Prinair Flight 277

Prinair Flight 277
	A derelict Heron, formerly owned by Prinair, similar to the accident aircraft
Accident
Date	March 5, 1969
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain caused by ATC error
Site	Fajardo, Puerto Rico ; 18°10′17″N 66°8′31″W / 18.17139°N 66.14194°W
Aircraft
Aircraft type	de Havilland DH.114 Heron 2B
Operator	Prinair
Registration	N563PR
Flight origin	Harry S Truman Airport, Charlotte Amalie
Destination	Isla Verde International Airport, San Juan
Passengers	17
Crew	2
Fatalities	19
Survivors	0

Prinair Flight 277 was a regular passenger flight by Puerto Rican airline Prinair, between Cyril E. King International Airport in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands, and Isla Verde International Airport in Carolina, Puerto Rico, a suburb of San Juan. On March 5, 1969, the flight, operated by de Havilland Heron 2D N563PR, crashed into a mountain near Fajardo, killing all 19 occupants on board.^[1]

Flight

Prinair Flight 277 left Charlotte-Amalie at 5:15 pm on Wednesday, March 5, 1969 for a short flight to the San Juan area's main airport in Carolina. It was an uneventful flight until the airplane entered mainland Puerto Rico. This was the point in which the airplane's pilot contacted San Juan's approach control, letting them know that they were flying at 4,000 feet (1,200 m) and maintaining that flight level.

Then, the airport's approach controller responded with, "Prinair two seven seven San Juan Approach Control radar contact three miles east of Isla Verde fly a heading of two five zero for a vector to ILS final maintain four thousand." The approach controller, who was a trainee on the fateful afternoon, mistakenly thought that Prinair Flight 277 was near San Juan, but it was instead near Luquillo at what is described as the "Fajardo intersection". One minute after this communication, Prinair Flight 277 was asked to go to flight level 3, or 3,000 feet (900 m) and prepare for landing. The airplane was vectored for a landing into runway 7. The plane's pilots, trusting that the information given to them was correct, followed the instructions and prepared for landing, soon finding themselves in front of an unavoidable mountain instead. At 5:38 pm, 23 minutes after the flight took off from St. Thomas, it crashed into some trees on the Sierra Luquillo mountains, killing everyone on board.^[2]

Investigation

An NTSB investigation that followed discovered that this accident would not have been survivable in any way. The controller's home and belongings were investigated as part of the investigation and it was found he had a typical family life, along with some of the furnishings and electrical objects found at a typical family house.

On March 17, 1969, the controller revealed to investigators, that 3 years before, a flight surgeon had sent him to see both a psychiatrist and a psychologist, and that on March 5, the day of the accident, he was feeling very tense and anxious.

It was noted also that the accident area had several peaks that were over 3,000 feet (900 m) and that the weather conditions during that day would have prevented the pilots from seeing the peaks ahead of them.

The controller's erroneous indications meant he thought the aircraft was 10 miles (16 km) further west than it actually was. About 5:33 pm, or five minutes before the crash, the flight coordinator's supervisor ordered him to go perform other duties, and then proceeded to give the controller's instructor instructions to go and do collateral duties. By then, the controller was directing 5 flights, including Prinair Flight 277. Some pilots on these five flights were heard complaining because the instructor's own transmissions were interrupting the controller's.

Several other key elements were discovered by the investigation.^[2]

References

↑ "accident record". ASN. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
1 2 AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT REPORT -Puerto Rico International Airlines, Inc. de Havilland Heron 114-2, N563PR San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sierra de Luquillo March 5, 1969 (PDF). Washington D.C.: National Transportation Safety Board. April 24, 1970. Retrieved August 29, 2015. - Alternate link at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[ASN-1] "accident record". ASN. Retrieved 29 August 2015.

[ntsb-2] 1 2 AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT REPORT -Puerto Rico International Airlines, Inc. de Havilland Heron 114-2, N563PR San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sierra de Luquillo March 5, 1969 (PDF). Washington D.C.: National Transportation Safety Board. April 24, 1970. Retrieved August 29, 2015. - Alternate link at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

[1]

[2]

Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States and U.S. territories in the 1960s
1960	National Airlines Flight 2511 Capital Airlines Flight 20 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710 Chicago Helicopter Airways Flight 698 World Airways Flight 830 Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 Cal Poly football team New York mid-air collision
1961	Goldsboro B-52 American Airlines Flight 1502 Yuba City B-52 United Air Lines Flight 859 Alaska Airlines Flight 779 TWA Flight 529 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 706 Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8 Cincinnati Zantop DC-4
1962	American Airlines Flight 1 Continental Airlines Flight 11 Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 301 United Air Lines Flight 297 Eastern Air Lines Flight 512
1963	Elephant Mountain B-52 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705 Camden PA-24 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 293 Mohawk Airlines Flight 112 Pan Am Flight 214
1964	Savage Mountain B-52 Eastern Air Lines Flight 304 Paradise Airlines Flight 901A Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 United Air Lines Flight 823 Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114 Flying Tiger Line Flight 282
1965	USAF KC-135 Wichita Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 Pan Am Flight 843 Continental Airlines Flight 12 Allegheny Airlines Flight 604 United Air Lines Flight 389 American Airlines Flight 383 United Air Lines Flight 227 Carmel mid-air (Eastern 853, TWA 42)
1966	NASA T-38 American Flyers Airline Flight 280/D Braniff International Airways Flight 250 West Coast Airlines Flight 956
1967	Lake Central Airlines Flight 527 TWA Flight 553 West Coast Airlines Flight 720 Delta Air Lines Flight 9877 Mohawk Airlines Flight 40 Piedmont Airlines Flight 22 TWA Flight 159 X-15 Flight 3-65-97 TWA Flight 128
1968	Ozark Air Lines Flight 965 Braniff International Airways Flight 352 Los Angeles Airways Flight 841 Los Angeles Airways Flight 417 Northeast Airlines Flight 946 Japan Air Lines Flight 2 Pan Am Flight 281 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 Allegheny Airlines Flight 736 Pan Am Flight 799 North Central Airlines Flight 458 Ozark Air Lines Flight 982
1969	Allegheny Airlines Flight 737 Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 933 United Air Lines Flight 266 Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 Prinair Flight 277 Delta Air Lines Flight 821 TWA Flight 5787 Newton Cessna 172 crash Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 Mohawk Airlines Flight 411
This list is incomplete.

Flight

Investigation

See also

Similar air crashes into mountains and related articles

References