737-300 BOEING HELIOS CRASH

737-300 Boeing Helios Crash



737-300 BOEING HELIOS CRASH

History of 737-300 BOEING HELIOS CRASH

The Boeing 737-31S (B737-300 series) aircraft was built in 1998, with serial number 29099, line number 2982. The Operator acquired the aircraft on 16 April 2004 and it was registered in the Republic of Cyprus as 5B-DBY. The owner of the aircraft was Deutsche Structured Finance & Leasing GMBH & Co. Cyprus DCA issued the Certificate of Airworthiness No. 244 valid from 16 April 2004 to 15 April 2006 (Five charged for Helios jet crash, 2010).

According to the technical records, the aircraft had accumulated 17 900:56 flight hours and 16 085 cycles up to 14 August 2005. The aircraft was fitted with two CFMI 56-3C1 engines; serial number 858752 in the number one position with 16 477 total hours since new; and serial number 858755 in the number two position with 16 280 total hours since new. The aircraft was configured with 142 economy class seats. There were also four seats in the cockpit (two for the pilots and two for observers) and four cabin crew seats in the cabin (two at the front and two at the rear). The maximum take-off mass for the aircraft was 63 276 kg and the aircraft mass at takeoff was 51 572 kg. The CG range for take-off was between 5 % and 26 % Mean Aerodynamic Chord (MAC) and the center of gravity (CG) at take-off was 21.0 % MAC. Aircraft mass at the time of the accident was calculated to be approximately 45 000 kg, and the MAC was calculated to be approximately 23.5 %. The aircraft was loaded with 7 000 kg of Jet A1 type fuel. No deferred defect items were pending in the technical logbook. The aircraft's certified ceiling was 37 000 ft (Hradecky and Simon, 2005).

Regarding aircraft manuals, the Board asked Boeing whether the Operator had a contract for receiving issued amendments to the following manuals: FCOM, QRH, AFM, and AMM. The Board established that DBA continued to receive the revisions and amendments from Boeing for the relevant manuals applicable to the B737-300 aircraft now operated by the Operator, and apparently the Operator received the relevant revisions from DBA. The B737-300 Operations Manual, Volume 1 contained the Temporary Revision No. 2 dated 25 July 2005, the B737-300 Operations Manual, Volume 2 contained the Temporary Revision No. 1 dated 24 January 2005, and the B737-300 Quick Reference Handbook (QRH) contained revisions dated 3 June 2005. However, the Board was informed that any revisions to the manuals received through DBA were evaluated by the staff of the Operator and all revisions were not necessarily incorporated in the Operator's Manuals. In this respect, the Board noted that the older versions of the After Takeoff checklists in the FCOM and the QRH contained an item “AIR COND & PRESS ….. SET” and in the revised FCOM and QRH this item had been changed to two items “Engine bleeds ...