They managed to get away with this because the final approach ran over Lake Lugano, which (being perfectly flat) did not present any obstacles that would pose a hazard to low-flying planes. In 2001, Crossair operated 16 Avro RJ100s, making it the largest single operator of the type at the time. This could be accomplished by referring to their distance measuring equipment, or DME, which indicated their distance from the VOR radio beacon at the airport. At the time of the accident, Lutz had been flying for 13 hours, only part of which was with Crossair, and his rest breaks were almost always too short because he would invariably spend part of his designated rest time working at the flight school. Visit r/admiralcloudberg to read over 180 similar articles. A curiosity was that Captain Lutz had just recently started to fly the RJ100, which meant that the first officer had more experience flying the type. WebHans-Ulrich Hanitsch Oberleutnant zur See (Crew XII/39) No ships sunk or damaged. It was a flight destined to Zurich Airport from Berlin Tegel Airport. The episode is entitled "Cockpit Failure". Despite not being able to see the runway, Captain Lutz continued his descent below the glide path, crashing into a hillside near the village of Bassersdorf, two and a half miles short of the airport. First Officer Lhrer might not have been doing much better: his wife told investigators that he had felt exhausted and stressed the previous evening, after coming home from a long work day in which he spent 10 hours in the air. This was a violation of the most basic rule of flying any approach: dont descend below the MDA if you cant see the runway. Let us know what topics you would like to discuss with fellow SWI readers. Instead, Lutz was over 4 nautical miles (7.4km; 4.6mi) from the runway, and could not possibly have seen the runway due to the presence of a hill below the MDA of 2,400 feet (730m), which obscured his view. WebHans-Ulrich Hanitsch Oberleutnant zur See (Crew XII/39) No ships sunk or damaged. Contact me via @Admiral_Cloudberg on Reddit, @KyraCloudy on Twitter, or by email at kyracloudy97@gmail.com. 1 Dec 1939 : Offiziersanwrter: 1 Nov 1940 : Among the victims were both Captain Lutz and First Officer Lhrer, along with American pop singer Melanie Thornton and two of the three members of the Eurodance group Passion Fruit, who had been on their way to a gig in Zrich. On the 24th of November 2001, a regional jet flying for Swiss carrier Crossair slammed into a hillside near Zrich, Switzerland while on final approach. Born : 22 Aug 1922: Berlin-Treptow: Died : 27 Dec 1950 (28) Moscow, Russia: If you can help with photo or any information on this Officer please contact us at gummi@uboat.net. Our journalists will take your contribution on board for their coverage and may follow up with you via email. Between 1963 and 1965, he was rejected three times from flight training due to insufficient education. The airport's means of determining visibility were inadequate for runway 28. WebWhile Captain Lutz was an experienced pilot, his competence soon came under close scrutiny by investigators from the Swiss Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). When Lhrer reported the plane reaching 100 feet above MDA, the CVR records Lutz asking Lhrer, "Do we have ground contact? In the control tower, the sole controller on duty initially didnt notice that flight 3597 had disappeared from her radar screen. Lhrer, in contrast, was inexperienced, with just 490 total flight hours. The MDA states the minimum altitude in MSL to safely fly above any obstructions or terrain in the final approach flight-path before visual contact with the runway is made. There was supposed to be a group of 21 tourists on the flight, but they never showed up, leaving the 97-seat plane two-thirds empty. After passing a point 6 nautical miles (11 kilometers) from the VOR, they would descend to their minimum descent altitude (MDA) of 2,390 feet, which they were required to maintain until they spotted the runway. Captain Crash: Hans Ulrich Lutz (the pilot of Crossair Flight 3597) was almost this in real-life, to the point where he once wrecked a plane by retracting the landing gear on the runway. Lack of discipline within Crossair resulted in absence of consequences of risky behavior. Consequently, he continued through the MDA and crashed into a hill. The AAIB noted that despite his immense experience, Lutz made several fairly basic mistakes during the approach that raised questions about his mental state at the time of the crash. This brought the AAIB back to the decision to use runway 28 in the first place. Lutz was an extremely experienced pilot with more than 19,500 flight hours approximately 19,300 of which were as pilot in command. Loehrer hesitated before replying "Yes". As they descended, the lights of a village briefly became visible through the clouds, prompting Captain Lutz to comment that he had ground contact. Shortly afterward, at 10:04, another Crossair flight ahead of them reported that they had landed successfully, but that the weather conditions were near the minimums and they only saw the runway from 2.2 nm (4km) out. The visual minimums at the time of the accident were actually inappropriate for using the standard approach to runway 28. And while the agreement did allow controllers to route planes onto runways 16 and 14 after hours if the weather prevented a VOR/DME approach to runway 28, there was considerable pressure on them to avoid doing this. The BFU's Final Report states that other factors also contributed to the accident: The story of the disaster was featured as the first episode of the tenth season of Canadian Discovery Channel show Mayday (known as Air Emergency in the US). 
