Another plane bites the dust. Venezuela plane crash

[benyl]

http://www.canada.com/national/story...a-f2c312da8270

CARACAS, Venezuela -- An airliner with 152 passengers aboard crashed in remote western Venezuela early Tuesday, an aviation official said. It was unclear whether anyone survived.

The West Caribbean Airways plane was headed from Panama to Martinique before dawn when its pilot reported engine trouble to the Caracas airport, said Francisco Paz, president of the National Aviation Institute.

Airport authorities lost radio contact with the plane later in the area of Machiques, in the western state of Zulia, he said.

''Residents in the area said they heard an explosion,'' Paz said. ''Air rescue teams are travelling to the area right now by air and by land.''

He said the pilot reported trouble with both engines to the Caracas air control tower just after 3 a.m. and authorities lost contact with the plane about 10 minutes later.

The plane had been chartered for tourists, and 152 passengers were listed on the manifest, Paz said. It wasn't immediately clear how many crew members accompanied them.

The plane was believed to have gone down between two farms in the remote zone.

West Caribbean Airways, a Colombian airline, began service in 1998.

In March, a twin-engine plane operated by the same airline crashed during takeoff from the Colombian island of Old Providence, killing eight people and injuring the other six passengers.

[benyl]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americ....ap/index.html

[Lanks]

wow what a bad month for aviation!

[/////AMG]

What kind of plane was it?

Sad to hear.

[benyl]

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- A Colombian airliner carrying 160 people crashed Tuesday in a remote area of western Venezuela, aviation officials said.

No survivors have been found.

A spokeswoman for West Caribbean Airways, based in Medellin, Colombia, told CNN there were 152 passengers and eight crew members on board, making it the deadliest plane crash in Venezuela's history.

The MD-82 aircraft left Tocumen International Airport south of Panama City around 1 a.m. local time, headed for Fort de France, Martinique, according to Panamanian aviation officials.

Most of the passengers were from Martinique, according to civil aeronautics officials in Colombia, and the crew was Colombian.

The flight had been chartered by tourists in Martinique, a French possession in the Caribbean.

Venezuelan officials said the jetliner's pilots reported engine problems shortly before contact was lost with the aircraft around 3 a.m. ET.

Tomas Paredes with Panama's aviation agency told CNN in a phone interview the pilots had asked to descend from 31,000 feet to 14,000 feet because both engines were having problems.

That was the last communication from the aircraft, Paredes said.
Explosion reported

Some residents in Venezuela's Zulia state reported hearing a loud explosion early in the morning, near the city of Machiques and Lake Maracaibo, local law enforcement officials said. The crash site is not far from the border with Colombia.

Search and rescue crews are removing bodies from the site of the crash, officials said, and will move them to a morgue.

Local officials said there are no survivors.

Reporter Jeidis Osechas of the Venezuelan television network Globovision told CNN from the scene of the crash there was still smoke coming from the heavily forested region, and the wreckage appeared to be strewn over a large area.

French President Jacques Chirac released a statement expressing his sorrow about the accident that claimed the lives of several French citizens.

"The president expresses, on behalf of all French citizens, his saddest condolences and his deep compassion for the families and friends of the victims," the statement said.

Chirac said he was sending his overseas territories minister to Martinique immediately, and the French Foreign Ministry has set up a crisis office to deal with the accident.

A smaller aircraft owned by West Caribbean Airways crashed as it took off in Colombia in March, killing eight people and injuring eight others.
Previous crashes

The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series has been involved in 11 fatal crashes since it went into service in 1980 -- seven involved the MD-82 model.

The deadliest was the December 1, 1981, crash of an Inex-Adria Airways flight that went down in Ajaccio, France, killing all 180 people on board. Human error was found to be the cause of that crash.

Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997 and ended production of the MD-80 series in 1999. The plane is still in use around the world.

The two companies built 1,191 MD-80s.

[k_dawg]

Very sad to hear about that. My thoughts and simpathy goes out to the families of the lost ones. There has been so many plane crashes lately I'm scared to fly now.

[MiG_Master]

Westjet, Air Canada and Jetsgo all had MD-80's. Westjet and Air Canada have committed to upgrading their fleets, and by December, Westjet will have the youngest fleet in the world.
One thing I always do eveytime I step on an aircraft is check the builders plate. Lemme tell ya, nothing scared me more than the one time I flew a Jetsgo MD-80, and the builders plate had "Made in 1979" on it, meaning it was one of the first to be roll off the line. It wasn't a fun flight.

