Air Inter Flight 148
The aircraft involved in the accident at Charles de Gaulle Airport, 6 January 1991
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| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 20 January 1992 |
| Summary | Autopilot design flaw, wind gust, controlled flight into terrain |
| Site |
Barr, near Strasbourg Airport, Strasbourg, France 48°25′38.5″N 007°24′18.5″E / 48.427361°N 7.405139°ECoordinates: 48°25′38.5″N 007°24′18.5″E / 48.427361°N 7.405139°E |
| Passengers | 90 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 87 (82 passengers, 5 crew members) |
| Injuries (non-fatal) | 9 (5 serious, 4 minor) |
| Survivors | 9 (8 passengers, 1 crew member) |
| Aircraft type | Airbus A320-111 |
| Operator | Air Inter |
| Registration | F-GGED |
| Flight origin | Lyon Satolas Airport |
| Destination | Strasbourg Airport |
Air Inter Flight 148 was a scheduled airline flight on 20 January 1992 that crashed in the Vosges Mountains, near Mont Sainte-Odile, while circling to land at Strasbourg Airport. Of 96 people on board, nine survived.
Flight 148, commanded by Captain Christian Hecquet and First Officer Joël Cherubin, departed Satolas Airport in Lyon, France. While being vectored for a VOR/DME approach to runway 05 at Strasbourg, it crashed at 19:20:33 CET in the mountains at an altitude of 2,620 feet (800 m).
The pilots had no warning of the imminent impact because Air Inter had not equipped its aircraft with a ground proximity warning system (GPWS). It is speculated that this was because Air Inter – facing ferocious competition from France's TGV high-speed trains – may have encouraged its pilots to fly fast at low level (up to 350 knots below 10,000 feet, while other airlines generally do not exceed 250 knots), and GPWS systems gave too many nuisance warnings.
The accident occurred at night, under low cloud and with light snow.
Flight 148 was the third in a series of crashes caused, at least in part, by what was believed to be pilots' unfamiliarity with the sophisticated computer system of the Airbus A320. The Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA) believe that Flight 148 crashed because the pilots inadvertently left the autopilot set in Vertical Speed mode (instead of Flight Path Angle mode) then entered "33" for "3.3° descent angle", which for the autopilot meant a descent rate of 3,300 feet (1,000 m) per minute.
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