What happened
During a nighttime approach to Douala Airport, the aircraft was cleared for landing on runway 30 while positioned approximately 3.5 NM from the field. Shortly after receiving clearance, the crew began a minor climb. Roughly 15 seconds into this maneuver, the copilot notified air traffic control of technical difficulties. Within three seconds of this communication, the aircraft experienced a left roll, subsequently striking trees and crashing into a mangrove area situated about 1,700 meters south of runway 30. The impact caused the aircraft to burst into flames. The accident resulted in 71 fatalities, while three passengers and two crew members sustained serious injuries.
Findings
Investigations determined that the accident occurred due to a loss of control during an attempted go-around procedure initiated during the landing touchdown phase, which was performed with degraded engine performance. The primary cause was identified as the detachment of a first-stage compressor blade from engine number one due to structural fatigue, which caused a significant loss of power. Additional contributing factors included the destabilization of the flight path during the landing attempt and a delayed or sluggish execution of the go-around procedure while operating in an unidentified single-engine configuration, leading to an unrecoverable loss of airspeed.