Colombia’s accident investigation team has released its preliminary report on last month’s fatal air charter crash, and confirmed that the LaMia Avro RJ85 crashed due to fuel exhaustion. The investigators said they found no technical fault with the aircraft, and no evidence of sabotage or a suicide attempt. Twenty-three investigators, including 10 from Colombia, formed the accident investigation team. “Based on the preliminary analysis, the accident investigation continues and will focus on aspects such as organization, operational surveillance and supervision, fuel planning, decision making, and survival,” the civil aeronautics agency said in a statement. The final report is scheduled to be completed in April. Seventy-one passengers and crew died in the crash, and six people survived.
The investigators said the airplane’s flight recorders were recovered and have been analyzed. The team put together a 24-minute video featuring audio from the flight and images showing flight plans and other documents, as well as the final flight path. There was no fire, but the crash had a “minimal survival capacity of both crew and passengers,” the investigators found. The aircraft was 1,000 pounds overweight at takeoff, and the fuel on board was near capacity. “The flight crew was conscious of the fuel limits and that they did not sufficiently have what was needed,” said Freddy Bonilla, head of the investigation team, at a news conference on Monday.
The captain and first officer discussed the possibility of landing to refuel but decided to continue toward Medellin, Bonilla said, citing the audio recordings. Headded that headwinds may have caused the aircraft to use more fuel. The crew asked for priority landing at their destination, Bonilla said, but did not declare an emergency. Just two minutes before the crash, he said, they reported “a total electric failure without fuel.” Both Bolivia and Colombia have suspended LaMia’s operating certificates.
