B5/1997L Aircraft Incident at Joensuu Airport, Finland, on 11 April 1997

On Friday 11 April, 1997 at 01.54 local time an aircraft incident took place at Joensuu airport in which a Douglas DC-9-83 (MD-83) aircraft, registered TC-INC, owned by Irish
Aerospace Finance Ltd. and operated by Turkish Intersun Sunways Havacilik A.S. overran the runway. There were 167 passengers and six crewmembers on board. The flight number was SWW 1022.

The Accident Investigation Board (AIB), Finland appointed on 11 April, 1997 an investigation commission. Airline pilot (ret.) Mr Lars Westermarck was appointed investigator-in-charge. Chief air accident investigator Mr Seppo Hämäläinen from the AIB, and airline pilot (ret.) Mr Jussi Haila were appointed members of the commission. The commission consuited Inspection supervisor (ret.) Mr Pertti Nenonen as technical expert on the MD-83.

The investigation was based on the Finnish Legislation, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Annex 13 and the Council of European Union Directive 94/56/EC.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Turkey was notified of this incident and the investigation on 11 April, 1997. The DGCA, Turkey appointed on 15 April, 1997
Mr Haydar Yalcin as an accredited representative for the investigation. The DGCA, Turkey also appointed Intersun Sunways' delegates Mr Pertti Laine and Mr Bernie Forward as advisors to the accredited representative.

Intersun Sunways went into bankruptcy and ceased operations in October 1997.

The commission sent the draft of this aircraft incident report to the DGCA, Turkey for comments according to ICAO Annex 13 on 16 June, 1998. No comments were received within 60 days, but telefaxes dated 18 and 28 August, 1998 sent by the accredited represantative of DGCA, Turkey are enclosed in Appendix 2. The training records mentioned in the telefax dated 28 August were received by the investigation commission on 17 September, 1998 by mail. The letter had been stamped in Ankara on 1 September, 1998. All the requested documents were not included and the captains training documents were in Turkish as well as a part of the documents concerning the copilot.

B5/1997L Report (pdf, 0.48 Mt)