UTA Flight 141

Infobox Airliner accident|name=UTA Flight 141
Date=December 25 2003
Type=Failure to take off
Site=Cotonou Airport, Benin
Fatalities=141
Injuries=24 (1 on ground)
Aircraft Type=Boeing 727-223
Origin=Conakry International Airport
Last stopover=Cotonou Airport
Destination=Kufra Airport
Operator=Union des Transports Aériens de Guinée
Tail Number=3X-GDO
Passengers=153
Crew=10
Survivors = 22

UTA Flight 141 was a charter flight operated by Union des Transports Aériens de Guinée.

On 25 December, 2003, the airplane crashed in the Bight of Benin, killing 151 of the 163 occupants, most of them Lebanese.

Flight 141 was flown on 3X-GDO, an ex-American Airlines Boeing 727-223, on the day of the crash. The airliner's route was Conakry International Airport - Cotonou Cadjehoun Airport - Kufra Airport - Beirut International Airport. Many of the passengers were workers who were flying back home to Lebanon to enjoy the holidays with their families.

On takeoff from Cotonou, the aircraft ran off the end of the runway, impacting several ground structures including an occupied outbuilding and crashed on the ocean beach because it was severely overloaded with passengers and cargo and the aircraft's center of gravity was well out of limits, according to the French Civil Aviation Organization's investigation of the accident.

Exact passenger numbers are impossible to determine, as it is thought that there were more passengers aboard than were listed on the manifest.

Some newspaper reports have led many to suspect that the airplane used for this flight was, in fact, a 727-223 designated N844AA that had disappeared about one year earlier, along with flight engineer Ben Charles Padilla. This rumor turned out to be unfounded.

Some passengers who survived the initial crash died while being hospitalized. [ [http://origin.www.cbc.ca/world/story/2003/12/26/benincrash031226.html Plane crash in Benin kills at least 111 ] ]

References

External links

* [http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20031225-0 UTA Flight 141] at the Aviation Safety Network Database (Summary of the French accident investigation)
* [http://www.bea-fr.org/docspa/2003/3x-o031225a/htm/3x-o031225a.html English translation of investigation] at the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses