Aeroperú Flight 603

Infobox Airliner accident
Name=Aeroperú Flight 603
Crash

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Image caption=CG render of Flight 603 reflected in the water just below and before it crashed
Date=October 2 1996
Type=Error in maintenance, Operator negligence
Site=Pacific Ocean
near Pasamayo, Peru
Fatalities=70
Injuries=0
Aircraft Type=Boeing 757-23A
Origin=Miami International Airport, Miami, Florida, USA
Last stopover=Jorge Chávez International Airport, Lima, PER
Destination=Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, Santiago, CHI
Operator=Aeroperú
Tail Number=N52AW
Passengers=61
Crew=9
Survivors=0

Aeroperú Flight 603 was a scheduled flight from Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima, Peru (LIM), to Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago, Chile, which crashed on October 2, 1996. The flight originated from Miami International Airport, Miami, Florida, United States.

Overview

On October 2, 1996, shortly after takeoff just past midnight, the Boeing 757 airliner crew discovered that their basic flight instruments were behaving erratically and reported receiving contradictory serial emergency messages from the onboard computer, such as rudder ratio, overspeed, underspeed and flying too low. The crew declared an emergency and requested an immediate return to the airport. Faced with the lack of reliable basic flight instruments, constantly receiving contradictory warnings from the aircraft's flight computer (some of which were valid and some of which were not), and continuously believing that they were at a safe altitude, pilot Eric Schreiber and copilot David Fernández decided to cautiously begin the descent for the approach to the airport. Since the flight was at night over water, no visual references could be made to convey to the pilots their true altitude or aid the pilots in the descent. Also, as a consequence of the pilot's inability to precisely monitor the aircraft's airspeed or vertical speed they experienced multiple stalls resulting in rapid loss of altitude with no corresponding change on the altimeter. While the altimeter indicated an altitude of approximately 9,700 feet, the aircraft's true altitude was in fact much lower. It struck the water approximately twenty-five minutes after emergency declaration, making the pilots realize the true altitude of the airliner; for twenty seconds the pilots tried to make the airliner climb. The airliner then crashed into the water. All nine crew members and sixty-one passengers died.

After the crash recovery crews found nine bodies floating; the rest of the bodies sank with the airliner.

Nationalities of passengers

Most of the passengers on Flight 603 were Chileans returning to Chile. "Flying Blind," "Mayday"]

[" [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9610/02/peru.plane.crash/index.html Searchers comb Pacific for more bodies after Peruvian crash] ," "CNN"] [" [http://www.clarin.com/diario/96/10/03/E-04401d.htm Murieron 70 personas en un avión peruano que cayó al mar] ," "Clarín Digital"]

Of the passengers, 21 originated from Miami; all of the originating passengers were Chilean. [" [http://www.copesa.cl/DE/1996/_Des1996/10_02/cronica.html CRONICA] ," "Consorcio Periodístico de Chile S.A."]

Reporting

Some very early reports initially stated that the crashed flight flew on a New York City to Lima route; the agencies later corrected reports, stating that the flight flew from Lima to Santiago.

Investigation

The Peruvian accident investigator, Guido Fernández, was the uncle of the co-pilot, David Fernández, but, despite originally holding some reservations about the potential conflict of interest, the National Transportation Safety Board appointed investigator — Richard Rodriguez — determined that he could properly investigate the accident.

The United States Navy provided equipment to locate the wreckage of the Boeing 757.

The later investigation of the accident revealed that a piece of masking tape accidentally left over the static ports (on the bottom side of the fuselage) after cleaning the aircraft led to the crash. Employee Eleuterio Chacaliaza left the tape on by accident. [" [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9404E5DB163BF931A15752C0A96E958260 World News Briefs; $29 Million for Victims Of 1996 Peru Air Crash] ," "The New York Times"]

The static ports are critical to the operation of virtually all of those flight instruments that provide basic aerodynamic data such as airspeed, altitude and vertical speed, not only to the pilots but also to the aircraft's computers, which provide additional functions such as warnings when flight characteristics approach dangerous levels. The blockage of all of the static ports is one of the few common-failure modes resulting in total failure of multiple basic flight instruments and as such is regarded as one of the most serious faults that can occur within the avionics systems.

The design of the aircraft did not incorporate a system of maintenance covers for the static ports. Such covers are commonly employed in aviation for blocking access to critical components when the aircraft is not in operation and are generally a bright color and carry flags (which may have "remove before flight" markings). Instead, the design of the aircraft and the relevant maintenance procedure called for the use of adhesive tape to cover the ports.

