Medellin Plane Crash: How many other Carriers cut it so fine?

A leaked recording of the final moments of the plane which crashed and wiped out the South American soccer team and many others shows that the plane had just run out of fuel. Its final moments illustrate the chaos and panic in the cockpit and controllers as the pilot was told he had to wait because another plane with mechanical failure had priority. That wait was an additional 7 minutes. Without that delay, he could have landed safely. The surviving flight attendant confirms the plane ran out of fuel.

But the question that needs answering quickly is: how on earth did a qualified pilot, a qualified co-pilot and an airline permit an almost fully-loaded aircraft to fly a route of 1,608 nautical miles when the maximum range of that aircraft was just 1,600 miles? Additionally, aircraft routinely have to make route adjustments due to wind or bad weather, making the decision surely even more idiotic. Even if there was a fuel leak, surely that is utter madness? I always understood that airlines by law must carry enough fuel to get a plane safely to an alternate airport.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ecoense-brazil

Airlines have to pay for fuel in advance so an airline on tiny margins will undoubtedly look to carry the minimum required. I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often with the budget carriers.

Fuel cost is much less onerous for airlines now than it was three years ago. I recall in 2008 taking an American Airlines flight from Toronto to Chicago and then an onward connection. When there was a delay departing Toronto, the captain announced they were filling the tanks to the brim even for a short hop because fuel was cheaper in Canada than in the USA!

But whatever the cost of fuel and the need to carry only what is necessary, that does not negate the issue of sending out an aircraft with a range of 1,600 nautical miles on a trip that is 8 miles longer! And the minimum surely includes the extra fuel for an alternate airport in case of bad weather or, as in this case, another aircraft with an emergency being given landing priority. Flying into Hong Kong over the years I have twice been on flights diverted to Taipei (extra 500 miles) due to typhoons. Even arriving into BKK on Emirates evening A380 flight from HKG the aircraft was stacked for more than 20 minutes (flying around Pattaya!) because of a monsoon storm over the airport. To have zero fuel reserve has to be massive and criminal negligence.

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I always understood that airlines by law must carry enough fuel to get a plane safely to an alternate airport.

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That's true. There are diversion airports along the flight path and the aircraft must carry enough fuel to enable it to reach the last one at its destination airport.

So on the surface it would indeed appear to be criminal negligence. Time will tell.

By alternate airport, I meant one actually further away from the point of departure than the destination point. I don't know that part of South America but it seems from a quick look at the map that there are at least 4 airports within 150 miles or so of Medellin. If fuel was considered a problem, I'm sure it could also have landed for refuelling at Bogota which is about 300 miles short to Medellin. All very strange!

Interesting issues aired on the Professional Pilots Rumour website. It seems that the co-owner of the airline (which was only 2 years old) was the pilot at the controls. There is gossip that by not making its planned en-route refuelling landing (the late departure meaning that airport was closed by the time he got there), the captain might have realised he had saved some fuel by not having to land and take-off and then assumed he'd be able to make it all the way.

Additionally there is much criticism of the pilot's actions in not monitoring fuel burn and the way he communicated with the air traffic controller (who comes in for praise). His aircraft was in a far more critical condition than the plane cleared to land with the technical fault but he was asked to stack for 7 minutest. He never communicated his fuel situation until it was far too late.

There is also this comment from one poster -

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Final Reserve is used to combat 'Murphy's Law'. It's 30 minutes of fuel. No pilot in their right mind would PLAN to eat into it, when overflying an en-route fuel diversion, simply to reach their destination! A MAYDAY call was required as soon as it became apparent the aircraft would LAND with less than 30 minutes of fuel in it's tanks! (Post #282)

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http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/5...lombia-15.html

Then the Bolivian Labour Ministry has now issued a statement that LaMia was not officially registered as a business with the government! It was therefore operating illegally!

Yikes!

Any aircraft accident is caused by a multile number of factors lining up ( known as the Swiss cheese theory) and it's certainly true here from what information is avaiable.
Thirty odd years ago the professional U.K. magazine Flight came on for a load of shite when it said the number of airline accidents was directly related to the Caucasian of the guy flying it ...
Well they may well have been on the money....

But could they say that now....I know, I know....

gerefan2...I know trump has just electronically cheated his way into becoming world dictator and that its OK to be non PC again...like it was 30 years ago....and I realise that most of the members of this board are living fossils and hanker back to the good old days when white and male was all that was needed to be successful (which is why I so love seeing afrikaans MB on the end of my dick...or hunting down US white trash) ....but please dont capitalise on others misery...a whole plane load of gorgeous footballers have just died...this whole post so far is rumours...and now u r trying to claim that if the pilot had been white it wouldnt have happened....next u will inform me that there was a peuvian piloting the titanic...
I've been maliciously accused of being racist....yet from my posts its clear that I treat my MB with equal disdain...I really dont care what colour the arse comes in...just has to be firm and fit.
I'm certainly no PC supporter and do believe that the pendulum has swung far too much to the left and that trumps victory/brexit is a reaction to this....but yours is one of the sickest posts to date...

Me sick?. Give it a rest!!
!!