Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 8968

Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 8968 (MZ8968/MNA8968) was a passenger flight which crashed off the coast of the Indonesian province of West Papua on 7 May 2011. The aircraft involved, a Xian MA60, was operating Merpati Nusantara Airlines' scheduled domestic service from Sorong to Kaimana, both in West Papua. It crashed into the sea while on approach to Kaimana in heavy rain condition, about 800 m before the runway. All 25 people on board the aircraft were killed. It remains the only fatal accident involving a Xian MA60.

The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee concluded that the crash was caused by pilot error. During the approach, both pilots were struggling to see the airport due to adverse weather in the area and eventually initiated a go around procedure. However, they did not pay enough attention to the bank angle of the aircraft as both of them were looking out of the window. The lack of situational awareness eventually caused the Xian MA60 to overbank and it subsequently plunged into the sea.

Flight

Flight 8968 was a domestic passenger service from Sorong to Kaimana. First Officer Nap was the pilot flying while Captain Wahyu was the pilot monitoring. According to the flight log, the aircraft and the crew had flown for three other passenger flights earlier in the day, all of which were in Papua and West Papua. The flight was planned to be conducted under instrument flight rules (IFR), while the approach would be conducted under the visual flight rules (VFR) as the destination airport did not publish the procedure for an IFR approach.

At 12:45 p.m local time, Flight 8968 took off from Sorong with 21 passengers and 4 crew members. It was cleared to fly at an altitude of 15,000 ft within the controlled airspace. Following its departure from the area's controlled airspace, the crew later contacted Biak and continued their flight to Kaimana.

At 13:20 p.m, the crew established contact with the controller at Kaimana and announced the estimated time of arrival of 13:54 p.m. The crew subsequently received information regarding the weather in Kaimana. The controller reported that the airport was under moderate rain with a visibility of approximately 3 to 8 km. The crew continued their flight and the aircraft began to descend at 13:25 p.m at a distance of approximately 62 mi from Kaimana.

At around 13:30 p.m, Kaimana controller reported that the weather had deteriorated and the airport was under heavy rain. Captain Wahyu then asked the controller if there was any remaining area that was not raining. The controller subsequently responded that the area south of the airport was still clear. Captain Wahyu then asked First Officer Nap to fly towards the south of the airport for an attempted visual approach.

Approximately seven nautical miles from the airport, the crew gave another positional report. The controller in Kaimana, however, announced that it was still raining heavily at the airport and the visibility had deteriorated to 2 km. Captain Wahyu then asked the controller if the runway could be seen from the tower. The tower confirmed that they could see the runway and the crew decided to continue the approach to Kaimana.

The aircraft was then configured for landing and the cabin crew were asked to prepare the passengers. The autopilot was disengaged at an altitude of 960 ft. Captain Wahyu then took over the control from First Officer Nap. The crew then tried to locate the runway but due to the limited visibility they were unable to see it. They then decided to initiate a go around. The aircraft was put into a climb and turned to the left. The engines were accelerated and the flaps and the landing gear were retracted.

The crew initially turned the aircraft to the left with a bank angle of 11 degree. The angle then began to increase, reaching as much as 38 degrees. The aircraft rapidly descended towards the sea with a rate of descent of 3,000 ft/min and within seconds the aircraft plunged into the sea at a speed of 158 kn. The aircraft broke into four main pieces and sank approximately 800 m southwest of the runway.

The controller lost all contact with the crew of Flight 8968. An eyewitness then phoned the controller and stated that a Merpati aircraft had just crashed into the water near the airport. Subsequently, airport personnel and rescue services were deployed to the crash site. According to a local navy officer, the aircraft "exploded" on impact. There were no survivors.