As a result of the blocked static ports the basic flight instruments relayed false airspeed, altitude and vertical speed data. Because the failure was not in any of the instruments but rather in a common supporting system, thereby defeating redundancy, the altimeter also relayed the false altitude information to the Air Traffic Controller, who was attempting to provide the pilots with basic flight data. This led to extreme confusion in the cockpit as the pilots were provided with some data (altitude) which seemed to correlate correctly with instrument data (altimeter) while the other data provided by ATC (approximate airspeed) did not agree. Although the pilots were quite cognizant of the possibility that all of the flight instruments were providing inaccurate data, the correlation between the altitude data given by ATC and that on the altimeter likely further compounded the confusion. Also contributing to their difficulty were the numerous cockpit alarms that the computer system generated, which conflicted both with each other and with the instruments. This lack of situational awareness can be seen in the CVR transcript. [http://www.avweb.com/other/peru603.html] The fact that the flight took place at night and over water thus not giving the pilots any visual references was also a major factor.

At first, the investigation put the responsibility for the accident on the flight deck crew.

Rumors abounded that the crash was caused by sabotage because the Peruvian Mafia supposedly wanted one of the passengers (a prisoner who was being extradited to Argentina) dead.Fact|date=January 2008 These rumors were never confirmed.

Legal Settlement

In November 1996, Mike Eidson, a Miami lawyer from Colson Hicks Eidson, said in an interview that many of the passengers survived the initial impact and drowned afterwards. The episode "'Flying Blind" from "Mayday" ("Air Crash Investigation", "Air Emergency") stated that the manner of the crash resulting in the drowning was responsible for the large settlements given to families of the victims.

Peruvian justice sentenced Chacaliaza; blame was not apportioned to supervisors for poor procedures or the flight crew for inadequate pre-flight checks.

The Flight 603 incident contributed to the demise of Aeroperú, which was already plagued with financial and management difficulties. The airline folded in the late 1990s.

In November 1996, Eidson represented 41 passengers and crew and argued that Boeing bears responsibility for the disaster. [" [http://www.colsonhickseidson.com/CM/PressReleases/pr-121399.asp Aeroperu Crash Victims Win Landmark Award] ," "Colson Hicks Eidson"]

On December 13 1999, family members of the flight's passengers received one of the largest cash awards stemming from an airplane crash outside the United States aboard a non-U.S. carrier. According to the complaint, the control panel errors were caused by careless maintenance by Aeroperú and negligence and defective design by The Boeing Company, the aircraft’s manufacturer. The suit was filed against Boeing in federal court in Miami in May, 1997. After extensive litigation the parties agreed to transfer the case against Boeing and Aeroperú to an international arbitration in Santiago, Chile, for a determination of the damages. The defendants agreed not to contest liability in Chile. [http://www.colsonhickseidson.com/CM/PressReleases/pr-121399.asp]

After the accident Aeroperú changed the number of its evening Miami-Lima-Santiago Boeing 757 service to Flight 691. ["Volando" (Aeroperú's inflight magazine), Issue 17, July-August 1997]

Dramatization

The accident was featured in the episode "'Flying Blind" from "Mayday" ("Air Crash Investigation", "Air Emergency"). The cockpit voice recording of the incident became part of the script of a play called "Charlie Victor Romeo".

ee also

* Lists of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
* Pitot-static system
* Birgenair Flight 301

References

External links

* [http://www.clarin.com/diario/96/10/03/E-04401d.htm "Clarín" - Argentine newspaper investigation about AeroPeru 603 ]
* [http://www.avweb.com/other/peru603.html AvWeb - AeroPeru 603 Cockpit Voice Recorder transcript (English)]
* [http://www.avweb.com/other/peru603a.html AvWeb - AeroPeru 603 Alarms activity from the CVR]
* " [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9610/03/peru.crash/ Computer failure puzzling in Peruvian crash] ," "CNN"
* " [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9610/02/peru.plane.crash/index.html Searchers comb Pacific for more bodies after Peruvian crash] ," "CNN"
* [http://www.copesa.cl/DE/1996/_Des1996/10_02/cronica.html List of passengers]
* [http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=N52AW&distinct_entry=true Pre-Crash airplane photos (Boeing 757) on Airliners.net]