2011 aviation accident in Democratic Republic of the Congo
On 4 April 2011, Georgian Airways Flight 834, a Bombardier CRJ100 passenger jet of Georgian Airways operating a domestic flight from Kisangani to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) crashed while attempting to land at Kinshasa Airport. The aircraft, which was chartered by the United Nations, was trying to land during a thunderstorm. Of the 33 people on board, only one person survived. The incident remains as the United Nations' deadliest aviation disaster. It is also the third-deadliest air disaster involving the CRJ100/200, behind Comair Flight 5191 and China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210. 
The government of the DRC set up an investigation commission to probe the crash. It concluded that the aircraft had encountered a microburst moments after initiating a go-around, causing it to rapidly lose its altitude. Even though the crew's weather radar had depicted severe weather activity around the airport, the crew didn't discontinue their flight to Kinshasa. Following the rapid altitude loss, the crew failed to recover the aircraft due to their very low altitude.
Aircraft.
The aircraft was a Bombardier CRJ100ER, registered as 4L-GAE with a manufacturer serial number of c/n 7070. On 13 May 2008, under a lease agreement, the aircraft was chartered by the United Nations for its MONUSCO mission in the DRC.
Accident.
Flight.
Flight 834 was a domestic passenger flight from Orientale provincial capital of Kisangani to the nation's capital of Kinshasa with the flag carrier of Georgia, Georgian Airways, as the operator of the flight. The flight was carried out with a Bombardier CRJ100ER, which was chartered by the United Nations for its missions in Congo following the outbreak of conflicts in the area. The flight had been operated by Georgian Airways since 2008. As it was chartered by United Nations, the flight was given the callsign "UNO".
UN flights are frequent in Congo, more than hundreds a week, as they are one of the best available means of transportation in the country; the flying route is one of the most used in the country. Flights operated by United Nations are frequently used to transport journalists and staffs of various non-governmental organizations.
On 4 April 2011, the aircraft was assigned to carry out a flight from Kisangani to Kinshasa. In Kisangani, a total of 29 passengers boarded the aircraft. There were 4 crew members on board, consisted of Captain Alexei Hovhanesyan, First Officer Suliko Tsutskiridze, a flight attendant and a ground engineer. The aircraft took off from Kisangani at 12:18 p.m local time with an estimated time of arrival at 13:55 p.m. The weather briefing for Kinshasa didn't indicate any significant development for severe weather for the next 2 hours.
Approach.
At 13:39 p.m, the crew requested to descend to and were later asked to report back after being cleared by the ATC. Following their clearance, they realized that severe weather condition had formed around Kinshasa. Captain Hovhanesyan stated that the aircraft would have to go around the weather system to avoid it. His co-pilot, First Officer Tsutskiridze, decided to observe the developing weather condition.
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;13:44:39 Captain Hovhanesyan: Damn! Now we will go around this shit!
13:44:43 First Officer Tsutskiridze: Yes, when will we have gone around it.
13:45:07 Captain Hovhanesyan Or we will go around it from here, we will see, by distance
13:45:11 First Officer Tsutskiridze: It... I would say... It sees..
13:45:17 Captain Hovhanesyan: What?
13:45:21 First Officer Tsutskiridze: This has almost crossed already, this on runway so will cross, We still need to fly for 10 minutes
13:45:45 First Officer Tsutskiridze: Check 250... Let's go (*)
13:45:59 First Officer Tsutskiridze: Oh, OH! Look how large it is!!!
Tsutkiridze was shocked to see the size of the storm, even could be heard once when he said that the entire ground surface was covered by "magenta". The discovery angered both pilots as the weather would complicate their landing attempt. During their conversation on the possible attempts to avoid the weather, personnel in Kinshasa asked the crew to report back on their position. The controller then cleared Flight 834 to conduct a straight-in approach to the localizer of Runway 24 of Kinshasa's N'djili Airport.
Captain Hovhanesyan, still angry with the weather condition in the area, asked his co-pilot to request the latest weather information in Kinshasa. Following their request, the controller in Kinshasa stated that the airport was being pounded with thunderstorm activity with winds at . The crew later discussed on the possible ways to approach the airport. Meanwhile, the airspeed continued to increase, nearly reaching . The aircraft then descended to . First Officer Tsutskiridze later said that he had seen the runway on one o'clock position. The crew reported back to the tower and the controller wished the crew for a good landing.
Accident.
The autopilot was turned off and the aircraft turned towards the runway. The crew configured the aircraft for landing and the passengers and other crews in the cabin were asked to prepare themselves. Approximately from the airport, the crew successfully aligned the aircraft with the runway. The aircraft, however, came in at a speed that was above the normal amount, causing the overspeed warning to sound. While the crew was trying to reduce the airspeed, a squall line from the northeast arrived at Kinshasa. Heavy rain began to strike the aircraft. The aircraft continued to descent, passing over the airport's minimum descent altitude. First Officer Tsutkiridze stated that he could not see the runway anymore and suggested Captain Hovhanesyan to go-around, in which he agreed. 
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;13:56:30 First Officer Tsutskiridze : No. Nothing in sight. Let's go around!
13:56:32 Captain Hovhanesyan: Go-around, flaps 8.
13:56:33 First Officer Tsutskiridze: Okay.
13:56:34 First Officer Tsutskiridze: Flaps 8.
13:56:38 First Officer Tsutskiridze: United Nations 834, going around.
The aircraft's nose was pitched up and its altitude began to increase. During the climb, the rain suddenly intensified as the aircraft was struck by a microburst. The wind shear warning blared inside the cockpit and the nose started to pitch downwards at an angle of 7 degree in a matter of seconds. Captain Hovhanesyan ordered First Officer Tsutkiridze to retract the flaps, however the aircraft continued to lose its altitude. Before the crew managed to conduct any recovery actions, their altitude was already too low.
