Darién | Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives

The crew was completing a flight to Bahia Piña Airport on behalf of the Ministry of Social Development to pickup a woman and her child. Approaching the destination, the crew encountered engine problems when the aircraft crashed near Punta Caracoles. Both pilots were injured and the aircraft was destroyed.

Crash of a Boeing 737-204 near Tucutí: 47 killed

Date & Time: Jun 6, 1992 at 2100 LT

Type of aircraft:

Boeing 737-200

Operator:

Registration:

HP-1205CMP

Flight Phase:

Flight

Flight Type:

Scheduled Revenue Flight

Survivors:

Site:

Plain, Valley

Schedule:

Miami – Panama City – Cali

MSN:

22059

YOM:

1979

Flight number:

CM201

Location:

Country:

Region:

Crew on board:

Crew fatalities:

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Pax fatalities:

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Total fatalities:

Aircraft flight hours:

45946

Aircraft flight cycles:

17845

Circumstances:

The airplane departed Panama City-Tocumen Airport runway 21L at 2036LT bound for Cali, Colombia. While cruising at FL250, the crew was informed about poor weather conditions 30-50 miles ahead. Shortly later, there was an intermittent failure of the main attitude indicator due to a short circuit. This was not noticed by the flight crew, who attempted to adjust the aircraft attitude based on the false information from the attitude indicator. They lost control of the aircraft which entered a steep descent and started to disintegrate at FL100, and impacting the ground 80° nose down. The wreckage was found in the jungle about 13 km southwest of Tucití. All 47 occupants were killed.

Probable cause:

The following findings were reported:
- Loss of control of the aircraft because the flight crew followed false information from an attitude indicator that operated intermittently.
- Lack of visible horizon during cruise flight due to night and approaching bad weather.
- Insufficient cross-checking between the primary and emergency (standby) attitude indicators to identify intermittent attitude errors and to select a reliable source of (correct) attitude information.
- Non-standard cabin configurations between aircraft in the fleet of the company, which required the crew to determine how to set the switches based on the aircraft was being operated at the time.
- Incomplete ground crew training simulator, as it did not present 'differences between aircraft' and 'crew resource management' in sufficient detail to give the crew knowledge to overcome intermittent attitude indicator errors and to maintain control of the aircraft.

Crash of a Britten-Norman BN-2A-3 Islander in Yaviza: 7 killed

Date & Time: Dec 13, 1985

Type of aircraft:

Britten-Norman Islander

Operator:

Registration:

HP-680

Flight Phase:

Flight

Flight Type:

Scheduled Revenue Flight

Survivors:

Site:

Mountains

MSN:

328

YOM:

1973

Location:

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Circumstances:

En route, the twin engine aircraft struck the slope of a mountain and crashed near Yaviza. All seven occupants were killed.

Crash of a Britten Norman BN-2A Islander in the Serranía de Majé: 10 killed

Date & Time: Jul 11, 1973

Type of aircraft:

Britten-Norman Islander

Operator:

Registration:

HP-570

Flight Phase:

Flight

Flight Type:

Charter/Taxi (Non Scheduled Revenue Flight)

Survivors:

Site:

Mountains

MSN:

266

YOM:

1971

Location:

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Circumstances:

Crashed in unknown circumstances in the Serranía de Majé mountain range, region of Darién. All 10 occupants were killed.

Crash of a Consolidated A-10B Catalina off Jaqué: 7 killed

Date & Time: Oct 17, 1949

Type of aircraft:

Consolidated PBY Catalina

Operator:

Registration:

45-57840

Flight Phase:

Flight

Flight Type:

Survey / Patrol / Reconnaissance

Survivors:

Site:

Lake, Sea, Ocean, River

Location:

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Circumstances:

The seaplane left Albrook AFB in Panama City that day on a maritime patrol mission. Cruising along the Panamanian coast, the aircraft crashed in unknown circumstances few dozen km off Jaqué. All seven crew members were killed.