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Suhaimi Fariz

Flying Tiger Line Flight 66 Crashed in Puchong on 19 February 1989

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It will be 20 years ago next year. It seems that Malaysians aren't that sentimental about air crashes. There has been no coverage or commemorative ceremony at all about the Tanjung Kupang disaster, which happened 30 years ago last year. Prior to 9-11, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961, the crash was the deadliest hijacking in the world. Maybe it still hurts to remember, but to forget would be even worse.

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It happened one Sunday morning on a clear day. I first heard about it over the TV at about 8am as I was getting ready to ride my bike for Fraser's Hills.

 

The aircraft descended towards the Kilo Lima NDB which was just over 7 nautical miles from Runway 33 extended centerline. The height it should have been at that point should not have been less than 2400ft. If I remember correctly there were a number of errors that conspired to cause the crash.

 

1. It was dark. If it was bright, the pilots would have seen the terrain.

 

2. The Glideslope was not available, either withdrawn or unservicable. If it was servicable, the pilots would have followed the GS and flew the slope correctly.

 

3. The Radar at Lumpur those days had no altitude reporting capability. If it had, the controller would have seen the aircraft descending to a level it should not descend to.

 

4. The Pilot misunderstood the controller's transmission to descend to 2400 ft. He thought that he's cleared to descend TO 400 ft.

 

The aircraft burst into flames upon impact, and was totally consumed by the post crash fire, leaving only the rudder visible. It was a fairly forgettable crash as 'only' 4 were killed.

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It will be 20 years ago next year.

Ermm... 30 la dear.... happened a couple of months before I was born.

 

 

Many thanks captn Nik for shedding the light... Now I know... :) :clapping:

 

Oh, MIR too.. Thanks :clapping:

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It seems that Malaysians aren't that sentimental about air crashes. There has been no coverage or commemorative ceremony at all about the Tanjung Kupang disaster, which happened 30 years ago last year.

 

 

True, so much so even you refer to the last year anniversary instead of the nearer 31st anniversary two weeks back! ;)

 

I SMSed Radio24 about the crash and the DeeJay read a full Wikipedia entry on that on air.

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It happened one Sunday morning on a clear day. I first heard about it over the TV at about 8am as I was getting ready to ride my bike for Fraser's Hills.

 

The aircraft descended towards the Kilo Lima NDB which was just over 7 nautical miles from Runway 33 extended centerline. The height it should have been at that point should not have been less than 2400ft. If I remember correctly there were a number of errors that conspired to cause the crash.

 

1. It was dark. If it was bright, the pilots would have seen the terrain.

 

2. The Glideslope was not available, either withdrawn or unservicable. If it was servicable, the pilots would have followed the GS and flew the slope correctly.

 

3. The Radar at Lumpur those days had no altitude reporting capability. If it had, the controller would have seen the aircraft descending to a level it should not descend to.

 

4. The Pilot misunderstood the controller's transmission to descend to 2400 ft. He thought that he's cleared to descend TO 400 ft.

 

The aircraft burst into flames upon impact, and was totally consumed by the post crash fire, leaving only the rudder visible. It was a fairly forgettable crash as 'only' 4 were killed.

After the accident... the phraseology was changed to 'two thousand four hundred' instead of 'two four zero zero', if i'm not mistaken...

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not 1989 ka?

 

20 years?

Whoops... sorry, my bad... what is happening. Seems to be confused with dates lately.. :blink:

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Something I found on Youtube. A CVR and visual analysis of that fateful morning in February of 1989

 

[YOUTUBE]

[/YOUTUBE]

Edited by H Azmal

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Is it the mistake of the pilots or the control tower that caused this? from the sound of it, it looks like the pilots mistakes?

Edited by JingKai Seah

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The Captain heard it wrong, the FO didn't have the chart to confirm the altitude (he did say i dont have the damn plate right?) , the visibility was terrible...

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The sound of impact is just eerie.

 

The Captain heard it wrong, the FO didn't have the chart to confirm the altitude (he did say i dont have the damn plate right?) , the visibility was terrible...

 

That combined with the confusing phraseology used by Tower brought the plane down. The controller said 'descend two four zero zero' which got misintepreted as 'TO four zero zero', if only he'd said 'descend TO two four zero zero' they might not have hit the ground. Amazing how the omittance of that little word brought the plane down.

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I remember my first post on MWings was to ask about the location of this crash - can't believe the crash site now is a developing township (and the fact that it's not far from my as yet still unfinished house!)

 

Anyways - had the copilot acted on his instinct and went to do an ILS on Runway 15, this wouldn't have happened.

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The sound of impact is just eerie.

 

 

 

That combined with the confusing phraseology used by Tower brought the plane down. The controller said 'descend two four zero zero' which got misinterpreted as 'TO four zero zero', if only he'd said 'descend TO two four zero zero' they might not have hit the ground. Amazing how the omittance of that little word brought the plane down.

 

That would be a non-standard phraseology, which shouldn't be used by both pilots and ATC. At that time it could meant 22400, which is confusing as well.

 

This is the incident that change the ATC phraseology to the current format "descend two thousand four hundred".

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That would be a non-standard phraseology, which shouldn't be used by both pilots and ATC. At that time it could meant 22400, which is confusing as well.

 

This is the incident that change the ATC phraseology to the current format "descend two thousand four hundred".

 

From all the previous altitude calls to descend by ATC... "TO" were omitted as well.... and was correctly report back by the crew,

that was the standard at that time I think, except that the 2400' was mistakenly read as "TO Four Hundred"... and wasn't corrected by ATC... :(

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Scary stuff, I was living in subang then. What a cock up by both crew and ATC. Horrible way to go. When your time's up, your time is definitely up. Maybe they should have reacted quicker to the first GPWS alarm..

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IMC + GPWS = immediate go-around. Don't even think about anything else.

 

Compared to what we have in the cockpit these days, the B742 was effectively flying blind. IMC, no radar, no ILS, no approach chart....and of course no FMC and no map display. Been there, never again.

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