The crash of a Boeing 747 near Madrid (1983)

Boeing 747-283BM (registration number HK-2910X, serial number 21381, serial 311) was released in 1977 (the first flight was made on August 24). On October 27 of the same year, it was transferred to Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) , in which it received the LN-RNA b / n and the name Magnus Viking . From March to July 25, 1982 he leased a / a Scanair . On August 3, 1982, it was leased by Avianca , in which he received tail number HK-2910X and the name Olafo . Equipped with four twin-circuit turbojet engines Pratt & Whitney JT9D-70A . On the day of the accident, the liner completed over 5800 take-off and landing cycles and flew 20,811 hours 24 minutes ^{[1] [2]} .

The plane was operated by a very experienced crew, the composition of which was as follows:

• The aircraft commander (FAC) is Tulio Hernández ( Spanish: Tulio Hernández ). A very experienced pilot, he worked at Avianca for 32 years and 2 months (from August 31, 1951). As a second pilot, he flew the C-46 , Douglas DC-3 and Douglas DC-4 aircraft, and in the post of the FAC - DC-3, DC-4, Boeing 707 and Boeing 727 . In the post of commander of the Boeing 747 - from May 26, 1979 (before that he had been managing it as a co-pilot). Flown 23,215 hours 23 minutes, 2432 hours 23 minutes of them on the Boeing 747.
• The co - pilot is Eduardo Ramirez ( Spanish: Eduardo Ramírez ). An experienced pilot, worked at Avianca for 10 years and 4 months (since July 19, 1973). He flew the aircraft DC-3, Hawker Siddeley HS 748 , Boeing 707 and Boeing 727. He has been the co-pilot of the Boeing 747 since July 22, 1981. He flew 4384 hours 13 minutes, 875 hours 29 minutes of them on the Boeing 747.
• Flight Engineer - Juan Laverde ( Spanish: Juan Laverde ). He worked at Avianca for 25 years and 5 months (from June 6, 1958). As a flight engineer, he flew Lockheed L-749 Constellation , L-1049 Super Constellation , Boeing 707 and Boeing 720 aircraft . In the post of flight engineer Boeing 747 - from April 30, 1977. Flown 15 942 hours 57 minutes, 3676 hours 20 minutes of them on the Boeing 747.
• Reserve Flight Engineer - Daniel Sota ( Spanish Daniel Zota ).

15 cabin crew worked in the cabin . The senior flight attendant was 41-year-old Sigrun Günther Platzöder ( German: Sigrun Günther Platzöder ).

Also on board were 4 more Avianca crew members who flew this flight as passengers.

Among the passengers on board the aircraft were:

• Jorge Ibarguengoitiya is a Mexican writer.
• is a Uruguayan writer, scholar, and literary critic.
• Manuel Scorsa is a Peruvian writer, poet and political activist.
• is an Argentinean writer and art critic.
• is a Spanish pianist.

In total there were 192 people on board - 173 passengers and 19 crew members.

On November 27, 1983, the Boeing 747-283BM had to carry out the scheduled flight AV011 on the route Frankfurt am Main - Paris - Madrid - Caracas - Bogotá on board the HK-2910X. However, on Saturday November 26, the route section from Frankfurt to Paris was canceled. Then, 55 passengers who intended to board the AV011 flight in Frankfurt were forced to travel to Paris by Lufthansa flight LN116. Waiting for them, flight 011 was delayed for a total of 1 hour 20 minutes. A total of 19 crew members were on board, another 4 crew members flew passengers, as well as 169 passengers. 66,500 pounds of jet fuel were poured into the tanks, and the total take-off weight of the aircraft was 514,156 pounds. At 22:25:35 UTC (23:25:35 local time), flight 011 departed from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. According to the plan, the instrument flight (IFR) was supposed to take place at FL370 (11.3 kilometers) through the points of Vason (Paris), Limoges , Pamplona , Barahona and Castejón ^[3] .

