Aviation

Aviation

Aviation

20 April 1998 ­ Bogotá, Colombia

A Boeing 727 crashed into mountains outside Bogotá shortly after take-off today and all 61 people on board were believed killed, airline officials said. The aircraft belonged to Ecuador's military-run Transportes Aereos Nacionales Ecuatorianas CA ("TAME"), and spokesmen for the company in Bogotá and Quito, Ecuador, said 51 passengers and a ten-person crew were on board when the aircraft crashed three minutes after take-off from Bogotá's El Dorado airport. Police and rescue workers said all 61 people were killed when the aircraft, en route to Quito, burst into flames near the top of the Cerro El Cable mountain at 1637 hrs (2147, UTC). "There are definitely no survivors on the ground," said William Henao, a police officer who was one of the first people to make his way to the crash site. Rescue operations were called off about two hours after the crash because of heavy rain and poor visibility after nightfall on the flanks of the mist-shrouded mountain. "Most of the passengers were foreigners," a Civil Aviation spokesman said, adding that the aircraft had been contracted out to Air France.

21 April 1998 ­ French national airline Air France said today the Boeing 727-200 airliner which crashed shortly after take-off killing all 53 people on board, had been leased from Ecuador's military-run airline TAME. It said that all but four of the 43 passengers on board the flight to Quito had been aboard an earlier regular Air France flight from Paris to Bogotá and had changed to the leased aircraft in Bogotá. Forty-three passengers and ten crew died in the crash, Air France said. Air France said the plane went down at about 2140, UTC, yesterday. The reason for the crash was not yet known, the airline said. Civil Aviation officials in Bogotá said the jet was well off course when it hit the mountain. The aircraft went down near a police communications base and the impact was so heavy that it sent debris, including parts of seat cushions and French-language travel documents, raining down on a residential district of central Bogotá.

21 April 1998 ­ Grieving relatives arrived at a Bogotá police station today to await the release of the remains of loved ones killed when a Boeing 727 plowed into a mountain in the city, killing all 53 people on board. The remains were taken from the mountain in bags, numbering 16 by nightfall, and will be examined by forensic experts, pathologists and dentists to identify the people killed in the crash. About 27 Europeans, including seven French, one Briton, Germans, Belgians, Italians, Danes, Spaniards and Swedes were on board, Air France deputy director Alain Vidalon said in Paris. The search for victims was suspended at dusk today, as heavy rains fell over Bogotá for a second night. And security forces ringed the crash site to prevent residents from a nearby slum from looting valuables. A police spokesman said the 16 body bags had been brought down to the foot of the mountain and placed inside a police station on one of the city's major thoroughfares. A team of French investigators also arrived in Colombia today to begin unravelling the mystery of why the Quito-bound aircraft veered off course and crashed just three minutes after take-off. Civil Aviation authorities reported that both "black box" flight recorders had now been recovered and were due to be shipped to Boeing experts in the USA.

22 April 1998 ­ Authorities said they were wrapping up a three-day-old search today for 53 people killed when a Boeing passenger jet flew into a mountain near here. Army Col Alvaro Matallana, who is co-ordinating rescue operations, said the search today was focused on two previously unexplored areas, including part of the rugged 11,000-ft-high mountain where the aircraft's tail section went down: He said specially trained sniffer dogs were at the crash site to speed up the search.

23 April 1998 ­ None of the 53 victims killed in the crash of a Boeing 727 near Bogotá this week has yet been identified because almost all the corpses were mangled beyond recognition, forensic experts said today. Forensic experts today were involved in the complex task of sifting through some 120 bags of human remains, possessions and documents collected from the crash site. Rescue workers continued combing through wreckage atop the Cerro El Cable mountain for more body parts and additional clues to the identity of the victims. Search operations were expected to be wound up by the weekend, police sources said.

