Disappearance of a Boeing 727 from Faucett Perú
| Disappearance of a Boeing 727 from Faucett Perú | |
|---|---|
 An identical Boeing 727-200 with Air Malta painting |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | unexplained (presumably lack of fuel) |
| place |
Atlantic Ocean , approximately 290 km southeast of Cape Race , Newfoundland , Canada
|
| date | September 11, 1990 |
| Fatalities | 16 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Boeing 727-247
|
| operator |
 Faucett Perú
|
| Mark |
OB-1303
|
| Departure airport |
Malta Airport , Malta
|
| 1. Stopover |
Milan Linate Airport , Italy
|
| 2. Stopover |
Keflavík Airport , Iceland
|
| 3. Stopover |
Gander Airport , Canada
|
| 4. Stopover |
Miami Airport , United States
|
| Destination airport |
Lima Airport , Peru
|
| Passengers | 10 |
| crew | 6th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On September 11, 1990 , a Boeing 727-247 of Faucett Perú , with which a transatlantic transfer flight was carried out, disappeared without a trace in the North Atlantic , about 290 kilometers east of Newfoundland . Both the machine and the 16 people who were on board are still missing today. The most likely cause of the accident is a lack of fuel due to a navigation error.
plane
The Boeing 727-200 Advanced with the serial number 20266 was the 760th Boeing 727 produced. It was assembled on the Boeing factory premises in Renton, Washington and delivered on November 14, 1969 to the first owner Western Airlines . The three - engine narrow -body aircraft was powered by three Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9 engines. Faucett Perú took over the machine in May 1987 and initially registered it with the aircraft registration OB-R1303 . In December 1988 the approval was changed to OB-1303 . From March 1989 the aircraft was leased to Air Panama Internacional , from April 1990 to Air Malta .
Flight history
After the leasing contract for the summer season had expired, the machine was to be picked up from the lessee in Malta on September 11, 1990 and transferred to Lima . There were 18 people on board, including a six-person crew. The inmates were all Peruvian nationals, including Faucett Perú employees who had worked in Malta under the lease agreements and their families.
Since the Boeing 727 has a limited range as a medium- haul aircraft and is therefore actually not designed for transatlantic flights, several refueling stops were planned on the route. A first stop was made in Milan , then the plane landed one more time at Keflavík Airport . Some of the passengers disembarked there, while 16 people took the onward flight to the next stopover at Gander International Airport , from where a flight to Miami was planned. The plane took off from Keflavík at 1:16 p.m. local time.
When the machine was at 3:20 p.m. local time at an altitude of 10,000 feet (approx. 3000 meters) and 290 kilometers east of Newfoundland , the pilots declared an air emergency , stated that they had little fuel left on board and announced a ditching the machine. The signal was received by two nearby Trans World Airlines and American Airlines planes. Then contact with the machine broke off.
Search for the machine
After contact with the machine was broken, the Canadian Coast Guard began the search. Search teams from Halifax said they believed the machine had ditched , but three search planes dispatched from Aurora and three helicopters from Labrador City failed to find the machine or debris. The crews of ships that were sailing the sea routes in the search area that day were also involved in the search.
The Canadian Search and Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax described the weather conditions and visibility in the search area as good, but noted that the search area was very large. To determine the search area, on the one hand the position from which the aircraft had reported an air emergency and on the other hand the data from a satellite that was over England at the time the aircraft disappeared. A Coast Guard spokesman noted that the dots were far apart.
It was suspected that the machine was forced to land after it deviated from the intended flight route due to a navigation error and ran out of kerosene as a result. The search area southeast of Cape Race , the southern tip of Newfoundland , also supports this thesis . A spokesman for Faucett Perú claimed that all equipment required for ditching, such as life jackets and boats, was on board the machine. The rescue teams complained that the white color of the machine made it difficult to see when flying over the search area.
The search had to be stopped without results. No traces of the aircraft or its crew were found.
Similar incidents
Other incidents in which large commercial aircraft completely disappeared included:
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Accident Report B-727-200 OB-1303 Aviation Safety Network , accessed on March 18, 2019.
- ↑ Operating history of the Boeing 727-247 OB-1303 Jetphotos, accessed on March 18, 2019.
- ↑ Rzjets, Boeing 727-247 OB-1303 (in English), accessed on March 19, 2019
- ↑ a b c d e f g h William Claiborne: PERUVIAN AIRLINER LOST IN ATLANTIC OFF CANADA. In: Washington Post . September 12, 1990, Retrieved March 15, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d Boeing 727 ditches in Atlantic. September 11, 1990, accessed March 15, 2019 .