Varig Flight 254
Encyclopedia
Varig
Flight 254 was a Boeing 737
-241, c/n 21006/398, registration PP-VMK, on a scheduled passenger flight from São Paulo
, Brazil to Belém
, Pará
, Brazil, with several intermediate stopovers, on 3 September 1989. Prior to take off from Marabá
, Pará, towards the final destination, the crew entered an incorrect heading into the flight computer. Instead of flying towards its destination, the plane flew due west and after some time was over a remote area of the Amazon jungle
. Attempts to reach an alternative airport were unsuccessful, and the plane eventually ran out of fuel. The pilot made a belly landing
in the jungle. The survivors were rescued two days later. Thirteen passengers died, and many more sustained serious injuries.
, Uberlândia
, Goiânia
, Brasília
, Imperatriz
, Marabá, and finally Belém. The São Paulo–Belém route has an approximate duration of eight hours and 20 minutes.
Varig
Flight 254 was a Boeing 737
-241, c/n 21006/398, registration PP-VMK, on a scheduled passenger flight from São Paulo
, Brazil to Belém
, Pará
, Brazil, with several intermediate stopovers, on 3 September 1989. Prior to take off from Marabá
, Pará, towards the final destination, the crew entered an incorrect heading into the flight computer. Instead of flying towards its destination, the plane flew due west and after some time was over a remote area of the Amazon jungle
. Attempts to reach an alternative airport were unsuccessful, and the plane eventually ran out of fuel. The pilot made a belly landing
in the jungle. The survivors were rescued two days later. Thirteen passengers died, and many more sustained serious injuries.
, Uberlândia
, Goiânia
, Brasília
, Imperatriz
, Marabá, and finally Belém. The São Paulo–Belém route has an approximate duration of eight hours and 20 minutes.
Varig
Flight 254 was a Boeing 737
-241, c/n 21006/398, registration PP-VMK, on a scheduled passenger flight from São Paulo
, Brazil to Belém
, Pará
, Brazil, with several intermediate stopovers, on 3 September 1989. Prior to take off from Marabá
, Pará, towards the final destination, the crew entered an incorrect heading into the flight computer. Instead of flying towards its destination, the plane flew due west and after some time was over a remote area of the Amazon jungle
. Attempts to reach an alternative airport were unsuccessful, and the plane eventually ran out of fuel. The pilot made a belly landing
in the jungle. The survivors were rescued two days later. Thirteen passengers died, and many more sustained serious injuries.
, Uberlândia
, Goiânia
, Brasília
, Imperatriz
, Marabá, and finally Belém. The São Paulo–Belém route has an approximate duration of eight hours and 20 minutes.
At 9:43, flight 254 left Guarulhos International Airport
, São Paulo, heading towards Belém. The flight crew consisted of 32-year old Captain Cézar Augusto Padula Garcez, First Officer Nilson de Souza Zille, 29, and four flight attendants.
The flight went smoothly through all the stops, and at 17:20, the crew was arranging the final preparations at Marabá Airport
while the passengers were embarking.
for the magnetic heading to Belém, the flight plan read 0270. Garcez interpreted this as 270 degrees, but the intended meaning was 027.0 degrees (Varig's flight plan notation did not explicitly specify the position for the decimal point, which was implicitly located to the left of the rightmost digit). That confusion, along with other minor errors, were the primary causes for the disaster. The captain therefore set the left-side Horizontal Situation Indicator
(HSI) to 270 degrees, ie a due west course. This heading was inconsistent with flying from Marabá to Belém.
After setting the HSI, Garcez programmed the aircraft Flight management system
(FMS) to the distance to Belém (187 nmi (346 km; 215 mi)). The flight plan indicated an altitude of 29000 feet (8,839 m) (FL
290), and a leg duration of 48 minutes. When co-captain Zille got to his seat, instead of checking his own flight plan to adjust his HSI - as he was reqired to do - he only copied the captain's indicator and set his to the same parameters. At 17:45, flight 254 took off from Marabá, and the autopilot
started a long 158° curve to port, instead of the 41 degrees heading correction to starboard that should be expected during a normal flight to Belém. It is reported that the mistake may have been due in part to the crew listening to a Brazil v Chile World Cup football qualifying match on the radio.
