Incident Overview

Description
A Boeing 707-131F cargo plane crashed during takeoff from Santa Cruz-El Trompillo Airport in Bolivia, killing all three crew members and 88 persons on the ground. A further 78 people were seriously injured. The aircraft operated on a round trip from Miami, Florida, USA to Santa Cruz. It had delivered livestock to Santa Cruz and was departing back to Miami. The take-off run was seen to be longer than usual and the aircraft crossed end of runway 32 at a height of about 6 meters. It struck trees, poles and the roofs of houses while rolling to the left and finally struck the ground inverted some 560 m beyond the runway. The aircraft impacted on a football pitch, bursting into flames. Analysis of the accident was hampered by unserviceable flight recorders. The Flight Data Recorder (FDR) was not in operation at the time of the accident; when the cassette was opened the entire tape was found to be wound round the receiving reel. The three radio channels of the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) contained some information but the cockpit area microphone channel was inoperative and the recording did not contain useful information. The enquiry rules out structural and engine failure, flight control malfunction and systems failures as possible causes of the accident. The engine-pressure ratio (EPR) gauges showed 2.32, corresponding to the setting for a take-off with dry thrust. On Boeing 707-100 aircraft equipped with Pratt & Whitney JT3C engines, de-mineralized water could be injected during takeoff to increase thrust. It was found that the water valves were open at the time of impact but it was not determined with certainty whether the crew attempted to perform a dry take-off but with reserve water, or whether the water was used with EPRs limited to 2.32 with the possibility of increasing the thrust when and as necessary. PROBABLE CAUSE: “The failure of the crew to select enough thrust to achieve the necessary acceleration. A principal contributory factor was crew fatigue.”
Primary Cause
Crew fatigueCrew fatigueShare on: