Accident Details
On a cargo flight from Hamilton, Ontario, to Saltillo, Coahuila, with an intermediate stop in Shreveport, Louisiana, the aircraft carried two pilots and a load of 4 tons of auto parts. It arrived in Shreveport at 2319 local time and departed at 2348 local time.
During the approach to Saltillo-Plan de Guadalupe Airport, the crew encountered low visibility due to poor weather conditions and dark night. On final approach to runway 17, the captain was unable to establish visual contact with the runway and decided to abandon the approach, initiating a go-around procedure.
Nine seconds later, the aircraft struck the ground and crashed 550 metres east of the runway 17 threshold, bursting into flames. The aircraft was totally destroyed. The captain was killed, and the copilot was seriously injured.
Probable Cause
The official investigation determined the probable cause to be the continuation of an unstable final approach without having the runway in sight and the consequent loss of control at low altitude in view of the imminent impact.
The following contributing factors were identified:
- Weather conditions at the airport
- Unstabilized approach
- Crew fatigue
- Lack of experience of the copilot
- Failure to follow proper procedures
- Lack of operational procedures
- Not following proper Saltillo tower controller procedures
- Lack of supervision by the authority
- The coincidence of factors that individually would not represent a substantial increase in the risk of the operations, but that in this case were added: late night flight, little experience of the co-pilot, omission of briefing by the captain, a single Jeppesen for two pilots, DME #2 inoperative, captain command bars inoperative, DME arc, ILS/DME approach, omission of fog bank report and finally saturation in the communications with the Monterrey Control Center.