Avioimpex Flight 110

Avioimpex Flight 110 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Avioimpex that crashed on 20 November 1993 while flying from Geneva to Skopje. Before the disaster, Flight 110 had deviated from Skopje International Airport to Ohrid Airport due to a blizzard in the Macedonian capital. The plane, a Yakovlev Yak-42, was carrying 108 passengers and eight crew, and crashed about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi; 3.8 nmi) east of Ohrid Airport. All 116 people on board were killed as a result of the crash. One passenger lived for eleven days after the disaster but succumbed to his injuries. Most of the victims were Yugoslav citizens of Albanian ethnicity.

Avioimpex Flight 110
The aircraft involved in the crash, seen at Düsseldorf Airport in April 1993
Accident
Date20 November 1993
SummaryControlled flight into terrain due to pilot error
Sitenear Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia
Aircraft
Aircraft typeYakovlev Yak-42
OperatorAvioimpex
RegistrationRA-42390
Flight originGeneva International Airport
DestinationSkopje Airport
Occupants116
Passengers108
Crew8
Fatalities116 (initially 115)
Injuries0 (initially 1)
Survivors0 (initially 1)

The crash was Macedonia's third aviation disaster in 16 months, and remains the country's deadliest. A subsequent investigation established the cause of the accident as pilot error.[1]

Flight

Flight 110 was an international scheduled passenger flight originating in Geneva, Switzerland with a final destination of Skopje, Macedonia. Due to a blizzard at Skopje, Flight 110 was diverted to Ohrid Airport.[2]

Cleared for an approach to Runway 02, the Yak-42 was approximately 2,300 feet too high to carry out a successful landing, so a missed approach procedure was executed. Shortly afterwards the crew of Flight 110 radioed that they were not receiving the VOR signal. Air Traffic control was unable to satisfy the request for a bearing and the pilot of Flight 110 advised that he could not see the runway lights. Shortly thereafter Flight 110 crashed killing 115 of the 116 people on board. One passenger survived but was badly injured.[3]

Passengers and crew

Eighty percent of the passengers were citizens of Yugoslavia, mostly ethnic Albanians, while the remainder were citizens of Macedonia.[4] The four members of the flight crew were Russian and the four cabin crew members were Macedonian. Among the passengers was a French United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) official in his mid-20s who had just returned from an assignment in war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina.[5]

Aftermath

Due to Flight 110 being the third aviation disaster in a sixteen-month period to take place in his country, Minister of Urban Planning, Civil Engineering, Communications and Ecology Antoni Pesev resigned.[6] The pilots association complained of broken equipment and poor safety standards at both Skopje and Ohrid Airports.

On 1 December 1993, the sole survivor died without ever regaining consciousness in the days following the crash of Avioimpex Flight 110.[7]

Flight 110 remains the deadliest aviation crash to ever take place in Macedonia.[8]

Cause

The cause of the crash was attributed to a violation of the airport traffic pattern by the crew of Flight 110, who initiated a turn into rising terrain. A contributing factor was their decision to proceed with the approach even though they were not receiving a navigational signal due to being out of range of the VOR station.[9] In addition, the air traffic controller's transmissions were spoken in Macedonian, but the crew of the aircraft communicated in Russian and English.[10]

See also

References
  1. Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Yakovlev Yak-42D RA-42390 Ohrid Airport (OHD)". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  2. "Many feared dead in Macedonia crash". Lewiston Morning Tribune. Associated Press. 21 November 1993. Retrieved 27 September 2019 – via Google News.
  3. "Crash survivor recovering". Observer-Reporter. Associated Press. 24 November 1993. Retrieved 27 September 2019 – via Google News.
  4. Testorides, Konstantin (21 November 1993). "Macedonia plane disaster kills 115". The Independent. Associated Press. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  5. "Plane Crash in Macedonia Kills 115; 1 Survivor". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. 22 November 1993. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  6. "Official resigns over plane crash". Star-News. 23 November 1993. Retrieved 27 September 2019 – via Google News.
  7. "Crash survivor dies". The Vindicator. 1 December 1993. Retrieved 27 September 2019 – via Google News.
  8. Ranter, Harro. "North Macedonia air safety profile". www.aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  9. Gero, David (1996). Aviation Disasters Second Edition. Patrick Stephens Limited. p. 227.
  10. "Avioimpex Flight 110". www.planecrashinfo.com. Retrieved 14 July 2020.

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