Aeroperú Flight 603

CG render of Flight 603 reflected in the water just below and before it crashed
Summary
Date	October 2, 1996
Type	Error in maintenance, Operator negligence
Site	Pacific Ocean near Pasamayo, Peru
Passengers	61
Crew	9
Injuries	0
Fatalities	70
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	Boeing 757-23A
Operator	Aeroperú
Tail number	N52AW
Flight origin	Miami International Airport, Miami, Florida,  United States
Last stopover	Jorge Chávez International Airport, Lima,  Peru
Destination	Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, Santiago,  Chile

Aeroperú Flight 603 was a scheduled flight from Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima, Peru (LIM), to Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago, Chile, which crashed on October 2, 1996. Events 1187 - Siege of Jerusalem: Saladin captures Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Aeroperú (shorter for Empresa Nacional de Aero navegación del Perú, SA Air Navigation Company of Peru'' was the national flag air carrier An aircraft registration is a unique Alphanumeric string that identifies an Aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile Miami International Airport is a public Airport located eight miles (13 km) northwest of the Central business district of Miami, in unincorporated Florida ( is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Lima is the Capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers on a coast overlooking Peru (Perú Piruw Piruw officially the Republic of Peru ( reˈpuβlika del peˈɾu is a country in western South America. Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport " AMBIA ", also known as Pudahuel Airport and Santiago International Airport, located Santiago ( (litteraly in spanish Saint James) is the Capital of Chile, and the center of its largest Conurbation ( Greater Santiago Chile, officially the Republic of Chile ( Spanish:) is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow Coastal strip wedged between the Aeroperú (shorter for Empresa Nacional de Aero navegación del Perú, SA Air Navigation Company of Peru'' was the national flag air carrier Lima is the Capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers on a coast overlooking Peru (Perú Piruw Piruw officially the Republic of Peru ( reˈpuβlika del peˈɾu is a country in western South America. Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport " AMBIA ", also known as Pudahuel Airport and Santiago International Airport, located Santiago ( (litteraly in spanish Saint James) is the Capital of Chile, and the center of its largest Conurbation ( Greater Santiago Chile, officially the Republic of Chile ( Spanish:) is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow Coastal strip wedged between the An aviation accident is defined in the International Civil Aviation Organization Annex 13 Events 1187 - Siege of Jerusalem: Saladin captures Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) The flight originated from Miami, Florida, United States's Miami International Airport. Florida ( is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Miami International Airport is a public Airport located eight miles (13 km) northwest of the Central business district of Miami, in unincorporated

Contents 1 Overview 1.1 Nationalities of passengers 2 Reporting 3 Investigation 4 Legal Settlement 5 Dramatization 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

Overview

On October 2, 1996, shortly after takeoff just past midnight, the Boeing 757 airliner crew discovered that their basic flight instruments were behaving erratically and reported receiving contradictory serial emergency messages from the onboard computer, such as rudder ratio, overspeed, underspeed and flying too low. Events 1187 - Siege of Jerusalem: Saladin captures Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) Takeoff is the phase of Flight in which an Aircraft goes through a transition from moving along the ground ( Taxiing) to flying in the air usually WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout An airliner is a large Fixed-wing aircraft with the primary function of transporting paying passengers Rudder ratio refers to a value that is monitored by the computerized Flight control systems in modern Aircraft. A speed or Velocity greater than that for which the aircraft was designed For other uses see Stall. In Aerodynamics, a stall is a sudden reduction in the lift forces generated by an Airfoil Ground proximity warning system ( GPWS) is a system designed to alert pilots if their Aircraft is in immediate danger of flying into the ground or an obstacle The crew declared an emergency and requested an immediate return to the airport. Faced with the lack of reliable basic flight instruments, constantly receiving contradictory warnings from the aircraft's flight computer (some of which were valid and some of which were not), and continuously believing that they were at a safe altitude, pilot Eric Schreiber and copilot David Fernández decided to cautiously begin the descent for the approach to the airport. Since the flight was at night over water, no visual references could be made to convey to the pilots their true altitude or aid the pilots in the descent. Also, as a consequence of the pilot's inability to precisely monitor the aircraft's airspeed or vertical speed they experienced multiple stalls resulting in rapid loss of altitude with no corresponding change on the altimeter. While the altimeter indicated an altitude of approximately 9,700 feet, the aircraft's true altitude was in fact much lower. It struck the water approximately twenty-five minutes after emergency declaration, making the pilots realize the true altitude of the airliner; for twenty seconds the pilots tried to make the airliner climb. The airliner then crashed into the water. ^[1] All nine crew members and sixty-one passengers died.

