[Peetwo]

Update to LAMIA 2933 AAI (27/12/16).

Via AP:

Colombia probe finds human error, lack of fuel in air crash
By ALBA TOBELLA and CESAR Garcia
1 hour ago

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A series of human errors caused an airliner to run out of fuel and crash in Colombia last month, killing 71 people including most of a Brazilian soccer team, aviation authorities said on Monday.

Colombia's Civil Aeronautics agency concluded in its investigation that the plan for the flight operated by Bolivia-based charter company LaMia did not meet international standards. Among the errors made were the decisions to let the plane take off without enough fuel to make the flight safely and then to not stop midway to refuel. The pilot also did not report the plane's emergency until it was too late, it said.

Neither the company nor Bolivian authorities should have allowed the plane to take off with the flight plan submitted, said Freddy Bonilla, air safety secretary for Colombia's aviation authority. He said the agency's preliminary conclusions were based on the plane's black boxes and other evidence.

Experts had earlier suggested that fuel exhaustion was a likely cause of the Nov. 28 crash that wiped out all but a few members of the Chapocoense soccer team, as well as team officials and journalists accompanying them to a championship playoff match in Medellin, Colombia.

The BAE 146 Avro RJ85 has a maximum range was 2,965 kilometers (1,600 nautical miles) — just under the distance between Medellin and Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where the plane had taken off at almost full capacity.

The plane was in the air for about 4 hours and 20 minutes when air traffic controllers in Medellin put it into a holding pattern because another flight had reported a suspected fuel leak and was given priority.

Investigators found that crew members of the LaMia flight were aware of the lack of fuel but waited too long to report the emergency.

Bonilla said that during the flight the pilot and co-pilot are heard on "various occasions" talking about stopping in Leticia — a city near the borders separating Brazil, Peru and Colombia — to refuel but decided not to do so. When the plane entered Colombian airspace it was flying into a wind, which caused more fuel to be consumed.

And when the pilot asked for priority to land in Medellin, six minutes before crashing, the plane had already spent two minutes with a motor shut off, the investigation concluded. All the motors shut down minutes later.

In a recording of a radio message from the pilot, he can be heard repeatedly requesting permission to land due to a lack of fuel and a "total electric failure." A surviving flight attendant and a pilot flying nearby also overheard the frantic pleas from the doomed airliner.

In addition, there was no explosion upon impact, pointing to a scarcity of fuel.

Investigators in Colombia concluded that the plane did not have the fuel reserves required by international standards for such a flight. They said there was no evidence of sabotage or mechanical failure.

Authorities also detected an excess of baggage, but did not relate it to the accident, and, according to its plan, the flight was expected to reach 30,000 feet, an altitude the plane was not certified for.

Details of the complete report by Colombia's aviation agency will be released in April 2017. Bolivia, Brazil and the United Kingdom contributed to it.

Bolivia's government has already blamed the airline and its pilot for the accident

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It really defies belief that this can happen in 2016 FFS. Absolutely unnecessary waste of life.  The Crew are normally the last line of defence once all the other defences have been breached.

Poor passengers didn't stand a chance on that day. That was the day LAMIA's clock stopped ticking.

Further to, via ABC courtesy Reuters... :

Chapecoense crash: 'Human error' led to Colombian plane crash that killed 71
Updated about 8 hours agoTue 27 Dec 2016, 12:27pm
Photo: The crash on November 29 was one of the worst in Colombia's history. (AP: Fernando Vergara)

Errors by the pilot, airline and Bolivian regulators are to blame for a plane crash in Colombia that killed 71 people last month, including most of Brazil's Chapecoense soccer team, Colombian aviation authorities say.

Key points

• Investigators find engine failures were not reported until too late
  
• Officials had already determined the plane was out of fuel
  
• Airline's chief executive remains in custody
  

The plane, operated by Bolivia-based charter company LaMia, crashed on a wooded hillside near Medellin because the pilot failed to refuel en route and did not report engine failures caused by the lack of fuel until it was too late, officials said.

"No technical factor was part of the accident, everything involved human error, added to a management factor in the company's administration and the management and organisation of the flight plans by the authorities in Bolivia," Colombia's Secretary for Air Safety Colonel Freddy Bonilla said.

Aviation authorities in Bolivia and the airline "accepted conditions for the flight presented in the flight plan that were unacceptable," Mr Bonilla added.

Besides a lack of fuel, the plane was over its weight limit by nearly 400 kilograms and was not certified to fly at the altitude at which the journey took place, Mr Bonilla said.

The preliminary conclusions of Colombia's investigation coincide with assertions by Bolivian authorities last week that LaMia and the plane's pilot were directly responsible for the accident.

Aviation officials had earlier confirmed the plane had no fuel on impact, prompting this investigation.

A leaked recording of the final minutes of the flight showed pilot Miguel Quiroga reporting "no fuel" before the crash.

Quiroga was also a co-owner of the airline and was killed in the tragedy.

The aircraft had been transporting the Chapecoense team to the biggest game in its history, the final of the Copa Sudamericana.

All but three of the players and staff on board were killed.

Two crew members and one reporter also survived.

Photo: The death of the Chapecoense soccer team prompted an outpouring of grief from around South America. (AP: Ivan Valencia)

LaMia maintains innocence

Gustavo Vargas Gamboa, LaMia's chief executive, was jailed pending trial earlier this month on manslaughter and other charges, which he has denied.

His son Gustavo Vargas Villegas, a former official with Bolivia's aviation authority, is also being held on charges that he misused his influence in authorising the license of the plane that crashed.

He also says he is innocent.

Criminal charges have also been brought against LaMia co-owner Marco Antonio Rocha Benegas, whose whereabouts are unknown, and air traffic controller Celia Castedo, who fled Bolivia after the crash and is seeking asylum in Brazil.

Bolivian authorities have said the crash was an isolated incident, but that the Government will accelerate the process of implementing a new safety system.

Colombian investigators have the final word on causes of the crash, Bolivian authorities have said.

Reuters

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