Incident Overview
On 17 November 2017, a Tropic Air Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, registration V3-HGX, departed Sir Barry Bowen Municipal Airport in Belize City at approximately 7:15 a.m. local time. The flight was a scheduled commercial passenger service with stops in Dangriga and Placencia, and final destination Punta Gorda. The aircraft carried one captain, 11 passengers, and one crew member.
Sequence of Events
The flight from Belize City to Dangriga was uneventful, and the landing at Placencia was normal. At around 8:40 a.m., the airplane taxied from the Tropic Air ramp and moved west on runway 25. After a turnaround using the full runway at normal speed, it commenced its takeoff roll to the east on runway 07. The takeoff roll was normal with typical speed. Prior to reaching the end of the runway, the pilot rotated and lifted the nose wheel to become airborne.
At 28 feet past the end of runway 07, during the initial climb, a part of the aircraft's landing gear contacted the upper portion of the front right passenger door frame of a vehicle. The vehicle had entered the area in front of the runway, which is normally protected by traffic barriers. The impact caused the aircraft to deviate from its initial climb profile. The pilot reported that the engine operated for a few seconds and then abruptly shut down. Recognizing that a return to the airport was impossible, the pilot executed emergency drills for engine loss after takeoff over water and decided to ditch the aircraft in the sea, approximately 200 to 300 feet from the main shoreline in front of the Placencia airport.
The flight crew and all passengers were safely evacuated from the fuselage with assistance from witnesses and nearby boats, which provided an impromptu rescue. All passengers sustained only minor injuries.
Probable Cause
The official investigation identified the following probable causes: 1. The driver of the vehicle failed to adhere to traffic warning signs regarding low flying aircraft and drove directly into the departure path of the aircraft. 2. The pilot flew the aircraft at a dangerously low altitude over the road and did not properly assess the risk posed by the vehicle advancing into the departure path. 3. The pilot did not take collision avoidance (evasive) measures in a timely manner.
Additional contributing factors included a lack of traffic surveillance to ensure driver compliance with warnings, an inoperative left barrier at Placencia, the pilot's delay in rotating, and inadequate ditching training provided by the operator.