Bolivian B727 Crash Lands Short of Runway, All Survive
 

A plane carrying more than 150 people crash-landed in a bog in eastern Bolivia on Friday after fierce storms turned it away from its destination and it tried to reach another airport hundreds of miles away, according to officials and news reports. All on board survived.

Photographs by local media showed the charter Boeing 727, flown by a local airline, in a flooded forest clearing, stripped of at least one wing. A set of landing gear was in the water nearby.

http://tinyurl.com/37369f

727 down in Bolivia
 

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j...mfWTAD8UHRIJ80

Thankfully, no fatalities and just some injuries. Aircraft in pieces..

Thankfully, no fatalities indeed. I went as SLF on a LAB (Lloyd Aero Boliviano) flight circa 1999. Classic, and I mean classic, 727-100, never been on one of those before or since. It needed an interior cabin update, but otherwise seemed to be rather well maintained, with a professional cabin and flight crew. I understand LAB has managed a very good safety record, certainly by Latin American standards, so good on them! Sorry to hear about the aeroplane in bits, though... :{

Yes thankfully, seems like a miracle! Hopefully those injuries aren't compressed vertebrae, which from my experience doesn't quite fit the 'just injury' category...

Boeing 727-200
 

Its actually a 200 series, not 100, you can tell by the number 2 engine inlet, round on 200, oval on 100 series. Also says -200 on the paint job.

159 pax with only 154 seats ? Could be true, but thats a generous seat pitch. Used to get 189 in all Y class on our 200's

Do you actually think they had people standing in the aisles ? :eek:

This was indeed a great miracle. The Bolivian press reports that only two people, of the 157 passengers and crew on board, were injured seriously (broken bones) in this forced landing.

The aircraft run out of fuel.

LAB (Lloyd Aereo Boliviano) is an airline that is legally bankrupt, however, they conduct charter flights with two operational B727-200's in their fleet. This flight was being operated for TAM (Transportes Aereos Militares) the Bolivian air force's airline. The aircraft in this incident was CP-2429.

The flight originated in La Paz (SLLP), destined to the northern town of Cobija (SLCO) a distance of about 330nm. On arrival at SLCO, the heavy rain precluded a landing and after a couple of holding patterns, the flight diverted to the north-eastern town of Trinidad (SLTR) 320nm away.

According to passenger accounts, after initiating the diversion the crew advised that they were flying to Trinidad and that they would be landing in about 30 minutes. However one hour later and after overflying this city two times also due to bad weather, the crew told the passengers to assume the crash position as they would be landing off-airport.

The aircraft crash-landed about two kilometres from the city. It appears from various pictures, that the crash removed the left wing, broke the right wing and removed engine #3 from its pod.

The airport in La Paz is 13,300 ft ASL and T/O weight is obviously of primary concern. It will be interesting to read the eventual investigation report, to see how fuel requirements for the flight, the full load of passengers and the airport's altitude, were calculated and balanced.

As a note of interest, LAB is the only airline that continues to fly the B727's it originally got from Boeing in the late 60's.

My first post here. Not used to the long lag after entering. Sorry for the duplication of another thread in this forum.

NEVER trust the media...

Amazing really how the 727 is almost intact after the crash landing...

I am surprised that so many of you couldn't figure out that some of the passengers might have been "lap children". accounting for the difference in seats and passengers.

When we get a passenger count from the flight attendants , we get the number of lap children, babes in arms, etc, just in case of evacution later on...

Actually, your thread pre-dated mine by just shy of 4 hours, so no apolgies are necessary. I looked before I posted, but didn't see yours...

Images say more than words:

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/b...e0df05e793.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/b...34899405_r.jpg

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/b...idjLqt6lhg.jpg


http://www.eldeber.com.bo/2008/2008-...mages/tapa.jpg

http://www.eldeber.com.bo/2008/2008-...mages/eco3.jpg

http://www.eldeber.com.bo/2008/2008-...images/eco.jpg

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids...eNSPnOaaG3eQ--

Indeed, they were very lucky

Cheers

BF

Data - LAB 727 - Estimated
 

CP-2429 Registry
Aircraft 727-259/Adv - c/n 22475 - Originally Avianca - JT8D-15A engines.
High Alt. Ops. STC Kit (Operations above 10,000+ MSL) SLLP is 13,400 MSL.
xxx
Aircraft BOW approx. 115,000 lbs
Payload - 155 pax = prob 35,000 lbs all included.
Fuel req. SLLP to SLCO + Alternate SLTR + Reserves = Approx. 20,000 lbs
Takeoff gross weight would have been 170,000+ lbs. Unlikely out of SLLP.
Max T/O SLLP probably limited to about 160,000 lbs.
Limited by either tire limit or brake energy. Flaps 5 or 15 takeoff.
xxx
Probably left with less fuel than required. Probably ran out of fuel (and ideas).
Nasty weather E of "Altiplano", typical of summer storms and CBs.
By chance they all got out ok...
xxx
:)
Happy contrails

727-200
 

You are correct on that ! I never considered the lap pax ! :\

Guess I have been flying freight too long !

From the Bolivian news, they diverted from Cobija to Trinidad (±360 miles) and the weather was just as bad there. There was no fuel left when they came down 5km (?) from Trinidad after two (?) GAs, some dispute as to whether they were trying another approach and ran out of fuel or decided to deplete it entirely and put down wherever they could. An army or police post saw them gliding in and were on the spot quickly.

The reports say both wings were ripped off; Trinidad hospitals attended most passengers and crew for cuts and bruises; two more serious injuries were to a flight attendant and a passenger.

All the photos show swampy land with relatively low (10-20ft) shrubs/trees. All that land is flat, with large cleared areas and, with the rains, would have have been pretty slippery.

Quite a few years ago LAB used to do some ACMI work for us, I always found their crew to be very professional, well trained and disciplined and their aircraft, 727 200's with -17's, well maintained.

Somehow I didn't expect that, (stupid of me!)

fluf

Yes, solid bit of kit.

I seem to recall that they were the most 'prolific' type many years ago, anyone know how many are left?

Under the circumstances then, some good judgement and very good airmanship... you don't get two chances at that.

1200 727s built?

1,831 were delivered according to Wikipedia with 87 hull-loss accidents. Make that 88.:bored:

104 write-offs according to http://aviation-safety.net/database/...e.php?type=102
Poor year for the B727, two write-offs already?

For its day the 727 was very prolific - in fact it was the first airliner to exceed the commercial order book set by the DC-3 (which was around 800 at the time of Pearl Harbor - NOT counting military orders)