TIL that Captain Lutz, the pilot mainly responsible for the Crossair 3597 crash, piloted a sightseeing tour to the Alps in Switzerland. Upon arrival in Zrich airspace, about an hour after takeoff, the pilots were cleared for an instrument landing system (ILS) approach to runway 14, but were switched to a VOR/DME (VHF Omnidirectional Range/Distance Measuring Equipment) approach to runway 28 due to a noise abatement statute after 10:00 p.m. Flight 3597 was carrying a total of 33 people. Was it really one mans bad decision, or was it a perfect storm of adverse circumstances? WebHans-Ulrich Rudel (19161982), German ground-attack pilot during World War II. As the flight entered Zurich airspace about an hour after taking off from Berlin, Captain Lutz prepared to land on Zurich's runway 14. In fact, if flight 3597 had maintained the MDA up to the point where the runway became visible, they would have had to perform their final descent at an angle greater than 6 degrees, much steeper than is considered safe. Following this incident, he was removed from his position as flight instructor for the Saab 340 but continued flying for Crossair. Just before the crash, the synthetic voice of the ground proximity warning system (GPWS) announced the radio altimeter reading 500 feet above ground. Crossair was a Swiss regional airline specializing in short flights within Switzerland as well as to and from neighboring countries. It was quite probable that he did. Little did he know it was already too late. _________________________________________________________________. Assisting the captain was 25-year-old First Officer Stefan Lhrer, who was fresh out of training with just 500 hours under his belt. Press J to jump to the feed. He could see villages on the ground and likely thought that he could get away with descending below the MDA like he did at Lugano, and that he would break out of the clouds well above any terrain. That changed in 1996 when he attempted to upgrade to the McDonnell Douglas MD-83, only to fail out of conversion training twice because of difficulty with the autoflight systems. Moments before the crash, Lutz's running commentary indicated to investigators that Lutz must have thought he was at or near 2.2 nautical miles (4.1km; 2.5mi) from runway 28 because he said "Someone said he saw the runway late here". The pair were accompanied by three flight attendants and 28 passengers for the short hop down to Zurich. Your data is used to pre-fill some form fields. That would be no easy task: the weather that night was poor, with a low cloud ceiling and visibility of 3,500 meters in mixed snow and rain. Despite the hilly terrain surrounding it, the approach to runway 28 was not equipped with a Minimum Safe Altitude Warning (MSAW) system, which triggers an alarm if a minimum safe altitude is violated. At around this time, Captain Lutz selected a descent rate of 1,200 feet per minute, the rate he estimated was necessary to hold to the appropriate glide trajectory given their airspeed of 160 knots. Before the crash, the plane had logged 13,000 flying hours with 11,500 takeoffs and landings. A series of accidents and incidents had occurred during Lutz's career as a training captain with Crossair, including multiple failures to upgrade his flight certifications to higher-complexity aircraft such as the MD-80 due to insufficient comprehension of computerized navigational systems. Five crew members and 28 passengers were on board. The report also noted that Captain Lutz had failed to follow correct landing and navigation procedures on previous flights. Because flight 3597 was on track to land shortly after 10:00, they just missed the cutoff to avoid having to use runway 28. Lutz was able to see the lights of villages below the plane, but he was much too far from the airport to see the runway lights, given the conditions. The nine survivors, two of whom are said to be in critical condition in hospital, have not yet been identified.Five Swiss nationals were among the victims, three of whom were members of the crew. A little bit of sloppiness was probably to be expected. One can only conclude that Lutz didnt know about the countless fatal crashes that had occurred because pilots made the exact same decision that he did. While Captain Lutz was an experienced pilot, his competency would come under close scrutiny during the course of the investigation, which concluded that the accident was a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) caused by a series of pilot errors and navigation mistakes that led the plane off-course. Even though Lutz finally realized that his inability to see the runway meant he needed to initiate a missed approach maneuver (called a "Go-around"), his call for the go-around came too late; the plane's engines were not able to spool up fast enough to generate lift