in the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
. He had accrued a total flying experience of 10,345 flight hours, of which more than 5,000 were on the Antonov An-24. Compared to Pavlenko, Co-pilot Dara was less experienced with a total flying experience of 3,520 flight hours.
Flight
Flight 241 departed Siem Reap at 10:01 local time with 18 passengers and 4 crew members. Co-pilot Dara was the pilot flying while Captain Pavlenko was the pilot not flying. The crew had received weather information from air traffic controller earlier through phone. According to said information, there was cloud and rain north of Sihanoukville. The flight was later cleared to fly direct to Sihanoukville.
As the aircraft reached the mid-point of the route between Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, it started to deviate to the left of the track. The crew might have decided to deviate in response to the deteriorating weather condition along the route. Their decision to deviate, however, was not informed to the ATC. The controller in the ATC noticed that the aircraft had deviated to the left but decided not to question the crew on the matter.
At 10:36 local time, the crew requested the controllers in Sihanoukville about the general weather condition in the area. Afterwards, the crew requested the controllers from
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...
Control Area to descent to , which was later granted by the controller. The controller later handed over the contact of Flight 241 to Sihanoukville at 10:42 local time.
As they became nearer to their destination airport, the crew requested to descent to . Sihanoukville cleared them to descent to . At 03:46 local time, the aircraft descended below Phnom Penh's radar coverage and its blip disappeared from the screen. Radio communication with Sihanoukville was still normal.
At 03:47 local time, the crew requested to descent further to . As Sihanoukville Airport was neither equipped with radar nor other navigational aids such as VOR, DME and ILS, the crew had to rely to visual ground observation. The controller asked the crew on whether they had established visual contact with the ground and the crew answered with "would see ground in a moment." They were then asked by the controller on whether they were facing difficulties during the descent, in which the crew answered with "That's ok, that's ok." The ATC then cleared the flight crew to descent to 2,000ft and the clearance was read back by the crew at 10:48. This was the last transmission from the crew.
Search and rescue
Contact was lost with the aircraft at 10.50 local time, five minutes before it had been due to land. The aircraft went missing over the dense and mountainous Kampot's jungle. A search and rescue team was assembled by the authorities, involving more than thousands of soldiers and local police officers. The search and rescue efforts were hampered by rough terrain and adverse weather condition.
South Korean relatives that heard the news of the disappearance of the flight immediately flew from
Incheon International Airport
Incheon International Airport (IIA; ) (sometimes referred to as Seoul–Incheon International Airport) is the largest airport in South Korea. It is the primary airport serving the Seoul Capital Area and one of the largest and busiest airports ...
to
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...
. They were later transported by a bus to a hotel in the region. South Korean embassy have also been informed about the disappearance. South Korean officials and diplomats were called to the airport to check the situation. Prime Minister of Cambodia,
Hun Sen
Hun Sen (; km, ហ៊ុន សែន, ; born 5 August 1952) is a Cambodian politician and former military commander who has served as the prime minister of Cambodia since 1985. He is the longest-serving head of government of Cambodia, and o ...
, stated that the government would reward a total of USD$5,000 for anyone who managed to find the crash site, later added that there was little hope of finding survivors among the 22 people.
On the second day of the search operation, several searchers in helicopters set out after a rain storm cleared, scouring a stretch of dense jungle and mountainous terrain, but returned with no further clues as to where the aircraft may be located. Prime Minister Hun Sen visited Kampot Town to discuss the search and rescue efforts with Cambodia's top military officials. He later asked for the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
to use its high-tech surveillance satellites to help search for the missing aircraft. The United States later joined the search and rescue effort of Flight 241. Later, the wreckage of Flight 241 was found on Phnom Damrey Mountain at an elevation of , in upside down condition with bodies strewn around the wreckage. There were no survivors. Prime Minister Hun Sen then conducted a press conference in response to the discovery, and stated "This is a tragedy no one should have to experience."
Investigation
Under the State Secretariat for Civil Aviation, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee was ordered to investigate the accident. The team would be assisted with the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) for the read-out of the aircraft's flight recorders. Both flight recorders, however, were later declared as unusable as the IAC reported that both recorders didn't contain any data on the accident flight. The team could only rely on the ATC and radar recording of the accident flight.
