Cameroon Airlines Flight 3701

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Cameroon Airlines Flight 3701

A Cameroon Airlines Boeing 737-200, similar to the aircraft involved in the accident.
Accident
Date	3 December 1995 (1995-12-03)
Summary	Loss of control on go around due to thrust asymmetry
Site	Near Douala International Airport, Douala, Cameroon 3°59′43.4″N 9°42′31.8″E / 3.995389°N 9.708833°E / 3.995389; 9.708833
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 737-2K9(A)
Aircraft name	Nyong
Operator	Cameroon Airlines
IATA flight No.	UY3701
ICAO flight No.	UYC3701
Registration	TJ-CBE
Flight origin	Cadjehoun Airport, Cotonou, Benin
Destination	Douala International Airport, Douala, Cameroon
Occupants	76
Passengers	71
Crew	5
Fatalities	71
Injuries	5
Survivors	5

Cameroon Airlines Flight 3701 was an air accident that occurred on 3 December 1995. The Boeing 737-200, registration TJ-CBE, crashed after it lost control near Douala, Cameroon. On its second approach to Douala International Airport, power was lost to one engine. The accident killed 71 passengers and crew and five people were injured but survived.^[1][2][3]

The aircraft involved in the accident was a Boeing 737-200 Advanced. Registration TJ-CBE (MSN 23386) was built in 1985 and delivered to Cameroon Airlines on 30 August.^[3][4]

The captain was 45-year-old Sali Younoussa Aman, he had accumulated a total of 7,990 flight hours with 5,923 hours on the Boeing 737. 44-year-old First Officer Claude Emile Lombo had 5,850 hours of total flight experience with 4,317 of them on the Boeing 737.^[4]

Cameroon Airlines Flight 3701 took off from Cadjehoun Airport in Cotonou, Benin, on a flight to Douala International Airport. The Boeing 737-200 had 71 passengers and five crew on board and after a one-hour flight was ready to land at Douala International Airport, but as the landing gear was lowered the nose gear light showed that it was not down. The pilots called air traffic control saying that they had landing gear problems and the crew elected to abort the approach. Some minutes later they tried a second approach but the pilots did not see that the engine two was operating at high power while the No. 1 engine was not developing power. Then the aircraft went into a steep dive and crashed 6 kilometres (3.7 mi; 3.2 nmi) short of the runway in a mangrove swamp. The aircraft burst into flames, killing 71 passengers and crew. Five people survived the accident.^[1]

The accident report determined the cause of the loss of control and the loss of power to engine No. 1 to be the following:

The probable cause of the accident is a loss of control during a go-around attempt made during a maneuver to reach the runway with degraded performance

Seriously contributing to this:

1. The detachment by structural fatigue of a first stage compressor blade of the No. 1 engine which resulted in a loss of power and destabilization of the trajectory when landing
2. The late or slow execution of the go-around procedure with an unidentified single-engine configuration, leading to irreversible loss of speed.

— Accident report^[4]