ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 192939
This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information.
If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can submit corrected information.
| Date: | Friday 18 September 1998 |
| Time: | 07:38 LT |
| Type: |  Piper PA-31-325 Navajo C/R |
| Owner/operator: | private |
| Registration: | TI-AVP |
| MSN: | 31-7912087 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1979 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Rohrmoser/Pavas -
 Costa Rica
|
| Phase: | Take off |
| Nature: | Executive |
| Departure airport: | Tobías Bolaños Airport, Costa Rica (MRPV) |
| Nicoya Airport, Nicoya, Costa Rica (MRNC) | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Crashed 18 September 1998 into houses at Rohrmoser, Pavas de San José, 1.5 km from Tobías Bolaños Airport, Costa Rica, after take off. According to a rough translation into English of a contemporary press report (see link #1 for the original text):
"Pilot and passenger die in Short and fatal flight - There was no emergency call
Irene Vizcaíno Editor of La Nación
One and a half kilometers. Three minutes in the air. Then, the two-engine Navajo registration plate TI-AVP crashed to the ground and the impact killed the pilot and his companion.
This is the story shortly of what happened yesterday, at 7:38 am, in Rohrmoser, Pavas de San José, where many neighbours the rumble and the risk of being crushed took them out of their homes. What they found, however, was the shattered apparatus and inside him the pilot Alejandro Arias López, who died a few seconds later, and his companion Carlos Trejos Cadaval.
Both were heading to Nicoya, where the latter owns melon crops and precisely travelled in the plane that Trejos, in partnership with another family, bought two months ago, according to his lawyer and friend Manrique Lara. The device fell into an empty lot - a municipal property - located between the homes of Fernando Salazar and Margarita Solórzano. One wing fell in the yard of the first and half of the plane in the yard of the second.
"My wife and I were walking, we did not realize it," said Salazar, "here my daughter Marcela was sleeping, she says she heard a rumble."
In the residence of its neighbor only was Carmen Andrade, the person in charge of the domestic offices, who fled when he saw the plane to few meters of distance. "I heard something that fell, there was a lot of smoke and when I saw the plane, I went out for fear of exploding," she said.
Both buildings were on the verge of running the same fate as Jeanette Quesada's house, which was destroyed on August 17, 1990, when a small plane crashed on top of the Palomas, Santa Ana. On that occasion, the two occupants also died: the Japanese ambassador Chusaku Nomura and his flight instructor Albert Hansen.
Although the tragedy was not the same, the inhabitants of Rohrmoser fear that at any moment the planes that continuously pass on their roofs, suddenly collapse.
What failed?
Answering the question of how the three-minute mishap evolved, will possibly cost weeks or months and will depend on the work of five Civil Aviation investigators. According to the director of that entity, Miguel Ramos, small aircraft do not have black boxes so only the analysis of the damage suffered by the device can shed light on the facts.
Nor is there any last information from the pilot as there was no emergency call. Perhaps the reason is that just as he took off from the airport Tobias Bolaños, from the tower they informed him to change to the frequency of Juan Santamaria, and in this short time the accident happened.
Although Ramos insisted that it is not even possible to discuss possible reasons for the accident, several versions emerged at the scene of the accident.
One said the left engine stopped operating and the plane crashed when they tried to return to the air terminal, located 1.5 kilometers. It was also commented that Arias performed a miraculous maneuver when falling in the vacant lot, while others considered it more a coincidence. The witnesses, for their part, only remember the plane passing over the electric line and the crash.
"She hit the wall first and turned, then fell and there was a lot of smoke," Luz Amanda Sunsil, who was walking to work in a neighbouring house, remembered briefly. "I came in and I said that a plane was falling, I heard the impact," added Modesto Largaespada, a neighborhood watchman.
Firefighters, rescue workers, agents of the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ), members of Civil Aviation and Public Security personnel arrived, as well as many friends and relatives of the victims. One of the first people to be present was Carla Schlager, the wife of the pilot, who lost her brother in another plane crash, and Diana Trejos, the companion's sister.
All remained there until at 11:08 am when the second body was moved to the morgue. Afterwards, only the technicians remained collecting clues to find the reasons for the tragedy."
Sources:
1. http://wvw.nacion.com/ln_ee/1998/septiembre/19/pais5.html
2. http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/TI-AVP.html
3. Picture of wreckage: http://www.aviacioncr.net/foto/?id=26663
4. https://www.imprentanacional.go.cr/pub/2016/10/31/ALCA237B_31_10_2016.pdf
5. http://www.hacienda.go.cr/docs/5658b32404542_Decreto%2039331-H_%20Alcance%20Digital%20103%20(%20vehiculos%20).pdf
Images:
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 18-Jan-2017 20:23 | Romario | Added |
| 20-Jan-2017 07:16 | Anon. | Updated [Destination airport] |
| 22-Aug-2017 14:41 | TB | Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Narrative] |
| 15-Oct-2017 16:58 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Cn, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 15-Oct-2017 17:00 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Aircraft type] |
| 21-Oct-2017 17:41 | TB | Updated [Operator, Location] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by:
Quick Links:
| ASN Home | Send Correction / Feedback |
| FSF Home | Disclaimer | Copyright |
| Contact Us | Privacy Policy |
| Press / Media |
CONNECT WITH US:
©2024 Flight Safety Foundation