The Terrible Cost of the Captain’s Insistence: Van Plane Crash

Everything seemed normal on the journey, which was planned to last 1 hour, but when they were about to land, bad weather conditions he welcomed. The pilots could not see straight ahead.

Still, there were ways to complete the flight without causing loss of life, but the captain pilot, with his insistent attitude, most of the passengers and crew unfortunately he lost his life.

Before going into the details of the accident, it is worth mentioning: Planes are not as risky as we think.

When we get into a car, we feel much less fear, or perhaps not at all, than when we get into a plane. We do not often think of the possibility of an accident, but on a plane we probably at least once We consider the risk of accidents.

However, when we look at the statistics, planes are much safer than buses/cars and their accident rates are lower. Especially thanks to new technologies This ensures that our security concerns on the plane are minimized. Therefore, what we are about to tell you should not create prejudice or fear about airplanes.

Let’s come to our unfortunate story…

Turkish Airlines TC JES Boeing 737-400 aircraft; his first flight, Almost 2 years before the accident, He did it on September 25, 1992. In short, it was brand new and not used much.

When the calendar showed December 29, 1994, there were a total of 76 people on the plane, consisting of 69 passengers and 7 flight crew. The pilots who will perform the flight are Has 26 years of flight experience Adem Ungun and Co-Pilot Yavuz Alici.

The plane, which took off from Esenboğa with a 25-minute delay, contacted air traffic controls to start descending 1 hour later. It was snowy and Visibility, which was 900 meters, dropped to 300 meters.

With permission, they started to descend towards the runway, but the bad weather conditions were quite difficult.

On their first landing attempt, they had to skip it because they couldn’t see the runway. On the second attempt, they descended again and met the same end. Dense fog and snow, It was blocking their view.

pilots, “It won’t happen like this.” They had planned to return to Ankara Esenboğa Airport, but the captain pilot stopped at the last minute. try one more time decided. The co-pilot was nervous and tried to dissuade the captain, but the captain was not convinced.

Except for the captain pilot, no one was willing to land.

The tower was contacted again for the 3rd landing attempt. Tower employees were also not in favor of landing. To other nearby squares They said they could land, but the captain pilot said that the visibility would be sufficient this time and did not listen to the advice of the tower.

If this attempt failed, they were going to return to Esenboğa, but that return never took place!

Low visibility was again a problem for the pilots and they could not follow the route. They were too late to turn left. To the castle hill at an altitude of 2000 meters, 13 km away from Van They crashed.

55 of 76 people, including passengers and flight crew, died on the spot. 2 people died in the hospital. 2 cabin crew and 17 passengers survived, even among them a baby There was also. The pilots and the remaining cabin crew also died.

It was almost a miracle that so many people survived such a severe crash. The thick layer of snow on the castle hill, Because it reduces violence Some of the passengers who were thrown away managed to survive.

The cause of the accident was stated as the negligence of the pilot.

The captain pilot, who insisted on landing despite the adverse weather conditions, was the main cause of the accident. He is also responsible for taking the salaries of the village guards in Van. a civil servant He was also on the plane. It is estimated that this is the reason why the captain insistently wanted to land in Van.

One of the passengers who survived the accident said the following 25 years after the terrible incident:

“Those who were not wearing their seatbelts flew away at the first impact. I was wearing my seatbelt, but my face, teeth and shoulder were shattered. Then I lay down for 10-15 minutes. A piece of debris fell on me. There were people around who were smashed to pieces. ‘Help, help, we are here’ I shouted. They came to my voice. “They picked me up first.” he said and added: “I couldn’t get on the buses because of my face. How many times did I get off the minibus before reaching my destination because the children were looking at me and crying? I would sit and cry on the sidelines. Even though I had plastic surgery with my own means twice, it did not get closed.”

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