Cebu Pacific Flight 387
| Cebu Pacific Flight 387 | |
|---|---|
 A structurally identical Douglas DC-9 of the Cebu Pacific |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Controlled flight into terrain |
| place |
Sumagaya , Philippines
|
| date | February 2, 1998 |
| Fatalities | 104 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Douglas DC-9-32
|
| operator |
Cebu Pacific
|
| Mark |
RP-C1507
|
| Departure airport |
Manila Airport , Philippines
|
| Stopover |
Tacloban Airport , Philippines
|
| Destination airport |
Cagayan de Oro Airport , Philippines
|
| Passengers | 99 |
| crew | 5 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On the Cebu Pacific flight 387 (flight number IATA : 5J387 , ICAO : CEB387 ) was on February 2, 1998, a Douglas DC-9-32 with the air vehicle registration RP-C1507 of Cebu Pacific , with a domestic scheduled flight from Manila via Tacloban to Cagayan de Oro was flown off-road on Mount Sumagaya . All 104 people on board the machine died in the accident. Until the accident on Air Philippines Flight 541 on April 19, 2000, it was the worst accident in the Philippines.
plane
The affected machine was a Douglas DC-9-32, which was finally assembled at the McDonnell Douglas plant in Long Beach , California . The aircraft had the factory number 47069, it was the 175th Douglas DC-9 from ongoing production. The machine was rolled out on August 17, 1967. The machine was certified with the aircraft registration number CF-TLQ and delivered to Air Canada on September 30, 1967 . The machine was given the fleet number 716 there . On January 1, 1974, the aircraft 's registration number was changed to C-FTLQ . The machine remained with Air Canada until it was decommissioned on March 3, 1997. Subsequently, the Cebu Pacific took over the machine and registered it again with the new aircraft registration RP-C1507 . The twin- engined narrow -body aircraft was equipped with two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7B engines. By the time of the accident, the machine had completed a total of 73,784 operating hours.
Passengers and crew
On board the machine there were five crew members and 94 passengers with Filipino nationality, including five children. There were also five foreign passengers on board.
| nationality | Passengers | crew | total |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Philippines
|
94 | 5 | 99 |
 Australia
|
1 | - | 1 |
 Austria
|
1 | - | 1 |
 Japan
|
1 | - | 1 |
 Switzerland
|
1 | - | 1 |
 Canada
|
1 | - | 1 |
| total | 99 | 5 | 104 |
the accident
The plane left Manila at 9:00 a.m. local time and was scheduled to arrive in Cagayan de Oro at 11:03 a.m. At 10:20 a.m. there was a stopover in Tacloban. A final radio contact with air traffic control in Cagayan de Oro took place 15 minutes before the aircraft was scheduled to land. The captain said he was 68 kilometers from the airport and announced that he would begin the descent. There was no evidence that the aircraft was in any trouble. The weather was good and the machine was flown in visual flight. The machine was flown 45 kilometers from the airport into Mount Sumagaya .
root cause
While a controlled flight into terrain was quickly established as the type of accident, there is controversy in the Philippines regarding the cause of the accident. The machine had been flown in visual flight. While the sky at the airport was clear, the mountains may be covered in fog. Chief of Staff Clemente Mariano speculated that the plane nearly passed the top of the mountain but may have suffered a draft causing it to hit the mountain. Jesus Dureza, the crisis manager during the rescue and recovery operations, said he found out that the air transport bureau's approach charts incorrectly listed the altitude of the mountain as 5,000 feet above sea level when the mountain is actually 6,000 feet above sea level. This mistake may have misled the pilots into believing they were at a safe altitude while in fact flying dangerously low. The aviation authority, however, pointed out in a report that pilot training was inadequate.
swell
- Accident report DC-9-32, RP-C1507 in the Aviation Safety Network
- Froilan Gallardo: 15 years after Flight 387 crashed, questions remain unanswered , Mindanews.com , February 4, 2013.
- Operating history DC-9-32, RP-C1507 in the Aviation Safety Network
Coordinates: 8 ° 38 '56.2 " N , 125 ° 1' 59.6" E