Cubana Flight 1216

Cubana Flight 1216
An identical machine in Cubana / AOM painting
Accident summary
Accident type	Overshooting the runway
place	Guatemala City , Guatemala
date	December 21, 1999
Fatalities	16
Survivors	298
Injured	37
Fatalities on the ground	2
Injured on the ground	20th
Aircraft
Aircraft type	McDonnell-Douglas DC-10-30
operator	AOM French Airlines for Cubana
Mark	F-GTDI
Departure airport	Havana Airport , Cuba
Destination airport	La Aurora Airport , Guatemala
Passengers	296
crew	18th
Lists of aviation accidents

On December 21, 1999, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 , operated by AOM French Airlines for Cubana , crashed on Cubana flight 1216 while landing at La Aurora Airport in Guatemala City . The machine coming from Havana shot over the runway and fell into a residential area, killing 18 people and injuring 57.

plane

The machine during its service life at Air Afrique in June 1993

The aircraft that crashed was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30. The aircraft had the factory number 46890, it was the 77th DC-10 from ongoing production, which was finally assembled at the McDonnell Douglas plant in Long Beach , California . The machine completed its maiden flight on December 6, 1972 and was delivered to Air Afrique on February 28, 1972 , where it received the aircraft registration TU-TAL and the name Libreville . From February 6, 1985, the aircraft was leased to JAT Yugoslav Airlines before it returned to Air Afrique as a lease return on November 13, 1986. On January 5, 1996, AOM French Airlines took over the machine and registered it with the registration number F-GTDI . AOM French Airlines leased the plane to Cubana, which it operated with its own crew. The three - engine long - range wide - body aircraft was equipped with three General Electric CF6-50C2 engines. The total operating performance of the machine up to the accident amounted to 85,760 operating hours, which accounted for 27,331 take-offs and landings.

On July 24, 1987, the machine was hijacked on Air Afrique flight 056, which is used to fly the Brazzaville - Bangui - Rome - Paris route , and diverted to Geneva Airport. The PFLP hijacker shot a French passenger and injured a Senegalese flight attendant before being overpowered by the Swiss police.

crew

There was an 18-person crew on board, which was composed of a three-person cockpit crew and a 15-person cabin crew.

The three-person cockpit crew consisted of a flight captain, a first officer and a flight engineer:

• The 54-year-old flight captain Jorge Toledo (born April 13, 1945) was a Cuban citizen. From 1963 to 1972 he worked as a seafarer and only began his pilot career afterwards. From April 17, 1972, he was first officer on board the Ilyushin Il-14 , from June 18, 1973, master and from May 18, 1974, test captain in machines of this type. From January 7, 1976, he was captain and from November 29, test captain in machines of the Antonov An-24 type , from September 9, 1978 he was first officer in machines of the Ilyushin Il-18 type , from March 25, 1979 Captain in machines of the types Cessna 401 and Cessna 411 , in 1985 he flew Learjet machines as well as the Dassault Falcon 20 , in June 1986 he was captain and in June 1988 test captain on board the Tupolev Tu-154 . In February 1991 he completed a course with the Airbus A310 , but was never used on this type of aircraft. He flew the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 as captain since June 13, 1993. The captain had 16,117 hours of flight experience, of which he had completed 4,872 hours in the cockpit of the DC-10.

• The 41-year-old first officer (born November 22, 1958) was also a Cuban citizen. On August 3, 1978 he was trained as a pilot of the Antonov An-2 , on October 31, 1983 as a flight engineer. During his training as a flight engineer, he also flew the Jakowlew Jak-18 . He flew as first officer from June 23, 1985 and as captain of the Antonov An-24 from September 9, 1988. From January 8, 1990, he flew the Ilyushin Il-18 with the rank of first officer. From February 14, 1992 he was used as first officer on the Jakowlew Jak-42 . He flew the DC-10 since November 9, 1993 with the rank of first officer. The first officer had 8,115 hours of flight experience, 4,156 hours of which in the cockpit of the DC-10.

• The 59-year-old flight engineer (born October 20, 1940) was a Cuban citizen. From October 27, 1965 he worked as a maintenance mechanic on the aircraft types Bristol Britannia 318 , Ilyushin Il-18, Ilyushin Il-14, Douglas DC-3 , Curtiss C-46 and Douglas DC-4 . From June 4, 1966 he was employed as an on-board mechanic on the Bristol Britannia and Ilyushin Il-18 aircraft types. From August 2, 1973 he was engineering instructor on board the Bristol Britannia 318, from September 8, 1976 flight engineer on board the Douglas DC-8 , from September 20, 1977 flight engineer and from May 3, 1979 engineering instructor on board the Ilyushin Il-62 , from October 29, 1992 flight engineer on board the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and since February 17, 1993 engineer instructor in machines of this type. He had 22,819 hours of flight experience, of which he had completed 4,939 hours on board the DC-10.

In addition, there were two purser, each 52 years old, and 13 flight attendants, aged 26 to 39 years, on board.

Passengers

296 passengers had taken the flight from Havana to Guatemala City. Flight CU1216 was a Cubana charter flight on which Guatemalan students at Cuban universities were to be flown home to their families for the Christmas holidays . Correspondingly, 274 of the passengers were students with citizenship of Guatemala studying at the Latin American Medical School in Cuba and other Cuban universities.

the accident

The flight went smoothly until the approach to Guatemala City. At La Aurora Airport, the wind was blowing from 360 degrees at a speed of 8 knots, visibility was 6 nautical miles and the cloud cover was at an altitude of 2200 feet. The crew received clearance to land on runway 19 of the airport. The runway was wet at the time of landing. The machine touched down roughly in the middle of the runway and overshot it, broke through the airport fence and slid down a slope into a housing estate in the La Libertad district. The machine tore down ten houses.

Victim

In the accident, 16 people were killed on board the machine, including eight passengers and eight crew members, including the flight captain Jorge Toledo. Two people in the settlement also died. Of the casualties on board the machine, one crew member and nine passengers suffered serious injuries, six crew members and 21 passengers were slightly injured, as well as 20 residents of the settlement. Three crew members and 258 passengers were not injured.

root cause

The accident was attributed to the incorrect decision of the crew against performing a missed approach and insufficient braking. The overshooting of the runway was preceded by a visually stabilized approach using PAPI lighting . After the accident, the spoilers were found in the locked flight configuration, while the FDR recorded that they were set up after landing. The handle for the spoiler in the cockpit, which is operated automatically after the main landing gear has been put down, was in an undefined position. The reason for this discrepancy was not determined during the accident investigation.

swell

• Accident report DC-10-30, F-GTDI in the Aviation Safety Network
• Operating history of the machine , planespotters.net

Individual evidence

1. ^ Incident report on the hijacking of Air-Afrique flight 056, DC-10-30, TU-TAL in the Aviation Safety Network
2. ↑ ^{a b} Pilot error suspected in Guatemala crash , CNN / Reuters , December 22, 1999.