Status:	Final
Date:	07 JUN 2008
Time:	13:50
Type:	Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
Operator:	Patagonia Airlines
Registration:	CC-CTR
C/n / msn:	208B-1137
First flight:	2005
Engines:	1 Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-114A
Crew:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Passengers:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 9
Total:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 10
Airplane damage:	Written off
Airplane fate:	Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:	18 km (11.3 mls) W of La Junta (Chile)
Phase:	En route (ENR)
Nature:	Domestic Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport:	Puerto Montt-Marcel Marchant Airport (SCPF), Chile
Destination airport:	La Junta Airport (SCLJ), Chile

Narrative:
A Cessna 208B Grand Caravan passenger plane was damaged beyond repair in an accident near La Junta, Chile. The pilot died in the accident but all nine passengers survived.
Grand Caravan CC-CTR was scheduled to take off at 09:30 local time but poor weather conditions en route forced the pilot to postpone the flight. The Cessna eventually took off from Puerto Montt (PMC) at 13:15, bound for La Junta, where it was expected to arrive at 14:25.
The airplane failed to arrive at the destination and was declared missing. The next day ELT signals from the plane were received near Yeco, but fresh snow hampered search crew from finding the missing airplane. The plane was finally located on June 11 at 12:30. The aircraft had crashed in a forested mountain slope at an altitude of 3300 feet. All passengers had survived.

MOST PROBABLE CAUSE (translated from Spanish): Operational error by the pilot in command, to continue a VFR flight after entering IMC, losing visual references that would guarantee to maintain separation with terrain, and inadvertently hitting a hill.
CONTRIBUTING FACTOR:
Inadequate planning by the pilot in command in not considering the weather conditions on the route and destination.

Events:

Sources:
» Terra.cl
» El Llanquihue
» DGAC Chile