TANS Perú Flight 204 refers to a domestic scheduled Lima–Pucallpa–Iquitos passenger service, operated with a Boeing 737-200 Advanced, that crashed on 23 August 2005 on approach to Pucallpa Airport, off the airfield, following an emergency landing attempt because of bad weather, killing 40 of the 98 passengers and crew aboard.
Aircraft and crew
The aircraft involved was a 1981-built Boeing 737-244 Advanced, registered OB-1809, which had been leased to TANS Perú from the South African lessor company Safair two months prior to the accident. With manufacturer's serial number 22580 and powered with two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-17A engines, the airframe had its maiden flight on 4 August 1981, and was originally delivered to South African Airways. At the time of the accident the aircraft had accumulated 49,865 flight hours and 45,262 cycles, and was years old. The captain was 45-year-old Octavio Perez Palma Garreta, who had 5,867 flight hours, including 3,763 hours on the Boeing 737. The first officer was 37-year-old Jorge Luis Pinto Panta, who had 4,755 flight hours, with 1,109 of them on the Boeing 737. 38-year-old Gonzalo Chirinos Delgado, a trainee pilot, was also on board. He had 2,700 flight hours, but only 61 of them on the Boeing 737.
Description of the accident
There was an unusual developing cold front in the vicinity of Pucallpa, minutes before the event took place, with cloud tops estimated to be high. Instead of diverting to another airport, the crew initiated the approach to Pucallpa Airport with torrential rain, hail and strong winds. Some minutes before the scheduled time for landing the aircraft started rocking. Realising that the airport could not be safely reached amid the worsening weather conditions, the pilot attempted an emergency landing. The aircraft was flying through a hailstorm for the last 32 seconds of its ill-fated flight when it was seemingly taken down by a wind shear, hit tree tops, impacted terrain in a swamp located ahead of the runway threshold, broke up as it crash landed and burst into flames, leaving a path of debris and flaming fuel wide and long. The wreckage of the airplane was engulfed by the fire. There were 91 passengers and seven crew members on board; passengers and crew lost their lives in the accident. Non-Peruvian occupants of the aircraft included 11 Americans, one Australian, one Colombian, and one Spaniard; Italians were also aboard, but the actual figures for them depend upon the source. Most of the fatalities were recorded for passengers travelling in the front of the aircraft. Fifty-eight people survived the accident, many of them suffering serious injuries, mostly burns and broken limbs.
Investigation
Investigation of the crash site was hindered by looters, who descended upon the crash and stole various elements to be sold for scrap. A reward did succeed in securing the return of theflight data recorder. After 312 days of investigations, there were no reports of any technical malfunction. The official cause of the accident was determined to be pilot error for not following standard procedures under adverse weather conditions. The captain took control of the plane, but the trainee pilot did not immediately monitor the instruments; as a result, the crew did not notice the rapid descent in the few crucial seconds they had where they could have avoided danger. According to Aviation Safety Network, the accident ranks among the deadlier ones that took place in 2005. It was also the second major crash involving a TANS Perú airplane in slightly over two years.
In the media
Flight 204 has been the subject of a Reader's Digest story and an MSNBC documentary. The Canadian TV series, Mayday, has also produced an episode about the accident named ″Lack of Vision″.
