Luxair Flight 9642

Aircraft The aircraft involved was a Fokker 50, manufactured in 1991 and delivered to Luxair in the same year, with aircraft registration LX-LGB. Equipped with Pratt & Whitney PW125B engines and two Dowty propellers, it had accumulated a total of 24,068 flight cycles. According to Luxair, the aircraft had been maintained properly. The last service was conducted on 4 May. The maintenance logbook indicated that the last defect, an inoperative anti-skid system on the aircraft, had been rectified on 5 November, one day before the accident. == Accident ==

Flight 9642 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from Berlin-Tempelhof Airport to Luxembourg Findel Airport. On 6 November, the aircraft was piloted by Captain Claude Poeckes and his co-pilot First Officer John Arendt. It took off from Berlin at around 07:40 local time with 19 passengers and 3 crew members on board. Immediate aftermath Flight 9642 suddenly ceased all contact with Findel Airport. Its blip had disappeared from the radar screen, prompting the controller to call the crew multiple times to confirm their condition. As there was no response, the airport emergency services were alerted to a possible crash. A telephone call from a witness eventually confirmed that the aircraft had crashed near the airport. Meanwhile, at the crash site, taxi driver Guillaume Wainachter was the first to arrive. He attempted to save the passengers in the fuselage as survivors could be heard screaming loudly inside the wreckage. While trying to save the survivors, he heard a noise from the aircraft, and it immediately went up in flames in a matter of seconds. It was immediately found that the aircraft had crashed in a field to the north of runway centreline. Due to the crash, Findel Airport was closed for more than three hours. Several flights had to be diverted to Germany and Belgium. ==Victims==

Most of the passengers were business officials from Germany. Seventeen were found dead at the crash site with five survivors, three of whom died in the hospital. By nightfall, 18 bodies out of the 20 dead were found, while the other two remained missing. The bodies were thought to be buried under the smoldering fuselage. Rescue workers were using a crane to disentangle the charred remains. == Response ==

Following the crash, a hospital in Belgium was put on alert. A total of 300 police officers were dispatched to the crash site. Government of Luxembourg requested additional help from the Belgian government, which deployed three helicopters to the crash site and a military hospital was put on standby. Relatives of the victims were ushered to a special morgue to see the victims. Psychological counseling would be provided by the state for affected family members. State flags were ordered to be lowered at half-mast across the country until 10 November. A ceremonial service was held on 7 November, followed by another service which was held on 10 November on the capital's Notre-Dame cathedral. == Investigation ==

Officials noted that the flight's destination airport was covered by autumnal fog. Nearby residents of Niederanven stated that the fog at the time of the accident was very thick, so much that nearby residents could not realize that a crash had just occurred, even though Niederanven was in close proximity to the crash site. Lack of preparation At 07:53 local time, the crew of the flight established their first contact with the approach controller. While approaching the airport, the crew sought information about the visibility at the airport, to which the controller replied with the available data on the RVR. The crew were worried with the discovery as it was under the minimum amount for Fokker F50 and decided to wait within the holding pattern until the weather began to improve. This crucial information regarding the minimum visibility was not relayed to the controller and caused the controller to consider the crew of being capable to conduct an approach regardless of the RVR value. Meanwhile, the crew thought that it was going to be awhile before they managed to get a landing clearance and therefore no landing preparation was conducted. The crash significantly affected all Fokker F50 aircraft that were being operated in Luxembourg. Nearly two weeks after the crash, following the discovery of the failure of the secondary stop safety feature to prevent the thrust from entering the reverse range, authorities decided to change the issued service bulletins regarding the anti-skid units from voluntary to mandatory. In May 2003, Dutch authorities announced that the modifications would be made mandatory. Every Fokker 50 in Luxembourg were subjected to compulsory modification on the anti-skid control system and should be changed accordingly after November 2003. AET also recommended Fokker to conduct review on the aircraft's current design as flaw within the aircraft could threaten the safety of flights by overriding the aircraft's safety feature. == Aftermath ==

A criminal prosecution was launched but was delayed until 10 October 2011. Captain Poeckes, three former Luxair executives, and three mechanics (one of whom was formally a technical director) were all charged with involuntary manslaughter and negligence. The executives were later acquitted. On 27 March 2012, the remaining defendants were all found guilty. Captain Poeckes was sentenced to 42 months (3.5 years) of probation and to pay a fine of 4,000 euros. The three mechanics were sentenced to 18 months, two years, and four years of probation respectively, and to pay fines of 2,000 to 2,500 euros. In January 2014, the families of four of the victims received 21,000 to 130,000 euros in compensation. In February the same year, the attorneys of the convicted appealed the court's verdict. In May 2015, a court paid 310,000 euros in compensation to the families of three German victims. ==In popular culture==

The accident is featured in season 25, episode 4 of the Canadian documentary series Mayday, titled "Second Thoughts". ==See also==