Investigation Summary
Flight 834 was a domestic charter flight for the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). As the aircraft approached Kinshasa, the crew observed severe weather on their onboard radar, which was corroborated by ATC reports of thunderstorms over the station. Despite these warnings, the crew attempted a localizer approach to Runway 24. The approach was highly unstable; the aircraft was in a clean configuration at 210 knots just 6.4 nautical miles from the threshold and significantly deviated from the localizer path to avoid weather cells. The crew managed to realign with the runway only 2 nautical miles out, by which time they were already below the Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA). Upon reaching 224 feet above ground level without the runway in sight, the crew initiated a go-around. However, the crew failed to engage the Take-Off/Go-Around (TOGA) buttons and applied only 88-89% N1 thrust instead of the required 92-93%. Crucially, the crew also failed to retract the landing gear during the go-around attempt, which further degraded the aircraft's climb performance. During the climb, the aircraft was struck by a microburst with vertical gusts of 40 to 50 feet per second. The flight data recorder showed the aircraft pitched from 5 degrees nose-up to 7 degrees nose-down in seconds. The low altitude, sub-optimal thrust application, and drag from the extended gear left the crew no room for recovery, and the aircraft impacted the terrain upside down near the military apron.
Final Conclusions
The Bureau Permanent d'Enquêtes d'Accidents et Incidents d'Aviation (BPEA) concluded that the primary cause was the encounter with a severe microburst during a go-around at low altitude. Contributing factors included the crew's inappropriate decision to continue the approach into extreme weather, a lack of stabilized approach criteria, and inadequate captaincy training provided by Georgian Airways. The report also noted that N'Djili Airport lacked weather radar, preventing ATC from providing precise warnings. Furthermore, ATC improperly used the term 'NOSIG' (No Significant Change) in weather reports when conditions were rapidly deteriorating, and failed to close the airfield when visibility dropped below minima.
Video Analysis
The UN Flight That Flew Into A Microburst | Georgian Airways Flight 834 — A detailed look at the crash of a UN-chartered CRJ-100 in Kinshasa, exploring how a severe microburst and pilot decision-making led to the disaster.
If playback is blocked, the owner has disabled embedding — use the link above.
Airframe & Maintenance
Crew Experience
Captain
Promoted to captain three months prior to the accident.
First Officer
Systems & Failure Modes
Onboard Weather Radar
The crew used the radar to navigate around weather cells but failed to recognize the danger of the squall line directly over the runway.
Yaw Damper
FDR data showed significant yaw damper movements during the final seconds, indicating the aircraft's struggle with severe turbulence and wind shear.
Localizer
The crew struggled to intercept and maintain the localizer path due to high speed and weather avoidance maneuvers.
Flap Overspeed Warning
A warning triggered during the unstabilized approach when the crew extended flaps 30 while flying at 181-185 KIAS, which exceeded the maximum flap extension speed (Vfe).
Interesting Facts
- 01The aircraft was destroyed and came to rest upside down near the military apron.
- 02Visibility at the airport dropped from 8,000 meters to 500 meters in just 10 minutes due to the squall line.
- 03The Captain had only 217 hours of experience as a pilot-in-command on the CRJ-100.
- 04The only survivor was a passenger; the manifest included 20 UN workers and several journalists and NGO staff.
- 05The aircraft was 16 years old at the time of the accident.
- 06The aircraft operated under the United Nations callsign 'UNO834'.
Safety Actions & Advisories
Training Syllabus Reform
The investigation recommended that Georgian Airways increase the number of simulator sessions for pilots being promoted to Captain, specifically focusing on severe weather recovery.
Airport Infrastructure
Recommendations were made for the installation of weather radar and low-level wind shear alert systems at major DRC airports.