Faucett Perú Flight 251 refers to a Boeing 737-200 that was operating a domestic scheduled

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

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Arequipa Arequipa (; Aymara and qu, Ariqipa) is a city and capital of province and the eponymous department of Peru. It is the seat of the Constitutional Court of Peru and often dubbed the "legal capital of Peru". It is the second most populated city ...

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Tacna Tacna was known for its mining industry; it had significant deposits of sodium nitrate and other resources. Its economic prosperity attracted a wave of immigrants from Italy. Today, their Italian Peruvian descendants live in the city and many of t ...

passenger service and crashed on 29 February 1996, while completing the first leg, on approach to

Rodríguez Ballón International Airport Rodríguez Ballón International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional Rodríguez Ballón, ) is an airport serving Arequipa, the capital of Arequipa Region and Peru's second largest city. This airport and Cusco's Alejandro Velasco Astete Inter ...

. All 123 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft lost their lives in the accident. It is the deadliest aviation accident that occurred on

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

vian soil.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident was a

Boeing 737-222 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...

, tail number OB-1451, c/n 19072, that had its maiden flight on 21 October 1968. Equipped with

Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies. Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially airlines) and military aviat ...

JT8D-7B engines, the airplane started its commercial career on 28 October 1968, when it was delivered new to

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

and registered N9034U. Re-registered N73714 on 14 June 1971,

Aloha Airlines Aloha Airlines was an American airline headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii, operating from a hub at Honolulu International Airport (now Daniel K. Inouye International Airport). Operations began on July 26, 1946, and ceased operations on March 31 ...

took possession of the airplane until late , when it was transferred to

Air California Air California, later renamed AirCal, was an American airline company, founded by William E. Myers and Bill Perrera, a partnership of Orange County businessmen. It began as an intrastate airline operating solely within California. Air Californ ...

with the same registration. Air California was rebranded AirCal in , and the aircraft was re-registered again to N459AC. Following the absorption of AirCal into

American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...

, the airplane continued its career with this

carrier Carrier may refer to: Entertainment * ''Carrier'' (album), a 2013 album by The Dodos * ''Carrier'' (board game), a South Pacific World War II board game * ''Carrier'' (TV series), a ten-part documentary miniseries that aired on PBS in April 20 ...

until Braniff Airways received it, with the same registration, on 2 March 1989, later going to AL AC 2 Corp, on 15 May 1990. Finally, the aircraft was delivered to Faucett on 15 July 1991, and registered OB-1451. The airframe was old at the time of the accident.

Description

Inbound from Jorge Chávez International Airport, the aircraft was on a

VOR/DME In radio navigation, a VOR/DME is a radio beacon that combines a VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) with a distance-measuring equipment (DME). The VOR allows the receiver to measure its bearing to or from the beacon, while the DME provides the slan ...

approach to Rodríguez Ballón International Airport's runway 09, at night, in rain and mist, with

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are someti ...

s reported in the area. The crew had been issued an outdated barometric altimeter setting after bypassing an ILS signal, causing them to fly almost lower than the altitude they believed they were flying at. In fact, they had the wrong impression the aircraft was flying at , when it actually was at , some below the

glideslope Instrument landing system glide path, commonly referred to as a glide path (G/P) or glide slope (G/S), is "a system of vertical guidance embodied in the instrument landing system which indicates the vertical deviation of the aircraft from its o ...

. The flightcrew asked for the lights of the runway to be brightened as they could not see them when they should on normal approach, receiving a response from air traffic controllers that they were at full intensity. The airplane crashed into hills at —the airport elevation is Data current as of October 2006.—, at 20:25, approximately short of the runway and off Arequipa. The aft section broke off on impact, and the main fuselage section continued to fly past the initial ridge and impacted near the top of the second one. The tail section fell into a crevasse between the two ridges. There were 123 people aboard the aircraft, of whom 117 were passengers. The nationalities of the victims were as follows:

Aircraft

Description

See also

Notes

References

Further reading