TAN flight 414
| TAN flight 414 | |
|---|---|
 The accident machine three months earlier |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Controlled flight into terrain |
| place |
Cerro de Hula , Honduras.svg){kind=small}
|
| date | October 21, 1989 |
| Fatalities | 131 |
| Survivors | 15th |
| Injured | 15th |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Boeing 727-224
|
| operator |
TAN Honduras
|
| Mark |
N88705
|
| Departure airport |
Juan Santamaría International Airport , Costa Rica
|
| Stopover |
Managua Airport , Nicaragua
|
| Destination airport |
Tegucigalpa Airport , Honduras
|
| Passengers | 138 |
| crew | 8th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
The TAN Flight 414 was an international scheduled flight of the Honduran airline TAN Honduras . On this flight, a Boeing 727-224 collided with a mountain on October 21, 1989 near Cerro de Hula , Honduras . The aircraft belonged to Continental Airlines and was leased to TAN Honduras. In the accident, 131 of the 146 people on board the machine were killed. It is the most serious aircraft accident in Central America .
machine
The aircraft involved in the accident was a Boeing 727-224, which was 21 years and 4 months old at the time of the accident. The machine with the serial number 19514 and the model serial number 597 was the work of Boeing on the Boeing Field in the state of Washington finally assembled and completed on 21 June 1968 its first flight. On July 1, 1968, the machine was delivered to Continental Airlines , which approved it with the aircraft registration number N88705 and gave it the fleet number 704 . From February 7, 1989, the machine was leased to TAN Honduras by Continental Airlines . The three-beam narrow-body aircraft was with three Turbojettriebwerken type Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7B equipped.
Passengers and crew
There was a crew of eight on board the machine. The cockpit crew consisted of the 34-year-old captain Raúl Argueta, the 26-year-old first officer Reiniero Canales and the flight engineer Marco Figueroa, all of whom were employed by TAN Honduras. 138 passengers had started the flight segment from Managua Airport to Tegucigalpa Airport.
the accident
The route from San José to Managua was flown without any special incidents. The second flight segment was also routine until the approach to Tegucigalpa . The air traffic control of the destination airport approved an approach to runway 01 using the radio beacon and the distance measuring equipment . Instead of using the prescribed descent procedure, which provided for a gradual descent, the crew initiated a continuous descent at a distance of 11 nautical miles from the airport. The descent profile of the machine was well below the specified downward course during the entire approach. At an altitude of 4,800 feet, the machine hit a mountain called Cerro de Hula about 800 feet below the summit. The scene of the accident was 4.8 nautical miles from the threshold of runway 01 at Tegucigalpa Airport. The aircraft was in the approach configuration on impact.
Victims and survivors
The fuselage of the machine broke into three parts on impact. Of the 131 inmates, only 20 people initially survived, five more died in the following days. Ultimately, 15 people survived the accident, including the three-person cockpit crew, a flight attendant and eleven passengers. Most of the survivors were in the front part of the fuselage and thus in the cockpit and in the first class. This was due to the fact that the aircraft had flown against the mountain with the aircraft nose pointing far upwards, so that the greatest impact forces were absorbed by the middle and rear part of the fuselage.
consequences
The three-man crew of the machine were charged with manslaughter through negligence and brought to justice. The legal processing of the case was never completed. Exactly five months after the accident, a Lockheed L-188 Electra cargo plane operated by TAN Honduras (HR-TNL) also had an accident under similar circumstances on Cerro de Hula, killing all three occupants.
Commemoration
A memorial was erected at the site of the accident for the victims of the accident.
swell
- Accident report B727-200 N88705 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed March 31, 2020.
- NEGLIGENCIA CRIMINÁL EN EL DESASTRE DEL VUELO 414 DE TAN-SAHSA on Grandes Disastres Aereos
- Operational history of the machine on planelogger.com
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 13 ° 56'43 " N , 87 ° 14'27" W.