When Garcez believed the aircraft to be close to the destination, he attempted to use his VHF radio
to communicate with Belém Tower. Failing to do so directly, he used another Varig airliner, RG-266, as a radio relay to talk to Belém Airport. When Garcez managed to establish communications with Belém, he requested descent clearance, and received such. Upon performing his descent, the captain found it very odd that he could not recognize any of the characteristic geographical features of the Belém area (such as the Marajó Island and the Amazon River
estuary), and even asked the Tower Controller if the city was without electricity. In 1989, Belém airport still had no radar
, and so the Controller informed Flight 254 that it was the only one in its airspace, and gave it landing clearance.
After the FMS started indicating negative distance to its destination, Captain Garcez decided to execute a 180 degree turn and locate Belém visually. He also descended the aircraft to 4000 feet (1,219 m) and reduced its speed to 200 kn (392 km/h; 244 mph). Reluctant to use the HF
radio to request help, the captain decided to take visual reference from a river he located below the plane, believing it to be the Amazon. The river was actually the Xingu
, which runs chiefly south-north, while the Amazon runs west-east).
At that time, the flight had already taken 30 minutes longer than scheduled, and the passengers were getting anxious. When First Officer Zille finally took notice of their initial mistake, he and the captain decided, after checking their navigation charts, to make contact with Santarém airport (they believed it to be the closest airport in the vicinity), and made an almost 180 degree turn, now establishing a 350 magnetic course. After some calculations, Garcez realized that the aircraft did not have the necessary fuel to reach Santarém, and he started heading south again (along the now properly identified Xingu river). Finally, he decided to contact Marabá airport again, to find his location. The radio frequency of Goiânia locator was the same as Marabá's, and Garcez tuned to Goiânia's locator (Goiânia is located approximately 675 nmi (1,250.1 km; 776.8 mi) south of Marabá). The captain was already nervous, and unfortunately he failed to notice that the tuned locator's Morse code
identifier was not consistent with Marabá's beacon.
At 20:05, Belém Center called Flight 254 again demanding a report. The captain stated that he had a 170 magnetic heading to Marabá (in reality it was Goiânia), and that he was receiving a bearing from the Carajás
beacon (which actually was the Barra do Garças
beacon). Garcez was perplexed when Belém informed him that the Carajás locator had been shut down since 19:30, and the Center decided to try and illuminate the Carajás runway, in an attempt to facilitate Flight 254's orientation. Realizing that he would not have enough fuel to reach Belém, the captain decided to head for Carajás Airport
, which would have been the correct decision if he had not mistaken Goiânia for Marabá. In another stroke of bad luck, Flight 254 passed, at approximately 20:30, 100 nmi (185 km; 115 mi) away from the Serra do Cachimbo
Air Force base, a very large airfield which the 737 could have successfully reached.
After that, it was inevitable that the aircraft would have to make a forced landing over the rainforest in the north of Mato Grosso
. At the time there were no written procedures for such an emergency situation. Garcez and Zille decided to fly at 8000 ft (2,438 m) until they ran out of fuel, thus avoiding a possible explosion upon landing, and with the engines on, they would still have hydraulic power to command the aircraft (devices such as the aileron
s and flaps
are hydraulically activated). They also decided to keep the plane flying slightly above stall
speed, which in this case was around 150 kn (294 km/h; 183 mph). During their descent, they spotted very few lights through the jungle (which were the houses of farms that had electrical generators). At 20:40, Garcez informed Belém center that he would be making a forced landing over the jungle, and when he had 15 minutes left of fuel, he informed his passengers of the situation. When there was around 100 kg (220.5 lb) of fuel remaining, the left engine stopped. The right engine ran for a further two more minutes, and then stopped as well.
Even after shutdown, the engines were still windmilling (rotating due to the passage of the air through them). This gave the airplane some rudimentary and unreliable hydraulic control, but better than having no power at all. Garcez commanded the lowering of the flaps, which only moved to position Two, (around 10 degrees) due to the failing hydraulic system. With the batteries discharged, there was no electrical power and the only four instruments working in the cockpit were the artificial horizon, the altimeter
, the airspeed indicator
and the vertical speed indicator. The only thing the crew could see on the horizon were faint light spots due to distant forest burnings, and at 21:06, local time, the plane crash-landed over treetops that extended over 50 m (164 ft) above ground.
