Aeroperu flight 603

Aeroperu flight 603
	The Boeing 757 a few months before the crash
Accident summary
Accident type	Crash from uncontrolled flight position (failure of important instruments) ( stall )
place	Pacific Ocean
date	October 2, 1996
Fatalities	70
Survivors	0
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 757-23A
operator	Aeroperú
Mark	N52AW
Departure airport	Miami International Airport , United States;
1. Stopover	Mariscal Sucre International Airport , Ecuador;
2. Stopover	Jorge Chavez International Airport , Peru
Destination airport	Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport , Chile
Passengers	61
crew	9
	Lists of aviation accidents

Aeroperú flight 603 shortly before impacting the sea (computer-generated simulation graphics)

Aeroperú flight 603 was a scheduled flight from Lima , Peru , to Santiago de Chile , on which the Boeing 757-200 in use had an accidenton October 2, 1996as a result of a maintenance error. All 70 occupants were killed when the machine hit the Pacific Ocean .

Course of the accident

Shortly after the Boeing 757-200 took off on the night of October 2, 1996 at 12:42 am local time on runway 15, the pilots noticed that their primary flight instruments were providing incorrect data. In addition, she warned the EICAS of partly conflicting problems, including rudder ratio , overspeed , stall and too low - terrain . The crew placed an emergency call and asked for permission to return to Lima Airport . Believing that she was already at a sufficient altitude, she began the descent for the imminent landing. However, since the machine was above the sea at this point - shortly after midnight - the pilots had no outside view and they were unable to maintain speed due to the instrument errors, which led to several stall. As a result, the machine quickly lost altitude, but this was not displayed to the pilots on the altimeters "frozen" at 9,700 feet. This altitude was also confirmed by the Lima flight control, as it was based on the transponder data. The pilots only became aware of the actual altitude when the left wing hit the water. The climb, which was initiated immediately, led to a rolling movement, which the pilot also recognized in the last recorded request to speak. The aircraft crashed into the sea on its back 17 seconds after first contact with the water surface at 01:10 a.m. local time, approximately 25 minutes after the emergency was declared.

All 61 passengers and nine crew members were killed.

Accident investigation

The commission charged with investigating the crash came to the conclusion that the main cause of the accident was adhesive tape that had been stuck to the inlet openings of the aircraft to protect the pitot static system . This system supplies the barometric flight instruments in the cockpit with information about the pressure conditions. This information is used to display airspeed, altitude and climb or descent on the appropriate instruments. After cleaning, it was forgotten to remove the adhesive strips, which led to a complete failure of the relevant flight instruments. The adhesive strips could still be seen on recovered wreckage.

The media catastrophe

The disaster of Aeroperú flight 603 was shown in the Canadian television series Mayday - Alarm im Cockpit with the English title Flying Blind and the German title Blindflug in the fifth episode of the first season. In simulated scenes, animations and interviews with bereaved relatives and investigators, reports were made about the preparations, the process and the background of the flight.

The flight was also featured in the play (1999) and later film (2013) Charlie Victor Romeo .

Nationalities of passengers

A little less than half of the passengers on the flight were Chileans.

country	number
country	Passengers	crew	total
Chile Chile	30th	00	30th
Colombia Colombia	01	00	01
Ecuador Ecuador	02	00	02
Italy Italy	02	00	02
Mexico Mexico	06th	00	06th
New Zealand New Zealand	01	00	01
Peru Peru	11	09	20th
Spain Spain	01	00	01
United Kingdom United Kingdom	02	00	02
United States United States	04th	00	04th
Venezuela Venezuela	01	00	01
Total (11)	61	09	70