5. LAPA Flight 3142
On 31 August 1999, a Boeing 737-204C, operating as LAPA Flight 3142, crashed while attempting to take off from the Jorge Newbery Airport in Buenos Aires. The crash resulted in 65 fatalities, 17 people severely injured and several people with minor injuries, making it one of the deadliest accidents in the history of Argentinian aviation.
As the aircraft started its take-off run, a warning sounded in the cockpit, indicating that the aircraft was not correctly configured for the maneuver. The crew continued the run, not realizing that the flaps were not at the required take-off position, and were instead fully retracted, thus preventing the aircraft from lifting off. The jet overshot the runway, breaking through the airport’s perimeter fence, crossed a road, hitting an automobile, and finally collided with road-construction machinery and a highway median. Fuel spilling over the hot engines, and gas leaking from a damaged gas regulation station, resulted in a fire that totally destroyed the aircraft.
4. Flying Tiger Line Flight 66
On 19 February 1989, a Boeing 747-249F, operating as Flying Tiger Flight 66, was flying an non-directional beacon (NDB) approach to Runway 33 at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, Kuala Lumpur, after having flown half an hour from Singapore Changi Airport. In descent, the flight was cleared to “Kayell”, with a morse code of “KL”, which four separate points on the ground were commonly called by Malaysian ATC, albeit with different frequencies. Two separate radio beacons were identically coded “KL”, as well as the VOR abbreviation (Kuala Lumpur shortened to “KL”). The airport was also sometimes referred to as “KL” by local ATC (instead of the full “Kuala Lumpur”). The crew was unsure of which point they were cleared to.
ATC then radioed to the flight, “Tiger 66, descend two four zero zero [2,400 ft]. Cleared for NDB approach runway three three.” The captain of Tiger 66, who heard “descend to four zero zero” replied with, “Okay, four zero zero” (meaning 400 ft above sea level, which was 2,000 ft too low). Subsequent warnings triggered by the onboard Ground Proximity Warning System were cancelled as false alarms, and the aircraft hit a hillside 600 ft above sea level, killing all four people on board. The proper radio call from ATC, instead of “descend two four zero zero”, should have been “descend and maintain two thousand four hundred feet”.
3. Adam Air 574
On 1 January 2007, a Boeing 737-4Q8, operating as Adam Air Flight 574 (KI-574), was flying a scheduled domestic passenger flight between the Indonesian cities of Surabaya (SUB) and Manado (MDC). The plane was ultimately determined to have crashed into the ocean, from which some smaller pieces of wreckage have been recovered. The flight recorders (“black boxes”) were retrieved from the ocean on 28 August, 2007, while salvage efforts for some larger pieces of wreckage continued. All 102 people on board died.
A full national investigation was immediately launched into the disaster, uncovering multiple maintenance issues concerning the airline as a whole, including a large number concerning the aircraft. Another possibility, proposed by the families of some of the deceased, is that the crash was due to a faulty rudder valve, known to have caused previous accidents and incidents on Boeing 737′s. Debris location has indicated that the plane likely struck the ocean intact. The final report, released on 25 March 2008, concluded that the pilots lost control of the aircraft after they became preoccupied with troubleshooting the inertial reference system, and inadvertently disconnected the autopilot. Offical Crash Report.
2. VASP Flight 168
On 8 June, 1982, a Boeing 727-212A, operating as VASP Flight 168, was flying a scheduled passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Fortaleza. The flight departed Rio on its way to Fortaleza. As the flight approached its destination, it was cleared to descend from its cruising altitude of FL330 (approx. 33,000 feet Mean sea level) to 5,000 feet. Flying at night, with the lights of the city of Fortaleza in front, the Boeing 727 descended through its 5,000 feet clearance limit, and kept on descending until it crashed into a mountainside at 2,500 feet, killing all 137 on board.
Investigation revealed that the captain, possibly disoriented due to bright lights from the city ahead, continued the descent well below the 5,000 feet clearance limit, despite being warned twice by the altitude alert system, as well as by the co-pilot, of the terrain ahead. As the Boeing kept descending, it struck a wooded mountainside at 2,500 feet and crashed
1. Air Florida Flight 90
On 13 January, 1982, a Boeing 737, operating as Air Florida Flight 90, was a scheduled U.S. domestic passenger flight from Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. to Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with a stopover at Tampa International Airport, in Tampa, Florida. The aircraft crashed into the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River, killing all but 4 passengers and a single flight attendant.
The aircraft carried 74 passengers and five crew members, when it crashed during the failed takeoff attempt. When the aircraft struck the 14th Street Bridge, which carries Interstate Highway 395 between Washington, D.C., and Arlington County, Virginia. It crushed seven occupied vehicles on the bridge, and destroyed 97 feet (30 m) of guard rail, before it plunged through the ice into the Potomac River. The crash occurred less than two miles (3 km) from the White House, and within view of both the Jefferson Memorial and The Pentagon.
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