AVIATECA FLIGHT 901 (20 YEARS OF THE WORST PLANE

CRASH OF EL SALVADOR)
Aviateca Flight 901 was a Boeing 737-200 (registration N125GU) that crashed into
the San Vicente volcano in El Salvador on approach to the airport on 9 August 1995. The
accident killed all 65 passengers and crew on board.

ACCIDENT
Aviateca Flight 901 took off on a nighttime flight from La Aurora International
Airport in Guatemala City, Guatemala, to El Salvador International Airport in San Salvador,
El Salvador. There were 58 passengers and 7 crew on board.
After a 20-minute flight the crew of Flight 901 got in contact with air traffic control at El
Salvador International Airport. The controller told Flight 901 there was a thunderstorm with
heavy rain over the airport and said to fly over the storm and start their approach
downwind and land on runway 07. But the pilots and air traffic control were confused as to
the position of the aircraft as they started their approach and the aircraft went into the
same bad weather as the flight crew flew over. Then, as Flight 901 was at 5,000 feet
(1,524 m), the Ground Proximity Warning System had sounded and power was applied but
too late. Flight 901 crashed into the side of San Vicente volcano and burst into flames. The
accident killed all 65 passengers and crew on board.
CAUSE
The Dirección General De Transporte Aéreo determined that the probable cause of the
accident was the flight crew's lack of situational awareness in relation to the 7,159-foot
obstruction, the flight crew's decision to descend below the MSA while deviating from a
published transition or approach, and the ambiguity of position information between the
flight crew and the air traffic controller which resulted in the controller's issuance of an
altitude assignment that did not provide terrain clearance. Contributing to the accident was
the failure of the First Officer to direct his concern of reported positions to the Captain in a
more direct and assertive manner and the failure of the controller to recognize the aircraft's
reported position relative to obstructions and give appropriate instructions and warnings.
An ineffective crew resource management program at Aviateca also contributed to the
accident.

Aviateca insisted for hours in silence the catastrophe. Company spokesmen stated that
"due to bad weather" could not confirm that the device had fallen to the ground. "We can
only say that we have lost contact," insisted. Subsequently, recognized the disaster, the
airline declined to disclose the identity of the passengers on Flight 901.

Some witnesses said then that he heard a loud explosion and then saw a light. This
means that the plane had caught fire after, why many bodies were completely charred
crash.
Rescuers, aided by helicopters, police and members of the Red Cross managed to locate
the aircraft after an intense search for more than eight hours, hampered by bad weather,
and mud that covered the inaccessible slopes of the volcano. The apparatus was located
in La Fincona, north of Chinchontepec, about 60 kilometers from San Salvador. The area
was cordoned off as he came to the rescue of the bodies.
Porque se estrello
Con el fin de despejar las incógnitas sobre el fatal accidente del avión de Aviateca, también vinieron a El Salvador el jefe
de investigación de la Dirección General de Aviación Civil de Costa Rica, y otros funcionarios de esa entidad.

De acuerdo con la investigación la aeronave se había desviado 30 millas (55,5 kilómetros) de su ruta, aunque voceros de la
empresa guatemalteca afirmaron que el accidente se debió al "mal tiempo en la zona".

Un aviador del ejército, aseguró que el piloto del vuelo 901 estaba alejado del curso que debió haber llevado y aseguró que
a la misma hora en que el avión de Aviateca se accidentó había otro avión de la compañía TACA enfilándose hacia el
aeropuerto internacional de El Salvador, el cual al no tener visibilidad decidió buscar la ruta hacia el mar con ayuda del
radar, cosa que no hizo el piloto de Aviateca.

Sin embargo, el presidente del Comité salvadoreño de Emergencia Nacional, Mauricio Ferrer, aseguró que la nave
siniestrada llevaba la ruta "correcta" y que es la que siguen todos los vuelos que llegan a El Salvador.

En Guatemala, el ministro Ramírez Pereira indicó que el Boeing 737 se hallaba "más de 10 millas náuticas (18,5
kilómetros)" fuera de su curso y atribuyó la situación al mal tiempo.

Because I crashed

To clear the unknowns about the fatal crash of Aviateca, also came to El Salvador
research head of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of Costa Rica, and other officials
of that entity.

According to research aircraft had deviated 30 miles (55.5 km) route, although the
Guatemalan company spokesmen claimed that the accident was due to "bad weather in
the area."

