On 4 April 2011, Georgian Airways Flight 834, a Bombardier CRJ100 passenger jet of Georgian Airways operating a domestic flight from Kisangani to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), crashed while attempting to land at Kinshasa Airport. The aircraft, which was chartered by the United Nations, was trying to land during a thunderstorm. Of the 33 people on board, only one person survived. The incident remains the United Nations' deadliest aviation disaster. It is also the third-deadliest air disaster involving the CRJ100/200, behind Comair Flight 5191 and China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210.
The government of the DRC set up an investigation commission to probe the crash. It concluded that the aircraft had encountered a microburst moments after initiating a go-around, causing it to rapidly lose its altitude. Even though the crew's weather radar had depicted severe weather activity around the airport, the crew did not discontinue their flight to Kinshasa. Following the rapid altitude loss, the crew failed to recover the aircraft due to its very low altitude.
The aircraft was a Bombardier CRJ100ER, registered as 4L-GAE with a manufacturer serial number of c/n 7070. On 13 May 2008, under a lease agreement, the aircraft was chartered by the United Nations for its MONUSCO mission in the DRC.
Flight 834 was a domestic passenger flight from Kisangani, the capital of Orientale Province, to the national capital of Kinshasa, operated by the flag carrier of Georgia, Georgian Airways. It was carried out with a Bombardier CRJ100ER, which was chartered by the United Nations for its missions in Congo following the outbreak of conflicts in the area. The flight had been operated by Georgian Airways since 2008. Being chartered by United Nations, it was given the callsign "UNO".
UN flights were frequent in Congo, occurring more than hundreds of times a week as one of the best available means of transportation in the country; the flying route had been one of the most used in the country. Flights operated by United Nations were frequently used to transport journalists and staffs of various non-governmental organizations.
On 4 April 2011, the aircraft was assigned to carry out a flight from Kisangani to Kinshasa. In Kisangani, a total of 29 passengers boarded the aircraft. There were four crew members, consisted of Captain Alexei Hovhanesyan, First Officer Suliko Tsutskiridze, a flight attendant and a ground engineer. All of the crew members were Georgian citizens. The captain was reportedly a Georgian-Armenian. The captain and pilot in command was 27-year-old Alexey Hovhanesyan, who had 2,811 flight hours, including 1,622 hours on the CRJ100 (217 hours as captain and 1,405 as a first officer). He had just been promoted to captain of the CRJ100 approximately three months before the accident. The first officer was 22-year-old Suliko Tsutskiridze, who was far less experienced than Captain Hovhaesyan, having logged only 495 flight hours, with 344 of them on the CRJ100. The other crew members were identified as cabin crew Guram Kepuladze and ground engineer Albert Manukov.
The aircraft took off from Kisangani at 12:18 p.m local time with an estimated time of arrival at 13:55 p.m. The weather briefing for Kinshasa did not indicate any significant development of severe weather for the next two hours.
At 13:39 p.m., the crew requested to descend to 10,000 feet (3,000 m) and were later asked to report back after being cleared by the ATC. Following their clearance, they realized that severe weather condition had formed around Kinshasa. Captain Hovhanesyan stated that the aircraft would have to go around the weather system to avoid it. His co-pilot, First Officer Tsutskiridze, decided to observe the developing weather condition.
13:44:39 Captain Hovhanesyan: Damn! Now we will go around this shit!
13:44:43 First Officer Tsutskiridze: Yes, when will we have gone around it.
13:45:07 Hovhanesyan Or we will go around it from here, we will see, by distance
13:45:11 Tsutskiridze: It... I would say... It sees..
13:45:21 Tsutskiridze: This has almost crossed already, this on runway so will cross, We still need to fly for 10 minutes
13:45:45 Tsutskiridze: Check 250... Let's go (*)
13:45:59 Tsutskiridze: Oh, OH! Look how large it is!!!
Tsutkiridze was shocked to see the size of the storm, even could be heard once when he said that the entire ground surface was covered by "magenta" (the radar indication of possible strong thunderstorm activity). The discovery angered both pilots as the weather would complicate their landing attempt. During their conversation on the possible attempts to avoid the weather, personnel in Kinshasa asked the crew to report back on their position. The controller then cleared Flight 834 to conduct a straight-in approach to the localizer of Runway 24 of Kinshasa's N'djili Airport.
Captain Hovhanesyan, still angry with the weather condition in the area, asked his co-pilot to request the latest weather information in Kinshasa. Following their request, the controller in Kinshasa stated that the airport was being pounded with thunderstorm activity with winds at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph). The crew later discussed on the possible ways to approach the airport. Meanwhile, the airspeed continued to increase, nearly reaching 250 knots (460 km/h; 290 mph). The aircraft then descended to 3,500 feet (1,100 m). First Officer Tsutskiridze later said that he had seen the runway on one o'clock position. The crew reported back to the tower and the controller wished the crew a good landing.
The autopilot was turned off and the aircraft turned towards the runway. The crew configured the aircraft for landing and the passengers and other crews in the cabin were asked to prepare themselves. Approximately 2 nautical miles (3.7 km; 2.3 mi) from the airport, the crew successfully aligned the aircraft with the runway. The aircraft, however, came in at a speed that was above normal, causing the overspeed warning to sound. While the crew was trying to reduce speed, a squall line from the northeast arrived at Kinshasa. Heavy rain began to strike the aircraft. The aircraft continued to descend, passing over the airport's minimum descent altitude. First Officer Tsutkiridze stated that he could not see the runway anymore and suggested Captain Hovhanesyan go around, to which he agreed.