Intercontinental de Aviación Flight 256

1995 plane crash in Colombia

Intercontinental de Aviación Flight 256
Accident
HK-3839X, the aircraft involved in the accident
Date	11 January 1995 (1995-01-11)
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain due to altimeter failure and pilot error
Site	María La Baja, near Rafael Núñez International Airport, Cartagena, Colombia 9°59′00″N 75°21′00″W / 9.9833°N 75.3500°W / 9.9833; -75.3500
Aircraft
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas DC-9-14
Aircraft name	City of Mexico City
Operator	Intercontinental de Aviación
IATA flight No.	RS256
ICAO flight No.	ICT256
Call sign	Intercontinental 256
Registration	HK-3839X
Flight origin	El Dorado International Airport, Bogotá, Colombia
Destination	Rafael Núñez International Airport, Cartagena, Colombia
Occupants	52
Passengers	47
Crew	5
Fatalities	51
Injuries	1
Survivors	1

Intercontinental de Aviación Flight 256 (RS256/ICT256) was a scheduled flight from El Dorado International Airport, Bogotá, on a service to Rafael Núñez International Airport, Cartagena, and San Andrés. On 11 January 1995, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-14 operating the flight crashed during its approach to Cartagena Airport, killing all but one of the 51 people on board. The sole survivor was a nine-year old girl who sustained minor injuries.

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft involved was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-14 (serial number - 45742, manufacturing serial number - 26) that had its maiden flight on 15 February 1966 and was initially registered as N8901E. The aircraft was initially powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7A engines, which developed 12,600 pounds of thrust. The plane was delivered to Eastern Air Lines on 26 April the same year. On 27 April 1970, the aircraft was leased to Delta Air Lines, and was returned to Eastern on 23 April 1971. On May 31, 1979, the aircraft was transferred to Texas International Airlines, which merged into Continental Airlines in 1982. On 31 October the same year, Continental Airlines named the aircraft City of Mexico City. Also in the latter the engines were upgraded, which were modified to the model JT8D-7B. Also, the configuration of the cabin of the aircraft was changed to 83 seats (8 first-class seats and 75 economy-class seats). The aircraft remained registered as N8901E. On 29 April 1993, the aircraft was transferred to Intercontinental de Aviación, where the aircraft was re-registered as HK-3839X. The aircraft was almost 29 years old and had 65,084 flight hours and 69,716 take-off and landing cycles at the time of the crash.

The captain of flight 256 was Andrés Patacón (39), and the first officer was Luis Ríos (36). In the cabin there were three flight attendants: Claudia Duarte, Dalia Mora and Zaida Tarazona. On board were 47 passengers, all of whom were Colombians.

Crash

The flight was scheduled to depart at 12:10 but was delayed due to a failure on the previous flight. The flight eventually departed at 18:45. The aircraft climbed to flight level (FL) 310 (31,000 ft (9,400 m)) at 19:09.

During the approach to Cartagena, the air traffic control center in Barranquilla cleared flight 256 to descend to FL 140 (14,000 ft (4,300 m)) and report when passing FL 200 (20,000 ft (6,100 m)) at 19:26. The aircraft passed through FL 200 at 19:33. The last radio contact occurred when the flight was cleared further down to 8,000 ft (2,400 m).

At 19:38, the crew of Aerocorales flight 209, operated by a Cessna Caravan aircraft, contacted the controllers. The crew reported that they had seen the lights of a rapidly descending aircraft, followed by an explosion on the ground. The plane impacted with the ground in a marshy lagoon near María La Baja, 56 km (35 mi; 30 nmi) from Cartagena Airport. The plane exploded on impact and broke into three parts. 51 people were killed: 46 out of the 47 passengers and all 5 crew members.

The sole survivor of the crash was a nine-year-old girl named Erika Delgado. She was flying with her parents and younger brother, who were killed in the crash. The girl's injuries were just a few bumps and bruises, most serious being a broken arm. She stated that her mother survived the initial impact and pushed her aside into a vegetable pile to shield her away from the fire. The girl was found by one of the local residents who came running to the rescue. She explained that there was looting at the crash site and that one of the looters stole a necklace which was given to her by her father. The looting was later confirmed, and the girl asked that the necklace be returned to her, but this was unsuccessful.

