Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 901 was a scheduled passenger flight that crashed in a river near Buenos Aires, Argentina on May 7, 1981, after flying into a

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 some ...

. All 31 people on the

BAC 1-11 The BAC One-Eleven (or BAC-111/BAC 1-11) was an early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Originally conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-se ...

were killed in the accident.

Accident sequence

Flight 901 had departed from Teniente Benjamín Matienzo International Airport in Tucumán at 9:11 a.m. on 7 May 1981, bound for Jorge Newbery Metropolitan Airport. The flight was uneventful until

final approach In aeronautics, the final approach (also called the final leg and final approach leg) is the last leg in an aircraft's approach to landing, when the aircraft is lined up with the runway and descending for landing.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of ...

. The weather conditions in Buenos Aires were awful, with heavy rain and winds. At 10:42, Flight 901 was cleared to land on

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

13 of

Aeroparque Jorge Newbery Jorge Newbery Airfield ( es, link=no, Aeroparque "Jorge Newbery", ), commonly known as Aeroparque, is an international airport northeast of downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina. The airport covers an area of and is operated by ''Aeropuertos Argen ...

. Shortly before 11 a.m., the pilots made an approach intending to land, but due to the rain and wind they could not see the runway and decided to abort the landing. They then conducted a go-around and started a second approach. At the suggestion of the

air traffic controller Air traffic control specialists, abbreviated ATCS, are personnel responsible for the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of air traffic in the global air traffic control system. Usually stationed in air traffic control centers and control ...

, they headed south to wait over the city of

Quilmes Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Rio de la Plata, in the , on the south east of the Greater Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and it is the seat of the eponymous county. With a population of 230,810, it is located south of the ...

, believing that the weather would be calmer there and that the storm would cease quickly. However, when they got closer they noticed that there was Cumulonimbus, so the pilot informed the control tower of Aeroparque that they would turn towards the river to return to Buenos Aires, where they would try a different approach. After receiving authorization from the controller to fly at high, the plane turned northward, straight into the center of the storm. From there, the Aeroparque control tower was unable to contact the crew again. Shortly after, the crew lost control of the plane, and it crashed into a river. All 26 passengers and 5 crew were killed. After losing contact with Flight 901, ships from the

Prefectura Naval Argentina The Argentine Naval Prefecture ( es, Prefectura Naval Argentina or PNA) is a service of Argentina's Security Ministry charged with protecting the country's rivers and maritime territory. It therefore fulfills the functions of other countries' coa ...

and the Argentine Navy began to search for the plane. At 2:40 p.m., more than three hours after the accident, a Prefectura helicopter was the first to sight the aircraft's wreckage. Rescuers headed there, hoping to find survivors, but their efforts were futile. The search and recovery of bodies took several days. The Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Board was in charge of the investigation. Only a little more than half of the plane's wreckage was removed from the water. The

Flight Data Recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has ...

(FDR) and

Cockpit Voice Recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has ...

(CVR), although intensively searched for 42 days, were never found. The JIAAC investigation, due to the lack of the black boxes, could not determine with certainty the cause of the accident, although it concluded as probable cause the "loss of control of the aircraft and impact against the water due to an error of appreciation of the pilot when evaluating the meteorological conditions when crossing through the zone of influence of a cumulonimbus of extremely violent activity".

Investigation

Investigations were hampered by the fact that only 55-65% of wreckage was recovered. Even after 42 days of searching, the

cockpit voice recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has ...

and

flight data recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has ...

were not recovered. The final investigators' report blamed the pilots for underestimating the intensity of the storm.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 901 Accidents and incidents involving the BAC One-Eleven Aviation accidents and incidents in 1981 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by weather Aviation accidents and incidents in Argentina 1981 in Argentina 1981 meteorology May 1981 events in South America 1981 disasters in Argentina

Accident sequence

Investigation

See also

References