Shannon Airport Night Takeoff Accident Involving Aircraft 'Triton' (PH-LKY)

Accident Overview and Sequence of Events On the night of the incident, a four-engine aircraft christened 'Triton' departed Shannon Airport using runway 32. During its initial climb, the aircraft reached a maximum altitude of 260 feet and a speed of 155 knots before entering a slight nose-down attitude. The aircraft then began to descend and impacted the Shannon Estuary approximately 8,170 feet from the departure end of runway 32. The crash occurred roughly 35 seconds after liftoff, resulting in the total destruction of the aircraft. ## Casualties and Rescue Operations The accident resulted in 28 fatalities among the occupants. In the aftermath, 28 other occupants were successfully rescued from the crash site. ## Official Probable Cause Findings The official investigation identified several contributing factors to the accident. The primary cause was the captain's failure to properly correlate and interpret instrument indications during flap retraction, which prevented necessary corrective action from being taken in a timely manner. This failure was partially attributed to the impact of inadvertent and unexpected landing gear re-extension on the instrument readings. Additionally, the aircraft suffered a loss of performance due to the inadvertent landing gear re-extension. The investigation also noted that the captain did not maintain a sufficient climb gradient, which would have provided an opportunity to address the unexpected occurrences.