sufficient to climb above the hill that had been obstructing his view, and it crashed into the hilltop at 22:06 CET. WebHans-Ulrich Rudel (19161982), German ground-attack pilot during World War II. Why Switzerland needs workers from abroad, SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative. Was this latest accident another case of poor-performing pilots slipping under the radar? Connections Married Ivanka Pistek, July 5, 1942. Based in Alicante, Spain. Investigators concluded that the answer was yes. An MSAW system detects when an airplane is too low on approach and sounds an alarm in the control tower, allowing controllers to actively intervene to prevent controlled flight into terrain. But the system which allowed him to make such a confounding decision was rotten to the core: if there was one thing the accident revealed, it was that flying in Switzerland wasnt safe. The weather on the night of the accident was too poor for aircraft to land safely on runway 28, despite the fact that some planes managed to do so anyway. Just days before the crash, a report by the International Civil Aviation Organization sharply criticized the FOCA, noting that it employed only six full-time inspectors and took part in so little oversight activity that it was effectively useless. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. This course deviation caused the plane to crash into a hilltop, 4.05 kilometres (2.52mi) short of and 150 metres (490ft) north of its assigned landing strip, runway 28. This GPWS worked by measuring the closure rate with the ground directly below the aircraft; it therefore could not warn of high terrain further along the flight path, and it never sounded a warning. Crossair was expanding rapidly and always had a tight budget; its salaries were poor and it struggled to find enough qualified pilots. At that time, Swissair was grounded exactly one month before the crash. The problem with Lutzs assumption was that he was actually much farther from the airport than he thought he was. The FOCA doubled the number of inspectors in 2002. Due to increased azimuth error associated with the use of VORs and lack of vertical guidance (Glide Slope), the MDA is therefore much higher than a DA (Decision Altitude) for an ILS. WebAlfred Schulze-Hinrichs (6 November 1899 23 June 1972) was a Kapitn zur See with the Kriegsmarine during World War II and a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . WebExperienced pilot One of the two pilots, who were both killed in the crash, was an experienced pilot with a record of more than 19,000 flying hours. At that time, Swissair was grounded exactly one month before the crash. The AAIB would conclude that the accident was a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) caused by a series of pilot errors and navigation mistakes that led the plane off-course. TIL that Captain Lutz, the pilot mainly responsible for the Crossair 3597 crash, piloted a sightseeing tour to the Alps in Switzerland. In command of Crossair Flight 3597 was 57-year-old Captain Hans Ulrich Lutz, a seasoned pilot with close to 20,000 flight hours. What possessed Captain Hans Ulrich Lutz when he decided that he could get away with it when so many pilots before him died trying? Considering these factors, it was unlikely that Lhrer would have raised any objection to Lutzs decision-making, or if he had, that Lutz would have listened to it. Among the passengers killed in the crash were Melanie Thornton, the former American lead singer of the German Euro-Dance duo La Bouche, and singers Nathaly van het Ende and Maria Serrano Serrano of the German Euro-Dance trio Passion Fruit; the group's third singer, Debby St. Maarten survived with major injuries. In contrast to the ILS approach, which displays lateral and vertical position, the VOR/DME approach only shows the lateral position of the aircraft and its range to the runway. The flight departed Berlin Tegel Airport at 21:01 CET with 28 passengers, three flight attendants, and the cockpit crew of Captain Hans Ulrich Lutz (57) and First Officer Stefan Loehrer (25). As it turned out, Captain Lutz had a second job as an instructor for a flight school, and he frequently conducted training flights early in the morning before reporting for work at Crossair. WebAlfred Schulze-Hinrichs (6 November 1899 23 June 1972) was a Kapitn zur See with the Kriegsmarine during World War II and a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . WebThe captain (Hans Ulrich Lutz) has a list of incidents prior to flight 3597: 1990 - Accidentally retracts landing gear and writes off Saab 340 (HB-AHA) 1995 - Came within 300 ft of a lake while conducting a night approach to Lugano Airport, Switzerland 1999 - Flew 50 miles the wrong way on a sightseeing flight (HB-AKI, CRX4718) But the minimum descent altitude, especially on a non-precision approach, is not one of those rules. As the plane broke up and caught fire, only two flight attendants and seven passengers were able to escape from the wreckage. He also failed two MD-80 proficiency checkrides which prevented him from upgrading. Lutz was probably moonlighting as a flight instructor not because he loved teaching, but because Crossair didnt pay him enough to get by. 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