Status:	Final
Date:	20 APR 1998
Time:	16:45
Type:	Boeing 727-230
Operating for:	Air France
Leased from:	TAME Ecuador
Registration:	HC-BSU
C/n / msn:	21622/1431
First flight:	1979-01-03 (19 years 4 months)
Total airframe hrs:	34586
Cycles:	26475
Engines:	3 Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15
Crew:	Fatalities: 10 / Occupants: 10
Passengers:	Fatalities: 43 / Occupants: 43
Total:	Fatalities: 53 / Occupants: 53
Airplane damage:	Destroyed
Airplane fate:	Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:	10 km (6.3 mls) SW of Bogotá-Eldorado Airport (BOG) (Colombia)
Phase:	En route (ENR)
Nature:	International Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport:	Bogotá-Eldorado Airport (BOG/SKBO), Colombia
Destination airport:	Quito-Mariscal Sucre Airport (UIO/SEQU), Ecuador
Flightnumber:	422

Narrative:
A Boeing 727 passenger plane, HC-BSU, was destroyed when it flew into the side of a mountain near Bogotá, Colombia. All 53 on board were killed.
The airplane had been wet-leased by Air France from TAME Ecuador, a commercial division of the Ecuadorian Air Force. The flight crew regularly flew the Bogota-Quito-Bogota route as the final leg of Air France's scheduled flight AF422 from Paris. Air France operated Airbus A340s on the Paris-Bogota leg, but demand on the Quito leg was too weak for use of such a high-capacity transport.
Flight AF422 took off from runway 13 at Bogotá after being cleared for a 'Girardot 1' departure. This departure consist of continuing on runway heading for 2 miles after takeoff, followed by a 90-degree right turn over the 'Romeo' beacon. The flight didn't make the right turn and continued straight ahead.
At 16:47 the aircraft crashed into the side of the 3.100 m (10.170 ft) high Cerro el Cable mountain, 150 feet below the summit. This is 500 m (1640 ft) above airfield elevation).
Rain showers were in the area at the time with a broken ceiling at 2300 feet and towering cumulus clouds. Temperature was 18deg. C and winds were from 270 deg at 5kts.
On August 27, 1973 a Lockheed L-188A Electra (HK-777, Aerovias Condor) had also crashed into the Cerro el Cable after takeoff from Bogotá.

PROBABLE CAUSE (translated from original Spanish report):
The loss of situational awareness by the crew, which led to the failure to comply with the GIR 1 departure, deviating from the procedure to maintain runway heading after takeoff until it collided with terrain.

Events:

Sources:
» Aviation Week & Space Technology 27.04.1998 (45)
» ICAO Adrep Summary 3/98 (#14)