VARIG flight 254
| VARIG flight 254 | |
|---|---|
 Sister machine of the same type as the machine in the accident |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Crash landing without fuel |
| place | Sao José do Xingu |
| date | 3rd September 1989 |
| Fatalities | 13 |
| Survivors | 41 |
| Injured | 32 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-200 |
| operator | Varig |
| Mark | PP-VMK |
| Surname | RG254 |
| Departure airport | Sao Paulo-Guarulhos Airport |
| Stopover | Marabá Airport |
| Destination airport | Belém Airport |
| Passengers | 48 |
| crew | 6th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
VARIG flight 254 was a scheduled flight of the Brazilian airline Varig with a Boeing 737-241 , which crashed on September 3, 1989 near São José do Xingu .
Flight history
After taking off from São Paulo-Guarulhos Airport , the flight was supposed to lead to Belém Airport with a stopover at Marabá Airport . The first part of the flight went without any problems. After the stopover, the aircraft took off again at Marabá at around 5:30 p.m. However, instead of flying north towards Belém, some 450 km away, it flew west.
After about 40 minutes of flight time, the pilots tried to contact the air traffic controller at the destination airport in Belém via VHF , but this did not succeed. Communication was only possible with the use of the HF radio link, which is of poor quality but has a greater range. The pilots still assumed they were near Belém and continued to sink. The radio traffic also indicates that the pilots were not aware of their position. However, since they could not find the airport, they realized they were nowhere near Belém. Since the attempts to determine their position using a radio direction finding from radio stations also failed, they followed a course of the river they believed to be the Amazon , which would have led them roughly towards Belém. The course of the river and, accordingly, the course of the machine did not match the Amazon, as the plane was now flying south. There was no emergency call to the air traffic controller. At around 8:30 p.m. the fuel ran low and the pilots had to make an emergency landing in the dark in the jungle. 12 passengers were killed because the hull of the machine broke apart in several places.
Rescue operations
Since the course of the flight was not monitored by radar, there was no indication of the crash site. Only the incorrect position information given by the pilots, who thought they were near Belém during the flight, gave a hint. Accordingly, the search focused on the area around the destination airport.
On the second day after the accident, several survivors went to the crash site to get help. The group, among them a diamond hunter familiar with the jungle, came upon a path after several hours that led to the settlement of São José do Xingu . From there, with the help of a radio amateur, the rescue teams could be led to the scene of the accident.
Search for the cause
The pilots stated that their navigational instruments did not work. After analyzing the data from the flight recorders , however, it turned out that the machine had gone on course 270 immediately after take-off, i.e. directly west. The correct course towards Belém would have been 27 degrees, i.e. to the northeast. So the pilots had entered the wrong course in the navigation devices. The reason for the incorrect entry was also the unusual display of the course on the Varig flight plan documents. The rate was shown as a four-digit number. The fourth digit was to be interpreted as a decimal place , but not separated from the other three digits by a decimal point. The pilots interpreted the entry 0270 as 270 degrees instead of 027.0 degrees, the correct course.
The pilots were accused of not having noticed the wrong navigation, although they had known the route to Belém. Among other things, they flew west towards the setting sun, while the correct course would have led them north-east. Also, they hadn't called for help over the radio when they realized they'd lost their bearings.
The pilots, who had been hailed as heroes before the cause of their emergency landing became known, were sentenced to community service. The air traffic controller in Belém was demoted because he was distracted by listening to a football game and failed to recognize the situation and gave the alarm too late.
consequences
As a result of the accident, Varig changed the course information in the flight documents to a representation with a decimal separator. In addition, comprehensive radar surveillance was set up in Brazil.
media
In the third episode of the 14th season of the Canadian television program Mayday - Alarm im Cockpit , a reconstruction of the accident was shown in the episode "Devoured by the Jungle".
literature
- Jan-Arwend Richter: God help us . In: AERO International . No. 4 , 2016.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Accident report PP-VMK Aviation Safety Network (English); Retrieved March 5, 2016.