Puneet Varma (Editor)

Tan Sahsa Flight 414

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Site
  
Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Crew
  
8

Injuries (non-fatal)
  
15

Number of deaths
  
131

Survivor
  
15

Passengers
  
138

Fatalities
  
131

Date
  
21 October 1989

Operator
  
SAHSA (TAN)

Location
  
Tegucigalpa

Tan-Sahsa Flight 414 httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Summary
  
Crashed during approach due to Pilot Error

Destination
  
Toncontín International Airport

Similar
  
Independent Air Flight 1851, Cubana de Aviación Flight 9646, Korean Air Flight 803, Air Ontario Flight 1363, Olympic Aviation Flight 545

Tan-Sahsa Flight 414 was a scheduled flight from Managua (MGA), Nicaragua to Tegucigalpa (TGU), Honduras. In this hull loss accident, a Boeing 727-200 operated by TAN-SAHSA with 146 people on board, crashed into a hill near Toncontin International Airport after the pilots failed to follow the special landing procedure required for this airport. 131 people died in the crash, making it the worst air crash in Central American history.

Contents

History

The aircraft was a TAN Boeing 727-224, aircraft registration N88705 leased from Continental Airlines on a scheduled flight from Augusto C. Sandino International Airport in Managua, Nicaragua to Toncontin International Airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Tegucigalpa ATC cleared the flight for the VOR/DME approach to runway 01. Because of high terrain in the area, the approach uses a series of three step-downs from the initial approach fix of 7500 feet MSL. The crew began a continuous descent from about 7600 ft MSL at about 11 NM from the airport, rather than following the prescribed step-down procedure, which led to the accident site. The aircraft's descent profile was well below the published step-down course for the entire approach. The aircraft impacted a mountain known as Cerro de Hula at the 4800 ft MSL elevation, approximately 800 ft below the summit, 4.8 NM from the Tegucigalpa runway 01 threshold. At impact, the aircraft was in approach configuration.

The plane broke into three parts. The first part (Cockpit, First Class), contained almost all of the survivors of the accident, due to the close-to-stall, nose high configuration at impact.

Aftermath

After the accident, Captain Raúl Argueta and First Officer Reiniero Canales went to trial, but the trial was never resolved.

Five months later another aircraft, an L-188 Electra operated by "Sahsa Carga" (HR-TNL), crashed in the same place with a similar situation, making it the third accident by Sahsa in six months.

Due to its bad safety history, Sahsa went into bankruptcy in the early 1990s.

References

Tan-Sahsa Flight 414 Wikipedia