The deceleration due to the crash was so intense that passengers without their seatbelts were flung to the front of the airplane, and some seats detached from the floor, also racing forward. When the aircraft fell through the foliage, two thick trees tore away both wings, and caused a severe torsion of the fuselage, which contributed to more seats detaching, and to the collapsing of the false roof over the passenger's heads. After reducing its speed to about 35 kn (69 km/h; 43 mph), the aircraft ran for little more than 30 m (32.8 yd) and stopped, lying on its right side.
. That farm had no radio, so they were taken by car to another farm, Serrão da Prata, at 12:30, Tuesday. With the help of radio operator João Capanema Jr., they were able to contact Franca
Airport (Franca is a city 400 km north of São Paulo), and at 16:27 of that Tuesday, an EMB Bandeirante airplane from the Brazilian Air Force
(FAB) dropped food packages over the wreckage. By 12:00 Wednesday, all survivors had been rescued by FAB.
About 41 survivors were rescued from the crash site by helicopter which flew them 30 miles to São José do Xingu
, and from there they were flown by Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante
turboprop planes to Cachimbo Airport
185 miles to the northwest. They were then flown later to Brasilia Base Hospital near Brasilia
.
It was concluded that the main factor for the accident was an error in reading the correct heading from the flight plan by the commander, compounded by the co-pilot copying the setting from the commander's panel instead of checking the flight plan.
Additionally, there were several contributing factors to the accident: the pilot did not realise he should be receiving a stronger VHF signal from Belém if he was nearing that airport, he should be receiving the local radio stations from Belém instead of other distant stations at the same frequencies, he should have checked his position and heading against the sun and geographic landmarks, the airline's support team in Belém did not take action upon realizing the aircraft arrival was delayed.
Varig
VARIG was the first airline founded in Brazil, in 1927. From 1965 until 1990 it was Brazil's leading and almost only international airline...
Flight 254 was a Boeing 737
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...
-241, c/n 21006/398, registration PP-VMK, on a scheduled passenger flight from São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Brazil to Belém
Belém
Belém is a Brazilian city, the capital and largest city of state of Pará, in the country's north region. It is the entrance gate to the Amazon with a busy port, airport and bus/coach station...
, Pará
Pará
Pará is a state in the north of Brazil. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest it also borders Guyana and Suriname, and to the northeast it borders the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Belém.Pará is the most populous state...
, Brazil, with several intermediate stopovers, on 3 September 1989. Prior to take off from Marabá
Marabá
Maraba is a city in the state of Pará, Brazil. The reference location is the meeting point between two great rivers, forming a sort of "y" in the city as seen from above...
, Pará, towards the final destination, the crew entered an incorrect heading into the flight computer. Instead of flying towards its destination, the plane flew due west and after some time was over a remote area of the Amazon jungle
Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...
. Attempts to reach an alternative airport were unsuccessful, and the plane eventually ran out of fuel. The pilot made a belly landing
Belly landing
A belly landing or gear-up landing occurs when an aircraft lands without its landing gear fully extended and uses its underside, or belly, as its primary landing device...
in the jungle. The survivors were rescued two days later. Thirteen passengers died, and many more sustained serious injuries.
Early moments of the flight
Flight 254 was scheduled to depart from São Paulo to Belém, and its flight plan included stopovers in UberabaUberaba
Uberaba is a city and municipality in the west of the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Its population is 296.000 with an area of 4529.7 km², giving a density of 60.71 people per km². It is located on a plateau at an elevation of 785 meters and is in the Uberaba River floodplain...
, Uberlândia
Uberlândia
Uberlândia is the main town in the Triangle region, west of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. With a population of 604,013 inhabitants, according to 2010 estimates, the city is the second largest in the state second only to Belo Horizonte...
, Goiânia
Goiânia
-Climate:The city has a tropical wet and dry climate with an average temperature of . There's a wet season, from October to April, and a dry one, from May to September. Annual rainfall is around 1,520 mm....
