On Sunday morning, September 26, 1976, pilot Vladimir Serkov sent the An-2 plane without passengers to a five-storey apartment building located at 43/1 Stepnaya Street. In a collision and as a result of the fire, 11 people were killed, including the pilot. During the investigation, it was found that Surkov's wife, who, shortly before the tragedy, left him and took the child.
Andreas Lubitz, Flight 9525 Germanwings
Suicides among pilots, although rare, still occur. Over the past 30 years, in the United States alone, at least 44 pilots have tried to take their lives by intentionally sending their planes to the ground. According to an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), all suicidal pilots were men, and most of them were keenly parting with girls or wives, or they had problems with the law.
Source | Bigpicture
01. Andreas Lubitz
Flight 9525 departed at 10:01 on March 24, 2015, from Barcelona and headed for Dusseldorf. On board the "Airbus A320" were 144 passengers and six crew members. All of them died in the disaster. The plane began its descent from a designated height of 11 kilometres at 10:31. At 10:40, the airliner lost communication at an altitude of about two kilometres.
The aircraft transponder data showed that the autopilot was programmed to reduce the altitude to 30 metres. The attention of investigators focused on the 27-year-old co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who locked himself in the cockpit with the clear intention of sending the plane to the ground.
The German Bild has published transcripts of the negotiations of the flight pilots, which show that soon after takeoff, Lubitz was left alone in the cockpit. Captain Patrick Sondheimer complained that he did not have an opportunity to go to the toilet before take-off, and after taking the train and standard checks, Andreas Lubitz told the captain, "You can go now." Sondenheimer handed him control of the aircraft and left the cockpit.
Sometime later, the record captures a loud bang, and then the captain screams: “Open the door, for God's sake!” Following the screams are the blows of a supposed scrap or axe at the door. The plane continues to decline, and an automatic warning system sounds: “Earth, rise!” The captain again tries to shout, "Open this damn door!" – passengers cry from behind. Finally, the wing of the Airbus touches the mountains, and the recorder captures the sound of the destruction of the aircraft.
The exact motives of Lubitz have not yet been established; however, German investigators have already stated that the pilot was hiding his illness from the airline, and on the day of the accident, a torn sick leave sheet was found in his apartment. Andreas was very concerned about their deteriorating vision and about parting with his girlfriend. Doctors also confirmed that the pilot had undergone psychotherapy to obtain a licence.
Lubitz underwent an annual medical examination last summer. An official from Lufthansa, whose subsidiary is Germanwings, said such examinations do not include psychological testing of pilots.
Jamil El Batuti, Flight 990 EgyptAir (1991)
02. Broken Boeing 767 of EgyptAir Airlines
There is still no exact answer about what happened on October 31, 1991, when EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed in international waters, killing 218 people. A subsequent investigation by the National Council for Transport Safety concluded that the cause of the disaster was the intentional actions of the co-pilot, but Egyptian investigators found evidence of fatal mechanical failure.
The co-pilot of the flight, Jamil el Batuti, completely controlled the plane at the very moment when he leaned 40 degrees. The National Council for Transport Safety reached this conclusion at the end of the investigation. According to the speech of the flight recorder, Captain El Habashi unsuccessfully tried to stop the descent of the aircraft when he returned to the cockpit, but co-pilot Jamil el Batuti prevented the pilot from doing so by abruptly turning off the engines.
On the torn tape of the registrar were the last words of El Batuti: "I give my fate to the hands of Allah." Later it became known that the pilot most likely committed suicide, taking with him 217 people on board.
After examining the findings of the Egyptian Civil Aviation Investigation Committee, an American journalist, William Languish, wrote, “The population of this country has an entirely different way of thinking. It seemed to me that they knew perfectly well that El Batuti committed suicide. But they pursued their goals; their conclusions and reports were dictated from above, and this country has very autocratic power and unquestioning submission to the authorities. An order was received, possibly even from President Mubarak himself, and they could not admit that El Batuti had deliberately directed the plane into the water. Therefore, they insisted on technical problems.
Erminio dos Santos Fernandez, flight 470 of Mozambique Airlines (2013)
03. Broken Embraer 190 of Mozambique Airlines
Two years before the Germanwings tragedy, a very similar disaster occurred in Mozambique. The Mozambique Airlines flight crashed with 33 people on board. Captain Erminio dos Santos Fernandez turned the autopilot to a programmed drop.
On November 29, 2013, TM470 crashed in the swamps of Bwabwat National Park during a regular flight to Angola. The crash killed passengers from Mozambique, Angola, Portugal, France, Brazil, and China, as well as all six crew members.
Dos Santos Fernandez locked himself in the cockpit, did not respond to the warning signals of the onboard systems, and did not let the co-pilot back in until the Embraer 190 collided with the ground. On-board recorders recorded a manual change in altitude from 11,000 to 180 metres, and then, below the horizon, the speed of the aircraft also changed three times. The brake flaps were fully released and remained in this position until the end, which means that the captain turned off the autopilot and fully controlled the aircraft before the collision. However, his motives remained unknown.
Tsui Wai Ming, Flight 185, SilkAir (1997)
04. A Boeing 737 crashed over the island of Sumatra.
Flight SilkAir MI185 departed from Jakarta at 15:23 local time on December 19, 1997, and headed for Singapore. The weather was clear; the plane was almost new. At an altitude of about 10,600 metres above the island of Sumatra, the Boeing 737 suddenly dropped its nose and began a high-speed dive until it fell into the river. All 104 people on board died.
