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Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308
Accident summary
Date	December 1, 1981
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain
Site	Ajaccio, Corsica
Passengers	173
Crew	7
Injuries	0
Fatalities	180 (all)
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas MD-81
Operator	Inex-Adria Aviopromet
Registration	YU-ANA
Flight origin	Brnik Airport
Destination	Ajaccio - Campo dell'Oro Airport

Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, registration YU-ANA, was a Yugoslavian charter flight that crashed on Corsica's Mount San Pietro on December 1, 1981, killing 180 people on board. The plane that crashed was McDonnell Douglas MD-81, a member of McDonnell Douglas's MD-80 aircraft series. The disaster was the first involving an MD-80, and is to date the deadliest involving any MD-80 anywhere in the world.

1 Accident
2 Investigation
3 Clean-up operation in 2008
4 External links

Accident [edit]

On December 1, 1981, the McDonnell Douglas MD-81 took off from Brnik Airport on a chartered flight from Slovenia (at the time Yugoslavia) to Corsica's capital city of Ajaccio with 173 Slovenian tourists and 7 crew members. The tourists were on a 1-day trip to Corsica. When Flight 1308 reached the airspace around Ajaccio's Campo dell'Oro Airport, it entered a holding pattern, awaiting clearance to land. The atmosphere in the plane was relaxed, with everybody already thinking of the day of leisure awaiting them on Corsica. At some point, the co-pilot even let his young son enter the cockpit.

While in its holding pattern, the MD-81 was instructed to descend through the minimum holding altitude of 6,800 feet. Weather was bad, visibility was close to zero and the aircraft was descending into the fog. As it descended, its Ground Proximity Warning System gave off several audio warnings, prompting the crew to increase the engine thrust. After some delay, the crew eventually did pull up. Their efforts, however, proved futile, as one of the wings of Flight 1308 collided with the summit of Mt. San Pietro and broke off. The aircraft then went into an uncontrolled dive and violently crashed on the other side of the mountain. All 180 people aboard were killed. The time of the accident was approximately 8 a.m. local time. Rescue operations were initially hampered by the fact that the air traffic control in Ajaccio wrongly believed the crash site to be located over sea.

Investigation [edit]

The subsequent investigation into the disaster revealed that control mistakenly believed that Flight 1308 was out of holding pattern, believing the aircraft was already located over sea, while in reality it was located some 15 km (9 mi) inland, over mountainous terrain of Corsica. The crew, apparently surprised at the instruction to descend, repeated several times that they were still in the holding pattern, which the control acknowledged. The crew was unfamiliar with the airport and its vicinity, as this was the first flight of Inex-Adria Aviopromet to the island of Corsica. The investigation determined that the imprecise language used by the crew of the MD-81 and the air traffic controller played a significant role in the accident. Air traffic control in Ajaccio was cleared of all charges. The air traffic controller in charge of Flight 1308 was transferred to another airport in France.

At the time of the accident, the Ajaccio airport had no radar. As a direct result of the accident, the equipment was upgraded and the approach pattern changed.

Petreto-Bicchisano church, where the body identification was taken

Clean-up operation in 2008 [edit]

Some debris and human bodies were removed from the crash site after the accident in 1981. In 2007, POP TV (a TV station in Slovenia) did a news report on the accident. They visited the crash site in Corsica and found many of the airplane's parts still scattered on Mt. San Pietro, in rugged and inaccessible terrain. Subsequently, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, Adria Airways and Kompas (the Slovenian travel agency that organized the fatal trip in 1981) organized and funded a clean-up operation. A Slovenian team of about 60 soldiers, mountain rescuers, civil protection and rescue service members, medical personnel, and other volunteers removed about 27 tons of aircraft remains in May 2008. The removed debris included one aircraft engine and large wing parts. Some of the parts were so large they needed to be machine cut before transporting them from the mountain by a helicopter. Several portions of human remains were also found, and were either sent for further identification tests, or were properly disposed. A commemorative plaque was installed at the site of the initial wing impact.