Kish Air Flight 7170

Kish Air Flight 7170 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Kish Island in Iran to Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, operated by Iranian airline Kish Air. On February 10, 2004, the aircraft serving the route, a Fokker 50, lost control and crashed onto terrain while on approach to Sharjah International Airport. A total of 43 out of 46 people on board were killed in the crash, making it the deadliest air disaster involving the Fokker 50.

The Emirati General Civil Aviation Authority concluded that the accident was mainly caused by pilot error. The captain suddenly asked the first officer to conduct the approach. This took the unprepared first officer by surprise, causing him to be nervous and eventually led to the aircraft being high on approach. Realizing this, the captain took over the control and reduced the engine power until it reached the ground range to quickly decrease their altitude. However, the captain accidentally caused the throttles to enter the reverse range, deploying reverse pitch propellers in mid-air and ultimately caused the aircraft to crash.

Kish Air 7170 crashed in a similar manner with Luxair Flight 9642, another accident involving the Fokker 50 which had crashed just two years prior in Luxembourg. The crash of Luxair 9642 had resulted in the mandatory recommendation for every Fokker 50 operator to send their aircraft back to the manufacturer for modification. The striking resemblances between both disasters caused authorities to urge non-compliant operators to immediately transport their Fokker 50 for the updated design.

Flight

Flight 7170 was a scheduled international passenger flight from the Iranian resort island of Kish to Sharjah International Airport in United Arab Emirates. On 10 February, the aircraft was scheduled to take off from Kish with 42 passengers and 6 crew members on board. The commander of the flight was Captain Ahmed Hosseini and his co-pilot was First Officer Nemat Panahian. The weather and visibility at Sharjah were both good. The flight was supposed to take about 35 minutes. It eventually took off from Kish at early noon. The take-off phase was uneventful.

During the enroute phase, shortly before the aircraft started its descent to Sharjah, Captain Hosseini asked First Officer Panahian to switch roles, making Panahian the pilot who was responsible for the controls. First Officer Panahian was surprised by this decision as this was not what the pilots had planned earlier, eventually declining the captain's order stating that he was not confident enough on his ability to conduct the approach to the airport. Captain Hosseini, however, refused to accept his answer and insisted Panahian be the pilot flying, stating that he would provide assistance during the approach. First Officer Panahian reluctantly accepted this and became the pilot flying for the approach phase.

Crash

Keen to decrease their altitude, Captain Hosseini tried to cause the thrust setting to enter the ground range by pulling the thrust lever's ground range selector. Immediately afterwards, the propeller speed jumped and caused a noisy sound loud enough to startle both pilots. The aircraft pitched down and gradually rolled to the left at an angle of more than 30 degrees. Captain Hosseini exclaimed "Why!" and eventually realised that the reverser had been deployed in mid-air. Shortly after, he instructed First Officer Panahian to move the lever fully forward. They successfully decreased the roll and raised the nose, but not enough to keep the aircraft from falling.

Another aircraft on the ground was on its way to line up with the runway when the crew saw Flight 7170 pitching down and starting to roll again. It entered a steep left bank dive and went into a spiral. The aircraft continued to plunge in a heavy left bank angle until it struck the ground, narrowly missing a residential area, crossed a road and exploded on impact, bursting into flames. It crashed about 2.6 nmi from the end of the runway. The front portion was destroyed, but the main fuselage was still intact.

A nearby witness was the first to arrive at the crash site. According to him, cries for help could still be heard from inside the aircraft. He tried to open one of the doors but failed as the door was crushed by the impact forces. While some parts of the fuselage wall had been broken during the crash, fires prevented the passengers from escaping. As there were no fire fighting vehicles for several minutes, the fire rapidly spread and quickly engulfed the fuselage. Just 10 minutes after the crash, the whole cabin section was already engulfed in flames. Rescue services eventually arrived at the scene approximately 25 minutes after the accident, but by then it was already too late as the aircraft had been completely destroyed by the fire.

The rescue operation was further hampered by rubbernecking, where local residents had crowded the scene of the crash. The fire was extinguished about 30 minutes after the accident. At least 4 survivors were found within the crash site, but one succumbed to their injuries as they were being transported to hospital. One of the survivors was found in stable condition, while the other two were unconscious and were in critical condition.

A total of 43 people perished in the accident. Bodies of the victims were lined up and were taken to Dubai for identification.