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{{Infobox
|name = Birgenair Flight 301
|Crash image=birgenair tcgen.jpg
|Image caption= TC-GEN parked at [[Berlin-Schönefeld International Airport]] in July 1995
|Date = 6 February 1996
|Type = Speed sensor defective, leading to autopilot and pilot errors
|occurrence_type = Accident    
|Site = 26 km (14 nm) NE off [[San Felipe de Puerto Plata|Puerto Plata]], [[Dominican Republic]]
|Coordinates= {{coord|19|54|50|N|70|24|20|W|display=title,inline}}
|Origin = [[Gregorio Luperón International Airport]], Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
|First stopover = [[Gander International Airport]], Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
|Second stopover = [[Berlin Schönefeld International Airport]], Berlin, Germany
|Destination = [[Frankfurt Airport]], [[Frankfurt]], Germany
|Fatalities = 189 (all)
|Injuries = 0
|Aircraft Type = [[Boeing 757|Boeing 757-225]]
|Operator = [[Birgenair]] ([[Alas Nacionales]])
|tail_number   = [http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19960206-0 TC-GEN]
|Passengers = 176
|Crew = 13
|Survivors = 0
}}

'''Birgenair Flight 301''' was a [[San Felipe de Puerto Plata|Puerto Plata]]-[[Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador|Gander]]-[[Berlin]]-[[Frankfurt]] flight chartered by Turkish-managed [[Birgenair]] partner [[Alas Nacionales]] ("National Wings"). On 6 February 1996 the [[Boeing 757|Boeing 757-225]] operating the route crashed shortly after take-off from Puerto Plata's [[Gregorio Luperón International Airport]] in the [[Dominican Republic]].<ref>Pope, Hugh. "[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/crash-plane-may-not-have-been-serviced-1318149.html Crash plane may not have been serviced]." ''[[The Independent]]''. Saturday 10 February 1996. Retrieved on 19 November 2009.</ref><ref name="CNN">"[http://web.archive.org/web/20050413053417/http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9602/plane_crash/02-08/11am/index.html Rescuers call off search in plane crash]." ''[[CNN]]''. 8 February 1996. Retrieved on 19 November 2009.</ref>

==Passengers==
The crew consisted of 11 Turks and 2 Dominicans. The passengers consisted mainly of Germans, along with a few Poles.<ref name="CNN"/>  Most passengers had booked Caribbean package holidays with Öger Tours; Birgenair held 10% of Öger Tours.<ref>Karacs, Imre. "[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/bonn-grounds-757-as-crash-mystery-grows-1318034.html Bonn grounds 757 as crash mystery grows]." ''[[The Independent]]''. Friday 9 February 1996. Retrieved on 19 November 2009.</ref> In terms of passenger deaths, Flight 301 has the highest death toll of any aviation accident involving a Boeing 757.<ref>{{ASN accident|id=19960206-0|accessdate=2006-07-21}}</ref>

{|class="wikitable" 
|-bgcolor=ccccff
!rowspan=1|Nationality||colspan=1|Passengers||colspan=1|Crew||colspan=1|Total
|-bgcolor=ccccff
|-valign=top
|{{GER}}||167||0||167
|-valign=top
|{{POL}}||9||0||9
|-valign=top
|{{TUR}}||0||11||11
|-valign=top
|{{DOM}}||0||2||2
|-valign=top
|'''Total'''||'''176'''||'''13'''||'''189'''
|}

==Crash==
Details of the crash have been revealed in the report of the Dominican Republic government's ''Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil'' report and the ''[[Mayday (TV series)|Mayday]]'' television episode "Mixed Signals (The Plane That Wouldn't Talk)".

During takeoff roll at 11:42 p.m, the captain found that his [[Airspeed indicator|air speed indicator]] (ASI) was not working properly, but chose not to abort takeoff. The co-pilot's ASI was functional.

While the plane was climbing to {{convert|4700|ft|m}}, the captain's ASI indicated 350&nbsp;knots, which triggered a reaction from the [[autopilot]], which was taking its air speed information from the same equipment that was providing faulty readings to the captain's ASI.  The autopilot increased the pitch-up attitude and reduced power, both moves used to lower the plane's airspeed. The co-pilot's ASI read 200&nbsp;knots and was decreasing, yet the airplane started to give multiple warnings that it was flying too fast, including [[rudder ratio]], [[Mach number|Mach airspeed]] and overspeed lights and sounds.