, Brasília
Brasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...
, Imperatriz
Imperatriz
Imperatriz is the second most populated city in the Brazilian state of Maranhão. The city extends along the right bank of the Tocantins River and is crossed by the Belém-Brasília Highway, standing on the border with the state of Tocantins....
, Marabá, and finally Belém. The São Paulo–Belém route has an approximate duration of eight hours and 20 minutes.
Varig
Varig
VARIG was the first airline founded in Brazil, in 1927. From 1965 until 1990 it was Brazil's leading and almost only international airline...
Flight 254 was a Boeing 737
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...
-241, c/n 21006/398, registration PP-VMK, on a scheduled passenger flight from São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Brazil to Belém
Belém
Belém is a Brazilian city, the capital and largest city of state of Pará, in the country's north region. It is the entrance gate to the Amazon with a busy port, airport and bus/coach station...
, Pará
Pará
Pará is a state in the north of Brazil. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest it also borders Guyana and Suriname, and to the northeast it borders the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Belém.Pará is the most populous state...
, Brazil, with several intermediate stopovers, on 3 September 1989. Prior to take off from Marabá
Marabá
Maraba is a city in the state of Pará, Brazil. The reference location is the meeting point between two great rivers, forming a sort of "y" in the city as seen from above...
, Pará, towards the final destination, the crew entered an incorrect heading into the flight computer. Instead of flying towards its destination, the plane flew due west and after some time was over a remote area of the Amazon jungle
Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...
. Attempts to reach an alternative airport were unsuccessful, and the plane eventually ran out of fuel. The pilot made a belly landing
Belly landing
A belly landing or gear-up landing occurs when an aircraft lands without its landing gear fully extended and uses its underside, or belly, as its primary landing device...
in the jungle. The survivors were rescued two days later. Thirteen passengers died, and many more sustained serious injuries.
Early moments of the flight
Flight 254 was scheduled to depart from São Paulo to Belém, and its flight plan included stopovers in UberabaUberaba
Uberaba is a city and municipality in the west of the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Its population is 296.000 with an area of 4529.7 km², giving a density of 60.71 people per km². It is located on a plateau at an elevation of 785 meters and is in the Uberaba River floodplain...
, Uberlândia
Uberlândia
Uberlândia is the main town in the Triangle region, west of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. With a population of 604,013 inhabitants, according to 2010 estimates, the city is the second largest in the state second only to Belo Horizonte...
, Goiânia
Goiânia
-Climate:The city has a tropical wet and dry climate with an average temperature of . There's a wet season, from October to April, and a dry one, from May to September. Annual rainfall is around 1,520 mm....
, Brasília
Brasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...
, Imperatriz
Imperatriz
Imperatriz is the second most populated city in the Brazilian state of Maranhão. The city extends along the right bank of the Tocantins River and is crossed by the Belém-Brasília Highway, standing on the border with the state of Tocantins....
, Marabá, and finally Belém. The São Paulo–Belém route has an approximate duration of eight hours and 20 minutes.
Varig
Varig
VARIG was the first airline founded in Brazil, in 1927. From 1965 until 1990 it was Brazil's leading and almost only international airline...
Flight 254 was a Boeing 737
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...
-241, c/n 21006/398, registration PP-VMK, on a scheduled passenger flight from São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Brazil to Belém
Belém
Belém is a Brazilian city, the capital and largest city of state of Pará, in the country's north region. It is the entrance gate to the Amazon with a busy port, airport and bus/coach station...
, Pará
Pará
Pará is a state in the north of Brazil. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest it also borders Guyana and Suriname, and to the northeast it borders the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Belém.Pará is the most populous state...
, Brazil, with several intermediate stopovers, on 3 September 1989. Prior to take off from Marabá
Marabá
Maraba is a city in the state of Pará, Brazil. The reference location is the meeting point between two great rivers, forming a sort of "y" in the city as seen from above...
, Pará, towards the final destination, the crew entered an incorrect heading into the flight computer. Instead of flying towards its destination, the plane flew due west and after some time was over a remote area of the Amazon jungle
Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...