An Army Aviator, said the pilot of Flight 901 was removed from the course that must have
taken and said that at the same time the plane Aviateca crashed there was another
company plane TACA heading towards the international airport of El Salvador which
having no visibility decided to find the route to the sea with the help of radar, which he did
not Aviateca driver.

However, the president of the Salvadoran National Emergency Committee, Mauricio

Ferrer, said the distressed craft carrying the "right" path and that is followed by all flights
arriving in El Salvador.

In Guatemala, the Minister Ramirez Pereira said the Boeing 737 was "more than 10
nautical miles (18.5 kilometers)" off course and attributed the situation to bad weather.
NEWS IN NEWSPAPERS
David Rivas

Special envoy AFP

San Vicente, El Salvador. (AFP)

The Guatemalan company plane that crashed last night Aviateca with 65 people aboard
on the slopes of Volcán San Vicente was completely burned and destroyed, and in an area
of 500 meters human remains are scattered, checked the special envoy AFP.

Large plumes of smoke rising in the place where the lifeguards made it difficult to search
with accident victims, but so far have raised no body pending judicial authorities arrive.

"It has traced an approximate area of 500 meters and was not located any survivors" until
08H00 local (12H00 GMT), told AFP the paramedic Roberto Pacheco.

Eduardo Vanegas, effective from the National Civil Police (PNC) said the plane was
located in the early hours of the morning and after making a first tracking the disaster area
"we saw no survivors."

The dense forest on the slopes of the volcano and muddy soil have hampered rescue
efforts, although the rain stopped and the sky was clear.

In two completely burned forest areas where the plane hit and several fragments of the
plane and human remains are scattered on the site can be seen.

To get to the crash, members of the press have had to leave the vehicle and walk about
two hours due to the steepness of the slope and unsafe terrain.

About 150 police officers, 70 troops and fifty lifeguards are in the area.

The plane, flying from Miami to San Salvador, hit the volcano 2180 meters halfway up the
northern slope shortly after 20H00 local (02h00 gmt) when heavy rains fell in the region.

43 foreigners among the passengers

San Salvador

Forty-three foreigners traveling in the plane of the Guatemalan Aviateca airline that
crashed last night in the foothills of San Vicente, 60 kms east of San Salvador volcano,
confirmed Thursday the National Civil Police (PNC) of El Salvador.

According to spokesmen Aviateca in the Flight 901 traveling 58 passengers and seven
crew. The chief operating officer of PNC in San Vicente, José María Gámez, told AFP that
according to the list of flight, the aircraft traveled 12 Guatemalans six nicaragüeses six
Costa Ricans, six Americans, four Mexicans, two Danish A Switzerland, a Spanish, an
Argentine, two Brazilians, one German and one Korean.

The Boeing 737 crashed into the slopes of San Vicente, or Chichontepec volcano, at about
20H00 local on Wednesday (02h00 GMT), when it began its approach to Comalapa
International Airport, 40 kms southwest of the capital.
The victims include the Brazilian ambassador to Nicaragua and his wife, identified as
Genaro and Magdalena Mocciolo, as confirmed by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry.

Only they had been fully identified, police and spokesmen Airlines.

According to spokesmen Aviateca, the plane left Miami with stops in Guatemala, El
Salvador and destination connections Managua and San José.

Six Nicaraguan between accident victims

Managua. (ACAN-EFE)

Six Nicaraguans died along with the other 52 passengers and 7 crew members of the
Guatemalan airline tickets AVIATECA that crashed last night on the slopes of
Chinchontepec volcano in El Salvador, was reported today, Thursday in Managua.

The Nicaraguan victims were identified as Alvaro Espinosa, Amelia Alonso Flores,
Armando Gamez, Robert Vallecillo, Eugenio Lacayo Lacayo and Francisco Franco, the
latter general manager of the trading company "OCAL". The state broadcaster Radio
Nicaragua Managua reported that the plane, a Boeing 737, which began its regular flight
901 in Miami, USA, also four Mexicans traveling six Costa Ricans, six Americans and two
Brazilians, one Argentine, one German and Spanish, unidentified.

The radio did not identify the nationality of other passengers and crew.

The Salvadoran authorities confirmed today that anyone survived among the 58
passengers and 7 crew on the plane crash, the largest ever produced in El Salvador for
many years.