Air Transat Flight 961

The Aircraft

Air Transat Flight 961 was an Airbus A310-308 that was operating a flight from Varadero, Cuba to Quebec City on March 6, 2005. The Airbus A310-300 operating the flight wore the registration C-GPAT and first flew on September 24, 1991. The airplane had previously flown with Emirates before joining the rapidly growing fleet of Canadian tour operator Air Transat in 2001.

The Incident

Flight 961 was a routine scheduled commercial flight carrying 262 passengers and 9 crew from Varadero, Cuba to Quebec City on March 6, 2005. At 2:48am EST, flight 961 powered into the skies abouve Cuba. The flight climbed to it's initial cruising altitude of 35,000 feet and the flight attendants began the inflight service. All was normal for the unsuspecting passengers and crew of flight 961. Then, suddenly, at 3:02am, the aircraft began a dutch roll after a loud

Sources

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20050306-0 http://www.airdisaster.com/photos/c-gpat/photo.shtml http://www.jetphotos.net/census/aircraft.php?reg=C-GPAT&msn=597