. Attempts to reach an alternative airport were unsuccessful, and the plane eventually ran out of fuel. The pilot made a belly landing
Belly landing
A belly landing or gear-up landing occurs when an aircraft lands without its landing gear fully extended and uses its underside, or belly, as its primary landing device...
in the jungle. The survivors were rescued two days later. Thirteen passengers died, and many more sustained serious injuries.
Early moments of the flight
Flight 254 was scheduled to depart from São Paulo to Belém, and its flight plan included stopovers in UberabaUberaba
Uberaba is a city and municipality in the west of the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Its population is 296.000 with an area of 4529.7 km², giving a density of 60.71 people per km². It is located on a plateau at an elevation of 785 meters and is in the Uberaba River floodplain...
, Uberlândia
Uberlândia
Uberlândia is the main town in the Triangle region, west of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. With a population of 604,013 inhabitants, according to 2010 estimates, the city is the second largest in the state second only to Belo Horizonte...
, Goiânia
Goiânia
-Climate:The city has a tropical wet and dry climate with an average temperature of . There's a wet season, from October to April, and a dry one, from May to September. Annual rainfall is around 1,520 mm....
, Brasília
Brasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...
, Imperatriz
Imperatriz
Imperatriz is the second most populated city in the Brazilian state of Maranhão. The city extends along the right bank of the Tocantins River and is crossed by the Belém-Brasília Highway, standing on the border with the state of Tocantins....
, Marabá, and finally Belém. The São Paulo–Belém route has an approximate duration of eight hours and 20 minutes.
At 9:43, flight 254 left Guarulhos International Airport
Guarulhos International Airport
São Paulo/Guarulhos – Governador André Franco Montoro International Airport , formerly called Cumbica Airport after the district where it is located and the Air Force Base that still exists at the airport complex, is the main airport serving São Paulo, Brazil. It is located in the adjoining...
, São Paulo, heading towards Belém. The flight crew consisted of 32-year old Captain Cézar Augusto Padula Garcez, First Officer Nilson de Souza Zille, 29, and four flight attendants.
The flight went smoothly through all the stops, and at 17:20, the crew was arranging the final preparations at Marabá Airport
Marabá Airport
Marabá Airport is the airport serving Marabá, Brazil.It is operated by Infraero.-Airlines and destinations:-Accidents and incidents:*3 September 1989: a Varig Boeing 737-241 registration PP-VMK operating flight 254 flying from São Paulo-Guarulhos to Belém-Val de Cães with intermediate stops,...
while the passengers were embarking.
Incident
While First Officer Zille was making an external inspection of the aircraft, Captain Garcez was consulted the flight planFlight plan
Flight plans are documents filed by pilots or a Flight Dispatcher with the local Civil Aviation Authority prior to departure...
for the magnetic heading to Belém, the flight plan read 0270. Garcez interpreted this as 270 degrees, but the intended meaning was 027.0 degrees (Varig's flight plan notation did not explicitly specify the position for the decimal point, which was implicitly located to the left of the rightmost digit). That confusion, along with other minor errors, were the primary causes for the disaster. The captain therefore set the left-side Horizontal Situation Indicator
Horizontal Situation Indicator
The horizontal situation indicator is an aircraft instrument normally mounted below the artificial horizon in place of a conventional heading indicator. It combines a heading indicator with a VOR/ILS display, reducing pilot workload by lessening the number of elements in the pilot's instrument...
(HSI) to 270 degrees, ie a due west course. This heading was inconsistent with flying from Marabá to Belém.
After setting the HSI, Garcez programmed the aircraft Flight management system
Flight management system
A flight management system is a fundamental part of a modern airliner's avionics. An FMS is a specialized computer system that automates a wide variety of in-flight tasks, reducing the workload on the flight crew to the point that modern aircraft no longer carry flight engineers or navigators. A...
(FMS) to the distance to Belém (187 nmi (346 km; 215 mi)). The flight plan indicated an altitude of 29000 feet (8,839 m) (FL
Flight level
A Flight Level is a standard nominal altitude of an aircraft, in hundreds of feet. This altitude is calculated from the International standard pressure datum of 1013.25 hPa , the average sea-level pressure, and therefore is not necessarily the same as the aircraft's true altitude either...