The autopilot had reached the limits of its programming, and disengaged.  The crew checked the breakers for the warning lights and sounds, then pulled back on the thrust to lower the speed.  The airplane instantly provided a [[stick-shaker]] warning, telling the pilots that the airplane was flying dangerously slow only seconds after it was warning that the speed was too high, confusing the pilots. The captain then tried to recover from the approaching stall by increasing the plane's thrust to full, but the plane was still in a nose up attitude, which meant that the engines were not getting adequate airflow to match the increase in thrust.  The left engine suffered an engine stall so that the right engine was able to throw the airplane into spin and the plane inverted.<ref>Tim van Beveren: Runter kommen sie immer, page 258-271, ISBN 3-593-35688-0 as filed with the US Library of Congress</ref> At 11:47 p.m., the [[Ground Proximity Warning System]] sounded an audio warning, and eight seconds later the plane crashed into the [[Caribbean Sea]]. All 13 crew members and 176 passengers died.

==Investigation and final report==
The Dominican Republic government's ''Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil'' (DGAC) investigated the accident and determined the following probable cause for the accident: <blockquote>"The crew's failure to recognize the activation of the stick shaker as a warning of imminent entrance to the stall, and the failure of the crew to execute the procedures for recovery from the onset of loss of control."</blockquote>

Investigations later showed that the plane was actually travelling at 220&nbsp;knots at the time. The investigation concluded that one of three [[pitot tube]]s, used to measure airspeed, was blocked.

No tubes were recovered so investigators were unable to determine for certain what was blocking it. Investigators suspected that some kind of insect could have created a nest inside the pitot tube. The prime suspect is a species called the [[Black and yellow mud dauber]] wasp, well-known by pilots flying in the Dominican Republic. The aircraft had not flown in 25 days during which time the pitot tubes were not covered, giving the wasps an opportunity to build nests in the tubes.<ref name="Mayday">"The Plane That Wouldn't Talk", ''[[Mayday (TV series)|Mayday]]''</ref>

[[Image:Ppaircrashmemorial.JPG|thumb|left|Memorial for the victims of Birgenair Flight 301 in [[Puerto Plata (city)|Puerto Plata]]]]
[[Image:Birgenair-mahnmal.jpg|thumb|right|Memorial for the victims of Birgenair Flight 301 in Frankfurt's main cemetery]]

==Aftermath==
While the crash was attributed to the failure of the crew to execute the procedures for recovery, there were a number of incidental lessons learned.

The pilot's choice to go against protocol and execute takeoff despite his ASI clearly disagreeing with the co-pilot's ASI has resulted in protocols and training being further reinforced following this incident.

<!-- statements missing source and contradictory to final report
Tests run on flight simulators found that even the most seasoned pilots were confused by the instantaneous switch from overspeed indicators to a stick-shaker stall warning as had been experienced by the Birgenair pilots.  Protocols and training were further reinforced on this issue following this incident.

After the investigation had highlighted that the autopilot could only take speed indications from the pilot's ASI, which in the case was faulty, Boeing retro-fit the controls on all its planes so that the autopilot could be switched to any one of three ASIs. 
-->
After the flight voice recorder revealed that the co-pilot and a third pilot on the flight deck had made relatively subtle suggestions to the pilot - once the stick-shaker warning commenced - that he must deal with the fact that the plane was still in a speed-draining nose-up attitude, protocols and training were reinforced to establish a greater willingness of junior flight-deck staff to be more forceful in similar situations.  (In the Birgenair crash, it had even been revealed that the co-pilot chose not to use his own, active, stick to counter the pilot and try to bring the nose down.) 

Later the same year (1996), [[Aeroperú Flight 603]], also involving a 757, suffered from a similar but far more difficult situation (''static'' ports blocked by tape, rendering ''all'' airspeed indicators ''and pressure altimeters'' unusable) and crashed in the ocean off [[Peru]].<ref name="Mayday0">"Flying Blind." ''[[Mayday (TV series)|Mayday]]''.</ref>

In 1996 Birgenair went bankrupt.<ref>Alfred Roelen: Causal risk models of air transport: comparison of user needs and model capabilities, page 39, ISBN 978-1-58603-933-2, IOS Press</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Lists of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners]]
*[[Pitot-static system]]
*[[Aeroperú Flight 603]]
*''[[Mayday (TV series)|Mayday]]'' (''Air Crash Investigation'', ''Air Emergency'')
*[[Air France Flight 447]]

== References ==

== External links==
* {{ASN accident|id=19960206-0|accessdate=2006-07-21}}
* [http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/08/world/german-tourist-plane-crashes-189-feared-dead.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "German tourist plane crashes; 189 feared dead"], ''[[The New York Times]]''
* [http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/view_details.cgi?date=02061996&reg=TC-GEN&airline=Birgenair Accident synopsis] at [[Airdisaster.com]]
* [http://www.fester.de/friedhof/flug19690206.htm Views of the memorial revealing names of victims]
* [http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?cnsearch=22206/31&distinct_entry=true Pre-crash photos of the 757 carrying Flight 301 on Airliners.Net]