The inspection on the crash site showed that there were two areas of wreckage. The majority of the aircraft's structures were located at the main wreckage site. Approximately 500 meters from the main wreckage were the aircraft's right hand wing and right hand stabilizer. The right wing was bent to 90° due to collision with trees. As per the result of the wreckage inspection, it could be concluded that the aircraft's right wing and stabilizer had hit trees first, losing the aircraft's lift and eventually caused it to crash from the first point of impact in an inverted condition. Further inspection revealed that the aircraft didn't explode upon impact, as per the statement from the spokesman of Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Cho Hee-Yong. All of the bodies except one were located inside the aircraft.
The ATC recording didn't find any abnormalities on the communication between the controllers and the flight crew. However, investigators noted that the majority of the communication, including several critical parts, were carried out with the
Khmer language
Khmer (; , ) is an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic language spoken by the Khmer people, and the Official language, official and national language of Cambodia. Khmer has been influenced considerably by Sanskrit and Pāli, Pali, especiall ...
rather than English, despite the fact that the commander of the flight was an Uzbekistani citizen who didn't understand Khmer. The investigation could not confirm on whether the co-pilot had informed or translated his communication with the tower to the commander as the cockpit voice recorder was unusable.
The radar recording showed that the flight indeed had deviated to the left of its designated track. This deviation was probably caused by the weather condition near Sihanoukville. Satellite data from the region showed that there was a wide coverage of clouds. The aircraft eventually entered clouds and this decreased the visibility of the surrounding environment. Investigators stated that the crew, who were confused on their actual position, decided to continue their descent despite the deteriorating weather condition. The aircraft eventually collided with trees and terrain approximately from the airport.
In March 2008, Cambodian investigators completed their investigation on the crash of Flight 241. It stated three following factors as the cause of the crash: the crew's decision to fly the aircraft through a mountainous terrain despite their lack of awareness on their exact position and the surrounding terrain, the crew's decision to continue their descent despite the adverse weather condition, and the poor management of PMTair. The report couldn't determine the main cause of the accident, as they were not sure if PMTair or the pilot was to blame.
Aftermath
Immediately after the crash, South Korean aviation authorities held safety inspections on PMTair and six other foreign airlines.
The other six were
Dalavia
JSC Dalavia (russian: ОАО «Дальавиа»), also known as Dalavia — Far Eastern Airways (russian: Дальавиа «Дальневосточные Авиалинии») was an airline based in Khabarovsk, Russia. It operated sch ...
,
Garuda Indonesia Airlines,
Iran Air
The National Airline of Iran ( fa, هواپیمايی ملی ایران, Havâpeymâyi-ye Melli-ye Irân), branded as Iran Air, is the flag carrier of Iran, which is headquartered at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran. As of 2018, it operates scheduled ...
,
Royal Khmer Airlines
Royal Khmer Airlines was a small airline based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It operated scheduled passenger services out of Phnom Penh International Airport and Angkor International Airport.Flight International 12–18 April 2005
History
Finally, ...
,
Sakhalinsk Airlines and
Vladivostok Air
JSC Vladivostok Air (also Vladivostok Avia; russian: link=no, ОАО Владивосток Авиа) was an independent airline with its head office at the airport in Artyom, Primorski Krai, Russia. In 2011, it was reacquired by Aeroflot.
D ...
. Cambodian authorities later suspended all domestic flights of PMTAir.
Flights were only allowed to resume after the release of the investigation report. The airliner eventually ceased all operations in 2008.
In 2011, a Korean court ruled in favour of the lawsuits from 11 families of the victims and ordered PMTAir to pay compensations to the families with a total of KRW 3.2 billion.
See also
*
Trigana Air Service Flight 267
Trigana Air Flight 267 was a scheduled passenger flight from Sentani to Oksibil in the eastern Indonesian province of Papua. On 16 August 2015, the ATR 42 turboprop operating the service crashed on approach in the Bintang highlands region of O ...
*
Vietnam Airlines Flight 815
References
External links
Pre-accident picture of the aircraftIn pictures: Cambodia plane search ''BBC''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pmtair An-24 Crash, 2007
Aviation accidents and incidents in 2007
Accidents and incidents involving the Antonov An-24
Aviation accidents and incidents in Cambodia
2007 in Cambodia
June 2007 events in Asia
Kampot province
Airliner accidents and incidents with an unknown cause
Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain