So these are plane crashes from around the world, but it's only for the countries that had a true crime case, if you don't see a plane crash in here, check my True crime from around the world book.
Warning, this book contains plane crashes and the a...
This plane crash takes us to the South American country of Colombia, which is located next to the following countries: Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru.
WARNINGS OF A PLANE CRASH
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Pictured above is the crash site.
American Airlines Flight 965 was a regularly scheduled flight from Miami International Airport (IATA: MIA, iCAO: KMIA) in Miami, Florida, to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport (IATA: CLO, ICAO: SKCL) in Cali, Colombia. On December 20th, 1995, the Boeing 757-200 flying this route (registration N651AA, November 651 Alpha Alpha) crashed into a mountain in Buga, Colombia, around 9:40 pm killing 151 of the 155 passengers and all eight crew members.
The crash was the first U.S.-owned 757 accident and is currently the deadliest aviation accident to occur in Colombia. It was also the deadliest accident involving a Boeing 757 at that time, but was surpassed by Birgenair Flight 301 which crashed seven weeks later with 189 fatalities. Flight 965 was the deadliest air disaster involving a U.S. carrier since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.
The Colombian Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics investigated the accident and determined it was caused by navigational errors by the flight crew.
The aircraft involved in the accident was a Boeing 757–223 registered N651AA. It was the 390th Boeing 757 built. The aircraft was powered by two Rolls-Royce RB211 engines.
The cockpit crew consisted of Captain Nicholas Tafuri (57), and First Officer Donald "Don" Williams (39). Both pilots were considered to be highly skilled airmen. Captain Tafuri had more than 13,000 hours of flying experience (including 2,260 hours on the Boeing 757/767), and First Officer Williams had almost 6,000 hours, with 2,286 of them on the Boeing 757/767.
Captain Tafuri had flown with the United States Air Force from 1963 to 1969 and served in the Vietnam War, and joined American Airlines in 1969. First Officer Williams had flown with the U.S. Navy from 1979 to 1986, and joined American Airlines in 1986.
At that time, Flight 965 mainly carried people returning to Colombia for the Christmas holiday, vacationers, and businesspeople. A winter storm in the Northeast United States caused the airline to delay the departure of the airliner for 30 minutes to allow for connecting passengers to board the flight, and seasonal congestion caused further delay. Flight 965 took off at 6:35 pm EST (23:35pm UTC), nearly two hours late.
Cali's air traffic controllers had no functional radar to monitor the 757, as it had been blown up in 1992 by the terror group FARC. Cali's approach uses several radio beacons to guide pilots around the mountains and canyons that surround the city. The airplane's flight management system (FMS) navigation computer already had these beacons programmed in, and should have, in theory, told the pilots exactly where to turn, climb, and descend, all the way from Miami to the terminal in Cali.