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;13:56:45 First Officer Tsutskiridze: Damn it!!!
13:56:48 Aircraft warning : Wind shear! Wind shear! Wind shear!
13:56:49 Captain Hovhanesyan: Flaps up!
13:56:49 Aircraft warning: Wind shear! Whoop whoop pull up!
13:56:50 First Officer Tsutskiridze: Okay! Flaps up!
13:56:52 First Officer Tsutskiridze: C'mon! Speed!! Speed!!! a-a...
The aircraft flew across the runway and slammed onto the grounds on the left of N'djili Airport's Runway 24, shortly before 14:00 local time (13:00 UTC), at a speed of with 10 degree nose down. The undercarriage immediately separated and the aircraft skidded across the ground before it finally flipped over. During the process, various parts of the aircraft began to shear off, including the tail. It continued to slide and eventually came to rest at a distance of from its initial impact point.
A total of nine people were extricated alive from the wreckage. However, several survivors were pronounced dead on arrival and the others succumbed to their injuries. The sole survivor was Francis Mwamba, a Congolese journalist. He was seriously injured with a reported spinal fracture. Due to the severity of his injuries, he was flown to South Africa for further treatment.
Passengers and crews.
The majority of those on board Flight 834 were staff from the United Nations. The aircraft manifest listed 20 UN workers. The passengers included UN peacekeepers and officials, humanitarian workers and electoral assistants. The official UN news bulletin reported that 14 of the passengers were members of MONUSCO. Others were from various UN entities, such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), World Food Programme (WFP), and United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). Five non-UN passengers were staff from non-governmental organizations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or from other international organizations. UN reported that the non-UN passengers of Flight 834 were staffs from the DRC government, Congolese electoral commission, International Criminal Court, International Rescue Committee and Pacific Architects and Engineers.
Officials confirmed that the passengers were from 14 nationalities, including Congolese, South Africans, Bangladeshi, Belgians, Ivorians, Malians, Ghanaian, Beninese, Burkinabe, Haitian, Kenyan, Mauritanian, Santomean and Senegalese.
Among the passengers was Mendes Masudi, an official adviser to the Foreign Minister of the DRC.
All of the crew members were Georgian citizens. The captain was reportedly a Georgian-Armenian. The captain and pilot in command was 27-year-old Alexey Hovhanesyan, who had 2,811 flight hours, including 1,622 hours on the CRJ100, (217 hours as captain and 1,405 as a first officer). He had just been promoted as a captain of the CRJ100 approximately 3 months before the accident. The first officer was 22-year-old Suliko Tsutskiridze, who was far less experienced than Captain Hovhaesyan, having logged only 495 flight hours with 344 of them on the CRJ100. The other crew members were identified as cabin crew Guram Kepuladze and ground engineer Albert Manukov.
Response.
UN mission in Congo immediately established a task force to investigate the accident. Counsellors were provided and a hotline was established for the relatives of the victims. Then-head of MONUSCO, Roger Meece, visited the crash site in N'djili Airport along with other senior UN officials from MONUSCO. He expressed his shock for the extent of damage of the crash.
The UN Security Council, United Kingdom and the United States have offered their condolences for the accident. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also issued a letter containing his sorrow of the crash and the other recent deadly incidents involving UN staff in Afghanistan, Ivory Coast and Haiti. In response to the crash, a wreath-laying ceremony will be held in New York's UN headquarters. Flags of the UN will be flown at half-mast in every UN offices around the world.
Investigation.
Severe weather.
The METAR in force at the time showed thunder showers and rain. According to a United Nations official, the aircraft "landed heavily, broke into two and caught fire". An eyewitness suggested windshear as a cause. The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy indicated that the poor weather was a key element in the cause of the crash.
Radar visuals on the weather in Kinshasa confirmed the presence of inclement condition in the area at the time of the crash. The depicted squall line was described as severe and fast-moving with very low cloud base. Moving with a speed of from the northeast to the southwest, the system grew in size when it reached Kinshasa. The fast-moving nature of the weather system was the reason for the rapid visibility deterioration in Kinshasa, where in just 10 minutes the visibility had largely dropped from to just . A significant increase in wind speed was also noted. The weather system deepened and eventually grew in size. This was also confirmed by the cockpit recording in which First Officer Tsutkiridze expressed his shock in response to the large coverage of the weather system. Imageries from the area showed the colour "magenta", which indicated possible strong thunderstorm activity.
Kinshasa's N'djili Airport was not provided with a weather radar and thus the radar controller couldn't predict or relay information on the rapidly unfolding severe weather phenomenon to the crew of Flight 834. Despite this, the ATC had warned the crew on the prevailing weather condition in the airport with "Thunderstorm over the station", though the observance of squall line was not reported. However, the transmission was ignored by the crew due to, as per the investigation, the ATC personnel's slight accent.
Due to the size of the storm, the crew had to go around it. As a result, the crew weren't able to intercept the airport's localizer and to maintain their aircraft within the localizer path. They eventually managed to intercept the localizer at a distance of 2 nautical miles from the airport. The deteriorating visibility prompted the crew to execute a go-around but the squall line then produced microbursts with vertical gusts of up to . Data from the FDR corroborated this finding as vertical G fluctuations and yaw damper movements were recorded on the device.
Decision to land.
The onboard cockpit radar and the updated weather condition from the ATC had provided sufficient information to the crew regarding the weather condition at their destination airport. In respect to the appropriate procedure, the presence of severe weather in the area around