Lauda Air Flight 004
Flight 004 was an international scheduled passenger flight flown by Lauda Air, the Austrian airline founded by retired Formula 1 race driver Niki Lauda. On May 26, 1991, at around 2310 GMT, Flight 004, a Boeing B-767-3Z9ER, took off from Bangkok International Airport for its flight to Wien-Schwechat International Airport with 213 passengers and 10 crew, under the command of Capt. Tom Welsh and First Officer Josef Thurner. At 2322 GMT, Welsh and Thurner received a visual advisory warning indicating a possible system failure would cause the thrust reverser on the No. 1 engine to deploy in flight. Because the Emergency/Malfunction Checklist indicated that no action was necessary, Welsh and Thurner didn't take any action. At 2331 GMT, the thrust reverser on the No. 1 engine deployed while the plane was over the jungle near Ban Nong Rong, Thailand. The 767, named after the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, stalled in mid-air and disintegrated at 4000 ft. Upon hearing of the crash, Niki Lauda flew to Thailand and personally visited the crash site, turning up information that led to the cause of the accident, the failure of the thrust reverser isolation valve. He tested his findings in a Boeing 767 simulator in England and revealed those findings in a press conference shortly thereafter. A subsequent official investigation corroborated Lauda's findings, leading Boeing to modify the thrust reverser system to prevent similar occurrences.
External linksGrand Prix Hall of Fame - Biography on Niki LaudaPlaneCrashInfo.Com - Lauda Air Flight 004Aviation Accident Database - Lauda Air Flight 004
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