TAP Portugal - Incidents and Accidents

Incidents and Accidents

• TAP Portugal Flight 425 (Madeira Airport 1977), the only accident with fatalities.

Flight 425 was a flight to Madeira Airport from Brussels via Lisbon operated by TAP Portugal with a Boeing 727 that crashed on 19 November 1977 at Funchal Airport after the landing on the runway 24. The plane was trying to land in heavy rain and after two unsuccessful attempts the captain decided to try another time. They touched down too late and overran the runway which, at the time, was only 1600 metres long. The plane crashed on the beach; splitting in two pieces and bursting into flames. Of the 164 people aboard, 131 were killed and 33 survived. It is the second deadliest aeroplane accident in Portugal (after Independent Air Flight 1851).

The crash prompted officials to explore ways of extending the short runway. Because of the height of the runway relative to the beach below, an extension was very difficult and too expensive to perform. A 200m extension was built between 1983 and 1986. In 2000 the runway extended to 2781m (9,124 feet) long and was capable of handling wide body commercial jets such as the Boeing 747 or Airbus A340.