Avro RJ-85 Crash with soccer team

I feel that you have two errors here. One: stretched the range without fuel reserves. Two: Should have declared a fuel emergency earlier and landed instead of holding. I would have taken that option and hoped that it was clear enough. I guess that the prime error was the fuel / range stretch.

 

Sounds simular the Pinncal CRJ accident years ago where the crew made a big mistake and tried to cover it up by holding off on declaring an emergency. Very sad...

 

Nope.

The aircraft was stretched beyond its capabilities for weight/range and fuel. That aircraft was designed for short hops (500-1000nm ranges). It could fly farther, but had to give up payload. In this case, the pilot appears to have used diversion and holding reserves to extend range (and land on fumes) without sacrificing payload. Didn't play out that way, and a lot of people died over pure and utter stupidity.

 

Apparently there was a second plane with declared fuel problems. The controllers decided to let the other one land first. The communication from the pilots of both planes didn't indicate correctly which one was in more trouble.

I'd consider that the Avro's pilot mis-estimated how much airtime they had left.

 

The whole flight was a tragic mistake. Just really bad decision making from the word go.



Mark

 

Just heartbreaking to see the sequence of events that took so many young talented lives. Top flight futbol in Brazil, these are badass futbol players who perished here, so sad, at the peak of their youth. I know Argentine futbol well. This team had just eliminated San Lorenzo and Independiente. That's NOT ez.

8 miles from the runway :/

 

I've seen this sort of thing in the charter world many times before. The charter sales person oversells the capacity of the aircraft, and says "sure, it can do the trip" in order to get the sale. Then, the crew has to deal with the consequences.

When the charter sales person and the captain are one and the same, this is what happens. Unfortunately.

 

My late friend who was a UAL pilot told me about his DC-8 flight from the east coast to SFO. His flight engineer told him that they would "only" have 13,500 pounds of fuel in the tanks when they arrived in IFR weather. The pilot knew that if he had a missed approach, the go-around would use most or all of it, so he elected to land at an alternate...much to the distress of the passengers. His comment," At least they will be here to ***** about it."

 

Think I read that the flight plan included landing in mid trip to refuel.

He just kept flying.

Now he's dead, along with 70 innocents.

 

It was a cascade of things. They departed an hour late, because they were looking through the bags for a passenger's video game. This delayed them, resulting that the airport where they intended to stop was closed, because it was now after dark.

So, they decided to press on anyway.

 

Now that I'm back from India, I could consult with the flight manuals. As I suspected, the RJ85 had a maximum range of 1500 (1520) nm range. With substantially lower payload, it could achieve nearly 1800nm in range.

It was carrying a full load (81 passengers out of 85), was never going to hit 1800nm safely.
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Those charts can be a bit misleading, though. They make the assumption that less fuel is carried in order to stay at or below maximum gross takeoff weight. Given the way this operation seems to have been run, I'm not sure that's an assumption that would be valid in this case.

 

Remember the UAL DC-8 that ran out of fuel and crashed near PDX in 1978?

 

Yes, if I remember, it went down near Troutdale just east of PDX. I think that they were trying to solve a landing gear problem and didn't monitor the fuel .

 

Well the official report is out and the cause is: Pilot Error. Surprise.

Didn't stop for fuel (see above).

Were almost 900 pounds overweight.

Flying at an altitude the plane was not approved for.

Didn't notify the landing authorities they were dry tanks.

 

I read some where that the controller is on the lamb as charges were levied at her. Other points of interest was the PIC was also co owner of the company. IIRC his brother is also MIA avoiding charges.