Vieques Air Link Flight 901A

Vieques Air Link Flight 901A
	Vieques Air Link Britten-Norman BN-2A-9 Islander, similar to the crashed aircraft but with a later VAL livery
Accident
Date	August 2, 1984
Summary	Pilot error
Site	Vieques, Puerto Rico
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Britten-Norman Islander
Operator	Vieques Air Link
Registration	N589SA
Flight origin	Vieques Airport
Destination	St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands
Occupants	9
Passengers	8
Crew	1
Fatalities	9
Survivors	0

Vieques Air Link Flight 901A was a flight from Vieques Airport in Vieques, Puerto Rico, to St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands that crashed on August 2, 1984, killing all nine passengers and crew on board.

Crash

The flight was operated by a Britten-Norman Islander, registration N589SA. After refueling at Vieques Airport, the aircraft took off with one crew member, its pilot, and eight passengers, at 7:55 AM. According to an airport mechanic, the aircraft then lost altitude, the pilot regaining it momentarily before the aircraft banked to its left and nosedived into the Atlantic Ocean.

Passengers

The oldest recorded passenger was a 75-year-old man and the youngest one an 11-year-old boy. Additionally, there were two passengers, both women, whose ages were not revealed.^[1]

Investigation

In the course of its investigation the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) learned that on March 13, 1984, the young, 21 years old^[2] pilot had completed training at a flying school to obtain a commercial pilot's license, but was not qualified to fly as a pilot-in-command of a commuter airliner, being restricted to air charter operations only.

Further investigation revealed that the aircraft's left hand fuel tank had been filled with fuel from an underground tank contaminated with water from previous days of heavy rains, which ultimately caused the No.1 engine to fail. At the time the engine failed, the aircraft was over the ocean. The pilot attempted to turn the aircraft around; however, he turned in the wrong direction, causing the aircraft to flip and crash into the water.

The aircraft was also overloaded by between 600 lb (272 kg) to 700 lb (318 kg) over its maximum take-off weight.

The aircraft was required to have ten life vests installed. However, the divers who participated in the recovery mission stated that they found no life vests inside the aircraft. The NTSB investigators inspected ten life vests that the airline claimed had been recovered from the wreckage. Four were found to have loose CO₂ gas cylinders, used for inflation of the vests. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) later examined all of Vieques Air Link's life vests and found that about 40 percent of them had loose inflation cylinders.

Furthermore, it was also discovered that the aircraft's safety cards depicted a Britten-Norman Trislander, not an Islander; and that the card incorrectly showed the location of the inflation toggle and mouthpiece of the life vest type used by the airline.

Autopsies revealed that the pilot and three passengers died as a result of impact injuries; the five other passengers also had impact injuries but had drowned.

Recommendations

The NTSB issued a list of recommendations in July, 1985, after investigation of this air accident.

Pilatus-Britten Norman needed to prepare and disseminate a safety advisory to airlines and owners concerning water in fuel tanks on their aircraft.
Airlines using Britten-Norman aircraft have to check for contamination of fuel before each aircraft's first flight of the day and after refuelling the aircraft.
Have all Eastern Aero Marine Model G-12 life-vests checked before using, paying particular attention to CO₂ cylinders and Technical Standard Order labelling.

References

^ "Nine die in Caribbean air shuttle crash - UPI Archives". UPI.
^ "Flying Magazine". April 1986.

External links

"Aircraft Accident Report: Vieques Air Link, Inc., Britten-Norman BN-2A-6 Islander, N589SA. Vieques, Puerto Rico. August 2, 1984" (PDF). NTSB. 1985-09-27. - Copy at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

[1] "Nine die in Caribbean air shuttle crash - UPI Archives". UPI.

[2] "Flying Magazine". April 1986.

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v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States and U.S. territories in the 1980s
1980	Air Wisconsin Flight 965 (June 1980)
1981	Eastern Air Lines Flight 935 (September 1981)
1982	Air Florida Flight 90 (January 13 1982) Thunderbirds Indian Springs Diamond Crash (January 18 1982) World Airways Flight 30 (January 23 1982) Pilgrim Airlines Flight 458 (February 1982) Pan Am Flight 759 (July 9 1982) Twilight Zone accident (July 23 1982) Pan Am Flight 830 (August 1982)
1983	United Airlines Flight 2885 (January 1983) Eastern Air Lines Flight 855 (May 1983) Air Canada Flight 797 (June 2 1983) Reeve Aleutian Airways Flight 8 (June 8 1983) Air Illinois Flight 710 (October 1983) Ozark Air Lines Flight 650 (December 20 1983) Anchorage runway collision (December 23 1983)
1984	Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 901 (February 1984) Vieques Air Link Flight 901A (August 2 1984)* San Luis Obispo mid-air collision (August 24 1984) Provincetown-Boston Airlines Flight 1039 (December 1984)
1985	Galaxy Airlines Flight 203 (January 1985) China Airlines Flight 006 (February 1985) Delta Air Lines Flight 191 (August 2 1985) Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 (August 25 1985) Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105 (September 6 1985) Henson Airlines Flight 1517 (September 23 1985) Teterboro mid-air collision (November 1985) Death of Ricky Nelson (December 1985)
1986	Grand Canyon mid-air collision (June 1986) Aeroméxico Flight 498 (August 1986) Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1628 incident (November 1986)
1987	SkyWest Airlines Flight 1834 (January 1987) Northwest Airlink Flight 2268 (March 1987) American Eagle Flight 5452 (May 1987)* Northwest Airlines Flight 255 (August 1987) Indianapolis Ramada Inn A-7D Corsair II crash (October 1987) Continental Airlines Flight 1713 (November 1987) Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 (December 1987)
1988	Trans-Colorado Airlines Flight 2286 (January 1988) American Airlines Flight 132 (February 3 1988) AVAir Flight 3378 (February 19 1988) Aloha Airlines Flight 243 (April 1988) TACA Flight 110 (May 1988) Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 (August 1988)
1989	United Airlines Flight 811 (February 1989) Evergreen International Airlines Flight 17 (March 1989) United Airlines Flight 232 (July 1989) USAir Flight 5050 (September 1989) KLM Flight 867 (December 15 1989) United Express Flight 2415 (December 26 1989)
This list is incomplete. An asterisk (*) denotes an incident that took place in a U.S. territory. 1970–1979 ◄ 1980–1989 ► 1990–1999