Incident Overview

Date: Tuesday 8 December 1987
Aircraft Type: Fokker F-27 Friendship 400M
Owner/operator: Servicio Aeronaval de la Marina Peru
Registration Number: AE-560
Location: 11 km NW off Lima-Jorge Chavez International Airport (LIM) – ÿ Peru
Phase of Flight: Approach
Status: Destroyed, written off
Casualties: Fatalities: 42 / Occupants: 43
Component Affected: Fokker F-27 Friendship 400M aircraft, specifically the nose landing gear, the pilot, the co-pilot, and the navigation system.Fokker F-27 Friendship 400M aircraft, specifically the nose landing gear, the pilot, the co-pilot, and the navigation system.
Category: Accident
A Fokker F-27 Friendship 400M crashed off the coast of Lima, Peru, during a return flight for the Peruvian Navy. Sixteen football players, staff, cheerleaders, and referees were on board. The aircraft experienced a problem with the nose landing gear, which the flight crew noticed but did not address adequately. At night, the aircraft impacted the water, resulting in three occupants surviving but only the pilot being rescued. The pilot’s limited night-flight experience, coupled with errors in emergency procedures and technical issues, contributed to the accident.A Fokker F-27 Friendship 400M crashed off the coast of Lima, Peru, during a return flight for the Peruvian Navy. Sixteen football players, staff, cheerleaders, and referees were on board. The aircraft experienced a problem with the nose landing gear, which the flight crew noticed but did not address adequately. At night, the aircraft impacted the water, resulting in three occupants surviving but only the pilot being rescued. The pilot’s limited night-flight experience, coupled with errors in emergency procedures and technical issues, contributed to the accident.

Description

A Fokker F-27 Friendship 400M, operated by the Peruvian Navy, crashed at sea off the coast of Lima, Peru. On board the aircraft were 16 football players of the Alianza Lima football team, staff, cheerleaders and referees. Alianza Lima had played a match against Deportivo Pucallpa and was returning to Lima in the evening. The aircraft departed Pucallpa at 18:30 hours. During the approach to Lima, the flight crew noticed an indication that the nose landing gear would not lock down. A low flyby was flown to let the air traffic control tower check the gear. The gear seemed OK and the flight repositioned for another approach. In darkness, at about 20:15 hours, the aircraft impacted the water. Initially three occupants survived the impact, but only the pilot was rescued alive the following morning. An investigation showed that the flight crew members were not accustomed to flying at night. The captain, the only survivor of the accident, recorded only 5.3 night-flight hours in the last 90 days before the accident, 3.3 hours in the last 60 days; and none in the last 30 days. The co-pilot had 90 minutes of night-flight experience two months before the crash. Also, because of the limited proficiency in English, the co-pilot carried out the wrong emergency procedure after being instructed by the captain to carry out a procedure to take care of the landing gear indication. Additionally, the aircraft was dispatched with several technical issues. The airplane did not have an inertial navigation system (INS); UHF communication had low reception; the very high frequency omnidirectional range (VOR) receiver had low sensitivity; the radio altimeter oscillated preventing the pilots from seeing the exact altitude; and finally, the actuator for the front landing gear had worn down.

Source of Information

https://archive.is/20061028064903/http://www.livinginperu.com/news/2562https://archive.is/20061028064903/http://www.livinginperu.com/news/2562

Primary Cause

Insufficient night-flight experience and inadequate procedures for handling landing gear issues, exacerbated by technical malfunctions and communication difficulties.Insufficient night-flight experience and inadequate procedures for handling landing gear issues, exacerbated by technical malfunctions and communication difficulties.

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