Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771

Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 was a scheduled international Afriqiyah Airways passenger flight that crashed on 12 May 2010 at about 06:01 local time (04:01 UTC) on approach to Tripoli International Airport, about short of the runway. Of the 104 passengers and crew on board, 103 were killed. The sole survivor was a 9-year-old Dutch boy. The crash of Flight 771 was the third hull-loss of an Airbus A330 involving fatalities, occurring eleven months after the crash of Air France Flight 447.

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft was an Airbus A330-202, registration 5A-ONG, manufacturer's serial number (MSN) 1024, fitted with two General Electric CF6-80E1A4 engines. It first flew on 12 August 2009 and was delivered to Afriqiyah Airways on 8 September 2009. At the time of the accident it had approximately 1,600 hours total flying time and about 420 take-off and landing cycles. It was configured for a capacity of 230 passengers and 13 crew, including 30 business class seats and 200 economy class seats. This particular flight carried 93 passengers and 11 crew. Most of the passengers were Dutch citizens returning from holiday in South Africa. An airport official stated that 13 Libyans, both passengers and crew, as well 70 Dutch nationals had died in the crash.

The flight crew consisted of the following:

* The Captain was 57-year-old Yousef Bashir Al-Saadi ( ar, يوسف بشير الساعدي) (PNF-Pilot Not Flying). He was hired by Afriqiyah Airways in 2007 and had 17,016 flight hours.
* The first officer was 42-year-old Tareq Mousa Abu Al-Chaouachi ( ar, طارق موسي أبو الشواشي) (PF-Pilot Flying). He had 4,216 flight hours.
* The relief first officer was 37-year-old Nazim Al-Mabruk Al-Tarhuni ( ar, ناظم المبروك الترهوني) (PNF-Pilot Not Flying). He had 1,866 flight hours.
All three crew members had logged 516 hours on the Airbus A330.

Flight and accident

The flight originated at OR Tambo International Airport, serving Johannesburg, South Africa. Its destination was Tripoli International Airport, Libya.

At 5:29, the captain contacted Tripoli ATC. The controller cleared the flight direct to Tripoli for a "TW" locator approach to runway 09. It also reported weather data to Flight 771, and cleared the flight to descend as well. The controller also directed flight for a landing in an easterly approach on runway 09.

At 5:58, the crew contacted the tower controller. The controller noted them to continue the approach and to report the runway in sight.

On route to the locator beacon "TW", the flight crew discussed about by which procedure they will approach the runway, by the time the landing procedure should have already been chosen. When the landing procedure was selected, the first officer immediately activated the procedure, and the aircraft began its final descent for landing too early, before the "TW" locator, where the final approach should have commenced. Other pilots did not notice the mistake. The flight crew did not acquire any visual ground references before initiating their approach to land.

At 6:00, Flight 771 passed "TW" locator at 1000 feet, 200 feet below the prescribed altitude. As the flight approached the decision altitude of 720 feet, the captain commanded to continue the descent, despite having no runway in sight.

At 6:01, the aircraft had descended to above ground when the terrain awareness and warning system sounded a "too low terrain" alarm in the cockpit. The captain ordered a go-around and the autopilot was turned off.

The first officer put the nose of the aircraft up for 4 seconds and the thrust levers were set to go-around power. The aircraft pitched up to 12.3° nose up and the flight crew raised the landing gear and flaps. Shortly thereafter the co-pilot started making nose down inputs which caused the aircraft to pitch-attitude to reduce to 3.5° nose down. (The co-pilot could have been focused on the aircraft's speed, rather than its altitude.) The go-around pitch attitude was not maintained and the instructions from the flight director were not followed. (The report says that fatigue could have played a role in causing the first officer to focus solely on the airspeed.) The captain and the first officer were making inputs to the aircraft's side stick at the same time (although the dual inputs were not sufficient enough to trigger a "dual-input" warning). This action appears to be intended to provide assistance by the captain to fly the aircraft. This action led to confusion on who was flying the aircraft. The ground proximity warning system sounded "too low terrain," "sink rate," and "pull up" alarms as the aircraft lost more height and the co-pilot responded with a sharp nose-down input. Then the captain took control of the aircraft without warning, via the side stick priority button and maintained the nose-down input, while the first officer was simultaneously pulling back on his own side stick. Two seconds before impact with the ground the aircraft was at . The captain was also pulling his side stick fully back, suggesting both pilots were aware of the aircraft's impending collision with the ground. Two seconds later, the aircraft crashed into the ground at a speed of , about short of Runway 09, outside the airport perimeter. The aircraft was destroyed by the impact and post-crash fire.

During the final approach and up to the moment of the accident the pilot had not reported any problems to the control tower. The weather at the time of the crash was low wind, marginal visibility, and unlimited ceiling. ^{/sup> The main runway of the airport (Runway 09/27) is long. Libyan Transport Minister Mohammed Ali Zidan ruled out terrorism as a cause. During the accident, the aircraft damaged a house on the ground. The homeowner, his wife, and their five children escaped unharmed. The house and a nearby mosque are scheduled to be demolished as part of the airport expansion plans. The first body of a non-Libyan passenger was repatriated to the Netherlands on 27 May 2010. On 21 June 2010 the Libyan authorities began clearing the accident site of Afriqiyah 771.}

The accident is the second deadliest involving an Airbus A330 (after Air France Flight 447), and the second deadliest accident to have occurred in Libya. It also was the first fatal accident for Afriqiyah Airways.

Investigation

The Libyan Civil Aviation Authority (LYCAA) opened an investigation into the accident. Airbus stated that it would provide full technical assistance to the authorities investigating the crash, and would do so via the French ''Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety'' (BEA). The South African Civil Aviation Authority sent a team to assist with the investigation. The BEA assisted in the investigation with an initial team of two investigators, accompanied by five advisors from Airbus. The Dutch Safety Board