290), and a leg duration of 48 minutes. When co-captain Zille got to his seat, instead of checking his own flight plan to adjust his HSI - as he was reqired to do - he only copied the captain's indicator and set his to the same parameters. At 17:45, flight 254 took off from Marabá, and the autopilot
Autopilot
An autopilot is a mechanical, electrical, or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being. An autopilot can refer specifically to aircraft, self-steering gear for boats, or auto guidance of space craft and missiles...
started a long 158° curve to port, instead of the 41 degrees heading correction to starboard that should be expected during a normal flight to Belém. It is reported that the mistake may have been due in part to the crew listening to a Brazil v Chile World Cup football qualifying match on the radio.
When Garcez believed the aircraft to be close to the destination, he attempted to use his VHF radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
to communicate with Belém Tower. Failing to do so directly, he used another Varig airliner, RG-266, as a radio relay to talk to Belém Airport. When Garcez managed to establish communications with Belém, he requested descent clearance, and received such. Upon performing his descent, the captain found it very odd that he could not recognize any of the characteristic geographical features of the Belém area (such as the Marajó Island and the Amazon River
Amazon River
The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...
estuary), and even asked the Tower Controller if the city was without electricity. In 1989, Belém airport still had no radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
, and so the Controller informed Flight 254 that it was the only one in its airspace, and gave it landing clearance.
After the FMS started indicating negative distance to its destination, Captain Garcez decided to execute a 180 degree turn and locate Belém visually. He also descended the aircraft to 4000 feet (1,219 m) and reduced its speed to 200 kn (392 km/h; 244 mph). Reluctant to use the HF
High frequency
High frequency radio frequencies are between 3 and 30 MHz. Also known as the decameter band or decameter wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decameters . Frequencies immediately below HF are denoted Medium-frequency , and the next higher frequencies are known as Very high frequency...
radio to request help, the captain decided to take visual reference from a river he located below the plane, believing it to be the Amazon. The river was actually the Xingu
Xingu River
The Xingu River , also called Rio Xingu, is a 1,230-mile long, river in north Brazil; it is a southeast tributary of the Amazon River.-Description and history:...
, which runs chiefly south-north, while the Amazon runs west-east).
At that time, the flight had already taken 30 minutes longer than scheduled, and the passengers were getting anxious. When First Officer Zille finally took notice of their initial mistake, he and the captain decided, after checking their navigation charts, to make contact with Santarém airport (they believed it to be the closest airport in the vicinity), and made an almost 180 degree turn, now establishing a 350 magnetic course. After some calculations, Garcez realized that the aircraft did not have the necessary fuel to reach Santarém, and he started heading south again (along the now properly identified Xingu river). Finally, he decided to contact Marabá airport again, to find his location. The radio frequency of Goiânia locator was the same as Marabá's, and Garcez tuned to Goiânia's locator (Goiânia is located approximately 675 nmi (1,250.1 km; 776.8 mi) south of Marabá). The captain was already nervous, and unfortunately he failed to notice that the tuned locator's Morse code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
identifier was not consistent with Marabá's beacon.
At 20:05, Belém Center called Flight 254 again demanding a report. The captain stated that he had a 170 magnetic heading to Marabá (in reality it was Goiânia), and that he was receiving a bearing from the Carajás
Carajás Airport
Carajás Airport is the airport serving Parauapebas, Brazil, located in the district of Carajás.It is operated by Infraero.-History:The airport was built by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce as a support to its mining activities. It was inaugurated on September 23, 1982...
beacon (which actually was the Barra do Garças
Barra do Garças
Barra do Garças is a city with a population of 50,000 located in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, around far from the capital city of Cuiabá...
beacon). Garcez was perplexed when Belém informed him that the Carajás locator had been shut down since 19:30, and the Center decided to try and illuminate the Carajás runway, in an attempt to facilitate Flight 254's orientation. Realizing that he would not have enough fuel to reach Belém, the captain decided to head for Carajás Airport
Carajás Airport
Carajás Airport is the airport serving Parauapebas, Brazil, located in the district of Carajás.It is operated by Infraero.-History:The airport was built by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce as a support to its mining activities. It was inaugurated on September 23, 1982...