The last broadcast with the French dispatchers took place at 23:31:30, when the crew was instructed to switch to communications with the air traffic control center in Madrid. At 23:31:50, the crew contacted the Spanish dispatchers and informed them of their flight route. Then at 23:46:34 the crew received permission to reduce to FL190 (5.8 kilometers). At 23:52:43, the crew contacted the Barajas Airport Approach Manager (APP) in Madrid and reported that they had just passed Barahona and requested permission to go directly to CPL ( Campo Real ), thereby bypassing Castejón, which allowed straighten the route and get to the start of the approach approach earlier. When the approach dispatcher approved this, at 23:52:55 the crew contacted the center dispatcher (ACC) and reported on their intention to head to the Campo Real point, which the dispatcher instructed to follow and descend to FL90 (2.7 kilometers) . At 23:56:44, the crew contacted the Madrid-approach dispatcher and received permission from him to lower to the airport, as well as weather data and airfield pressure. At 00:00:07 already on Sunday November 27, the crew reported on occupying a height of 2743 meters, which received permission to continue to decline. At 00:03:29, the approach manager announced that the landing would be on runway No. 33 and instructed to switch to communication with the tower. At 7 miles from the heading beacon, flight 011 made a U-turn and headed toward the Exterior (MA) marker. At 00:03:56 the crew established contact with the tower of the Barajas airport and received permission to land on lane 33. This was the last broadcast from an airplane ^[3] .

At 00:06:05 the plane was descending towards MA (heading 284 °) in the landing position when the GPWS alarm went off , warning about dangerously low altitude, but only at 00:06:18 the second pilot informed the commander about the danger. However, the crew did not manage to do anything, because already at 00:06:19 (01:06:19 CET ), that is, after a second, AV011 flight descending with a vertical speed of 309 m / min at an altitude of 684 meters at a speed of 263 km / h crashed engine number 4 (right extreme) and the main landing gear in the hill. In this case, the right wing plane hit a tree 4-5 feet high, which caused its extreme third to separate. Then, after three seconds and flying 240 meters, the airliner hit a second hill at a speed of 250 km / h. Then flying another 320 meters in 6 seconds, with an approximate speed of 233 km / h, the liner crashed into the third hill with the right plane of the wing and collapsed into five parts that slipped along the slope, leaving a significant number of fragments ^[4] .

The accident occurred in the municipality of Mejora del Campo and 12 kilometers southeast of Barajas airport at the coordinate point ^[3] . The crash killed all 23 crew members (including 4 flying passengers) and 158 passengers, that is, a total of 181 people. The remaining 11 passengers survived, 8 of them were seriously injured ^[5] .

For 2016, this is the largest disaster in Colombian aviation history. Also, this crash takes the first place among those that occurred on the continental part of Spain and the second place in the country in general (after the collision in Tenerife , Canary Islands ) ^[6] .

The investigation into the causes of the crash of flight AV011 was undertaken by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission (CAAIIC) .

According to the final report of the investigation, the disaster occurred due to the fact that the crew commander, not having accurate information about the location of the aircraft relative to the terrain, tried to intercept the directional radio beacon signal from the wrong trajectory, disrupting the maneuver approach approach, while falling below a safe altitude, which led to collision with the earth.

The crash was caused by errors in navigation, as a result of which the crew incorrectly determined their location, the lack of action on the GPWS messages, poor communication between the pilots , as well as incorrect information from the control manager about the location of the aircraft and the lack of radar tracking of flight 011 ^[7] .

Contrary to tradition, to refuse a flight number after a disaster as a sign of respect for those who died on it, flight AV011 still exists in Avianca, but its route changed to Madrid-Bogotá and a Boeing 787 flies along it.

• A-042/1983 Informe Técnico del Accidente Sufrido por la Aeronave Boeing 747-283B, Matrícula HK-2910, a 12 KM. del Aeropuerto de Madrid-Barajas el día 27 de Noviembre de 1983 (Spanish) . Ministerio de Fomento. Date of treatment November 9, 2013.