Aerosucre Flight 157


Aerosucre Flight 157 was a domestic cargo flight operated by Colombian cargo airline Aerosucre using a Boeing 727-200. On 20 December 2016, the aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Germán Olano Airport in Puerto Carreño, Colombia, on a flight to Bogotá. The jet overran the end of the runway, struck the perimeter fence and other obstacles before becoming airborne, but lost control and crashed about two minutes later and from the airport. Of the six people on board, only one survived.
The subsequent investigation found that a number of factors, including a take-off weight in excess of the maximum permissible, an incorrect take-off technique and a slight tailwind resulted in the failure of the aircraft to become airborne within the available runway length.

Accident

The Boeing 727 arrived at Puerto Carreño on the day of the accident at 14:48 local time, after a cargo flight from Bogotá. The crew unloaded 20,423 pounds of cargo. Although the weight and balance manifest of the accident flight was not found, investigators presumed that slightly less than 20,000 pounds of cargo distributed on nine pallets was loaded for the return to Bogotá. The 727 then taxied onto Runway 25 threshold; the crew set the flaps at 30 degrees, the plane was trimmed for takeoff, and the plane started its takeoff run at 17:18.
The 727 used all of the runway, but was still not airborne. It traveled another over grass and struck a perimeter fence. It then crossed a road, hit a shed and a tree before finally becoming airborne. Due to the impact, the right main landing gear detached from the aircraft, the inboard right flap was damaged, engine 3 lost power and one hydraulic system was damaged due to leaking. The aircraft achieved an altitude of, entered a slight right hand descending turn which completed a near 270-degree arc and then impacted flat terrain, bursting into flames.

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft involved in the crash was a Boeing 727-200 registered HK-4544 with serial number 21105. It entered service in 1975, operating as a passenger aircraft for Air Jamaica until 1997. It was then converted into a cargo aircraft. The aircraft began operating for Aerosucre in 2008.
The 58-year-old captain Jaime Cantillo had been with Aerosucre since 1997 and was licensed to fly the Boeing 727 in 2005. He had logged 8,708 flight hours, including 6,822 hours on the Boeing 727. The 39-year-old first officer Mauricio Guzmán had been with the airline since 2008 and had 3,285 flight hours, all of which were on the Boeing 727. The 72-year-old flight engineer Pedro Duarte joined Aerosucre in 2013 and had logged 1,612 flight hours, though his flight experience on the Boeing 727 was unknown.

Victims

The flight plan indicated five people aboard, but there was an undocumented sixth person on the flight. Four died immediately and two survived the impact, but one of the two died later from injuries.

Investigation

The Colombian air accident investigation authority GRIAA concluded that three factors extended the aircraft’s take-off run by, resulting in a runway excursion that eventually lead to the crash:
Furthermore, although initial calculations suggested the aircraft was operating within its weight limits, the investigators believe, based on the take-off speeds used by the crew, that the aircraft was actually almost a tonne above its maximum permissible take-off weight of.
The investigation also determined that following the loss of pressure in both main hydraulic systems caused by the impact with ground structures, the crew did not activate the standby hydraulic system, which could have enabled them to maintain control of the aircraft.
The operator Aerosucre was found in breach of regulations, since Puerto Carreño airport was not approved for operations with the Boeing 727-200, and such breach was allowed to continue for years due to lack of supervision by the Colombian civil aviation authority.