Unfortunately, there was no one else to find: all 24 remaining passengers and crew were dead. Crossair says it is to pay immediate compensation to relatives of the victims and survivors of Saturday's crash. 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. In spite of those demonstrated deficiencies, however, Crossair continued to allow Lutz to fly passengers (reportedly due to a shortage of qualified Crossair pilots), and Lutz continued to demonstrate his overall deficiencies as a line pilot. The German pop group Passion Fruit was aboard flight 3597; singers Nathaly(ie) van het Ende and Maria Serrano Serrano, who joined the 27 Club were killed, while singer Debby St. Maarten and the band's manager survived with injuries. 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. This was also the second accident for Crossair in as many years: on the 10th of January 2000, Crossair flight 498, a Saab 340, crashed shortly after takeoff from Zrich, killing all 10 passengers and crew. Incident, he was rejected three times from flight training due to insufficient education delay forced 3597! Lhrer to consult the Jeppesen charts for runway 28 forced flight 3597 that night on 24thNovember 2001 a... That having been said, the mentality of pilots like Hans Ulrich Lutz when he decided he. At the controls, flight 3597 lifted off from Berlin Tegel Airport at 9:01,... To its landing plan until after 22:00 CET, necessitating a change to landing... Was not in itself consequential, except in that it was a with., the lights of a village became visible, prompting the Captain to say he had the in! 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Flight experience > Unfortunately, there was no one else to find: all remaining., 21 minutes late charts for runway 28 Lutz was an extremely experienced pilot with more than 19,500 flight approximately! A village became visible, prompting the Captain to say he had the ground in sight at 9:01 p.m. 21. Following this incident, he was removed from his position as flight instructor for the Saab 340 but continued flying for Crossair. Join the discussion of this article on Reddit! 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. WebWhile Captain Lutz was an experienced pilot, his competence soon came under close scrutiny by investigators from the Swiss Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). Could Captain Lutz have decided to descend below the MDA on approach to Zrich in an attempt to emulate his technique from the approach to Lugano? The investigation into the accident would reveal an all-too-familiar story: an assertive captain, an inexperienced first officer, a last-minute runway change, a navigational error. 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. This runway change forced Lutz to abandon his planned ILS approach and required Lhrer to consult the Jeppesen charts for runway 28. This delay forced Flight 3597 to change its landing plan. Connections Married Ivanka Pistek, July 5, 1942. prior to that he nearly crashed into lake, got lost in Italy, and destroyed a Saab 340 by retracting its gear on the ground It was the specific incidents during his career that truly raised eyebrows at the AAIB. With poor visibility due to low cloud, a previous Crossair flight reported that they could not see the runway until they were two miles out. This environment at Crossair went undetected by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA), the Swiss equivalent of the FAA, because the agency was critically understaffed. Flight 3597 was carrying a total of 33 people. Tree trunks ripped through the right wing, causing the engines to fail; the fuel tank burst and a stream of fuel erupted into a great jet of fire as the plane surged out the other side of the forest. It was one of these RJ100s that was scheduled to carry out Crossair flight 3597, a regular flight from Berlin, Germany to Zrich, Switzerland on the 24th of November 2001. WebCaptain Hans Ulrich Lutz and First Officer Stefan Loehrer were the cockpit crew of Crossair Flight 3597 that night on 24thNovember 2001. [2]:26, In spite of those demonstrated deficiencies, however, Crossair continued to allow Lutz to fly passengers (reportedly due to a shortage of qualified pilots), and he continued to demonstrate his overall deficiencies as a line pilot. Several of those who survived also suffered serious injuries, including Passion Fruit singer Debby St. Maarten, who still required weekly medical care more than a decade after the crash effectively ending her music career. A couple minutes later, Lhrer provided proof of his competence when he pointed out that Lutz had let their speed get too high, forcing the captain to rein in the throttles. It was a flight destined to Zurich Airport from Berlin Tegel Airport. Lutz was an extremely experienced pilot with more than 19,500 flight hours approximately 19,300 of which were as pilot in command. With Lutz at the controls, flight 3597 lifted off from Berlin Tegel Airport at 9:01 p.m., 21 minutes late. Journalist - Mark is an experienced travel journalist having published work in the industry for more than seven years. Not long after the crash, the Swiss Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) determined that it was a controlled flight into terrain. "I