Air France Flight 422 was a scheduled flight on 20 April 1998 by

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global air ...

from

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, to

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

, covering the final leg of a flight from Paris to Bogotá, operated by

TAME Tame may refer to: *Taming, the act of training wild animals *River Tame, Greater Manchester *River Tame, West Midlands and the Tame Valley *Tame, Arauca, a Colombian town and municipality * "Tame" (song), a song by the Pixies from their 1989 alb ...

on behalf of

. The

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpo ...

was destroyed, killing all 53 people on board, when it crashed into the Eastern Hills of Bogotá because of foggy weather and low visibility after taking off from Bogotá's

El Dorado International Airport El Dorado International Airport is an international airport serving Bogotá, Colombia and its surrounding areas. The airport is located mostly in the Fontibón district of Bogotá, although it partially extends into the Engativá district and ...

. The plane was owned by

, the Ecuadorian airline, but was being operated on a

wet-lease Aircraft leases are leases used by airlines and other aircraft operators. Airlines lease aircraft from other airlines or leasing companies for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without the financial burden of buying them, and to provide tempora ...

basis to Air France as the final leg of its flight from Paris.

Summary

The 21-year-old

Boeing 727-200Adv was covering the final leg of an Air France flight, with Ecuadorian crew. The 3-man

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface from which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters ...

crew was acceptably skilled, according to training authorities, but the flight's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

had logged only about 400 hours in the 727. A flight operations mechanic and 6

flight attendant A flight attendant, also known as steward/stewardess or air host/air hostess, is a member of the aircrew aboard commercial flights, many business jets and some government aircraft. Collectively called cabin crew, flight attendants are prima ...

s completed the crew. Forty-three passengers were among the 53 people on board the aircraft. The weather conditions were visibility, limited by a broken ceiling layer of

cumulonimbus Cumulonimbus (from Latin ''cumulus'', "heaped" and ''nimbus'', "rainstorm") is a dense, towering vertical cloud, typically forming from water vapor condensing in the lower troposphere that builds upward carried by powerful Buoyancy, buoyant air ...

clouds above the

aerodrome An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

; a temperature of ; and an altimeter pressure decrease from ().

Accident

The aircraft was cleared to

Quito International Airport Mariscal Sucre International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional Mariscal Sucre) is an international airport serving Quito, Ecuador. It is the busiest airport in Ecuador and one of the busiest airports in South America. It is located in t ...

via the Girardot 1 (GIR1) departure, which consisted of a right turn after takeoff (over the Romeo/R NDB) for noise abatement, and subsequent transitioning (via VIOTA) to a south-west route. The flight crew failed to execute the maneuver properly; the first officer, acting as pilot flying, did not make the initial turn, and then forgot to turn the

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend word, blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a T ...

on, which prohibited radar controllers from assisting them. The

FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

showed a departure profile with a low vertical speed, and an

airspeed In aviation, airspeed is the speed of an aircraft relative to the air. Among the common conventions for qualifying airspeed are: * Indicated airspeed ("IAS"), what is read on an airspeed gauge connected to a Pitot-static system; * Calibrated a ...

of , designed to decrease fuel utilization. The procedure was also planned to prevent transit ahead of the 19 DME arc of the Bogotá VOR, a mountainous zone whose minimum altitude increases drastically to . Investigators concluded that the acceleration toward 260 knots resulted in loss of situational awareness by the crew, with the single-minded focus on gaining airspeed leading to disregard of safe navigation of the aircraft. Less than 2 minutes after taking off from the runway 13L, the aircraft crashed at an airspeed of 260 knots into the Cerro el Cable, while passing . All 53 people on board died due to a combination of impact and fire injuries. The fire also consumed a forest area, which was burnt after the aircraft disintegrated and exploded upon impact.

References

External links

Final report
(in Spanish)
Archive

Final reportArchive

Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics, Aerocivil
Aftermath of the crash
from ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

Archive'' {{Air France Air France 422 Aviation accidents and incidents in Colombia Aviation accidents and incidents in 1998 Aviation accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain 1998 in Colombia 422 April 1998 events in South America Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error Airliner accidents and incidents caused by weather