6 May 1998 ­ Andoas, Peru

Thirteen people survived the crash late yesterday in the Amazon jungle of a Peruvian Air Force Boeing 737 chartered by US-based Occidental Petroleum Corp, with 87 people on board, Occidental said today. "The first reports from the scene indicate that there are 13 survivors, who are being attended by medical personnel," Occidental said in a news release. "Occidental is co-ordinating the rescue work with the air force and the relevant authorities. A helicopter is trying to evacuate the wounded, but the bad weather in the area has impeded the rescue up to now," Occidental said. The jet, carrying 79 Occidental workers and oil subcontractors as well as eight crew, crashed at about 2130 yesterday (0230, UTC, 6 May) when it was coming in to land during a storm at Andoas, Occidental's main base camp in remote jungle near the border with Ecuador. A source in the Peruvian military said the aircraft was one of the newest in service with the air force and just three or four years old. The accident site appeared to be fairly rocky terrain, without much tree cover to absorb the impact of the crash, the source added.

6 May 1998 ­ A Peruvian air force Boeing 737, chartered by US-based Occidental Petroleum Corp, crashed in the Amazon jungle late yesterday, killing up to 74 of the 87 people on board, Occidental said today. "We have accounted for 13 survivors, and that's all we can say at this time," Occidental executive vice-president Bob Ireland told a news conference in Lima. "Early indications were that there was a crash with a fire and when we over-flew it with a helicopter that was what we determined," Ireland said. Some of the survivors were found almost unhurt and on their feet, but others were more seriously injured, an Occidental spokeswoman said earlier. Rescue workers combing the wreckage in swampy ground under heavy rain found bodies but others were still unaccounted for. The aircraft, carrying 79 Occidental workers and oil subcontractors and a crew of eight, crashed at about 2130 yesterday (0230, UTC, May 6) when it was coming in to land at Andoas, Occidental's main base camp in the jungle near the border with Ecuador in northern Peru. The company sent three rescue teams by land and river to the site, three miles north of Andoas. Rain, mist and thick jungle meant they did not arrive until 0230 hrs (0730, UTC) and a helicopter could not evacuate the injured to the camp hospital for several hours. Most of the passengers were Peruvians, but Occidental said one US citizen, Harold Whitehead, was killed. Whitehead worked as a contractor for Occidental, company officials said. The aircraft had taken off from Iquitos, about 630 miles north-east of Lima, for the flight 190 miles west for Andoas. In Seattle, Boeing said the aircraft was a 15-year-old Boeing 737-200 acquired by the Peruvian air force in the last month. Its log of 23,000 flights and 37,000 flight hours was "not particularly high" for an aircraft of that age, a spokesman said.

9 May 1998 ­ Rescue workers have found and identified the remains of all 74 people killed when a Peruvian air force Boeing 737 crashed in the Amazon jungle last Tuesday (5 May), Occidental Petroleum said today. All of the remains have been flown out of Occidental's jungle oil camp at Andoas near Peru's northern border with Ecuador and handed over to the victims' relatives, Occidental said in a news release. Investigators still have to find the plane's "black box" flight recorder, which could contain vital information on the jet's last moments, a military source said.

10 May 1998 ­ Investigators have found the "black box" flight recorder from the Peruvian air force Boeing 737 which crashed this week in the Amazon jungle, a military source said today. Searchers found the flight recorder late yesterday, a military source said.

13 May 1998 ­ Nema, Mauritania

A Mauritanian military transport plane crashed in the east of the West African state and early reports indicated only three of the 42 people on board survived, military sources said today. Mauritanian Air Force sources said the Chinese-built XIAN (Antonov) Y-7 crashed as it tried to take off last night from the eastern town of Nema, close to the border with Mali. The cause of the accident was not clear. Most of those on the plane were believed to be military, travelling to Nouakchott from the country's military command region around Nema. Civilians, usually families of the military, also travel on such flights. The three known survivors were said to be two military and a civilian.