One from Moscow

[Rotorwork]

Unbelievable,

 

Fly Safe

 

R W

 

http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=170549

 

A Falcon 50 on take off roll at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport in fog and snow - landing gear on liftoff struck a snowplow - driver was uninjured. Aircraft departed, declared emergency and was attempting to return to land - pilot reported engine fire and fuselage damage. Aircraft had a hard landing, collapsed the gear, aircraft flipped upside down, and burned out.

 

Aircraft crashed on runway - killing the 3 French flight crew and 1 French CEO Total Oil/Gas France. Take-off was carried out in a meteorological visibility of 350 m, friction coefficient of 0.5, with the runway number 1 (Runway 1), the rate of 06.

 

Debris from the aircraft was scattered up to 200 meters from the crash site, according to the rescue services. The engine was found some 50 meters from the crash site, while one of the landing gears was ripped off and discovered nearly 200 meters from the main mass of debris.

 

The passenger was, Christophe de Margerie, the chief executive of French oil company Total.

 

 

[Marty_d]

"According to preliminary data, the driver of a snowplow was in a state of alcoholic intoxication."

 

All these damn runways look the same when you're driving heavy machinery in the snow with only a bottle of vodka for company...

 

 

[bexrbetter]

"According to preliminary data, the driver of a snowplow was in a state of alcoholic intoxication."

It was on the news here being somewhat closer to Russia. The driver is in jail awaiting trial but I tend to think he had instruction, or worse, no instruction from above. He's just a worker and I doubt the intoxication played a big part in all of it, albeit it now a damning circumstance against him.