American Airlines Flight 965
| American Airlines Flight 965 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) An identical Boeing 757 from the company. |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | controlled flight into the terrain |
| place | near Buga , Colombia |
| date | December 20, 1995 |
| Fatalities | 159 |
| Survivors | 4 (+ 1 dog ) |
| Injured | 4th |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 757-223 |
| operator | American Airlines |
| Mark | N651AA |
| Departure airport | Miami International Airport , USA |
| Destination airport | Aeropuerto Internacional Alfonso Bonilla Aragón , Colombia |
| Passengers | 155 |
| crew | 8th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
American Airlines flight 965 was an international scheduled flight of the US airline American Airlines from Miami , USA to Cali , Colombia , which crashed on December 20, 1995 near Buga.
The Boeing 757-223 collided with a mountain about 50 kilometers from the destination airport on approach. 159 of the 163 people on board were killed in the accident.
The accident was the 1995 aviation accident with the most fatalities and the worst of a Boeing 757 until the crash of Birgenair flight 301 a few weeks later. It was also the worst accident by a US airline since the Lockerbie attack . Human error has been identified as the cause.
Starting position
The Boeing 757-223 left Gate D33 of Miami International Airport , USA , on December 20, 1995 at 5:14 pm local time for the airport of the city of Cali , the Aeropuerto Internacional Alfonso Bonilla Aragón , in Colombia . Due to the high seasonal traffic volume, the machine started about two hours late.
The 57-year-old captain Nicholas Tafuri had around 13,000 hours of flight experience at the time of the accident and had been with American Airlines since 1969, while the 39-year-old first officer Donald Williams had around 5,800 hours of experience and had worked for AA since 1986. The aircraft had been in service with American Airlines since August 27, 1991 and had accumulated 13,782 flight hours in 4,922 flights since its manufacture. The weather at the scene of the accident was slightly cloudy with light wind; there were light showers in the area.
the accident
Due to the good weather, the air traffic controllers asked the pilots whether instead of landing on runway 01 they wanted to land in the opposite direction on runway 19, which could be reached more directly. Since the flight was significantly delayed, the pilots opted for this time-saving alternative. After operating the on-board computer incorrectly, the pilots had to use cards. Because of another misunderstanding, the pilots mistakenly programmed the autopilot with wrong waypoints. The computer therefore initiated a curve to the east for a course towards Bogotá . When the error was discovered, the aircraft was in a valley running parallel to the route actually intended. As the pilots programmed a course back to the airport, the aircraft came on a collision course with a 3000 meter high mountain between the aircraft and the airport.
Twelve seconds before the impact, the ground proximity warning system warned the pilots, who then tried to initiate a climb. However, due to the air brake , which was still activated during the descent , not enough altitude could be gained to fly over the mountain.
Investigations showed that the accident could have been avoided if the pilots had retracted the air brakes immediately after the warning from the GPWS.
159 of the 163 people on board died, including all eight crew members. The four survivors suffered serious injuries. Initially, another passenger survived the accident, but then died from his injuries. In addition, a dog was rescued from the wreck.
Media implementation
In the documentary series Mayday - Alarm im Cockpit , the disaster was filmed in the episode Crash on Mount San Jose .
The former AA employee and head of operations during the accident wrote a book about the accident in which one of the survivors plays a central role.
See also
Web links
- Investigation report of Aeronautica Civil (Spanish, 19.2 MB and basis of the report of the University of Bielefeld linked as a source)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b AA965 Cali Accident Report. Bielefeld University, November 6, 1996, archived from the original on June 8, 2013 ; accessed on May 13, 2013 .
- ↑ Case Details> Crash of American Airlines Boeing. Retrieved May 9, 2013 .
- ^ Tammy L. Kling, Exit Row: The Inside Story of Flight 965, Four Miraculous Survivors and What Airlines Do When Disaster Strikes . Sourcebooks 2002. ISBN 1-57071-860-1
Coordinates: 3 ° 50 ′ 45.2 " N , 76 ° 6 ′ 17.1" W.