Description

On 22 December 1999, a KAL Boeing 747 freighter crashed shortly after take-off from Stansted UK, following an ADI malfunction.

Synopsis

The following is an extract taken from the Synopsis from the AAIB Accident Report:

"…The aircraft arrived at Stansted Airport after a flight from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Prior to leaving the aircraft, the flight engineer made an entry in the Technical Log to the effect that the captain's Attitude Director Indicator (ADI) was "unreliable in roll"; he also verbally passed the details to the operator's ground engineer who met the aircraft on arrival. This fault had been detected after takeoff from Tashkent. The inbound flight crew then left the aircraft without meeting the outbound crew who were due to operate…later that day.

…[The aircraft departed Stansted at 1836 hrs, bound for Milan] The Tower controller considered that the takeoff was normal and the aircraft disappeared from sight as it entered the cloud base at about 400 ft agl. At 1838 hrs, as the aircraft indicated altitude passed 1,400 ft, [the aircraft] was transferred to "London Control" on frequency 118.82 MHz. The crew had been cleared for a departure procedure, which required a left turn at 1.5 nm from the Stansted DME…No radio calls were heard from the aircraft subsequent to the frequency transfer instruction…