Investigation

Since the crew of the Cessna reported an explosion, first suspicions arose about a terrorist attack, similar to the bombing of Avianca Flight 203 in 1989. However, investigators determined that the plane exploded when it hit the ground, and no traces of explosives were found. The probable cause of the crash was a wrong setting of the altimeter. Altimeter number 1 indicated 16,200 ft (4,900 m) on impact. Altimeter number 2 (the first officer's) worked normally, but its lights did not work, and therefore the crew could not compare their readings. Other contributing factors were the lack of radar observation in the area and the flight crew's loss of situational awareness (due to the clear weather relaxing them), as well as the airline's insufficient training of crews in this situation. In addition, it was not possible to determine whether the ground proximity warning system functioned properly, or if the crew was unable to respond to it in time, as the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was inoperative at the time of the accident.

References

"Registration Details For HK-3839X (Intercontinental) DC-9-14". PlaneLogger. Retrieved 2015-01-24.
^ Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Douglas DC-9-14 HK-3839X Maria La Baja". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
"15 años de la tragedia del avión de Inter" [15 years of the tragedy of the plane of Inter] (in Spanish). El Universal. 2010-01-11. Archived from the original on 2015-01-28. Retrieved 2015-01-24.
"CAYÓ AVIÓN DE INTER CON 53 PASAJEROS" [IT FELL INTERIOR AIRCRAFT WITH 53 PASSENGERS] (in Spanish). El Tempo. 1995-01-12. Retrieved 2015-01-24.
"Girl, 10, survives Colombian air crash". The Independent. Agence France-Presse, Reuters. 1995-01-13. Retrieved 2015-01-24.
^ "Colombia Jet Explodes in Air; 51 Feared Dead". The New York Times. Associated Press. 1995-01-12. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2015-01-28. Retrieved 2013-06-13.
"После взрыва самолета в живых остался один человек" [After the explosion of the plane only one person survived]. Kommersant (in Russian). 1995-01-13. Retrieved 2015-01-24.
"Final report" (PDF) (in Spanish). Colombian Civil Aviation Authority. Retrieved 2020-09-07.

External links

Aerocivil
- (in Spanish) Final report (Archive)
- (in Spanish) Summary (Archive)
Aviation Safety Network
- Accident description

McDonnell Douglas DC-9 family

Civil/Commercial

DC-9
- -80/81/82/83/87/88

Boeing 717

Military

Accidents and
incidents

DC-9	West Coast Airlines Flight 956 (1966) TWA Flight 553 (1967) Ozark Air Lines Flight 965 (1968) Ozark Air Lines Flight 982 (1968) Viasa Flight 742 (1969) Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 (1969) 1970 Dominicana air disaster Eastern Air Lines Shuttle Flight 1320 (1970) ALM Flight 980 (1970) Southern Airways Flight 932 (1970) Hughes Airwest Flight 706 (1971) 1972 Turkish Airlines Adana crash JAT Flight 367 (1972) EgyptAir Flight 763 (1972) Delta Air Lines Flight 9570 (1972) Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 130 (1972) Southern Airways Flight 49 (1972) 1972 Chicago–O'Hare runway collision 1973 Nantes mid-air collision Aeroméxico Flight 229 (1973) Delta Air Lines Flight 723 (1973) Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 (1974) Avensa Flight 358 (1974) Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 450 (1975) 1976 Zagreb mid-air collision Southern Airways Flight 242 (1977) Air Canada Flight 189 (1978) TWA Flight 541 (1978) Alitalia Flight 4128 (1978) Itavia Flight 870 (1980) Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 206 (1981) Aeroméxico Flight 230 (1981) Aeroméxico Flight 110 (1981) Avensa Flight 007 (1983) Air Canada Flight 797 (1983) 1983 Madrid runway disaster Ozark Air Lines Flight 650 (1983) Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105 (1985) Aeroméxico Flight 498 (1986) Garuda Indonesia Flight 035 (1987) Continental Airlines Flight 1713 (1987) Evergreen International Airlines Flight 17 (1988) Alitalia Flight 404 (1990) 1990 Wayne County Airport runway collision Ryan International Airlines Flight 590 (1991) Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 108 (1991) Japan Air System Flight 451 (1993) USAir Flight 1016 (1994) Intercontinental de Aviación Flight 256 (1995) ValuJet Flight 592 (1996) Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 2553 (1997) Cebu Pacific Flight 387 (1998) TAESA Flight 725 (1999) Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 (2005) 2006 Mexico drug bust Hewa Bora Airways Flight 122 (2008)
MD-80	Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308 (1981) Northwest Airlines Flight 255 (1987) Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 046 (1988) Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 751 (1991) China Eastern Airlines Flight 5398 (1993) China Northern Airlines Flight 6901 (1993) Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 347 (1994) TWA Flight 427 (1994) American Airlines Flight 1572 (1995) Delta Air Lines Flight 1288 (1996) Korean Air Flight 1533 (1999) American Airlines Flight 1420 (1999) Alaska Airlines Flight 261 (2000) 2001 Linate Airport disaster China Northern Airlines Flight 6136 (2002) Lion Air Flight 538 (2004) West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 (2005) One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269 (2007) Atlasjet Flight 4203 (2007) Spanair Flight 5022 (2008) Dana Air Flight 0992 (2012) Air Algérie Flight 5017 (2014) Delta Air Lines Flight 1086 (2015) Ameristar Charters Flight 9363 (2017) Caspian Airlines Flight 6936 (2020) 2021 Houston MD-87 crash RED Air Flight 203 (2022)
MD-90	Uni Air Flight 873 (1999)

