LAN-Chile Flight 160 was a

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 ...

-116 on a flight from

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

carrying 8 crew and 52 passengers which crashed during approach to Santiago on April 28, 1969.

Details of flight

Flight 160 took off from

Ministro Pistarini International Airport Ministro Pistarini International Airport ( es, link=no, Aeropuerto Internacional Ministro Pistarini) , also known as Ezeiza International Airport owing to its location in the Ezeiza Partido in Greater Buenos Aires, is an international airport s ...

at 23:56 GMT (20:56 local time), but when nearing Santiago the Boeing 727 descended below the minimum height of 2829 feet and kept on descending until it struck the ground in farm land north of

Colina, Chile Colina is a Chilean city and commune, capital of the Chacabuco Province, in the northern part of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, approximately 30 kilometers north of Santiago Centro. Demographics According to the 2002 census of the National St ...

Survivors

While the aircraft was damaged beyond repair in the crash, none of the 60 passengers and crew were killed or injured.

Cause

The cause of the accident was excessive concentration by the crew on the indications given by the

flight director Flight controllers are personnel who aid space flight by working in such Mission Control Centers as NASA's Mission Control Center or ESA's European Space Operations Centre. Flight controllers work at computer consoles and use telemetry to mon ...

instrument, which was being incorrectly used on a direct

instrument landing system In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...

(ILS) approach. The crew did not check other instruments, which showed that the aircraft was descending below its glidepath.Air Safety:The 1969 Accident Record:Non-Fatal Accidents-Public Transport Aircraft 1969
. ''

Flight International ''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's oldes ...

'', January 15, 1970.

References

{{coord missing, Chile Aviation accidents and incidents in 1969 Aviation accidents and incidents in Chile Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 727

160 Year 160 ( CLX) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Atilius and Vibius (or, less frequently, year 913 '' Ab urbe condita''). ...

1969 in Chile April 1969 events in South America 1969 disasters in Chile