Date:	Thursday 7 February 2008
Time:	17:20
Type:	Britten-Norman BN-2A-26 Islander
Owner/operator:	Caribair, S.A.
Registration:	HI-653CA
MSN:	8
Year of manufacture:	1967
Total airframe hrs:	21405 hours
Engine model:	Lycoming O-540-E4C5
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 9
Aircraft damage:	Substantial, repaired
Category:	Accident
Location:	El Prado, El Seybo -   Dominican Republic
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Passenger - Non-Scheduled/charter/Air Taxi
Departure airport:	Santiago de los Caballeros-Cibao International Airport (STI/MDST)
Destination airport:	Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ/MDPC)
Investigating agency:	CIAA Dom. Rep.
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
The aircraft was on a tourist excursion flight, which originated on the same day at 08:00, from Punta Cana International Airport, Dominican Republic. Destination was Santiago de Los Caballeros, with nine tourists on board. On the return flight, at approximately 70 miles northwest of the Punta Cana Airport, the captain decided to fly to the La Romana Airport (the alternate airport), to refuel because he did not perform this operation at the Cibao Airport and because the fuel quantity indicator in the left tank was inoperative. He had doubts about the remaining fuel in the tanks. On the way to the alternate airport, the no.1 engine failed. The captain attempt to restart the engine but this failed. Engine no. 2 was still running. The pilot, aware that the fault that turned off engine no.1 was the lack of fuel, made the decision to land in a sugarcane field near El Prado, located in the province of El Seybo, for fear that the remaining engine would also go out, perhaps without a suitable place to land later. Given these conditions, the captain chose a segment of a lane in the middle of two cane fields, where he made the emergency landing. The surface of this trail was not totally flat. After having a landing run of about 100 feet, the nose wheel collided with a stone, breaking the nose landing gear. Directional control was lost and the aircraft turned to the left, entering a cane field.

Cause:
- The accident occurred due to the fact that engine # 1 was turned off due to lack of fuel and when making the emergency landing the captain could not keep the aircraft in the correct path of the selected lane for said landing.

Avioneta cae en El Seibo con 9 a bordo (El Caribe CDN, 8-2-2008)

photo (c) via Werner Fischdick; Puerto Plata-Gregorio Luperón International Airport (POP/MDPP); January 1999

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