AN AIR ALGERIE Boeing 737-200 freighter on approach to Coventry Airport in the UK on 21 December, 1994, crashed in woodland nearly 3km (1.6nm) short of runway 23, killing all five people on board. Shortly before impact with the ground at 09.50, the aircraft hit an electricity-cable pylon and clipped the roofs of two houses.
The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch refuses to comment on "leaked" information that an incorrect altimeter setting may have been a factor in the accident.
The aircraft, 7T-VEE, which entered service in 1973, had no freight on board, but the 6.5t of fuel remaining ignited on impact, causing the wrecked aircraft to burn out. The Air Algerie aircraft and crew had been operating from Coventry Airport for about ten weeks, wet-leased by UK aircraft broker Phoenix Aviation on a contract to carry livestock to Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Rennes in France.
Phoenix confirms that the crew had started from Coventry at about 01.30 that day, flying 190 calves to Amsterdam, and returning empty. It had to divert to East Midlands Airport because of fog conditions.
Departure on the 20min flight to Coventry was at 09.30 and the crew chose a surveillance-radar approach because the aircraft's instrument-landing system (ILS) receiver could be tuned only to the nearest 50KHz frequency. Coventry's ILS is on 109.75MHz. Weather at the airfield was wind calm and visibility was between 1,000m (3,300ft) and 1,500m in mist.
There were three deaths among the five crew of a Nigeria Airways Boeing 707 (5N-ABK) freighter, which crashed near Hadeja in northern Nigeria on 19 December 1994, en route from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Kano, Nigeria. The circumstances are still being investigated.
Source: Flight International
