Birgenair Flight 301

The aircraft was a 12-year-old Boeing 757-225, registered as TC-GEN, with a manufactured serial number of 22206. The plane's line number was 31. It was powered by two Rolls-Royce RB211-535E4 engines. At the time of the accident, the aircraft had been stationed at Puerto Plata since 12 January 1996, a period of 25 days. The crew consisted of 11 Turks and 2 Dominicans. The captain was Ahmet Erdem (61), with 24,750 flight hours of experience (including 1,875 hours on the Boeing 757). The first officer was Aykut Gergin (34). He had 3,500 hours of flying experience, though only 71 hours were on the Boeing 757. The relief pilot was Muhlis Evrenesoğlu (51). He had 15,000 flight hours of experience (with 121 of them on the Boeing 757). ==Passengers==

The passengers consisted mainly of Germans, along with nine Poles including two Members of the Parliament, Zbigniew Gorzelańczyk of the Democratic Left Alliance, and Marek Wielgus of the Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms (BBWR). Most of the passengers had booked Caribbean package holidays with Öger Tours; Birgenair held 10% of Öger Tours. ==Accident==

During takeoff roll at 23:42 AST (03:42 UTC), The first officer's ASI was functional, though subsequent warning indicators caused the aircrew to question its veracity as well. The aircraft took off normally at 23:42 AST for the first leg of the flight. At , the flight switched to main air traffic control and was instructed to climb to flight level 280 (). The autopilot was engaged 1 minute and 30 seconds into the flight. Approximately 10 seconds later, two warnings—rudder ratio and Mach airspeed trim—appeared. The crew was at that point becoming increasingly confused because the captain's ASI showed over and increasing, and the first officer's ASI, which was correct, was showing and decreasing. Then, the captain assumed that both ASI were wrong and decided to check the circuit breakers. When the first circuit breaker was checked, the overspeed warning appeared, as the captain’s ASI, the primary source of the information about airspeed for autopilot, was showing airspeed near and increasing. Then the second circuit breaker was pulled to silence the warning. As the plane was climbing through , the captain's ASI read . The autopilot, which was taking its airspeed information from the same equipment that was providing faulty readings to the captain's ASI, increased the pitch-up attitude and reduced power in order to lower the plane's airspeed. The first officer's ASI was giving a correct reading of and was still decreasing. At 23:47 AST, the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) sounded an audible warning, and eight seconds later the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. All 176 passengers and 13 crew members died on impact. ==Investigation and final report==

The Dominican Republic government's General Directorate of Civil Aviation () (DGAC) investigated the accident and determined the probable cause to be: Investigations later showed that the plane was actually travelling at at the time of the accident. According to Cetin Birgen, president and CEO of Birgenair, the pitot covers were removed two days before the accident in order to conduct an engine test run. The investigation noted a number of other factors and suggested changes. They reconfirmed that the pilots should have followed existing procedures and aborted the takeoff when they found that their airspeed indicators were already in significant disagreement as the plane accelerated down the runway. Results from a number of simulations with experienced pilots found that the combination of the overspeed warning horn and underspeed stick shaker while in flight was an overly confusing contradictory set of messages for many pilots; the FAA issued a directive that pilot training would now include a blocked pitot tube scenario. The FAA research had also revealed that the situation also led to multiple other contradictory warning sounds and warning lights that increased the demands on the pilot to fly the plane. The FAA asked Boeing to change some of those warnings, as well as add a new warning to tell both pilots that their instruments disagree, add the ability for the pilots to silence troublesome alarms, and to modify the system so that the pilots can choose which pitot tube the autopilot uses for airspeed readings. ==Aftermath==

Shortly after the crash of Flight 301, the airline's overall image and profits became heavily damaged, and some of its planes were grounded at the same time. Birgenair went bankrupt in October of the same year as there were concerns about safety after the accident, causing a decline in passenger numbers. The crash and ensuing negative publicity both contributed to Birgenair's bankruptcy. The crash affected some Turkish charter airlines as well and they closed months after the crash. The crash ended the Tupolev Tu-154 and Yak-42 era in Turkey. ==In popular culture==

• The events of Flight 301 were featured in "Mixed Signals", a Season 5 (2008) episode of the Canadian TV series Mayday (called Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the U.S. and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and elsewhere around the world). The dramatization was broadcast with the title "The Plane That Wouldn't Talk" in the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia. • The British television series Survival in the Sky featured the crash in its first episode, titled "Blaming the Pilot" (1996). • (English: Berlin – Fateful Years of the City) Series 4, Episode 6, interviewed the Berlin parents of one of 167 German passengers who died in the flight crash. ==See also==