Zarnadh Disaster
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 14 December 1967 |
| Site | Capital Airport, Arimathea |
| First aircraft | |
| Type | Flying machine |
| Operator | Trellinese Airlines |
| Flight origin | Bara ti'Emla |
| Destination | Capital Airport, Arimathea |
| Passengers | 156 |
| Crew | 7 |
| Fatalities | 163 (all) |
| Missing | 0 |
| Second aircraft | |
| Type | Plane |
| Operator | Sidereal Airways |
| Crew | 8 |
| Survivors | 0 |
The Zarnadh Disaster was an air crash involving Trellinese Airlines Flight 678, a scheduled flight between Bara ti'Emla and Arimathea. On 14 December 1967, the aeroplane crashed into another, stationary aircraft at Capital Airport, Arimathea before colliding with the terminal building and causing catastrophic loss of life. Among the dead were all 163 passengers and crew of the Trellinese Airlines plane, a further eight ground and cabin crew on the stationary Sidereal Airways plane and 77 people in the airport. It remains the worst aviation disaster in the history of the Arimathean state.
The episode is named the Zarnadh Disaster after Arimathean transport minister Tireln Zarnadh, who resigned soon after the incident, though not before proposing legislation to establish a new airport while Capital Airport was repaired. The air crash investigation determined that no individual factor or participant was responsible for the accident, but that it was the result of an accumulation of minor incidents.
Events
Flight 678 took off from Bara ti'Emla under normal atmospheric conditions at 10:43 local time, with 156 passengers on board and five cabin crew, under the command of Trellinese pilot Jereq Kosnaireq and Arimathean copilot Edhal Pehretai, who between them had 4,500 hours flying time on aircraft of that type. The flight was scheduled to land Capital Airport at 11:27. While the plane was en route, a thick fog moved in from the Great Bay of Arimathea, reducing visibility at the airport to 50 metres. Flights out of Arimathea were grounded, and inbound traffic was redirected to Temolen, Tythim and Dargai. At 11:16, a passenger seated near the front of Flight 678 entered cardiac arrest. Copilot Pehretai contacted air traffic control requesting immediate permission to land, which was granted. The ATC ordered aircraft off the runway to allow the plane to land. As it drew near the runway, the pilots found themselves unable to see the runway lights. Pehretai mistook the lights of an adjacent highway for the runway and, concluding that their instruments were faulty, reoriented the plane with those lights.
As Flight 678 began its descent, air traffic control radioed the pilots to correct their flight path. Kosnaireq confirmed and began to readjust his course, but at that moment a large gull entered engine two. There was a loud grinding sound and the engine burst into flames, losing power. The plane began to bank, and the pilots attempted to compensate. They kept their aircraft level enough to avoid the busy highway and lowered the landing gear as they attempted to slow down, the wheels reportedly "rolling over the top of a floodlight" by the airport's perimeter fence.
The pilots attempted to put their plane down on the runway, but having come at it at the wrong angle they rapidly ran out of tarmac and bounced onto the grass between the runway and taxiway. In doing so, the back of the plane pitched forward and drove the nose into the ground. The nose burst into flames as it impacted on the taxiway, the forward momentum of the rest of the aircraft driving it quickly into the midsection of a stationary Sidereal Airways plane which was being cleaned between flights. Flight 678's starboard wing sheared off at this point and lodged forcefully in a nearby jet bridge.
The two aircraft, locked together, collided with the terminal building between gates 11 and 12. Many of the passengers waiting at these gates were killed during the crash. The fuel tanks on the Trellinese Airlines plane exploded as it broke up, the fuselage tangled with that of the Sidereal Airways plane, and the two aircraft together tore 24 metres into the building before coming to a stop.
Fatalities
| Nationality | Passengers | Crew | Ground | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Arimathea |
78 | 2 | 36 | 116 |
 Trellin |
49 | 8 | 27 | 84 |
 Hysera |
13 | 2 | 11 | 26 |
 Isles of Velar |
9 | 0 | 4 | 13 |
 Cadenza |
5 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
 Kur'zhet |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
 Andamonia |
0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Total | 156 | 12 | 80 | 248 |
Aftermath
The accident and subsequent fire caused such severe damage to Capital Airport that the airport was shut down temporarily by the aviation board three days after the incident. The Trellinese monarchy and Trellinese Airlines offered to help pay for repairs and compensation to the victims' families. The legislature reconvened for an emergency session on 27 December, during the Christmas recess, at which transport minister Tireln Zarnadh was urged to step down. He resisted calls to do so, from the opposition and within his own party, and on 29 December proposed legislation to establish a new airport for the capital near the docklands. It was passed by a margin of sixty-four votes on 1 January 1968. The following day, Zarnadh resigned.
Arimathea City Airport opened on 10 July 1968. During the interlude, the city had seen business suffer from the lack of an airport and its council actively drove development of the new facility. Capital Airport reopened in early 1969 and was renamed Teqial Jureniv Airport.