The plane crashed into the ground with such force that the largest fragment of the fuselage was no longer than three metres. Rescuers extracted only fragments of bodies. The investigation found that the voice recorder and flight recorder were turned off before the start of the fall.
The National Transport Safety Committee conducted an investigation with the Indonesian authorities. The commission found that Tsu Wai Ming himself sent the plane at a steep angle. During the investigation, the captain found serious financial problems: he took a mortgage, and shortly before the last flight, he lost a large amount of money on the stock exchange and insured his life to save his family from ruin in the event of his death or disability. The insurance came into force on December 19 – the day of the disaster.
Chris Fatswe, Air Botswana incident (1999)
05. Crashed Air Botswana Airlines
Chris Fatswe, Air Botswana's suicide pilot, crashed his plane on October 11, 1999, destroying nearly the entire airline fleet. Fatswe took off at Seretze Ham Airport and circled over it for almost two hours. He contacted the radio dispatcher and stated, "I am going to commit suicide."
The pilot demanded that he be given a spokesperson, President Jan Ham, and, according to Air Botswana’s general manager Joshua Gailfors, intended to direct the plane directly to the vice president’s office. So Fatswe wanted to settle accounts with company management. The controllers managed to convince the pilot that there were innocent people in the building, and then Fatswe sent the aircraft to two other ATR-42s standing on the runway.
Fatswe was fired from the company for health reasons and sat down at the helm without permission. “It was decommissioned because Air Botswana's doctors found it unsuitable,” said John Williams, commercial director of the national carrier. According to other sources, Fatswe repeatedly warned the airport authorities that he was going to commit suicide.
The incident virtually destroyed the Air Botswana fleet. The airline had only one BAe-146 aircraft, which at that time was under repair.
Seiji Katagiri, Japan Airlines Flight 350 (1982)
06. "Japan Airlines aircraft" crashed into Tokyo Bay.
In 1982, Seiji Katagiri, the 35-year-old captain of Japan Airlines, intentionally turned on the engine reverse when approaching, resulting in a loss of altitude. The crash killed him. Killed 24 people out of 174. The investigation found that Katagiri was in an inadequate condition and was shouting loudly in the cockpit at the time of landing. He switched traction on two of the three engines in a suicide attempt. The co-pilot and flight engineer tried to stop him and regain control of the aircraft. However, despite all their efforts, the aircraft sharply lost most of its lift and fell into Tokyo Bay, failing to reach 300 metres from the runway.
Katagiri was the first to get out of a sinking plane; to avoid liability, he told rescuers that he was an office clerk. Later it became known that Katagiri suffered from hallucinations and depression during the flight. Once, he called the police to his mansion in a suburb of Tokyo because he believed that he was being watched, but no eavesdropping devices or hidden cameras were found. Three times, doctors sent him for a psychiatric examination. In November 1980, he was treated for a month for a psychosomatic disorder but was again allowed to fly. Subsequently, Katagiri was accused of negligence and of causing death by negligence, but the court did not convict him on the grounds of mental insanity.
Younes Hayati, Flight 630 Royal Air Maroc (1994)
07. The crashed plane, ATR-42-312
On August 21, 1994, 32-year-old Royal Air Maroc pilot Younes Hayati intentionally crashed an ATR-42-312, killing 40 passengers and 4 crew members. The reason for the pilot's suicide was a love failure. The co-pilot of the flight sent a distress signal but was unable to keep his colleague from suicide. A voice recorder recorded the last words of the co-pilot, Sofia Fugugi, before the collision with the ground: “Help! Help! Captain…"
According to the report of the commission of inquiry, Hayati turned off the autopilot and sent the plane to the ground, which was some evidence of the captain's intentional desire to end his life. The plane crashed into the Atlas Mountains ten minutes after takeoff; the flight flew from Agadir to Casablanca. Among the dead were a US citizen, the prince of Kuwait, and eight Italians.
Brian J. Hedglin, incident at St George's Airport (2012)
In 2012, Brian J. Hedglin stole a plane while under investigation for the murder of his ex-girlfriend. - A 12-year-old pilot took the plane to the runway at St George's Utah Airport, took off, and then shot himself.
A police investigation report says Headglin started the take-off, but it did not happen due to a failure of the chassis brake. The plane swept through the strip and stopped. The Bombardier CRJ200 hit the wing of the terminal building, demolished the fence, and crushed half a dozen cars. Eyewitnesses said that while the ship was moving, the pilot left the cockpit, entered the cabin, and shot himself in the head.
Headglin was suspected of killing his ex-girlfriend. Christina Cornejo, 39, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in his apartment in Colorado Springs. Both of them, Brian Hadglin and Christina Cornejo, served in the Colorado National Guard.
Vladimir Serkov, incident at Severny Airport (1976)
In the early morning of September 26, 1976, Vladimir Serkov made an unauthorised take-off of the An-2 from the Severny airport in Novosibirsk. Having made a circle above the city at an extremely low altitude, he sent his plane directly to a residential building.
An-2 crashed into a five-storey building between the third and fourth floors next to the stairs, breaking a hole in the wall with a diameter of about two metres. The collision caused a fire that killed Serkov and four other residents of the house.
In the course of the investigation, it became clear that Serkov's ex-wife and their child lived in the house. Apparently, the pilot decided to end his life and, at the same time, take revenge on his ex-wife. However, at that moment, neither she nor anyone else connected to Serkov was in the house.
Source | Bigpicture
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