After the crash recovery crews found nine bodies floating; the rest of the bodies sank with the airliner. ^[1]

Nationalities of passengers

Most of the passengers on Flight 603 were Chileans returning to Chile. ^[1]

^[2][3]

Nationality	Passengers	Crew	Total
Colombia	1	0	1
Chile	30	0	30
Ecuador	2	0	2
Italy	2	0	2
Mexico	6	0	6
New Zealand	1	0	1
Peru	11	9	20
Spain	1	0	1
United Kingdom	2	0	2
United States	4	0	4
Venezuela	1	0	1
Total	61	9	70

Of the passengers, 21 originated from Miami; all of the originating passengers were Chilean. Colombia (kəˈlʌmbɪə officially the Republic of Colombia () is a country in northwestern South America. Chile, officially the Republic of Chile ( Spanish:) is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow Coastal strip wedged between the For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Ecuador topics. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island Peru (Perú Piruw Piruw officially the Republic of Peru ( reˈpuβlika del peˈɾu is a country in western South America. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Venezuela (ˌvɛnəˈzweɪlə) officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish República Bolivariana de Venezuela) is a country on the ^[4]

Reporting

Some very early reports initially stated that the crashed flight flew on a New York City to Lima route; the agencies later corrected reports, stating that the flight flew from Lima to Santiago. The City of New York ^[1]

Investigation

The Peruvian accident investigator, Guido Fernández, was the uncle of the co-pilot, David Fernández, but, despite originally holding some reservations about the potential conflict of interest, the National Transportation Safety Board appointed investigator — Richard Rodriguez — determined that he could properly investigate the accident. Peru (Perú Piruw Piruw officially the Republic of Peru ( reˈpuβlika del peˈɾu is a country in western South America. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB is an independent U ^[1]

The United States Navy provided equipment to locate the wreckage of the Boeing 757. ^[1]

The later investigation of the accident revealed that a piece of masking tape accidentally left over the static ports (on the bottom side of the fuselage) after cleaning the aircraft led to the crash. A pitot-static system is a System of Pressure -sensitive instruments that is most often used in aviation to determine an aircraft's Airspeed, Mach number The fuselage (from the French fuselé "spindle-shaped" is an Aircraft 's main body section that holds crew and passengers or Cargo Employee Eleuterio Chacaliaza left the tape on by accident. ^[5]

The static ports are critical to the operation of virtually all of those flight instruments that provide basic aerodynamic data such as airspeed, altitude and vertical speed, not only to the pilots but also to the aircraft's computers, which provide additional functions such as warnings when flight characteristics approach dangerous levels. The blockage of all of the static ports is one of the few common-failure modes resulting in total failure of multiple basic flight instruments and as such is regarded as one of the most serious faults that can occur within the avionics systems.

The design of the aircraft did not incorporate a system of maintenance covers for the static ports. Such covers are commonly employed in aviation for blocking access to critical components when the aircraft is not in operation and are generally a bright color and carry flags (which may have "remove before flight" markings). Instead, the design of the aircraft and the relevant maintenance procedure called for the use of adhesive tape to cover the ports.

