Villagers who narrowly escaped death when a jet crashed near Stansted Airport in 1999 reacted angrily this week when an official report confirmed suspicions that the plane took off with an unrepaired fault

The pilots failed to respond properly when a faulty indicator put the Korean Air 747 cargo jet into danger, says the Department for Transport probe into the disaster

It reveals that before take-off, maintenance at Stansted was "misdirected", despite the fault being reported.

The South Korean crew two pilots, plus the flight and ground engineers were killed when the plane crashed in flames in fields near Great Hallingbury, just yards from houses on the edge of Hatfield Forest, at 6.38pm on December 22, 1999.

The report, by the Department's Air Accident Investigation Branch, urges a detailed review of maintenance at Stansted.

Six recommendations have been made by the AAIB to tighten up of safety procedures

But grandmother Carole Morris, of Street Farm Cottage, Great Hallingbury, one of 13 villagers who have sued Korean Airlines for the post traumatic stress disorder and psychiatric injuries suffered as a result of the crash, said: "The report is what we expected

"We are disgusted it took so long to produce, without even an apology. That aircraft was going wrong from the word go and they still allowed it to fly."

Norman Mead, chairman of Great Hallingbury Parish Council at the time of the crash, said: "Quite clearly the aircraft should never have left the ground."

The AAIB's recommendations include a direction that the airline continues to review its maintenance support, with a view to deploying sufficient staff engineers at outstations, such as Stansted; delegates the entire task to another operator, or to local third party maintenance organisations.

If none of these was practicable then support arrangements must be detailed and of such clarity as to preclude confusion.

It says the problem with the flight involved the altitude director (ADI) which gives pilots an indication of the angle of the aircraft at night and in cloud.

The crew, who had flown the plane in from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, to Stansted, en route to Milan, reported the captain's ADI was faulty as "unreliable in roll".

But although work was done at Stansted "the aircraft was presented for service with the same fault experienced on the previous sector"

As a result, the captain received incorrect altitude information when he turned the plane to the left and the turn continued until the plane hit the ground.

The report said that the 33-years-old "inexperienced" co-pilot did not alert the captain to the unsafe position the aircraft had been put into.

Published Friday, August 1, 2003

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