What happened
On the evening of the accident, a Peruvian Navy aircraft was transporting 16 players from the Alianza Lima football club, along with staff, referees, and cheerleaders, back to Lima following a match against Deportivo Pucallpa. The flight departed Pucallpa at 18:30 hours. During the approach toward Lima, the crew identified an issue regarding the nose landing gear failing to lock into position. To verify the status of the gear, the crew performed a low-altitude flyby for visual confirmation by air traffic control. Although the gear appeared to be functional after this maneuver, the aircraft attempted another approach in darkness. At approximately 20:15 hours, the aircraft struck the water. While three people initially survived the impact, only the pilot was successfully rescued alive the next morning, leaving a total of 16 fatalities among the passengers and crew.
Findings
An investigation into the crash revealed several critical contributing factors. A primary issue was the lack of night-flying experience among the flight crew; the captain had recorded only 5.3 hours of night flight in the preceding 90 days, with no recent night operations in the final month, while the co-pilot had minimal recent night experience. Furthermore, a language barrier contributed to the emergency; due to limited English proficiency, the co-pilot executed an incorrect procedure after receiving instructions from the captain regarding the landing gear indication.
The aircraft was also operated with multiple technical deficiencies. The plane lacked an inertial navigation system (INS), and several communication and navigation instruments were malfunctioning, including low-sensitivity VOR receivers and poor UHF reception. Additionally, the radio altimeter was oscillating, which obscured precise altitude readings from the pilots. Finally, it was determined that the actuator for the nose landing gear had suffered from significant wear.