"[5] Lhrer hesitated before replying, "Yes". The flight departed Berlin Tegel Airport at 21:01 CET with 28 passengers, three flight attendants, and the cockpit crew of Captain Hans Ulrich Lutz (57) and First Officer Stefan Loehrer (25). Consequently, he continued through the MDA and crashed into a hill. To understand this decision, the AAIB began looking through records and conducting interviews to piece together Lutzs flying history. 1 Dec 1939 : Offiziersanwrter: 1 Nov 1940 : The nine survivors, two of whom are said to be in critical condition in hospital, have not yet been identified.Five Swiss nationals were among the victims, three of whom were members of the crew. Other Crossair crews confirmed that while approaching Lugano, it was common practice to descend below the MDA if they were able to see the lake but not the runway. [2]:23 The report also documented Lutz's role in causing the total loss of a Crossair Saab 340 by retracting its landing gear while it was still on the apron,[2]:25 which led to Crossair relieving him of his flight instructing duties in 1991. These were the only major incidents that were known to Crossair, but interviews with other Crossair pilots revealed several more. The problem with Lutzs assumption was that he was actually much farther from the airport than he thought he was. It was only as they were descending toward 13,000 feet at 9:47, having already conducted a full approach briefing, that air traffic control informed them they would be landing on runway 28 instead. Lhrer, in contrast, was inexperienced, with just 490 total flight hours. WebIt carries 28 passengers and 5 crew members, which include Hans Ulrich Lutz, a 57 year old Captain, and Stefan Loehrer, a 25 year old First Officer. Immediately thereafter Lutz exclaimed "*****, two miles he said, he sees the runway". Let us know by taking part in our survey. In hindsight, controllers should have allowed incoming planes to land on runways 14 and 16 but in doing so, they would have had to explain to local authorities why the Germans were complaining about airplane noise again. At that time, Swissair was grounded exactly one month before the crash. Upon arrival in Zurich about an hour later, it was cleared to approach runway 28 in poor visibility conditions due to low clouds; the cockpit voice recorder captured the transmission of a previously landing Crossair flight informing the tower that they could not see the runway until 2.2 nautical miles (4.1km; 2.5mi) away. The AAIB would conclude that the accident was a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) caused by a series of pilot errors and navigation mistakes that led the plane off-course. Lutz was an extremely experienced pilot with more than 19,500 flight hours approximately 19,300 of which were as pilot in command. Crossair had no full-time flight safety officer; this position was held part-time by one of its pilots. However, Flight 3597 was behind schedule and would not reach Zrich until after 22:00 CET, necessitating a change to its landing plan. One of the two pilots, who were both killed in the crash, was an experienced pilot with a record of more than 19,000 flying hours.But Hans-Ulrich Lutz had spent most of his career on other types of aircraft and had only done 300 flying hours in the RJ-100 Jumbolino, the type of aircraft that crashed on Saturday.However, Dos emphasised that Lutz was a good pilot and defended his qualifications. The crash was the second for Crossair in less than two years, and the people of Switzerland were beginning to ask questions. Contributions under this article have been turned off. For example, in 1999, while conducting a privately chartered sightseeing flight to Sion, Lutz accidentally overshot the destination by more than 50 kilometers and ended up in Italy. Upon approaching Zurich at 20:58:50 UTC, Crossair Flight 3597 received clearance from air traffic controller to land on runway 28 in poor visibility conditions due to low clouds instead of runway 14. WebAlfred Schulze-Hinrichs (6 November 1899 23 June 1972) was a Kapitn zur See with the Kriegsmarine during World War II and a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . St. Maarten's injuries were classified as "severe". Due to increased azimuth error associated with the use of VORs and lack of vertical guidance (Glide Slope), the MDA is therefore much higher than a DA (Decision Altitude) for an ILS. The CVR records Lutz and Loehrer discussing "the 14 approach" as well as Lutz's request that Loehrer call out the height when the plane reaches 100 feet above DA (Decision Altitude The altitude at which an immediate decision to land or initiate a missed approach must be made). SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR. With both pilots suffering from fatigue and looking forward to getting on the ground, monitoring tasks started to slip away from them, beginning with their descent rate, then their distance from the airport. As they descended, the lights of a village briefly became visible through the clouds, prompting Captain Lutz to comment that he had ground contact. Shortly afterward, at 10:04, another Crossair flight ahead of them reported that they had landed successfully, but that the weather conditions were near the minimums and they only saw the runway from 2.2 