What happened
During an arrival at Rio Branco-Presidente Médici Airport, the flight crew encountered heavy rainfall and degraded visibility. While performing the initial approach, the crew could not identify the runway due to a lack of lighting, prompting them to execute a go-around. A subsequent attempt to land was also aborted minutes later under similar circumstances.
During a third landing attempt, the aircraft experienced a loss of lift and crashed roughly 5 km from the airfield. The impact resulted in the total destruction of the plane. There were 10 fatalities among the occupants, with no survivors reported.
Findings
Official investigations concluded that the primary reason for the accident was the exhaustion of fuel following the three consecutive unsuccessful approach attempts, which led to a dual engine failure on final approach. Several contributing factors were identified in the report, including:
- Adverse weather and low visibility
- Deficiencies in flight planning
- Inadequate infrastructure
- Operational and company assistance failures