NEWS: Plane Crashes In Venezuela, 152 Onboard

A plane has crashed in Venezuela with 152 people onboard. It is not immediately clear if anyone survived. The West Caribbean Airways plane was flying from Panama to the Caribbean island of Martinique. The pilot had told ground controllers that the plane was experiencing engine troubles. The Venezuelan Interior minister has said it is unlikely any one survived.



Another plane has crashed. There has been a spat of crashes lately. I've noticed as im due to fly half way around the World next month. It has me worried to say the least.

My heart goes out to the families of those onboard this, and all the other, planes that have crashed recently. It must be an absolute nightmare.

Officials believe the plane crashed in the mountainous area of Machiques between 0300 and 0345 local time (between 0700 and 0745 GMT).

The plane was an MD-82, similar to this:



ATSNN: Plane Crashes in Greece
ATSNN: Plane Crashes Off Palermo (Italy)
Canada Plane Crash

[edit on 16-8-2005 by John bull 1]

[edit on 17-8-2005 by John bull 1]

The plane was an MD82 not MD80. West Caribbean airlines does not have any MD 80's

West Caribbean Airlines - Details and Fleet History
Airline Name: West Caribbean Airlines
IATA / ICAO Code: YH / WCW
Country: Colombia


Aircraft Type Current Future Historic Total

McDonnell Douglas MD-81 1 1
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 2 2
Total 3

Current Fleet History

Is it me or do there seem to be more airline related incidents lately?

news.bbc.co.uk...

160 passengers and crew

Venezuelan Interior Minister Jesse Chacon said the pilot had asked for authorisation to enter Venezuelan air space and land at Maracaibo airport because of problems with one of the engines.


Click here for a map of the area

The pilot then reported that the second engine was also failing and the aircraft began to lose altitude at about 7,000 feet (2,100 metres) a minute, Mr Chacon said.

First we have an airbus going down due to `pilot error `and `weather conditions` , then the Boeing 737 , thats only 7 years old , freeze`s up , and now this MD-82 fails.

Originally posted by nikelbee
Is it me or do there seem to be more airline related incidents lately?

with many airlines flying old planes, and the volume of flights on a daily basis, it would seem perfectly normal to have statistical spikes.

Its too bad the only thought some people have around here is to now breathlessly connecting the dots in some theory that has no basis in fact reason or logic. I don't why people are compelled to do this, but it will be a matter of minutes before these crashes are linked in some half baked theory on these boards

Haven't any of you noticed that plane crashes happen in threes? I'm not into numerology, but it really does seem that they do happen in threes.

Official: Venezuela Plane Passengers Dead

Not good news at all.

Does anyone other then me find it strange that this plane also had engine failure like the plane in Greece? That seems real odd to me. I wonder if this may be a result of contaminated fuel?

BBC has since edited its story to say the plane was an MD-82. Originally they had claimed it was an MD-80. Cant help bad sources

It seems every day there's a crash. I hope this stops soon.
I wonder why this pattern?

synrix - the greece crash was on an aircraft less than 7 years old - and the MD-82 is about the same age.

[edit on 16-8-2005 by Harlequin]

Another one, that is sad! Supposedly the safest form of transport in the world, but it is still intimidating to some, especially when frequent crashes occur as is happening at the minute.

i am puzzled

how come if there was engine failure I read the following?

Witnesses say a Colombian plane that has crashed in Venezuelan mountains plummeted in a huge ball of fire before hitting the ground and exploding, killing all 160 people aboard.

The West Caribbean Airways McDonnell-Douglas MD-82 jet crashed just before dawn local time after the pilot reported engine trouble.

www.abc.net.au...

My mind cannot understand if there was engine trouble how it was a ball of flame before hitting the ground...

There could have been an engine explosion. It just happened on a Jalways flight from Fukuoka to Honolulu. A film crew making a commercial happened to turn the camera to follow it taking off, and the left engine exploded in a big ball of fire.

Yahoo news item

I found the following bits interesting

Most of the passengers were local government officials in Martinique who had been on holiday with their families, an official at the Fort-de-France airport in Martinique said

Lots of gov officials onboard...martinique is a French colony.


and aslo this bit

The MD-82 aircraft, delivered to its first operator in 1986, passed a safety check by Colombian authorities on Monday.

but really the following statement

This is a tragedy...everyone died, both engines just switched off," Chavez said at a public event late Tuesday.

Ok the engines switched off....................................So

How come this

Farm workers told local television they had seen the aircraft in flames before it hit the ground.

Both engines were switched off yet it was a fireball before even hitting the ground according to many eyewitnesses

but the topper was this

its tail was left standing alone, according to a Reuters photographer at the site.

Just like the Cyprus one.... just the tail left standing........




[edit on 17-8-2005 by Mayet]

Even when the plane nosedives, the tail section is frequently intact after an accident. The comment by Chavez should be taken with a grain of salt, until they have a chance to examine the black boxes. One cause of the engines "switching off" could be from an explosion.

[edit on 17-8-2005 by Zaphod58]

I don't know if anyone has posted this yet but the entire passenger list was comprised of French nationals - all 152 of them.

news.bbc.co.uk...