LAPA Flight 3142 - Flight Review

Flight Review

The JIAAC review of the flight reads:

The evening of the accident, the captain arrived at the Aeroparque Jorge Newbery one hour before take-off, as usual, in order to perform a regular commercial flight (LAPA 3142), on which 95 passengers and 5 crew members were to be transported to the destination airport Ingeniero Ambrosio Taravella in the city of Córdoba.
He arrived before the first officer and had an informal conversation with the flight dispatcher on duty. The aforementioned briefing started with the rest of the flight's crew, and when the first officer arrived, they went back over the weather conditions –which were good– and the NOTAMs for the destination airport as well as for alternative ones. Both pilots controlled the flight plan. Having seen the good weather conditions, the captain selected Aeroparque Jorge Newbery as the alternative airport and decided on the fuel requirements for the flight. The first officer went to the aircraft and the captain followed him shortly after.
The whole briefing lasted approximately ten minutes.
There were no unusual incidents during the briefing. There were no comments or attitudes outside the norm from either of the two pilots during the briefing.
According to the dispatcher, the captain looked very well and as energetic as usual and the first officer looked well. The first officer, the flight commissioner and cabin crew arrived at the aircraft first.
The first officer notified one of the mechanics assisting the aircraft that the total fuel requirement was 8,500 kg, all to be stored in tanks on the wings. The mechanic corroborated loading fuel into the main tank. In this case, as required by the technical documentation of the time, the fuel was to be moved to the wing tanks. The mechanic started that job when the captain arrived at the aircraft.
Before entering the cockpit, he threw the flight technical record to the floor, showing annoyance, confirming that attitude by later shutting off the fuel transfer faucet between the main tank and the wing tanks, a job that was being performed at that precise moment by the assistant flight mechanic.
During their first four minutes on board, the captain, the co-pilot and the commissioner talked about trivial matters in good spirits, focusing on the commissioner's personal issues. When the commissioner left the cockpit, the conversation changed tone and matter as they discussed a controversial situation about their relationship. The captain said, after a reproach from the co-pilot, that he was "going through bad times", to which the copilot replied that he was also having a bad day.
Without interrupting the conversation and as part of it, the reading of the Procedures Control List (PCL) for the aircraft started, mixed with the personal issues that worried them and that led them to misread the procedure checklist.
This confusing situation, in which the PCL was interspersed with conversation irrelevant to the crew's task, persisted during "push back", engine start and taxiing, up to the moment of take-off, which was delayed by other aircraft waiting ahead of the LAPA flight and heavy arriving traffic.
During this final wait, the three men were smoking in the cockpit and their conversation could be of dubious interpretation.
Take-off started on Runway 13 of the Aeroparque at 20:53 hours, and in spite of overpassing rotation (Vr) and take-off security (V2) speeds, the aircraft did not succeed in taking off, continuing straight along its path uncontrollably, hitting several obstacles and finally impacting an embankment.

The report details: "in its final run after failing to take off, the aircraft hit a Chrysler Neon car that was travelling on the Rafael Obligado road (Costanera Norte) that crosses the projection of Runway 13. The car's fuel in contact with sparks from the sliding fuselage against the tarmac and the dragged automobile possibly ignited a fire on the left front side of the aircraft, which grew from rupture of the wings which spilled jet fuel of type JP-1. Also, as a result of a gas regulator plant being hit, a gas leak developed. The fire moved to the back of the aircraft, covering it entirely."

After impact against the embankment, but before catching fire, a flight attendant attempted to hold and operate a fire extinguisher, but she didn't succeed because it was already very hot. She also unsuccessfully tried to open the rear right door that was jammed —probably due to deformation. Finally, another flight attendant succeeded in opening the rear left door allowing several passengers to be evacuated before the fire propagated itself. The right side of the fuselage showed an opening, through which a few passengers escaped.

On the doors, preliminary versions of the report added that "the front left slide L1, of grey colour, was found deployed but unpressurised", which means a much greater effort was needed to open the door. The early reports also considered that the absence of a food or drinks trolley in the rear galley of the aircraft helped, since walking distance to the exit was notably reduced.

Fire units from the airport, as well as the Federal Police, and the Naval Prefecture fought the fire. The evacuation operation was directed by the city's Medical Emergency Attention Service (SAME), which used 15 ambulances of their own as well as some from private hospitals. Based on the severity of their injuries, the casualties were taken to different treatment centres.