As a result of the blocked static ports the basic flight instruments relayed false airspeed, altitude and vertical speed data. Because the failure was not in any of the instruments but rather in a common supporting system, thereby defeating redundancy, the altimeter also relayed the false altitude information to the Air Traffic Controller, who was attempting to provide the pilots with basic flight data. This led to extreme confusion in the cockpit as the pilots were provided with some data (altitude) which seemed to correlate correctly with instrument data (altimeter) while the other data provided by ATC (approximate airspeed) did not agree. Although the pilots were quite cognizant of the possibility that all of the flight instruments were providing inaccurate data, the correlation between the altitude data given by ATC and that on the altimeter likely further compounded the confusion. Also contributing to their difficulty were the numerous cockpit alarms that the computer system generated, which conflicted both with each other and with the instruments. This lack of situational awareness can be seen in the CVR transcript. [1] The fact that the flight took place at night and over water thus not giving the pilots any visual references was also a major factor.

At first, the investigation put the responsibility for the accident on the flight deck crew.

Rumors abounded that the crash was caused by sabotage because the Peruvian Mafia supposedly wanted one of the passengers (a prisoner who was being extradited to Argentina) dead. The Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra) is a Sicilian Criminal Secret society which is believed to have first developed in the mid-19th century For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Argentina topics. These rumors were never confirmed.

Legal Settlement

In November 1996, Mike Eidson, a Miami lawyer from Colson Hicks Eidson, said in an interview that many of the passengers survived the initial impact and drowned afterwards. The episode "'Flying Blind" from Mayday (Air Crash Investigation, Air Emergency) stated that the manner of the crash resulting in the drowning was responsible for the large settlements given to families of the victims. Mayday (also known as Air Emergency in the United States Air Crash Investigation in the United Kingdom Australia and other ^[1]

Peruvian justice sentenced Chacaliaza; blame was not apportioned to supervisors for poor procedures or the flight crew for inadequate pre-flight checks.

The Flight 603 incident contributed to the demise of Aeroperú, which was already plagued with financial and management difficulties. The airline folded in the late 1990s. The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999

In November 1996, Eidson represented 41 passengers and crew and argued that Boeing bears responsibility for the disaster. ^{[6] [1]}

On December 13, 1999, family members of the flight's passengers received one of the largest cash awards stemming from an airplane crash outside the United States aboard a non-U. Events 1294 - Saint Celestine V abdicates the papacy after only five months Celestine hoped to return to his previous life Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) The United States of America —commonly referred to as the S. carrier. An airline provides air transport services for Passengers or Freight, generally with a recognized operating certificate or license According to the complaint, the control panel errors were caused by careless maintenance by Aeroperú and negligence and defective design by The Boeing Company, the aircraft’s manufacturer. The Boeing Company is a major Aerospace and defense corporation originally founded by William E The suit was filed against Boeing in federal court in Miami in May, 1997. After extensive litigation the parties agreed to transfer the case against Boeing and Aeroperú to an international arbitration in Santiago, Chile, for a determination of the damages. The defendants agreed not to contest liability in Chile. ^[7]

After the accident Aeroperú changed the number of its evening Miami-Lima-Santiago Boeing 757 service to Flight 691. ^[8]

Dramatization

The accident was featured in the episode "'Flying Blind" from Mayday (Air Crash Investigation, Air Emergency). Mayday (also known as Air Emergency in the United States Air Crash Investigation in the United Kingdom Australia and other The cockpit voice recording of the incident became part of the script of a play called Charlie Victor Romeo. A Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR is a Flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flightdeck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents Charlie Victor Romeo is a 1999 play whose script consists of almost-verbatim transcripts from six real-life Air disasters "Charlie Victor Romeo"

See also

• Lists of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
• Pitot-static system
• Birgenair Flight 301

References

External links

• "Clarín" - Argentinean newspaper investigation about AeroPeru 603
• AvWeb - AeroPeru 603 Cockpit Voice Recorder transcript (English)
• AvWeb - AeroPeru 603 Alarms activity from the CVR
• "Computer failure puzzling in Peruvian crash," CNN
• "Searchers comb Pacific for more bodies after Peruvian crash," CNN
• List of passengers
• Pre-Crash airplane photos (Boeing 757) on Airliners.net

Cable News Network, usually referred to by its Initialism CNN, is a major English language Television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner Cable News Network, usually referred to by its Initialism CNN, is a major English language Television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner

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