On 13 September 2010, Conviasa Flight 2350, an
ATR 42
The ATR 42 is a regional airliner produced by Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse, France.
On 4 November 1981, the aircraft was launched with ATR, as a joint venture between French Aérospatiale (now Airbus) and ...
on a domestic passenger service from
Porlamar
)
Pueblo de La Mar ( en, Village by the Sea)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Panoramic
, image_flag = Bandera santiagomarino.jpg
, image_seal =
, pushpin_map =Venezuela
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_type1 = State
, subdivis ...
to
Ciudad Guayana
Ciudad Guayana () (in English Guayana City) is a city in Bolívar State (Venezuela), Bolívar State, Venezuela. It stretches 40 kilometers along the south bank of the Orinoco, Orinoco river, at the point where it is joined by its main tributary ...
, Venezuela, crashed shortly before landing, killing 17 of the 51 people on board; 23 others were injured.
Accident
The flight crew reported control problems shortly before landing at
Manuel Carlos Piar Guayana Airport
Manuel Carlos Piar Guayana International Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto Internacional de Guayana "Manuel Carlos Piar"), is an airport in the city of Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela. Ciudad Guayana is divided into two main population centres, San Félix ...
, in the
Puerto Ordaz
Ciudad Guayana () (in English Guayana City) is a city in Bolívar State, Venezuela. It stretches 40 kilometers along the south bank of the Orinoco river, at the point where it is joined by its main tributary, the Caroní river. The Caroni cros ...
neighbourhood of Ciudad Guayana. Witnesses said that the aircraft struck power lines at low altitude at 09:59 local time, and went down in an industrial area where materials used in a steel mill were stored.
Workers from the steel mill and firefighters pulled the survivors from the burning wreckage.
Aircraft
The accident aircraft was a twin-turboprop
ATR 42-320
The ATR 42 is a regional airliner produced by Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse, France.
On 4 November 1981, the aircraft was launched with ATR, as a joint venture between French Aérospatiale (now Airbus) and Ae ...
with Venezuelan registration YV1010, c/n 371. The aircraft made its first flight in 1994.
It had originally served with
Gill Airways
Gill Airways was a regional airline with its head office in New Aviation House on the grounds of Newcastle International Airport, Newcastle Airport in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, United Kingdom.
History
Founded in 1969 by Michael Gill, the ...
before being sold to
Air Wales
Air Wales was an airline based at Cardiff International Airport in Rhoose, Vale of Glamorgan. It operated scheduled regional services within the United Kingdom, as well as to Ireland, Belgium and France. On 23 April 2006, Air Wales ceased al ...
. The aircraft was bought by Conviasa in September 2006.
At the time of the accident, it had accumulated over 25,000 flight hours and completed over 27,000 landings.
[
]
Passengers and crew
Forty-seven passengers and four crew were on board the aircraft.[Flight VO 2350 on 13 September 2010 ATR 42–320, registered YV-1010]
." . 13 September 2010. Retrieved on 17 September 2010.
While the death toll was initially reported as 14, later reports revised it upwards to 15 and later to 17 as survivors of the initial crash died of injuries sustained. A total of 34 people survived the crash. Both the captain and first officer were killed.
Aftermath
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...
declared three days of national mourning after the crash.
As a result of the crash, on 13 September 2010 Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...
's Civil Aviation Authority
A civil aviation authority (CAA) is a national or supranational statutory authority that oversees the regulation of civil aviation, including the maintenance of an aircraft register.
Role
Due to the inherent dangers in the use of flight vehicles, ...
suspended Conviasa's services into that country. After the suspension, there were concerns about Trinidadian residents being stranded on Margarita Island
Margarita Island (, ) is the largest island in the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, situated off the northeastern coast of the country, in the Caribbean Sea. The capital city of Nueva Esparta, La Asunción, is located on the island.
History
...
. Conviasa, as of 2010, was the only airline to offer direct flights from Trinidad to Margarita Island, offering two or three flights per week.
On 17 September 2010, the Government of Venezuela grounded all Conviasa flights so that it could perform a technical review of the airline's fleet. The airline said that the temporary suspension would remain in effect until 1 October 2010, and that during the shutdown, passengers would be carried on other airlines.
Investigation
Assistance in the investigation was given by the French (BEA).[ The BEA provided two investigators, and Avions de Transport Regional (ATR) provided three technical advisers.]
On 30 December 2014 the Ministry of Water and Air Transport of Venezuela published that the probable cause of the accident was the malfunction of the central crew alerting system with erroneous activation of the stall warning system.
Contributing factors were weaknesses of the flight crew's resource management, their loss of situational awareness, their inadequate coordination during the decision-making process to deal with abnormal situations in flight, their lack of knowledge of the stall warning system, and their mishandling of the flight controls.
The aircraft was flown with two abnormal conditions, activation of the stall warning system and the decoupling of the elevators of the aircraft, requiring a constant effort by the pilot in command to maintain control of the aircraft.
There was improper handling of the aircraft in the final phase of landing, which led the commander to exercise great effort on controlling the flight before impact.
The commander's defective emotional and cognitive skill level, lack of leadership, and errors of judgment led him to make unwise decisions.
Both pilots showed confusion, poor coordination in the cockpit, serious failures in communication, lack of knowledge of the aircraft systems and loss of situational awareness.
See also
* Santa Bárbara Airlines Flight 518
Santa Bárbara Airlines Flight 518 was an ATR 42–300 twin- turboprop aircraft, registration YV1449, operating as a scheduled domestic flight from Mérida, Venezuela, to Caracas that crashed into the side of a mountain on 21 February 2008, s ...
, an ATR-42 that crashed in Venezuela in 2008.
References
Further reading
* Portillo, Yanelis.
Se niegan a entregar resultados de Caja Negra del vuelo 2350 de Conviasa
Archive
. '' El Venezolano''. Friday 18 February 2011.
External links
Conviasa
*
Conviasa flight accident in Venezuela
" ATR ATR may refer to:
Medicine
* Acute transfusion reaction
* Ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3 related, a protein involved in DNA damage repair
Science and mathematics
* Advanced Test Reactor, nuclear research reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory, ...
. 14 September 2010.
Archive
*
Flight VO 2350 on 13 September 2010 ATR 42–320, registered YV-1010
"
Archive
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