, which would have been the correct decision if he had not mistaken Goiânia for Marabá. In another stroke of bad luck, Flight 254 passed, at approximately 20:30, 100 nmi (185 km; 115 mi) away from the Serra do Cachimbo
Serra do Cachimbo
Serra do Cachimbo is a mountain range in Northern Brazil, in the southern part of the state of Pará, located mostly in the municipalities of Altamira, Itaituba, Jacareacanga, and Novo Progresso....
Air Force base, a very large airfield which the 737 could have successfully reached.
After that, it was inevitable that the aircraft would have to make a forced landing over the rainforest in the north of Mato Grosso
Mato Grosso
Mato Grosso is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest in area, located in the western part of the country.Neighboring states are Rondônia, Amazonas, Pará, Tocantins, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul. It also borders Bolivia to the southwest...
. At the time there were no written procedures for such an emergency situation. Garcez and Zille decided to fly at 8000 ft (2,438 m) until they ran out of fuel, thus avoiding a possible explosion upon landing, and with the engines on, they would still have hydraulic power to command the aircraft (devices such as the aileron
Aileron
Ailerons are hinged flight control surfaces attached to the trailing edge of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. The ailerons are used to control the aircraft in roll, which results in a change in heading due to the tilting of the lift vector...
s and flaps
Flap (aircraft)
Flaps are normally hinged surfaces mounted on the trailing edges of the wings of a fixed-wing aircraft to reduce the speed an aircraft can be safely flown at and to increase the angle of descent for landing without increasing air speed. They shorten takeoff and landing distances as well as...
are hydraulically activated). They also decided to keep the plane flying slightly above stall
Stall (flight)
In fluid dynamics, a stall is a reduction in the lift coefficient generated by a foil as angle of attack increases. This occurs when the critical angle of attack of the foil is exceeded...
speed, which in this case was around 150 kn (294 km/h; 183 mph). During their descent, they spotted very few lights through the jungle (which were the houses of farms that had electrical generators). At 20:40, Garcez informed Belém center that he would be making a forced landing over the jungle, and when he had 15 minutes left of fuel, he informed his passengers of the situation. When there was around 100 kg (220.5 lb) of fuel remaining, the left engine stopped. The right engine ran for a further two more minutes, and then stopped as well.
Even after shutdown, the engines were still windmilling (rotating due to the passage of the air through them). This gave the airplane some rudimentary and unreliable hydraulic control, but better than having no power at all. Garcez commanded the lowering of the flaps, which only moved to position Two, (around 10 degrees) due to the failing hydraulic system. With the batteries discharged, there was no electrical power and the only four instruments working in the cockpit were the artificial horizon, the altimeter
Altimeter
An altimeter is an instrument used to measure the altitude of an object above a fixed level. The measurement of altitude is called altimetry, which is related to the term bathymetry, the measurement of depth underwater.-Pressure altimeter:...
, the airspeed indicator
Airspeed indicator
The airspeed indicator or airspeed gauge is an instrument used in an aircraft to display the craft's airspeed, typically in knots, to the pilot.- Use :...
and the vertical speed indicator. The only thing the crew could see on the horizon were faint light spots due to distant forest burnings, and at 21:06, local time, the plane crash-landed over treetops that extended over 50 m (164 ft) above ground.
The deceleration due to the crash was so intense that passengers without their seatbelts were flung to the front of the airplane, and some seats detached from the floor, also racing forward. When the aircraft fell through the foliage, two thick trees tore away both wings, and caused a severe torsion of the fuselage, which contributed to more seats detaching, and to the collapsing of the false roof over the passenger's heads. After reducing its speed to about 35 kn (69 km/h; 43 mph), the aircraft ran for little more than 30 m (32.8 yd) and stopped, lying on its right side.
Aftermath
Two days later, four of the survivors decided to try to walk and look for help. After about two, or three hours of walking in the jungle, a group led by Alfonso Saravia found the house of the Curunaré farm, in São José do XinguSão José do Xingu
São José do Xingu is a town and municipality in the state of Mato Grosso in the Central-West Region of Brazil.-Plane crash:On 3 September 1989, a Varig Boeing 737-241 registration PP-VMK operating flight 254 flying from São Paulo-Guarulhos to Belém-Val de Cães with intermediate stops, crashed near...
