Accident Details
The aircraft departed Bogotá-El Dorado Airport at 1843 local time, after a six-hour delay caused by technical problems with the electrical systems. At 1934 LT, after receiving clearance to begin its descent to Cartagena-Rafael Núñez Airport, the crew descended from flight level 190 to flight level 080, at which point radar contact was lost.
Four minutes later, the pilot of a Cessna 208 operated by Aerocorales informed the air traffic control center about an aircraft descending vertically and crashing in a marshy field near María La Baja. The wreckage was located about 40 kilometers southeast of Cartagena Airport. The aircraft disintegrated on impact. Among the debris, a nine-year-old girl was found alive; all 51 other occupants were killed.
Probable Cause
According to the official investigation, the loss of control occurred after the pilot-in-command suffered a loss of situational awareness. Contributing to the loss of vertical situational awareness were: the failure of altimeter number one during the descent; the lack of light in altimeter number two; the ineffectiveness of the altitude alert due to the failure of altimeter number one; the lack of radar service in the area; the complacency of the command crew because of good weather conditions; flight training that may not have been authorized by the company; and the failure of the ground proximity warning system (GPWS), or lack of crew reaction time to respond to this alarm.