Hanseo University training aircraft crash

The Hanseo University training aircraft crash (韓瑞大學校訓鍊機墜落事故) was an accident in which a Cessna C-172SP training aircraft belonging to the Hanseo University Flight Training Center, which had taken off from Taean Airfield and was heading to Uljin Airfield, crashed at 19:36 on 12 November 2013 on a ridge near the summit of Chilbosan, Byeonggok-myeon, Yeongdeok County, North Gyeongsang Province, killing a total of 3 people: 1 instructor pilot, 1 student pilot and 1 familiarisation pilot observing the flight.

In the accident investigation report published on 27 February 2015, the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board determined the cause of this accident to be failure to recognise mountain obstacles, descent below the minimum flight altitude, and non-compliance with visual flight rules. It also pointed out the absence of a descent approach briefing, insufficient provision of information regarding the change of flight path and altitude descent, the instructor pilot's unilateral decision-making and instructions and inadequate situational judgement regarding the flight path, and the failure to establish standardised procedures for the terrain awareness warning system.

Accident overview

The accident aircraft began the flight with a plan to take off from Taean Airfield at 17:30 that day, fly for about 2 hours, and land at Uljin Airfield at 19:30. The student pilot sat in the left captain's seat, the instructor pilot in the right first officer's seat, and the familiarisation pilot observing the flight in the rear seat. The accident aircraft, which had been flying normally along the route, began descending from an altitude of 7,700 feet at 19:27:37, reached an altitude of 2,600 feet at 19:36:12, and during level flight at 19:36:46 collided with pine trees near the summit of Chilbosan and crashed, being completely destroyed as the fuselage and both wings separated. At 19:49 the Yeongdeok Fire Station responded after receiving a report from Uljin Airfield, and at 19:57 the police, coast guard, air force, army, Central 119 Rescue Headquarters, Yeongdeok County Office and others additionally responded to the accident. The search was suspended at 0:30 on the 13th due to sunset and resumed at 6 o'clock; the aircraft was found at 7:15, and at 7:28 the North Gyeongsang Province Special Rescue Unit was deployed to the accident site, recovering all the bodies — the instructor pilot and student pilot found inside the fuselage and the observing pilot caught in a tree — and at 10:15 the bodies were transferred to hospital.

Accident investigation

The accident aircraft was not obliged to have various recording devices installed under the Aviation Act and other laws, but the pilots' conversations and communications with the ground had been recorded on the mobile phones of the student pilot and the familiarisation pilot recovered from the accident site. Using these, the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board analysed the track and flight profile, and as a result of producing and analysing a transcript, it confirmed that the instructor showed a unilateral decision-making attitude, saying to the student things such as 'When are you ever going to get down?', 'Hey, go down faster', and 'Maintain altitude, don't look outside, look inside'.

In addition, an investigation of the Hanseo University Flight Training Center found that the flight training center had not established standardised procedures for the use of the terrain awareness warning system. Also, according to the recordings, it was confirmed that the approach briefing item specified in the descent checklist had been skipped. It was also confirmed that the approach descent path plan established before the flight had been hastily changed during the flight amid poor communication.