Air Philippines Flight 541

Air Philippines Flight 541
An Air Philippines Boeing 737-200, similar to the crashed aircraft
Accident
Date April 19, 2000 (2000-04-19)
Summary Pilot error, Controlled flight into terrain
Site Samal, Davao del Norte
07°09′24″N 125°42′03″E / 7.15667°N 125.70083°E / 7.15667; 125.70083Coordinates: 07°09′24″N 125°42′03″E / 7.15667°N 125.70083°E / 7.15667; 125.70083
Aircraft type Boeing 737-2H4
Operator Air Philippines
Registration RP-C3010
Flight origin Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila, Philippines
Destination Francisco Bangoy International Airport, Davao City, Philippines
Passengers 124
Crew 7
Fatalities 131
Survivors 0

Air Philippines Flight 541 was a scheduled domestic flight operated by Air Philippines from Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila to Francisco Bangoy International Airport in Davao City, the Philippines. On April 19, 2000 the Boeing 737-2H4 crashed in Samal, Davao del Norte while on approach to the airport, killing all 124 passengers and 7 crew members. It remains the deadliest air disaster in the Philippines and the third deadliest accident involving the Boeing 737-200 after Mandala Airlines Flight 091 which crashed 5 years later and Indian Airlines Flight 113[1]

Accident

The aircraft, a Boeing 737-2H4, registration RP-C3010, previously owned by Southwest Airlines as N50SW was first delivered in February 1978 and was sold to Air Philippines 20 years later.

On April 19, 2000, Air Philippines Flight 541, with 131 passengers and crew members, left Manila at about 5:30 a.m., flying to Davao City, in South East Mindanao, about 600 miles southeast of Manila.

As it approached the airport at around 7 a.m., a Cebu Pacific DC-9 aircraft was on the runway preparing for take off to Cebu. Shortly later, Flight 541 began to circle in low clouds, waiting for the plane on the ground to move off the runway. As it circled, Flight 541 slammed into a coconut tree, 500 feet above sea level and crashed few miles west of the airport.[2] The plane later caught fire and disintegrated, no one survived the accident.

Aftermath

Villagers on the island said the plane was flying at a low altitude and hit the top of a coconut tree, which knocked off part of its wing. They said it tried to pull up in full power of its engines, but failed and crashed. The plane disintegrated when it the coconut tree plant. Airport officials said skies were foggy at the time of the accident.[3]

Davao International Airport does not have full equipment for instrument landings, and visual landings had been temporarily suspended several minutes before the crash.

References

  1. ↑ "Air Philippines crash kills all 131 on board" (). CNN. April 19, 2000. Retrieved on August 30, 2014.
  2. ↑ Air Philippines Flight 541 at Aviation Safety Network
  3. ↑ "Aftermath of Flight 541".
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