Summary CFIT Crew 2 Survivors 0 Number of deaths 19 Operator Blue Wing Airlines | Passengers 17 Fatalities 19 Date 3 April 2008 Injuries (nonfatal) 0 Survivor 0 | |
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Site Lawa Antino Airstrip,
Benzdorp, Suriname Locations Benzdorp, Lawa Antino Airstrip Similar Sudan Airways Flight 109, Yeti Airlines Flight 103, 2008 Macedonian Armed Fo, Belavia Flight 1834, 2008 Conviasa Boeing 7 | ||
On Thursday, April 3, 2008, an Antonov An-28 operated by Blue Wing Airlines (registration PZ-TSO) crashed upon landing at the Lawa Antino Airport of Benzdorp in Suriname. The plane carried 17 passengers and a crew of 2, all of who died in the crash.
Contents
The crash occurred around 11:00 ART (14:00 UTC). Initial media reports indicate that the airplane had to abort the landing, as the runway was being used by another Bluewing AN-28 aircraft. The airplane attempted a go-around, but failed to gain height and crashed into a mountain.
Casualties
The pilot, Soeriani Jhauw-Verkuijl, was the wife of Blue Wing Airlines president Amichand Jhauw. Her brother and colleague was an eyewitness to the crash.
Also among the casualties was co-pilot Robert Lackin, as well as a family of six from Antecume Pata, citizens of French Guiana. They were to have flown on to Anapaike.
A Dutch national police forensic team was dispatched to assist in the identification of victims. While nine of the victims were identified in Suriname, the last ten were identified, using DNA analysis, by the Dutch forensic institute.
Background
The Antino project sits on part of a rich gold deposit that has been mined since the 1880s. The carrier flies scheduled An-28 flights Monday through Saturday to Antino site 7, where there is a 600-metre gravel strip.
Flight
The plane had taken off from Zorg en Hoop Airport in Suriname's capital Paramaribo with seventeen passengers and two crew at 10:00 local time. Eleven were due to disembark at Lawa Antino airstrip, 10 km west of the southeastern gold mining town of Benzdorp, near the Lawa River bordering French Guiana, where they would work for telecommunications company Telesur.