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West Caribbean Airways Flight 708

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West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 was a West Caribbean Airways charter flight which crashed in a mountainous region in northwest Venezuela on the morning of Tuesday, August 16, 2005, killing all 152 passengers and eight crew.

Route and place of disaster.

The plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, was en route from Tocumen International Airport (PTY) in Panama City, Panama to Fort de France, Martinique (FDF). The pilots reported trouble with one engine, and later the other engine as well. They diverted the plane to Maracaibo for an emergency landing. After a 7,000 feet per minute dive with both engines in flames, the plane crashed at about 03:45 local time (07:45 UTC) into a field of La Cucharita cattle ranch near Machiques, in the western state of Zulia, Venezuela (about 30 kilometres from the Colombian border).

Nearly all the passengers were French citizens from Martinique, but a few were Panamanian and Colombian. The crew was Colombian. The flight was chartered by the Globe Trotters de Rivière Salée travel agency in Martinique. Most of the passengers were tourists returning from a week's vacation in Panama.

Timeline

All times are UTC. (For local time in Panama, subtract 5 hours; for Venezuela and Martinique, subtract 4.)

  • 06:00 Departs from Panama.
  • 06:51 Reports trouble in one engine.
  • 06:58 Requests and receives permission to descend from 31,000 feet to 14,000 feet.
  • 07:02 Sends distress call: both engines malfunctioning, aircraft uncontrollable.
  • 07:45 Crashes in flames.

Airline

See main article West Caribbean Airways

Medellín-based West Caribbean Airways started as a charter service in 1998. It specializes in flights to San Andrés in the Caribbean, parts of the Colombian mainland and Central America. According to the director of Colombia's Civil Aeronautics Board, Col. Carlos Montealegre, the company had been fined many times for violations and several of its airplanes had been grounded for inadequate maintenance. One $45,000 penalty cited pilots and other crew flying too many hours, lack of training and failure to log required flight data. The company is said to be facing financial difficulties and is reportedly up for sale.

West Caribbean Airways lost a Let L-410 turboprop on 26 March, 2005 on takeoff from Providencia Island in an accident that killed 8 people and injured 6.

Aside from the downed MD-82, the airline's fleet consists of two McDonnell Douglas MD-81s, three Aérospatiale ATR 42s, and six L-410s.

Background

The aircraft involved in the incident was delivered to Continental Airlines on November 4, 1986 which operated it until January 10, 2005. At that time it was transferred to West Caribbean Airways, registered as HK-4374X. The jet's tail cone fell off in early July 2005 and was replaced.

The death toll of the crash makes it the deadliest of 2005 to date, and the joint 50th most deadly of all time. It followed the crash of Helios Airways Flight 522 on August 14 in Greece, which killed 121 people. The only other plane crash in 2005 to kill over 100 people was that of Kam Air Flight 904 on February 3 in Afghanistan, with 104 deaths. West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 is the 11th crash of an MD-80 since the aircraft was brought into service in 1980. It is the deadliest air disaster in the history of Venezuela, exceeding the 1969 crash that killed 155.

Investigation

The Comite de Investigación de Accidentes Aéreos (CIAA, Aircraft Accidents Research Comittee) of Venezuela led the investigation on the causes of the accident. United States' NTSB and French BEA also took part. On November the 22nd, 2005, the CIAA released a factual report suggesting that a buildup of ice on the wings was responsible for the accident.

Analysis of the Cockpit voice recorder showed that the crew discussed weather conditions, including icing, and continously requested and performed descents in hopes of moving to zones of better weather conditions. Analysis of the debris showed that both engines exhibited indications of high-speed compressor rotation at the time of impact, which enabled investigators to conclude that the engines were not previously damaged, and were functioning at the time of impact. Ground scars showed that the aircraft impacted with its nose up, which is consistent with a buildup of ice on the wings and the body.

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