Airliner crashes in Panama

[LX-A343]

From www.bbc.co.uk:

A Colombian airliner with 152 people on board has crashed in a remote north-western region of Venezuela.

The West Caribbean Airways plane was reported to have been travelling between Panama and Martinica.

Rescue workers are said to be on their way to the scene of the crash in the state of Zulia - it is not clear whether there are any survivors.

A Venezuelan aviation official said the pilots had contacted air traffic control to report engine problems.

Contact with the plane was then lost, Francisco Paz said

Sad news, indeed!

Gerardo

[Paul Maier]

hopefully the last for a long time.

RIP.

[scotty50]

not another one

[ME707]

Reported to be a Western Carribean MD82.

What's happening this month- it's certainly a very bad month for civil aviation...

[LX-A343]

If it was indeed Western Caribbean Airways with ~150 pax aboard, as reported, then it would have to be a their MD-82, yes. Apart from that they only have ATR's and a smaller prop (LET?)

Gerardo

[HKinLV]

Just hear in the news that all the pax where from Martinica, the crew was from Colombia, very sad news, and the second accident for WCA this year.......

[DAL767-400ER]

That makes it four in a row. The "Rule of Three" obviously didn't apply to the AF crash, as there were no victims there. And I second Kniesel's comment, I hope it is the last one for a long time.

[RobinB]

Hmmm -here's a conspiracy theory - with the advent of cut rate fares and the squeeze on profit margins, cost cutting has to happen somewhere in order for these operators to remain profitable in a very competitive business. Being in the IT Services business - many customers I have dealt with believe (mistakenly, and by the "bean counters") that trying to cut maintenance costs on their IT kit is the way to go - against all advice from ourselves, these guys usually find out the hard way that cutting down on maintenance cost can (and does) end up in "disaster" - in our world, expensive mistake, but with no loss of life. In the aviation business, the potential risk and loss is that much greater....... one wonders ??? A read through our local CAA accident reports shows an alarming number of accidents (in my humble opinion) that have resulted from, what I believe, is shoddy maintenance - perhaps as a result of trying to cut maintenance costs - or, trying to keep aircraft flying that have probably passed their "sell by date".

Not the kind of news that endears the man in the street to air travel - despite the statistics ---

[uy707]

Seconding Robin's statement.
Alain

Quality has a price that IT companies often don't want paying while demanding things at sometime unrealistic levels. I have seen somewhere 160 persons were on board the ill fated MadDog, 8 crew members, 152 passengers, most of whom French nationals. My idea of what occured behind the scene. The travel tour company which booked WCA made so because Avianca charged a higher fare per passenger and kept doing so, despite constant haggling from the travel company.
Alain

[Chris Kilroy]

It's also worth noting that this is the second fatal crash for West Caribbean Airways in the last six months...

http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/airline_detail.cgi?airline=West+Caribbean+Airways

[uy707]

It's also worth noting that this is the second fatal crash for West Caribbean Airways in the last six months...

http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/a...ibbean+Airways

And its swan song + death knell altogether .... They will go under very scrutinized investigation, here, the DGAC may go to the extents of
- demanding the recorders to be shipped to Paris.
- getting its MadDogs experts assignated locally.
Alain

[ErwinS]

HK-4374X c/n 49484 ex N72824 Continental is the airframe. Very sad indeed that again a disaster happend. I really don't hope this will happen again in the future.
3 wasn't enough apperantly...

Together with today's Spanish AF chopper crash in Afghanistan this is a really sad day for aviation.
My thoughts are with all the family's of the victims and with the whole aviation sector.

[FlyingPhotog]

Hmmm -here's a conspiracy theory - with the advent of cut rate fares and the squeeze on profit margins, cost cutting has to happen somewhere in order for these operators to remain profitable in a very competitive business. Being in the IT Services business - many customers I have dealt with believe (mistakenly, and by the "bean counters") that trying to cut maintenance costs on their IT kit is the way to go - against all advice from ourselves, these guys usually find out the hard way that cutting down on maintenance cost can (and does) end up in "disaster" - in our world, expensive mistake, but with no loss of life. In the aviation business, the potential risk and loss is that much greater....... one wonders ??? A read through our local CAA accident reports shows an alarming number of accidents (in my humble opinion) that have resulted from, what I believe, is shoddy maintenance - perhaps as a result of trying to cut maintenance costs - or, trying to keep aircraft flying that have probably passed their "sell by date".

Not the kind of news that endears the man in the street to air travel - despite the statistics ---

Cutting costs for IT and cutting costs for aircraft maintenance are completely different. The latter being much more costly. Perhaps Colombia has less strict standards of maintenance and inspection.

[janni-chan]

FROM CNN:

Venezuela crash: No survivors

One hundred and sixty people are believed to have been killed when a Colombian plane crashed in a remote area of Venezuela, aviation officials say.

Venezuelan officials say the pilots of the MD-80 reported engine problems shortly before contact was lost with the aircraft. "

Sad... very sad indeed

[medic1]

thats too bad...I just heard on the radio...no survivors and they just recovered one of the flight data recorders