. That farm had no radio, so they were taken by car to another farm, Serrão da Prata, at 12:30, Tuesday. With the help of radio operator João Capanema Jr., they were able to contact Franca
Franca
-Demography:*Total: 328.473 inhabitants on July 1, 2006.** Urban: 324.138** Rural: 6.999*Demographic density : 473,80*Child mortality until 1 year : 12,66 = 1,26%*Life expectancy : 73,03*Fertility : 2,26...
Airport (Franca is a city 400 km north of São Paulo), and at 16:27 of that Tuesday, an EMB Bandeirante airplane from the Brazilian Air Force
Brazilian Air Force
The Brazilian Air Force is the air branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces and one of the three national uniformed services. The FAB was formed when the Army and Navy air branch were merged into a single military force initially called "National Air Forces"...
(FAB) dropped food packages over the wreckage. By 12:00 Wednesday, all survivors had been rescued by FAB.
About 41 survivors were rescued from the crash site by helicopter which flew them 30 miles to São José do Xingu
São José do Xingu
São José do Xingu is a town and municipality in the state of Mato Grosso in the Central-West Region of Brazil.-Plane crash:On 3 September 1989, a Varig Boeing 737-241 registration PP-VMK operating flight 254 flying from São Paulo-Guarulhos to Belém-Val de Cães with intermediate stops, crashed near...
, and from there they were flown by Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante
Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante
The Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante is a general purpose 15-21 passenger twin-turboprop light transport aircraft suitable for military and civil duties...
turboprop planes to Cachimbo Airport
Cachimbo Airport
Cachimbo Airport is the military airport serving Campo de Provas Brigadeiro Velloso, a large Testing and Training Range complex of the Brazilian Armed Forces located in Serra do Cachimbo , in the southern part of Pará, Brazil....
185 miles to the northwest. They were then flown later to Brasilia Base Hospital near Brasilia
Brasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...
.
Causes
Upon investigation, it was concluded that the crash had been caused primarily due to negligence on part of the flight crew. Customary investigations showed that the aircraft was in perfect condition for the flight, and that its mandatory periodic inspections had been properly conducted.It was concluded that the main factor for the accident was an error in reading the correct heading from the flight plan by the commander, compounded by the co-pilot copying the setting from the commander's panel instead of checking the flight plan.
Additionally, there were several contributing factors to the accident: the pilot did not realise he should be receiving a stronger VHF signal from Belém if he was nearing that airport, he should be receiving the local radio stations from Belém instead of other distant stations at the same frequencies, he should have checked his position and heading against the sun and geographic landmarks, the airline's support team in Belém did not take action upon realizing the aircraft arrival was delayed.
See also
- Air navigationAir navigationThe basic principles of air navigation are identical to general navigation, which includes the process of planning, recording, and controlling the movement of a craft from one place to another....
- Air Traffic ControlAir traffic controlAir traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...
- Dead reckoningDead reckoningIn navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating one's current position by using a previously determined position, or fix, and advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds over elapsed time, and course...
- Distress radiobeacon
- Flight planFlight planFlight plans are documents filed by pilots or a Flight Dispatcher with the local Civil Aviation Authority prior to departure...
- Flight planningFlight planningFlight planning is the process of producing a flight plan to describe a proposed aircraft flight. It involves two safety-critical aspects: fuel calculation, to ensure that the aircraft can safely reach the destination, and compliance with air traffic control requirements, to minimise the risk of...
- List of airline flights that required gliding
- NavigationNavigationNavigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks...
- Pilot errorPilot errorPilot error is a term used to describe the cause of an accident involving an airworthy aircraft where the pilot is considered to be principally or partially responsible...
- PilotagePilotagePilotage is the use of fixed visual references on the ground or sea by means of sight or radar to guide oneself to a destination, sometimes with the help of a map or nautical chart. People use pilotage for activities such as guiding vessels and aircraft, hiking and Scuba diving...
- Situational awareness
External links
