Transaven L410 near Los Roques on Jan 4th 2008, aircraft went missing and was found 5 years later
Last Update: September 22, 2020 / 17:51:30 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Jan 4, 2008
Classification
Crash
Departure
Caracas, Venezuela
Destination
Los Roques, Venezuela
Aircraft Registration
YV2081
Aircraft Type
Let L-410 Turbolet
ICAO Type Designator
L410
Amongst the passengers were 7 Italian, one Swiss and 3 Venezuelean citizens.
During the search for another aircraft, a Britten Norman BN-2 Islander registration YV2615 that disappeared on Jan 4th 2013 near Los Roques with 4 Italian passengers and 2 crew exactly five years after YV2081, the search ship hired by Italy and Venezuela discovered YV2081 on Jun 19th 2013, more than 5 years after its disappearance, at the ocean floor in a depth of 970 meters.
At some unknown time Venezuela's JIAAC released their final report in Spanish only ((Editorial note: to serve the purpose of global prevention of the repeat of causes leading to an occurrence an additional timely release of all occurrence reports in the only world spanning aviation language English would be necessary, a Spanish only release does not achieve this purpose as set by ICAO annex 13 and just forces many aviators to waste much more time and effort each in trying to understand the circumstances leading to the occurrence. Aviators operating internationally are required to read/speak English besides their local language, investigators need to be able to read/write/speak English to communicate with their counterparts all around the globe).
The report does not contain any formal conclusions.
The JIAAC reported the aircraft was flown by a captain (36, ATPL, about 6000 hours total, about 4500 hours on type) and a first officer (37, CPL, 1800 hours total, 700 hours on type).
The report further states that the aircraft is still missing (suggesting it was written before 2013 but did not surface until after the JIAAC website resurfaced in April 2020). The body of the first officer was recovered together with a life vest, which was positively identified to be part of the aircraft's emergency equipment. The cause of death of the first officer was determined to be closed chest trauma.
The JIAAC obtained a copy of the fuel bill incurred by the crew on the day of the accident. Calculations confirmed the fuel was sufficient for the flight. The JIAAC was able to rule out contamination of the fuel.
The JIAAC stated that weather did not contribute to the crash.
The JIAAC analysed:
The aircraft performed a non-scheduled passenger transport flight. It had been planned to depart at 09:14L (13:44Z) with an estimated time enroute of 30 minutes to cover 82nm at FL070. The aircraft was loaded with 501 liters of fuel (endurance 2:30 hours, editorial note: public data suggest 240kg/hour or 300 liters/hour fuel consumption) and carried 2 pilots and 16 passengers. However, the actual passenger list only contained 12 names (14 people on board including the crew). The aircraft departed normally, 22 minutes after departure the crew reported Los Roques in sight at 09:26L (13:56Z) and was handed off to Los Roques tower. Upon first contact with Los Roques Tower the crew reported they were at 7000 feet 45nm from Los Roques at 09:28L (13:58Z). The tower provided landing and weather information and instructed the crew to report again at the next point of visual reporting (South Barrier). At 09:38L (14:08Z) the crew reported they were descending through 3000 feet 16nm before the airfield, both engines had failed, 14 people were on board, and the crew declared emergency. This was the last transmission from the aircraft.
Map (Graphics: AVH/Google Earth):
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Jan 4, 2008
Classification
Crash
Departure
Caracas, Venezuela
Destination
Los Roques, Venezuela
Aircraft Registration
YV2081
Aircraft Type
Let L-410 Turbolet
ICAO Type Designator
L410
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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