TANS Perú Flight 204
Captain Rolden International Airport Pucallpa, Peru | |
Destination | Coronel FAP Francisco Secada Vignetta International Airport Iquitos, Peru |
---|---|
Occupants | 98 |
Passengers | 91 |
Crew | 7 |
Fatalities | 40 |
Injuries | 58 |
Survivors | 58 |
TANS Perú Flight 204 was a domestic scheduled
Aircraft and crew
The aircraft involved was a 1981-built Boeing 737-244 Advanced
The captain was 45-year-old Octavio Perez Palma Garreta, who had 5,867 flight hours, including 3,763 hours on the Boeing 737. The first officer was 37-year-old Jorge Luis Pinto Panta, who had 4,755 flight hours, with 1,109 of them on the Boeing 737; 38-year-old Gonzalo Chirinos Delgado, a trainee pilot, was also on board. He had 2,700 flight hours, but only 61 of them on the Boeing 737.[3]: 7–10
Description of the accident
An unusual cold front was developing in the vicinity of Pucallpa, minutes before the event took place, with cloud tops estimated to be 45,000 feet (14,000 m) high.[2] Instead of diverting to another airport, the crew initiated the approach to Pucallpa Airport with torrential rain, hail, and strong winds.[5] Some 10 minutes before the scheduled time for landing, the aircraft started rocking.[5] Realising that the airport could not be safely reached amid the worsening weather conditions, the pilot attempted an emergency landing. The aircraft was flying through a hailstorm for the last 32 seconds of its ill-fated flight when it was seemingly taken down by a wind shear, hit tree tops, impacted terrain in a swamp located 3.8 nautical miles (7.0 km; 4.4 mi) ahead of the runway threshold, broke up as it crash landed, and burst into flames, leaving a path of debris and flaming fuel 100 feet (30 m) wide and 0.8 nautical miles (1.5 km; 0.92 mi) long.[2][5] The wreckage of the airplane was engulfed by the fire.[2]
With 91 passengers and seven crew members on board, 35 passengers and five crew (including the three pilots) died in the accident.[2]: 7 Non-Peruvian occupants of the aircraft included 11 Americans, one Australian, one Colombian, and one Spanish; Italians were also aboard, but the actual number of them depend upon the source.[5][6] Most of the fatalities were recorded for passengers travelling in the front of the aircraft.[2] Fifty-eight people survived the accident, many of them suffering serious injuries, mostly burns and broken limbs.[2][6]
Investigation
Investigation of the crash site was hindered by looters, who descended upon the crash and stole various elements to be sold for scrap.
In the media
Flight 204 has been the subject of a Reader's Digest story and an MSNBC documentary.[7][12] The Canadian TV series, Mayday, has also produced an episode about the accident named "Lack of Vision".[13]
See also
References
- ^ Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 16 December 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "OB-1809P Final Report" (PDF) (in Spanish). July 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
- ^ Flightglobal. Washington D.C. Flight International. Archived from the originalon 3 October 2013.
- ^ "TANS OB-1809-P aircraft history". Airfleets.net. Airfleets aviation. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
- ^ a b c d "58 walk away from Peruvian plane crash". USA Today. 25 August 2005. Archived from the original on 28 April 2006.
- ^ a b "Plane crashes in Peruvian jungle". BBC News. 24 August 2005. Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
- ^ a b Corderi, Victoria (30 September 2005). "Escape from flight 204". NBC News.
- ^ "Data recorder from Peru plane crash found". China Daily. 31 August 2005. Archived from the original on 27 June 2014.
- ^ "Accident record for 2005". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
- ^ "Accident record for TANS Perú". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the originalon 11 May 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
In January 2003, a TANS twin engine Fokker 28 turbojet, plowed into a 11,550-foot (3,465-meter) high mountain in Peru's northern jungle, killing all 42 passengers – including eight children – and four crew members aboard.
- ^ Rosellini, Lynn (January 2007). "Jet Crash in the Jungle". Reader's Digest. Archived from the original on 17 November 2007.
- ^ "Mayday Season 12, Episode 5: Lack of Vision". Archived from the original on 27 June 2014.
Investigators face a major challenge when looters make off with the Flight Data Recorder from the crash of TANS Peru Flight 204. Wreckage allows investigators to rule out engine failure. But with no FDR, it will take all their ingenuity to reconstruct the final moments of the flight and figure out why the 737 crashed into the jungle, just 4 kilometers short of the runway.
External links
- Final report (in Spanish)
- "In pictures: Peru plane crash". BBC News. 24 August 2005. Archived from the original on 27 June 2014.
- Salazar, Carla (24 August 2005). "Dozens Killed in Crash of Airliner in Peru Jungle". The Washington Post. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 27 June 2014.