TACA Flight 390 was a scheduled flight on May 30, 2008, by TACA International from San Salvador, El Salvador, to

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, with intermediate stops at

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa (, , ), formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( es, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz'', is the capital and largest city ...

and San Pedro Sula in Honduras. The aircraft, an Airbus A320-233, overran the runway after landing at Tegucigalpa's Toncontín International Airport and rolled out into a street, crashing into an embankment and smashing several cars in the process.

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft was an Airbus A320-233 (registration EI-TAF, c/n 1374). It was built in 2000 and entered service with TACA in 2001. The aircraft was leased twice to Cubana de Avación and Martinair in 2001 and 2007 respectively. The flight crew included Salvadorans Captain Cesare Edoardo D'Antonio Mena (40) and First Officer Juan Rodolfo Artero Arevalo (26). All cabin crew members operating on the flight were

Hondurans Hondurans (Spanish: ''Hondureñas'' or ''Hondureños'') are the citizens of Honduras. Most Hondurans live in Honduras, although there is also a significant Honduran diaspora, particularly in the United States, Spain, and many smaller communiti ...

. Captain D'Antonio had 11,899 flight hours, including 8,514 hours on the Airbus A320, and first officer Artero had 1,607 hours with 250 of them on the Airbus A320. Both pilots had previously experience in landing at Toncontín International Airport; captain D'Antonio had landed at the airport 52 times, and first officer Artero had landed there 5 times.

Accident

Flight 390 departed from San Salvador at 9:05 local time. At 09:40, the flight landed on runway 02 at Toncontín International Airport. Although both thrust reversers were deployed and the spoilers were activated, the aircraft overshot the runway at a speed of , crossed an embankment, and crashed into a road beside the airport.

Passengers

The passengers consisted of: A list of passengers was provided in the fifth press release on the crash from TACA international. This list was in the Spanish and English sections. Five people died as a result of the accident, including Captain D'Antonio. The deceased passengers were later confirmed as Jeanne Chantal Neele, the wife of (

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's ambassador to Honduras, who was also on board), and Nicaraguan businessman Harry Brautigam, president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration; Brautigam died from a heart attack. Ambassador Fraser Neele sustained injuries in the crash. The former head of the

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was also injured. There were two fatalities on the ground, one a taxi driver, in one of three vehicles crushed on the street by the aircraft. One of the survivors said that the business class passengers sustained the most serious injuries.

Investigation

Honduran authorities delegated the investigation of the accident to the Civil Aviation Authority of El Salvador as per the Convention on International Civil Aviation. The accident report stated that the airplane had landed with a tailwind, from the displaced approach end of the runway. Since this was the first intermediate stop on a long transcontinental flight, the aircraft was near its upper landing-weight limit (63.5t vs. 64.5t maximum allowable). In addition, the runway was wet, due to the passage of

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. The Aviation Herald retrieved a copy of the final report in 2017. The report itself has not been made public. The Civil Aviation Authority concluded the cause of the accident was the flight crew's inappropriate decision to continue the landing despite not assessing the conditions of the runway, which did not follow standard operating procedures. The lack of grooving in the runway and the aircraft landing at a high speed of were also contributing factors.

References

External links

* Civil Aviation Authority
Preliminary ReportArchive

Index of related filesArchive
* *
Accident at Tegucigalpa (Honduras)
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Archive

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*
Flight Recorder Group Meeting Report

ArchiveAlternate archive
from the National Transportation Safety Board Vehicle Recorder Division, June 5, 2008
Fatal crash at Honduran airport

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31 May 2008 {{Aviation accidents and incidents in 2008 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by weather Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error Aviation accidents and incidents in 2008 Airliner accidents and incidents involving runway overruns Accidents and incidents involving the Airbus A320 Aviation accidents and incidents in Honduras 2008 in Honduras Avianca El Salvador accidents and incidents May 2008 events in South America 2008 meteorology