LANSA Flight 502

LANSA Flight 502

Accident
Date	August 9, 1970
Summary	Pilot error
Site	Cusco
Aircraft type	Lockheed Electra L-188A
Operator	LANSA
Registration	OB-R-939
Flight origin	Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport, Cusco, Peru
Destination	Jorge Chávez International Airport, Lima, Peru
Passengers	92
Crew	8
Fatalities	101 (2 on ground)
Injuries	1
Survivors	1

LANSA Flight 502 was a Lockheed Electra L-188A four-engine turboprop operated by Lineas Aéreas Nacionales Sociedad Anónima (LANSA) which crashed shortly after takeoff on August 9, 1970, after losing one of its engines. The aircraft, registered OB-R-939, was bound from Cusco to Lima in Peru, carrying 8 crew and 92 passengers. All but one of the occupants died from injuries sustained from impact forces and post crash fire. Two people on the ground were also killed. There were 49 American high school exchange students on board, all of whom perished. A Peruvian government investigations concluded that the accident was caused by improper execution of engine-out procedures by the flight crew, aggravated by lack of maintenance and overloading. LANSA was fined and its operations suspended for 90 days. At the time, the crash was the worst ever in Peruvian history.

Background

Students boarding the doomed flight

Over half of the passengers belonged to a single group, sponsored by the Buffalo, New York based [International Fellowship] Student exchange program, consisting of 49 American high school exchange students, along with their teachers, family members, and guides, who were returning from a visit to nearby Machu Picchu to their host families in the Lima area. The daughter of the mayor of Lima was also accompanying the group. The Peruvian passengers included a couple on their honeymoon.

August 9, 1970 was a Sunday, and Flight 502 from Cuzco to Lima, operated by LANSA, the national Peruvian airline, was originally scheduled to depart Cuzco at 8:30 AM in the morning, but since many of the members of the American group wanted to visit the nearby Pisac native handicraft market prior to leaving for Lima, the airline postponed the departure time to 2:45 PM.

The Quispiquilla Airport, since renamed to Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport, is located about 3 miles east-southeast of the city of Cuzco, in a small valley high on the Andes mountains, at an altitude of 10,860 feet above mean sea level. Higher mountainous terrain surrounds the single east-west runway airport in all directions. Since it was August, it was winter time in Peru, as in the rest of the southern hemisphere.

Accident sequence

LANSA 502's entire flight path, from takeoff to crash, is encompassed within this panoramic view of Cusco. The runway is seen to the left (east), and rising terrain is seen along the extended takeoff path to the right (west).

At about 2:55 PM, the four-engine Lockheed Electra L-188A turboprop began its takeoff run to the west. At some point during the takeoff run or initial climb, the number three engine failed and caught fire. The crew continued the takeoff and climb, per standard procedure, using power from the remaining three engines. The pilot radioed the control tower declaring an emergency, and the control tower cleared the flight for an immediate landing. The number three engine was engulfed in flames as the crew retracted the flaps and maneuvered the plane into a left turn back to the runway. The plane entered a 30-45 degree bank, then rapidly lost altitude and crashed into hilly terrain about 1.5 miles west-southwest of the runway, above the village of San Gerónimo. All aboard perished except the copilot, who was found in the wreckage of the cockpit badly burned but alive. Two farmers were killed on the ground.

"The plane crashed into San Jeronimo Hill six miles south of the Cuzco airport and exploded, scattering bodies over a wide area. Lansa officials said the airline was sending a plane to Cuzco today to bring the bodies to Lima. International Fellowship said the students, among 400 Americans spending 45 days with Peruvian families, were accompanied by 14 Peruvian youngsters, including Marisel Bedoya Vivanco, 16, daughter of a former Lima mayor.

"The student victims were from New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Ohio, Maine, Wisconsin, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Illinois and Pennsylvania, the company said. Peru's worst previous air crash occurred eight years ago when 97 persons died in the crash of a Varig Airlines plane near Lima." <"The Stevens Point (Wis.) Daily Journal," Aug. 10, 1970>

Investigation

Map of Peru depicting flight 502 origin and destination

The Peruvian government investigated the accident, and in its final report concluded that the probable cause of the accident was the improper execution of engine-out procedures by the flight crew, with contributing factors of improper loading of the aircraft and improper maintenance procedures by company personnel. There was also evidence of a coverup and falsification of critical maintenance records by LANSA employees during the investigation process. The Peruvian government subsequently fined LANSA and some of its employees, and suspended the airline's operating license for 90 days as a consequence.

Aftermath

There was a bit of good news from this tragedy, at least from the perspective of a few lucky pupils who skipped the trip to the pyramids. Fifteen youths decided to remain in Lima with the families with whom they had spent the summer, rather than make the trip to the ruins. One of these was Joann Stover, 17, a student of Germantown, Wis. who was saved because she had no money to go to Cuzco. Joann, living at the house of Ablerto Linares in Liama, decided not to accompany her companions in the tragic plane flight to Cuzco because she did not have 5,000 soles ($125) to pay for her trip.

See also

• LANSA Flight 508
• List of notable accidents and incidents on commercial aircraft

External links

• Cusco Airport Satellite Photo
• The Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport is at coordinates 13°32′8″S 71°56′37″W
• Air Disaster Accident Record
• archive.org record of accident web site