China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303 was a domestic flight from Xian to Guangzhou, People's Republic of China. On June 6, 1994, this aircraft, a Tupolev Tu-154M, broke up in-flight and crashed as a result of an autopilot malfunction which caused violent shaking and overstressed the airframe. Approximately eight minutes after takeoff (ten minutes in some reports), the control tower at Xianyang Airport lost contact with the plane and it crashed in a field 18 miles southeast of the airport. All 146 passengers and 14 crew died. As of 2010, it remains the deadliest airplane crash ever to occur in China. Flawed maintenance of the aircraft is the probable cause of the sequence of events. The previous evening, the autopilot yaw-channel had been erroneously connected to the bank control, and the bank-channel to the yaw controls. Additionally, this incorrect maintenance was not done in a properly approved facility.