nm (4km) out. Several of those who survived also suffered serious injuries, including Passion Fruit singer Debby St. Maarten, who still required weekly medical care more than a decade after the crash effectively ending her music career. These included a near-miss incident on final approach to Lugano Airport where Lutz came within 300 feet (91m) of colliding with the shore of a lake during his final descent and a navigational error during a sightseeing tour over the Alps that took the flight far off its course to Sion, Switzerland. The charts included a new set of approach parameters, of which the higher minimum descent altitude (MDA) was the most crucial piece of information. WebWhile Captain Lutz was an experienced pilot, his competence soon came under close scrutiny by investigators from the Swiss Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). This could be accomplished by referring to their distance measuring equipment, or DME, which indicated their distance from the VOR radio beacon at the airport. Furthermore, other pilots who had flown with Lutz confirmed that he tended to run a one-man operation and rarely took input from his first officers. He ended up in Italy, and was only made aware of this after circling the airport for several minutes, when In this particular incident, Lutz missed his approach into Sion and circled over what he thought was Sion's airport for several minutes before passengers spotted road signs in Italian; the navigational error had taken them over the Great St Bernard Pass, and the airport they had been circling was in fact Aosta Valley Airport in Italy. Examinations were often purely subjective and lacked any effective means to detect systemic problems. The check airman decided to abort the route check due to inadequate performance and made him try again later. 
As they descended, the lights of a village became visible, prompting the captain to say he had the ground in sight. Membership Member of European Complement Network (board member 2001-2006), European Association for Red Cell Research.
1 Dec 1939 : Offiziersanwrter: 1 Nov 1940 : At 9:58, flight 3597 received clearance to approach runway 28, and the pilots began to turn in toward the runway. Investigators concluded that the answer was yes. 
Before the crash, the plane had logged 13,000 flying hours with 11,500 takeoffs and landings. Lutz exclaimed, "Shit, two miles he said, he sees the runway!" Following this incident, he was removed from his position as flight instructor for the Saab 340 but continued flying for Crossair. The MDA states the minimum altitude in MSL to safely fly above any obstructions or terrain in the final approach flight-path before visual contact with the runway is made. WebCaptain Hans Ulrich Lutz and First Officer Stefan Loehrer were the cockpit crew of Crossair Flight 3597 that night on 24thNovember 2001. This officer had the right to conduct internal investigations, but since his appointment he had never actually done so, and he knew nothing about the problems with crew performance, which were typically dealt with by the respective fleet managers. They managed to get away with this because the final approach ran over Lake Lugano, which (being perfectly flat) did not present any obstacles that would pose a hazard to low-flying planes. Flight 3597 had originally been scheduled to land on runway 14, the main landing runway at Zrich, which was equipped with an ILS system that provides vertical and lateral guidance to the runway. Directed by witnesses in a nearby village, local emergency services quickly reached the site, where they were stunned to find survivors running from the forest, backlit by towering flames. At 21:58, the plane was cleared for landing on Runway 28 and turned to make its final approach. TAWS relies on a pre-programmed terrain database to predict collisions well in advance, a capability which could have prevented the accident. This meant that they needed to descend more slowly in order to drop the same amount over the same distance. All nine survivors were quickly taken to area hospitals, while a search and rescue operation was launched to find any others who had wandered away into the woods. _________________________________________________________________. Flight 3597 was carrying a total of 33 people. Hans Ulrich Schmied or Uli Schmied (born 1947), retired German rower who specialized in the double sculls. Runway 28 at Zrich airport was fitted with an instrument landing system and an MSAW system. Upon hearing of the change, Captain Lutz clearly became frustrated. At the time of the accident, Lutz had been flying for 13 hours, only part of which was with Crossair, and his rest breaks were almost always too short because he would invariably spend part of his designated rest time working at the flight school. @cooperlund @tinybaby Crossair Flight 3597, Captain Hans Ulrich Lutz crashed his plane into a marked hill by the airport killing most of germany's spice girls. These included a near-miss incident on final approach to Lugano Airport where Lutz came within 300 feet (91m) of colliding with the shore of Lake Lugano during a dangerous 4,000 feet (1,200m)-per-minute descent[2]:26 and a navigational error during a sightseeing tour over the Alps that took the flight far off its course to Sion.