Austral Lineas A‚reas flight 046 departed Buenos Aires-Aeroparque Jorge Newbery at 07:04 hours local time on a domestic flight to Resistencia and Posadas, Argentina. The first leg of the flight uneventful and the DC-9-81 aircraft departed Resistencia at 08:40 hours following a 26-minute stopover. At 09:09, the crew established radio contact with the Posadas Tower controller, reporting at FL 090, VMC, at 30 NM from the airport. Some 7 minutes later the controller cleared the flight for a runway 01 VOR/DME approach, requesting the crew to report over the VOR, and cleared the flight to descend to 4000 feet. Weather at that time was very poor, with about 100 m visibility in fog. At 09:20 the aircraft struck the top of a eucalyptus forest, at 3022 m (1,63 NM) from the runway 01 threshold. PROBABLE CAUSE: “Impacto contra una arboleda y posterior incendio, debido a efectuar una aproximaci¢n por instrumentos, sin respetar lo indicado por la carta correspondiente para ese aeropuerto. ” (Impact against woods and subsequent fire, due to carrying out an instrument approach, without respecting the indicated weather minima for that airport.)