Topics

Operators
- MD-80
- MD-90
- Boeing 717

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in Colombia
1930s	Medellin plane crash (June 1935) Santa Ana air show disaster (July 1938)
1940s	Avianca Douglas DC-4 crash (February 1947)
1960s	Avianca Flight 4 (January 1966)
1970s	Aerocondor Lockheed L-188 Electra crash (August 1973) Taxi Aereo el Venado Douglas DC-4 accident (January 1976)
1980s	Aeropesca Colombia Flight 221 (August 1981) Aeropesca Colombia Flight 217 (March 1982) TAMPA Colombia Boeing 707 crash (December 1983) Avianca Flight 410 (March 1988) Avianca Flight 203 (November 1989)
1990s	SAM Colombia Flight 501 (May 1993) Intercontinental de Aviación Flight 256 (January 1995) American Airlines Flight 965 (December 1995) Air France Flight 422 (April 1998)
2000s	TAME Flight 120 (January 2002) West Caribbean Airways Flight 9955 (March 2005) Centurion Air Cargo Flight 164 (July 2008)
2010s	AIRES Flight 8250 (August 2010) LaMia Flight 2933 (November 2016) Aerosucre Flight 157 (December 2016)
2020s	Caquetá Cessna Stationair crash (May 2023)

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1995 (1995)
Jan 11 Intercontinental de Aviación Flight 256Jan 19 Bristow Helicopters Flight 56CJan 30 TransAsia Airways Flight 510AFeb 10 Borodianka mid-air collisionFeb 16 Air Transport International Flight 782Mar 31 TAROM Flight 371May 16 Royal Air Force Nimrod R1 XW666May 24 Knight Air Flight 816Jun 9 Ansett New Zealand Flight 703Jun 21 All Nippon Airways Flight 857Jun 24 Lagos Harka Air Services Tu-134 crashAug 3 Airstan incidentAug 9 Aviateca Flight 901Aug 21 Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529Sep 2 Royal Air Force Nimrod MR2 XV239Sep 15 Malaysia Airlines Flight 2133Sep 19 Kish Air Flight 707Sep 21 MIAT Flight 557Sep 22 Alaska E-3 Sentry accidentNov 12 American Airlines Flight 1572Nov 13 Nigeria Airways Flight 357Dec 3 Cameroon Airlines Flight 3701Dec 5 Azerbaijan Airlines Flight A-56Dec 7 Khabarovsk United Air Group Flight 3949Dec 7 Air St. Martin Beech 1900 crashDec 13 Banat Air Flight 166Dec 18 Trans Service Airlift L-188 crashDec 20 Tower Air Flight 41Dec 20 American Airlines Flight 965
1994 ◄ ► 1996

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1995 (1995)

Jan 11 Intercontinental de Aviación Flight 256Jan 19 Bristow Helicopters Flight 56CJan 30 TransAsia Airways Flight 510AFeb 10 Borodianka mid-air collisionFeb 16 Air Transport International Flight 782Mar 31 TAROM Flight 371May 16 Royal Air Force Nimrod R1 XW666May 24 Knight Air Flight 816Jun 9 Ansett New Zealand Flight 703Jun 21 All Nippon Airways Flight 857Jun 24 Lagos Harka Air Services Tu-134 crashAug 3 Airstan incidentAug 9 Aviateca Flight 901Aug 21 Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529Sep 2 Royal Air Force Nimrod MR2 XV239Sep 15 Malaysia Airlines Flight 2133Sep 19 Kish Air Flight 707Sep 21 MIAT Flight 557Sep 22 Alaska E-3 Sentry accidentNov 12 American Airlines Flight 1572Nov 13 Nigeria Airways Flight 357Dec 3 Cameroon Airlines Flight 3701Dec 5 Azerbaijan Airlines Flight A-56Dec 7 Khabarovsk United Air Group Flight 3949Dec 7 Air St. Martin Beech 1900 crashDec 13 Banat Air Flight 166Dec 18 Trans Service Airlift L-188 crashDec 20 Tower Air Flight 41Dec 20 American Airlines Flight 965

1994 ◄ ► 1996

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