As I wrote about earlier this week, an absolutely wild accident took place at Belgrade Airport on Sunday night. As several days have now passed, more details are emerging about what happened, and it only makes this incident even stranger. Let’s cover everything we know as of now.
Continue reading: Shocking Runway Overrun On Takeoff At Belgrade Airport
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
"Fortunately there were on injuries among passengers." I think you mean no injuries?
Looking at the FlightRadar24 playback it shows that they tried to land for a first time but had to do a go-around, they only landed successfully on the second attempt 10 minutes later.
It is hard to believe that the aircraft travelled 3,600 feet beyond the end of the runway before becoming airborne.
Reminds me of Comair/Delta Connection 5191 in Lexington, which of course had a far more tragic outcome
Claiming the plane was airborne after 3600 past the runway is totally false. There is a line of trees and a highway intersection within 3600 feet. Also, look at the ADS-B record. Even if barely, but the plane became airborne before reaching the end of the runway.
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=459c83&lat=44.826&lon=20.282&zoom=14.7&showTrace=2024-02-18&trackLabels
Sorry, misread the time stamps. It really looks like altitude started to increase only way past the rwy end... I dunno how accurate is ADS-B altitude datas, but still, how they avoided the road and the treeline, shown on the Google Earth image taken on June 2022...
But you are right that the airport fence is about 800m from the end of the runway.
https://avherald.com/h?article=5151ede4 says 500m which seems more believable.
Simon (AvHerald) has corrected some distances.
In measuring how far the plane was from the end of the runway ay different 'event points', he was measuring from the displaced threshold of runway 12R ( the same strip of concrete as 30L [this flight's departure runway] only in the opposite direction. That displaced threshold is only for planes landing on 12L (they have to land farther down 12L than the start of the pavement). For this flight taking off on 30L, the pavement beyond the displaced threshold is available for the takeoff roll. Simon has corrected his 'beyond the runway' measurements to be from the actual end of the runway, not from the 12L displaced 'end'. So while this incident was still close to tragedy, the plane wasn't as far beyond the runway as was originally reported when it started hitting things and becoming airborne.
My American brain has a hard time visualizing a distance in meters so I don't know if Lucky's article is using the original or updated 'beyond the runway' measurements. I suspect the former.
If aircraft displays had this ( https://flightsafety.org/asw-article/topi-an-easy-fix-to-a-nagging-problem/) on the PFDs/HUDs, none of these incidents would even happen.
Seems to be leaking fluid in the video, I'm guessing that's fuel, as there's also foam (proactively?) placed underneath it. That makes their flight time and go-around all the more scary. Wow!
I definitely want to hear the explanation about this!
I'm curious how this played out for the passengers. Judging by the damage of the fuselage they should have noticed the "crash" when taking off. Telling them then about a "small technical problem" should raise some eyebrows. Then they deplane and someone says "be careful not to step into the kerosine leaking out of the big hole next to the wing".
Your American brains have hard time converting units.
I suspect that is why the computer thinks the runway is long enough for takeoff.
Or if you really trace it back to human error, then removing human from the system is the real solution.
There are videos from the cabin, e.g https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/s/2hYRlLdkyR
That was a low flyby to check landing gear. A part of ATC communication (that's missing many parts spoken by pilots) can be found on this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/s/H7QbPpYJDj
Also, video from a security camera: https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/s/tXMiYnZ1Gw
Not a fan of mid runway take offs. The runway behind you is not doing anything for you
I doubt that. In this case, pilots were informed they don't have enough runway and decided to take off anyway. Having an instrument tell them something they already know would not help.
"Fortunately there were no injuries among passengers",
followed by
"....but a lot of seat cushions required deep cleaning."
BEG was my home airport for many years. The most chilling fact of all is that there is a big billboard on the motorway right after the end of the runway. Seeing the takeoff trajectory and knowing how low the aircraft was flying, they must have missed it by mere metres. The ILS equipment is relatively lightweight, but had they hit the billboard, this story would have a VERY different ending.