What happened
NTSB summary, verbatimThe Safety Board has adopted the final report of this accident investigation, including the analysis and probable cause. The Board's full report is available on: http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2006/AAB0607.pdf On November 27, 2004, about 0820 Afghanistan time, a Construcciones Aeronauticas Sociedad Anonima C-212-CC (CASA 212) twin-engine, turboprop airplane, N960BW, registered to Aviation Worldwide Services, LLC, and operated by Presidential Airways, Inc., of Melbourne, Florida, collided with mountainous terrain in the vicinity of the Bamiyan Valley, near Bamiyan, Afghanistan. The Department of Defense (DoD) contract flight was operated under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 135, with a company flight plan filed. Daylight visual meteorological conditions (VMC) prevailed. The captain, the first officer, and the mechanic-certificated passenger, who were U.S. civilians employed by the operator, and the three military passengers, who were active-duty U.S. Army soldiers, received fatal injuries. The airplane was destroyed. The flight departed Bagram Air Base (OAIX), Bagram, Afghanistan, about 0738.
Photographs
1the aircraft, and what the investigators foundPhotographs are NTSB docket attachments — works of the US government, in the public domain. Captions are the Board’s own.
Probable cause
the Board's determinationthe captain's inappropriate decision to fly a nonstandard route and his failure to maintain adequate terrain clearance, which resulted in the inflight collision with mountainous terrain. Factors were the operator's failure to require its flight crews to file and to fly a defined route of flight, the operator's failure to ensure that the flight crews adhered to company policies and FAA and DoD Federal safety regulations, and the lack of in-country oversight by the FAA and the DoD of the operator. Contributing to the death of one of the passengers was the operator's lack of flight-locating procedures and its failure to adequately mitigate the limited communications capability at remote sites. The Board's full report is available on: http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2006/AAB0607.pdf
Safety recommendations
6 issuedwhat changed because of this accidentThe National Transportation Safety Board recommends that the Federal Aviation Administration: Coordinate with the Department of Defense to ensure oversight, including periodic en route inspections, is provided at all contractor bases of operation for civilian contractors that provide aviation transportation to the U.S. military overseas under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 or Part 135.
TO THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: Coordinate with the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure oversight, including periodic en route inspections, is provided at all contractor bases of operation for civilian contractors that provide aviation transportation to the U.S. military overseas under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 or Part 135.
TO THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: Require that civilian contractors that provide aviation transportation to the U.S. military in remote locations equip each aircraft with a real-time tracking system.
TO THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: Require that civilian contractors that provide aviation transportation to the U.S. military in remote locations equip each aircraft with a global positioning system-equipped 406-megahertz emergency locator transmitter.
TO THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: Provide emergency locator transmitter (ELT) signal-monitoring services for civilian contractor flights that provide aviation transportation to the U.S. military in remote locations when those flights are operated in a theater where the governing authority does not participate in Cosmicheskaya Sistyema Poiska Avariynich Sudov (translation: Space System for the Search of Vessels in Distress) - Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking or has no arrangement for any other ELT signal-monitoring services.
TO THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN, MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT AND CIVIL AVIATION: Consider improving search and rescue services in accordance with the Standards and Recommended Practices of the International Civil Aviation Organization Annex 12, Search and Rescue, with particular emphasis on cooperation with other States and locally available organizations that maintain search and rescue capabilities.
NTSB analysis
from the final reportThe Safety Board has adopted the final report of this accident investigation, including the analysis and probable cause. The Board's full report is available on: http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2006/AAB0607.pdf On November 27, 2004, about 0820 Afghanistan time, a Construcciones Aeronauticas Sociedad Anonima C-212-CC (CASA 212) twin-engine, turboprop airplane, N960BW, registered to Aviation Worldwide Services, LLC, and operated by Presidential Airways, Inc., of Melbourne, Florida, collided with mountainous terrain in the vicinity of the Bamiyan Valley, near Bamiyan, Afghanistan. The Department of Defense (DoD) contract flight was operated under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 135, with a company flight plan filed. Daylight visual meteorological conditions (VMC) prevailed. The captain, the first officer, and the mechanic-certificated passenger, who were U.S. civilians employed by the operator, and the three military passengers, who were active-duty U.S. Army soldiers, received fatal injuries. The airplane was destroyed. The flight departed Bagram Air Base (OAIX), Bagram, Afghanistan, about 0738.