Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815 was a domestic scheduled

passenger flight An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

from

São Paulo de Olivença SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Serb Autonomous Regions (''Srpska autonomna oblast'', SAO), during the breakup of ...

, northwest Brazil to

Manaus Manaus () is the List of capitals of subdivisions of Brazil, capital and largest city of the States of Brazil, Brazilian state of Amazonas (Brazilian state), Amazonas. It is the List of largest cities in Brazil, seventh-largest city in Brazil, w ...

, the capital of Amazonas state. On 14 May 2004, the aircraft operating the flight, an

Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia The Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia is a twin-turboprop 30-passenger regional airliner, commuter airliner designed and manufactured by the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer. The EMB 120 began development during 1974. While initially conceived as ...

, crashed into the dense

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

while on approach to Manaus. All 33 people on board were killed.

Background

Aircraft

The aircraft involved, manufactured in 1988, was a twin-engine Embraer EMB 120ER registered as PT-WRO with

serial number A serial number (SN) is a unique identifier used to ''uniquely'' identify an item, and is usually assigned incrementally or sequentially. Despite being called serial "numbers", they do not need to be strictly numerical and may contain letters ...

120070. The engine, propeller, and aircraft logbooks were all up to date.

Passengers and crew

There were 30 passengers and 3 crew members on board the aircraft. The

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

of the flight had 19,069 of flight hours, 5,819 of which were on this type of aircraft. The first officer had 11,927.10 flight hours, 4,637.10 of which were on this type of aircraft. Both pilots were qualified and experienced enough to operate the flight.

Accident

The aircraft departed Tefé Airport at 17:30 AMT ( UTC−04:00) en route to

Eduardo Gomes International Airport Manaus–Eduardo Gomes International Airport is an international airport serving Manaus, Brazil. On 11 December 1973, while still under construction, the name of the facility was changed from ''Supersonic Airport of Manaus'' (owing to its desig ...

. At 18:26, away from the airport, the aircraft began descending to aiming to intercept the airport's localizer. At 18:31, in order to separate traffic at the airport's terminal, the flight, continuing its descent, was placed under radar vectoring and instructed to follow certain headings. At 18:34, the aircraft was given its last heading guidance, still instructed to maintain 2,000 feet. This was the final contact between the flight and

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled air ...

. The aircraft subsequently impacted an equatorial forest at an altitude of , wings level, at over . All 33 passengers and crew were killed.

Aftermath

The next day, at 00:10, after a six-hour search near the river of Rio Negro, local emergency services located the crash site with rescue teams arriving there at 00:28, reporting that the aircraft had been destroyed with all occupants having been killed.

Investigation

Investigators managed to locate the aircraft's digital flight data recorder (DFDR) 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 colloquially as a "black box", an outdated nam ...

(CVR). Due to the severity of the destruction at the crash site, the aircraft's digital flight data acquisition unit (DFDAU) could not be found. Both the digital flight data recorder. Although the DFDR's outer casing was badly damaged by the crash, the inner protective casing was intact. Both flight recorders were sent to

Embraer Embraer S.A. () is a Brazilian multinational aerospace corporation. It develops and manufactures aircraft and aviation systems, and provides leasing, equipment, and technical support services. Embraer is the third largest producer of civil air ...

for reading, but both recorders were too damaged for Embraer to carry out a proper reading. The flights recorders were then sent to the

National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inci ...

's (NTSB) laboratories in

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

, United States, where an attempt at reading the DFDR was unsuccessful due to the recording head being dirty.

References

* *

External links

*
Final Report
–

CENIPA The Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (, CENIPA) is a unit of the Brazilian Air Force that investigates aviation accidents and incidents in Brazil. It is headquartered in Brasília. See also * Gol Transportes Aéreos Fl ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rico Linhas Aereas Flight 4815 Accidents and incidents involving the Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia Aviation accidents and incidents in 2004 Aviation accidents and incidents in Brazil 2004 disasters in Brazil May 2004 in South America