Wasa Wings Flight 701
Karair for Wasa Wings Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante · Controlled flight into terrain
From Helsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL) to Seinäjoki Airport (SJY)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 6 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 6
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 6
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante
- Aircraft type
- Embraer EMB-110
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- OH-EBA
- Operator
- Karair for Wasa Wings
- Onboard fatalities
- 6
- Route
- From Helsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)To Seinäjoki Airport (SJY)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Organizational issues › Management
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Wasa Wings Flight 701 (flight number: WW701) was a domestic scheduled Wasa Wings flight from Helsinki to Ilmajoki. On 14 November 1988 a serious aviation accident occurred on this flight when an Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante was flown into a wooded area shortly before landing at the destination airport. 6 of the 12 people on board were killed in the accident.
Accident sequence
The aircraft's takeoff from Helsinki-Vantaa Airport at 6:20 and the flight proceeded without particular incident until the night-time approach to Seinäjöki Airport. The pilots had received landing clearance for runway 32. The approach had to be conducted in difficult visibility conditions as a non-precision approach procedure (Non-precision approach) – visibility at that time was 1,200 metres and vertical visibility was 300 metres. On final approach, the pilots did not notice that they were flying the approach too low. The Embraer clipped treetops and crashed into a wooded area at 7:14 local time, around 800 metres south of the runway threshold. The aircraft was completely destroyed, but no fire broke out. The two pilots and four passengers were killed; six other passengers survived.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The continuation of the NDB approach in difficult visibility conditions was determined to be the immediate cause of the accident. The pilots were said to have allowed the aircraft to descend below the minimum safe altitude without first having established visual contact with the runway lighting. The company's deficient safety culture was given as a contributing factor. Performance pressure was said to have prevailed in the company, which in the present case had been amplified by the personality structure of the captain.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Wasa-Wings-Flug 701” (revision 236701913, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Wasa-Wings-Flug 701
- Article
- Wasa-Wings-Flug 701
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 236701913 · 2023-08-24 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q18682165
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Wasa-Wings-Flug 701" (page 11403200, revision 236701913), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.