[finboy]

Originally posted by MiG_Master
Westjet, Air Canada and Jetsgo all had MD-80's. Westjet and Air Canada have committed to upgrading their fleets, and by December, Westjet will have the youngest fleet in the world.
One thing I always do eveytime I step on an aircraft is check the builders plate. Lemme tell ya, nothing scared me more than the one time I flew a Jetsgo MD-80, and the builders plate had "Made in 1979" on it, meaning it was one of the first to be roll off the line. It wasn't a fun flight.

where do you find the builders plate?

[MiG_Master]

Originally posted by finboy


where do you find the builders plate?

It's always located on the left side (as you walk into the plane) of the door frame, on the flat part that the door seals into.

[Shaolin]

I'm off to Italy on Sunday, I'll see if I can find that plate to see when the plane I'm on was made

[fast95pony]

Originally posted by MiG_Master
Westjet, Air Canada and Jetsgo all had MD-80's. Westjet and Air Canada have committed to upgrading their fleets, and by December, Westjet will have the youngest fleet in the world.

Ummm.Not quite .

Air Canada operated DC9's , not MD80's .
Air Canada's fleet renewal is bogged down with pilot's union
negotiations.
Westjet has only operated B737's , some of which are way older than MD80's.However ,they are replacing the old B737-200's with new -600's,-700's and -800's.

[MiG_Master]

Originally posted by fast95pony


Ummm.Not quite .

Air Canada operated DC9's , not MD80's .
Air Canada's fleet renewal is bogged down with pilot's union
negotiations.
Westjet has only operated B737's , some of which are way older than MD80's.However ,they are replacing the old B737-200's with new -600's,-700's and -800's.

You are correct, the article I was reading was unclear as to who was operating what.

[fast95pony]

Last week a small kit aircraft (Lancair Propjet ) was parked outside our office at the airport. We were checking it out since it had a 750 hp turbine engine and cruised at 370 mph ! Darn powerful and fast for a 4 seater. We watched it take-off , and 30 minutes later,it broke up over Didsbury at 20,000 ft. Both people on board died.
I guess I was just about the last person to see them alive..

Link to the aircaft info :
http://www.lancair-kits.com/Lancair_PropJet.html

[finboy]

Originally posted by fast95pony
Last week a small kit aircraft (Lancair Propjet ) was parked outside our office at the airport. We were checking it out since it had a 750 hp turbine engine and cruised at 370 mph ! Darn powerful and fast for a 4 seater. We watched it take-off , and 30 minutes later,it broke up over Didsbury at 20,000 ft. Both people on board died.
I guess I was just about the last person to see them alive..

Link to the aircaft info :
http://www.lancair-kits.com/Lancair_PropJet.html

wow, any idea what lead to it comming apart?

[fast95pony]

Nothing yet.I wonder how long the owner had been flying it. It's sorta like you or me going from a small four banger to a Formula One car .Easy to get yourself into a lot of trouble .
The average 4 seat aircraft have around 150-200 hp engines and fly below 10,000 feet at 120-140 mph.

Plus being a kit plane means there could have been build problems..

[MiG_Master]

Kit planes....I dunno. Great concept, but I'd want a professional building something like that. Kit cars are pretty much where I draw the line.

[finboy]

Originally posted by fast95pony
Nothing yet.I wonder how long the owner had been flying it. It's sorta like you or me going from a small four banger to a Formula One car .Easy to get yourself into a lot of trouble .
The average 4 seat aircraft have around 150-200 hp engines and fly below 10,000 feet at 120-140 mph.

Plus being a kit plane means there could have been build problems..

a buddy at my work is trying to become a commercial pilot, and usually fly's those 150-200 hp planes, i'll have to ask him about that kit plane.

seems pretty quick considering the average learning plane speed, lol

[Weapon_R]

MD-80=shitmobile.

Although you'd be surprised what some are still operating...does the name L1011 ring a bell to anyone

[Hakkola]

Strange there's no mention of this on the BBC news on channel 15 tonight.

[tapout]

Originally posted by Lanks
wow what a bad month for aviation!