ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 737-241 PP-VMK São José do Xingu, MT
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Status:Accident investigation report completed and information captured
Date:Sunday 3 September 1989
Time:20:45
Type:Silhouette image of generic B732 model; specific model in this crash may look slightly different
Boeing 737-241
Operator:Varig
Registration: PP-VMK
MSN: 21006/398
First flight: 1975-02-07 (14 years 7 months)
Total airframe hrs:33373
Engines: 2 Pratt & Whitney JT8D-17A
Crew:Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 6
Passengers:Fatalities: 12 / Occupants: 48
Total:Fatalities: 12 / Occupants: 54
Aircraft damage: Damaged beyond repair
Location:São José do Xingu, MT (   Brazil)
Phase: En route (ENR)
Nature:Domestic Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport:Marabá Airport, PA (MAB/SBMA), Brazil
Destination airport:Belém/Val-de-Cans International Airport, PA (BEL/SBBE), Brazil
Flightnumber:RG254
Narrative:
Varig flight 254, a Boeing 737-200 registered PP-VMK, was damaged beyond repair in a forced landing in the Amazon jungle in Brazil.
Flight 254 was a regular domestic service from São Paulo to Belém with an en route stop at Marabá. When the aircraft was preparing for departure at Marabá, the captain inadvertently entered the wrong course, 270 degrees in his Horizontal Situation Indicator (HSI). The flight plan called for a course of 027 degrees.
When the copilot returned from the walk-around check, he checked the course on the captain's HSI and inserted the same course in his HSI.
The flight took off from Marabá at 17:25. The aircraft climbed to FL290 and maintained the 270 radial of Marabá for about forty minutes. The flight was then cleared to descend to FL200 by Belém ACC. However, the crew failed to find navigational aids and lost radio contact.
Course was changed to 090 degrees as the aircraft further descended down to FL40. The crew then followed a river, heading 165 degrees. Because of the sunset and haze the pilot's had difficulty navigating. Also, they failed to establish radio contact on several frequencies and failed to find navaids in the area. Just after finding two NDB beacons the engines lost power due to fuel shortage. The aircraft lost altitude and the pilots were forced to carry out a landing in the dark and without external references.
At about 20:45 the aircraft made a forced landing in the jungle. The aircraft was located 44 hours after the accident. Forty-one occupants survived and thirteen had sustained fatal injuries in the accident.

It appeared that the computerized flight plan used a four digit representation of the magnetic bearing with the last digit being a tenth of a degree without any decimal separator. A course of '027.0' was presented as '0270'.

Probable Cause:

Contributing factors
a. Human Factor
(1) Physiological aspect - Did not contribute to the accident.
(2) Psychological aspect - The following psychological variables contributed to the accident:
(a) Misleading perception - In the reading of the plan and incorrect heading insertion by the commander.
(b) Reinforcement - In the reading and incorrect heading insertion by the co-pilot and heading conference placed by the commander.
(c) Marginal attention and level of attention - The non-recognition of conditions that would mean being far from the objective: request for "VHF bridge" when other aircraft were talking normally with the Control; "reception" of commercial stations, and non-receipt of destination NDB, etc.
(d) Predisposition - Mainting the urge to go to the established objective (Belem).
(e) Predisposition duration - Maintenance of FL 040 for a long time.
(f) Reinforcement of predisposition - Reception of boundaries when selecting Belem's radio frequencies.
(g) Attention Fixing - Permanent search for headings, radio contacts or river contours, as an alternative, to reach the fixed goal.
(h) Blocks - Delays in identifying the initial headings error and plotting itself in navigation.
(i) Geographical position error.
b. Material Factor - Did not contribute to the accident.
c. Operational Factor
(1) Poor supervision - Inadequate graphical representation of the Computer Flight Plan.
(2) Poor cockpit coordination - No supervision of cockpit activities. Actions were not supervised, but imitated.
(3) Poor support staff - Lack of radio contact by the operator's Flight Coordination with the aircraft in flight, after the significant landing delay in Belém, thus breaking the chain of events of the accident.
(4) Pilot aspect characterized by environmental influence - Difficulties of visualization due to sunset and dry fog: Radio aid markings received from great distances, originating from the ionospheric propagation of electromagnetic waves.
(5) Pilot aspect characterized by poor planning - Lack of route letters to cross the flight plan information.
(6) Pilot aspect characterized by poor judgment - Inadequate evaluation and use of radio-navigation equipment, resulting in the pursuit of markings without causing tuning and identification.
(7) Pilot aspect characterized by other operational factors - Operational doctrine firming.

Accident investigation:

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Investigating agency: CENIPA Brazil
Status: Investigation completed
Duration: 1 year and 8 months
Accident number: final report
Download report: Final report

Classification:
Navigational error
Fuel exhaustion
All engine powerloss
Forced landing outside airport

Sources:
» Aurelio A. Santos
» ICAO Adrep Summary 5/89 #11


Photos

photo of Boeing-737-241-PP-VMK
accident date: 03-09-1989
type: Boeing 737-241
registration: PP-VMK
 

Map
This map shows the airport of departure and the intended destination of the flight. The line between the airports does not display the exact flight path.
Distance from Marabá Airport, PA to Belém/Val-de-Cans International Airport, PA as the crow flies is 448 km (280 miles).
Accident location: Exact; as reported in the official accident report.

This information is not presented as the Flight Safety Foundation or the Aviation Safety Network’s opinion as to the cause of the accident. It is preliminary and is based on the facts as they are known at this time.
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Boeing 737-200

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 Brazil
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