Asiana Cargo 747-400 missing/crashed

[Flying Illini]

Asiana Cargo 747-400 crash

RIP fellas.

Cargo plane feared lost off South Korea


Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korea's Coast Guard says it has found parts of a missing Asiana Airlines cargo plane off the southern island of Jeju but has not located the aircraft itself.
Controllers lost contact with the plane at 4:28 a.m. Thursday (3:28 p.m. Wednesday ET) and found the parts about three hours later, the Coast Guard said. Two people were aboard the aircraft, it said.
There was no immediate comment from Asiana executives.
Officials have not confirmed the plane has crashed but are working on the assumption that it has, based on the parts found in the ocean. Weather does not appear to have been a factor, the Coast Guard told CNN.

 

[Flying Illini]

http://www.flightglobal.com/article...-747-400f-missing-in-sea-off-south-korea.html

Asiana confirms 747-400F missing in sea off South Korea
By Siva Govindasamy


A Boeing 747-400F operated by South Korea's Asiana Airlines is missing in the sea off the country's Jeju Island.


The aircraft, with the registration HL-7604 (pictured below), took off on a regular cargo service from Seoul's Incheon airport to Shanghai Pudong airport in China at 03:05h local time. Around one hour later, some 76nm (140km) from Jeju, the crew reported "mechanical difficulties" and attempted to divert to Jeju's airport, said an Asiana spokesman.


Shortly after, radio contact was lost and the aircraft disappeared from radars. Asiana officials informed the South Korean coast guard, who deployed ships to the sea off Jeju to investigate.

"We are still waiting for a report from the coast guard and our staff," said the spokesman. "Some debris and oil has been spotted floating in the sea, but the aircraft has not been found yet."


The spokesman said that there were two crew, a pilot and co-pilot, in the missing aircraft.


The airframe was built in 2006 and has clocked 26,300h, as shown in Flightglobal's ACAS data. The aircraft is powered by four GE CF6-80C2 engines.


Asiana operates five 747-400Fs, four 747-400BDSFs, and two 747-400 combis.

 

[FO 4 Life]

Quote http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2011/07/2...

"Officials at Asiana and the transportation ministry said the crash may have been caused by an in-flight fire, noting that the plane was carrying inflammable materials in its 58-ton cargo."

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/9928327...

"The pilot radioed Chinese air traffic controllers in Shanghai that fire had broken out in the hold and that the plane had to divert to Jeju, a transport ministry official said."

http://www.just4airlines.com/j4_dox/email/rss.mv?s...

 

[CrimsonEclipse]

More batteries?

 

[LaGarbage Man]

More batteries?

That is what I am thinking as well.
Lithium Ion batteries = Great in my computer but crap in the hold of an aircraft.
Ship them by boat
Thought's and prayers for the crew and their families.

 

[aveator]

dammit,they took off shortly behind us on same route...RIP....very sad...

 

[wmuflyguy]

very sad to hear

 

[dispatchguy]

Lithium Batts should go by surface, just too damned dangerous (if that is ultimately the cause)

 

[DX747]

lithium batts should go by surface, just too damned dangerous (if that is ultimately the cause)

I don't care if its the cause or not!!!!!! It has been the cause and it will be the cause sooner or later.......................so ship the "g*$ dam" things by land and sea!!!..

Rip

 

[LongBeachTrijet]

I am willing to bet that this will only result in a ban on shipping Lithium Ion batteries in passenger aircraft. Cargo pilots be damned.

 

[Fliteidol]

I too fear not much will be done until a freighter goes in to a populated area on an emergency return and there is collateral damage. Only then will the outcry change anything.

 

[hawkerflyer]

The are local news reports looking into last minute insurance policies taken by one of the pilots, I believe the captain. This could take an interesting twist.
As reported by the Chosun newspaper:

"One of the two crew on board the Asiana Airlines Boeing-747 cargo plane that crashed last week had taken out a number of insurance policies for property damage and one life assurance policy in a 20-day period beginning June 17, reports Korean paper Chosun. Choi Sang-ki and his co-pilot Lee Jung-woong remain missing after the plane crashed into waters off Jeju Island in the East China Sea, en route to Shanghai from Seoul. The plane crashed after reporting a mechanical problem and losing contact with air-traffic controllers. There was no rain in the area at the time of the crash, but there had been strong winds. The plane was listed as carrying 58 tons of semiconductors, electronic and machine parts, plus nearly half a ton of flammable cargo – thought to be mainly lithium batteries. One insurer notified the South Korean Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) that it had suspicions about the event, with the an FSS spokesman telling Chosun that "it seems unusual to sign up for such a raft of insurance policies at one time, but we cannot ascertain what Choi's real intentions were, so we have to wait until the cause of the accident is revealed". Mr Choi's family has responded that any such insinuations were an insult to the pilot. The black box has yet to be recovered, but the waters are at an average depth of 87m, meaning that there is a good chance that it will be recovered sooner rather than later. On Friday the US National Transportation Safety Board said that it would assist the South Korean investigation. After a UPS Boeing 747 crashed in September 2010 in Dubai, the US Federal Aviation Authority issued a safety alert relating to the fire hazard posed by lithium batteries, the flammability of which were a significant factor in the September 2010 crash"