Incident Overview

Date: Thursday 7 February 2008
Aircraft Type: Britten-Norman BN-2A-26 Islander
Owner/operator: Caribair, S.A.
Registration Number: HI-653CA
Location: El Prado, El Seybo – ÿ Dominican Republic
Phase of Flight: En route
Status: Substantial, repaired
Casualties: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 9
Component Affected: Engine No. 1Engine No. 1
Investigating Agency: CIAA Dom. Rep.CIAA Dom. Rep.
Category: Accident
On a tourist excursion flight from Punta Cana International Airport to Santiago de Los Caballeros, a flight was aborted due to an engine failure and a lack of fuel. The captain, facing potential engine failure, made an emergency landing in a sugarcane field near El Prado, Dominican Republic, resulting in a nose wheel collision with a stone. The incident was triggered by the engine failure and subsequent decision to land in a less suitable location.On a tourist excursion flight from Punta Cana International Airport to Santiago de Los Caballeros, a flight was aborted due to an engine failure and a lack of fuel. The captain, facing potential engine failure, made an emergency landing in a sugarcane field near El Prado, Dominican Republic, resulting in a nose wheel collision with a stone. The incident was triggered by the engine failure and subsequent decision to land in a less suitable location.

Description

The aircraft was on a tourist excursion flight, which originated on the same day at 08:00, from Punta Cana International Airport, Dominican Republic. Destination was Santiago de Los Caballeros, with nine tourists on board. On the return flight, at approximately 70 miles northwest of the Punta Cana Airport, the captain decided to fly to the La Romana Airport (the alternate airport), to refuel because he did not perform this operation at the Cibao Airport and because the fuel quantity indicator in the left tank was inoperative. He had doubts about the remaining fuel in the tanks. On the way to the alternate airport, the no.1 engine failed. The captain attempt to restart the engine but this failed. Engine no. 2 was still running. The pilot, aware that the fault that turned off engine no.1 was the lack of fuel, made the decision to land in a sugarcane field near El Prado, located in the province of El Seybo, for fear that the remaining engine would also go out, perhaps without a suitable place to land later. Given these conditions, the captain chose a segment of a lane in the middle of two cane fields, where he made the emergency landing. The surface of this trail was not totally flat. After having a landing run of about 100 feet, the nose wheel collided with a stone, breaking the nose landing gear. Directional control was lost and the aircraft turned to the left, entering a cane field. Cause: – The accident occurred due to the fact that engine # 1 was turned off due to lack of fuel and when making the emergency landing the captain could not keep the aircraft in the correct path of the selected lane for said landing.

Primary Cause

Engine failure and lack of fuel.Engine failure and lack of fuel.

Share on:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *