BOGOTA, Colombia: A series of human errors caused an airliner to run out of fuel and crash in Colombia last month, killing 71 people including most of a Brazilian soccer team, aviation authorities said Monday.
Colombia’s Civil Aeronautics agency concluded in its investigation that the plan for the flight operated by Bolivia-based company LaMia did not meet international standards. Among the errors it cited were the decisions to let the plane take off without enough fuel to make the flight safely and then to not stop midway to refuel. It ruled out sabotage or mechanical problems.
Neither the charter company nor Bolivian authorities should have allowed the plane to take off with the flight plan submitted, said Freddy Bonilla, safety secretary for Colombia’s aviation authority. He said the agency’s conclusions were based on the plane’s black boxes and other evidence.
Experts had earlier suggested that fuel exhaustion was a likely cause of the Nov. 28 crash that wiped out all but a few members of the Chapecoense soccer team, as well as team officials and journalists accompanying them to a championship playoff match in Medellin, Colombia.
The BAE 146 Avro RJ85 has a maximum range of 1,600 nautical miles — just under the distance between Medellin and Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where the plane had taken off at almost full capacity.
The plane was in the air for about four hours and 20 minutes when air traffic controllers in Medellin put it into a holding pattern because another flight had reported a suspected fuel leak and was given priority.
Investigators found that crew members of the LaMia flight were aware of the lack of fuel but only reported an emergency when it was too late.
Bonilla said during the flight the pilot and co-pilot are heard on “various occasions” talking about stopping in Leticia, Colombia, to refuel but decided not to do so. When the plane entered Colombian airspace it was flying into a wind, which caused more fuel to be consumed.
And when the pilot asked for priority to land in Medellin, six minutes before crashing, the plane had spent two minutes with a motor shut off.
In addition, there was no explosion upon impact, pointing to a scarcity of fuel.