Aeropostal flight 109

Aeropostal flight 109
An identical McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 from Aeropostal
Accident summary
Accident type	Controlled flight into terrain
place	near Valera , Venezuela
date	March 5, 1991
Fatalities	45
Survivors	0
Injured	0
Aircraft
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32
operator	Linea Aeropostal Venezolana
Mark	YV-23C
Departure airport	Maracaibo Airport
Destination airport	Santa Bárbara Airport
Passengers	40
crew	5
Lists of aviation accidents

Aeropostal flight 109 was a domestic scheduled flight of the Linea Aeropostal Venezolana from Maracaibo to Santa Bárbara , on which a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 crashed into a mountain near Valera on March 5, 1991 . There were no survivors among the 40 passengers and five crew members.

Flight history

The McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 took off at 3:58 p.m. local time (9:58 p.m. CET) from Maracaibo for its 20-minute flight to Santa Bárbara. At 4:04 p.m. local time (10:04 p.m. CET), the cruising altitude of 16,500  ft (approx. 5,000  m ) was reached. A few minutes later, air traffic control in Santa Bárbara gave the crew the clearance to lower the aircraft to 5,500 ft (approx. 1,700  m ) for the landing approach  . The crew confirmed this and asked whether the radio beacon or the distance measuring equipment was not functional. Air traffic control denied this. At around 4:15 p.m. local time (10:15 p.m. CET) the master stopped the descent because he noticed that the instruments were incorrectly aligned . As a result, the aircraft made a right turn and climbed again. The Ground Proximity Warning System sounded and the aircraft crashed a few seconds later on a mist-shrouded mountain at an altitude of approximately 3,000 meters.

examination

The investigation revealed that the crew switched to visual flight as a result of incorrect course entry in meteorological conditions that made an instrument flight necessary and they saw the mountain too late. The change to a visual flight took place without checking the geographical position beforehand. Other contributing factors were a third male person in the cockpit who was not part of the crew, the temporary switching of a frequency intended for the radio compass to a music radio station and the lack of communication between the pilots.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Aircraft accident McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 YV-23C 27 km (16.9 mls) NE of Valera. In: Aviation Safety Network . Retrieved April 2, 2020 .