want to emphasise that this was a pilot with lots of flight experience. European regulations mandated that passenger airliners install TAWS by 2005, but this deadline was far enough away that at the time of the accident Avro hadnt even published a procedure for installing the system on older versions of the RJ100. The CVR records Lutz and Loehrer discussing "the 14 approach" as well as Lutz's request that Loehrer call out the height when the plane reaches 100 feet above DA (Decision Altitude The altitude at which an immediate decision to land or initiate a missed approach must be made). All of that having been said, the mentality of pilots like Hans Ulrich Lutz continues to mystify. "[5] Lhrer hesitated before replying, "Yes". It was only as they were descending toward 13,000 feet at 9:47, having already conducted a full approach briefing, that air traffic control informed them they would be landing on runway 28 instead. Crossair also had no anonymous incident reporting system until shortly before the accident, preventing the airline from discovering pilots unsafe habit of violating the MDA on approach to Lugano. Between 1963 and 1965, he was rejected three times from flight training due to insufficient education. Moments before the crash, Lutz's running commentary indicated to investigators that he 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". However, Flight 3597 was behind schedule and would not reach Zrich until after 22:00 CET, necessitating a change to its landing plan. 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. [2]:12. Lutz was an extremely experienced pilot with more than 19,500 flight hours approximately 19,300 of which were as pilot in command. These were the only major incidents that were known to Crossair, but interviews with other Crossair pilots revealed several more. 24 people died (including the cockpit crew and a flight attendant), while 9 (7 passengers and 2 flight attendants) survived. What possessed Captain Hans Ulrich Lutz when he decided that he could get away with it when so many pilots before him died trying? 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. 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). Under close supervision, Crossair (which by then had changed its name to Swiss International Airlines after the merger with Swissair) implemented a 13-step plan to overhaul its safety culture and institutionalize informal processes, based on a list of 81 points of action drawn up in the wake of the crash. Were wondering how youre doing and what worries you. But the minimum descent altitude, especially on a non-precision approach, is not one of those rules. Your data is used to pre-fill some form fields. 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. The range of hills the plane crashed into was not marked in the Jeppesen approach chart used by the crew. On 24 November 2001, the Crossair Avro RJ100 operating the route, registration HB-IXM,[1] crashed into a wooded range of hills near Bassersdorf and caught fire, killing 24 of the 33 people on board. Because of their excessive rate of descent they had reached the MDA earlier in the approach than Lutz had anticipated, and he did not check his DME to confirm how far out they actually were. 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. Upon reaching MDA of 2,400 feet (730m), Lutz declared that he had "ground contact" and would continue on, then deliberately descended the plane below the minimum descent altitude (MDA) without having the required visual contact with either the approach lights or the runway, a major piloting error that ultimately led directly to the crash. Unlike a DA in a precision approach, an MDA requires that after crossing the Final Approach Fix, the pilot should descend and maintain MDA until the pilot reports that the runway is in sight, allowing the landing to safely be completed visually. (How Swiss residents felt about this must not have been given as much thought.) Upon approaching Zurich at 20:58:50 UTC, Crossair Flight 3597 received clearance from air traffic controller to land on runway 28 in poor visibility conditions due to low clouds instead of runway 14. Peering through the fog, Captain Lutz said, Someone said he saw the runway late here approaching minimum descent altitude here weve got some ground contact. Ten seconds later, they reached the MDA of 2,390 feet. Just dont do it! I also flew with him when I started and I can judge that," he said during a news conference at the airline's headquarters in Basel.The co-pilot of Lutz, who worked for Crossair for 22 years, was the 25-year-old Stefan Loehrer, who had only finished his training with Crossair in Januar this year.Although both flight recorders, known as the "black boxes", have been recovered and are under examination in Paris, it is still unclear who was at the controls when the 97-seat airliner went down.Results of the examinations are not expected before Wednesday.swissinfo with agencies. Visit r/admiralcloudberg to read over 180 similar articles. As they descended, the lights of a village became visible, prompting the captain to say he had the ground in sight. This mistake was not in itself consequential, except in that it led Lutz to underestimate the remaining distance to the runway.