ZIP departure?
I've often flown the Zipaquira departure from BOG to the North, looking down and thinking where to go if we'd lose an engine in the climb. Glad we never did.
BOG is a tough spot; it lies at 8400', and is pretty much surrounded by mountains. The SID's are rather involved, and the required climb gradients quite steep. An engine out there would be a handfull with a heavy airplane. Towards ZIP there is upsloping terrain until some 50 miles from the airport, to over 12500' elevations if I remember correctly. The engine out procedure there doesn't end when you're clean.
But perhaps they didn't get that far, as the crash site is just a few miles west of the airport.
Most likely they were relatively heavy, as a full load of flowers will max out the zero fuel weight of a 747. MIA is some 4 hrs away, requiring more than a light fuel load. Performance-wise it would have been very tight, I know our departures usually were.
Glad to see the crew came out alive, sorry for those on the ground who didn't.
Last edited by Mariner; 7th Jul 2008 at 20:32.
Reason: editorial