Furman, Kevin I.

March 2, 2020
AE - 502

Title: West Air Sweden Flight 294 was a cargo flight of a Canadair CRJ200
from Oslo to Tromsø, Norway that crashed on 8 January 2016. A malfunction
in one of the inertial reference units had produced erroneous attitude
indications on one of the instrument displays. The crew's subsequent
response resulted in spatial disorientation, leading to the loss of control of the
aircraft.

Facts: The aircraft departed Oslo-Gardermoen Airport at 23:11 hours local

time for a flight to Tromsø Airport. The aircraft carried 4.5 tonnes (4,500 kg;
9,900 lb) of mail. While in cruise at Flight Level 330 and at approximately
23:31, the aircraft transmitted a Mayday call before communication and radar
tracking were lost by air traffic control. Aircraft tracking service Flightradar24
reported that the aircraft lost 6,485 metres (21,275 ft) in altitude over a period
of 60 seconds (389 km/h; 242 mph) at 00:18, based upon data transmitted by
the aircraft's transponder.

Issues: After 17 seconds from the start of the event, the maximum speed
(VMO) of 315 knots was exceeded. The overspeed warning was activated
and the vertical acceleration turned to positive values. Another 16 seconds
later, the first officer transmitted a "MAYDAY" message that was confirmed by
air traffic control. The indicated airspeed then exceeded 400 knots and the
stabilizer trim was reactivated and reduced to 0.3 degrees nose down. The
Pilot in Command called "Mach trim" after which engine power was reduced
to idle. During the further event the last valid FDR value shows that the speed
continued to increase up to 508 knots while the vertical acceleration values
were positive, with maximum values of approximately +3G. FDR data shows
that the aircraft's ailerons and spoilerons mainly were deflected to the left
during the event.

Ruling: The accident was caused by insufficient operational

prerequisites for the management of a failure in a redundant system.

Contributing factors were:

 The absence of an effective system for communication in

abnormal and emergency situations.
 The flight instrument system provided insufficient
guidance about malfunctions that occurred.
  The initial manoeuver that resulted in negative G-load
probably affected the pilots' ability to manage the
situation in a rational manner.

REFLECETION:

For me I think they did not run tests on engines in case of failure.
Maybe they disregarded safety measures for this aircraft because it
was just a cargo plane, but regardless of what kind it is, they should
always do safety checks. Maybe their safety checks for cargo aircrafts
needs to be expanded because of wrong indication plus engine failure
plane crash happens. Back up plans in case of engine failure should be
practice by each airline. Airline should practice a more enhance
procedure during emergency events so no accident/incident might
happen. There should also be a faster communication, mayday was
transmitted when they already noticed that they can’t control their
speed anymore.