Accident Douglas DC-9-14 HK-3839X,
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ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 324806
 
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Date:Tuesday 10 January 1995
Time:19:38
Type:Silhouette image of generic DC91 model; specific model in this crash may look slightly different    
Douglas DC-9-14
Owner/operator:Intercontinental de Aviación
Registration: HK-3839X
MSN: 45742/26
Year of manufacture:1966
Total airframe hrs:65084 hours
Cycles:69716 flights
Engine model:Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7A
Fatalities:Fatalities: 51 / Occupants: 52
Aircraft damage: Destroyed, written off
Category:Accident
Location:near Maria La Baja -   Colombia
Phase: Approach
Nature:Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:Bogotá-Eldorado Airport (BOG/SKBO)
Destination airport:Cartagena-Rafael Núñez Airport (CTG/SKCG)
Investigating agency: Aerocivil
Confidence Rating: Accident investigation report completed and information captured
Narrative:
A Douglas DC-9-14 passenger plane, HK-3839X, was destroyed in an accident near Maria La Baja, Colombia. All five crew members and 46 passengers were killed. Just one of the passengers, a nine year old girl, surived.
Intercontinental de Aviación Flight ITC256 was scheduled to depart at 12:10 on a service to Cartagena and San Andres Island. The flight was delayed because of a malfunction on the previous flight. Maintenance work had to be carried out on the electrical system.
The flight finally departed at 18:45 after a delay of over six hours. At 19:09 the contacted the Bogota Center controller and reported en route at FL310. At 19:26 Barranquilla Control cleared the flight to start the descent from FL310 to FL140 and to report passing FL200. They passed FL200 at 19:33 and were instructed to contact Barranquilla Approach. One minute later, the flight was cleared further down to 8000 feet and to report passing 12.000 feet. This was the last radio contact with the flight. At 19:38 hours the crew of Aerocorales Flight 209 (a Cessna Caravan) reported that they saw "the lights of an airplane in rapid descend", followed by a ground explosion. The airplane came down in a marshy lagoon 56 km from Cartagena Airport. Investigation revealed that the no. 1 altimeter indicated 16.200 feet on impact.

PROBABLE CAUSE:
The probable cause of this accident was the loss of situational awareness by the crew.

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS:
Contributing to the loss of Vertical Situational Awareness, was the failure of the altimeter Number one during the descent, the lack of light in the altimeter Number two, the ineffectiveness of the Altitude Alert due to the failure of the altimeter Number one, the lack of radar service in the area, the complacency of the command crew because of good weather conditions, flight training that may not have been authorized by the company, the failure of the ground proximity warning system (GPWS), or lack of crew reaction time to respond to this alarm.

Accident investigation:
cover
  
Investigating agency: Aerocivil
Report number: final report
Status: Investigation completed
Duration:
Download report: Final report

Sources:


Location

Images:


photo (c) Aero Icarus; December 1993


photo (c) via Werner Fischdick; Oklahoma City-Will Rogers Airport, OK (OKC); February 1993

Revision history:

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