Accident description
Last updated: 23 May 2013
| Status: | Preliminary - official |
| Date: | 25 MAR 2003 |
| Time: | 19:20 |
| Type: | Cessna 208B Grand Caravan |
| Operator: | One Leasing |
| Registration: | N5512B |
| C/n / msn: | 208B-0299 |
| First flight: | 1992 |
| Engines: | 1 Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-114A |
| Crew: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Passengers: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Total: | Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3 |
| Airplane damage: | Written off |
| Airplane fate: | Written off (damaged beyond repair) |
| Location: | near El Paujil (Colombia)
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| Phase: | Maneuvering (MNV) |
| Nature: | Survey/research |
| Departure airport: | Larandia AB, Colombia |
| Larandia AB, Colombia |
The Caravan plane N5512B was the second plane used on classified counter-drug intelligence missions on behalf of the U.S. military. The other Caravan N1116G had crashed near Florencia on February 13. Three crew members were taken hostage by FARC rebels in the area. N5512 departed Bogota and landed at the Larandia Air Base where it refueled. At 19:06 the airplane departed Larandia for a reconnaissance flight to find three Americans who where taken hostage. It banked slightly west after takeoff, then turned northeast towards a mountainous area. Nine minutes after takeoff, 13 miles from the runway, the Cessna contacted a large tree on a ridgeline at an altitude of about 4500 feet. The airplane yawed violently, rolled into a near vertical dive and impacted the bottom of a brush-covered gully 1500 feet below the ridge where the aircraft disintegrated on impact and caught fire.
Events:
Sources:
» Avioneta de EE.UU. cae en Colombia (BBC Mundo, 26-3-2003)
» Flying blind, by John McQuaid (The Times-Picayune 10-11-2003)
» Aeronautica Civil, Informe Preliminar 200309
Photos
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.
