Aeropostal flight 109
Aeropostal flight 109 | |
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An identical McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 from Aeropostal |
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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
- ^ 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 .