Colombia plane crash: What we know about the British-built aircraft
The plane that crashed in Colombia on Monday night, killing 71 on board, including members of Brazilian football team Chapecoense Real, was used by the Argentinian national team just two weeks earlier.
The British Aerospace Avro RJ85, a variation on the 146 model, with registration CP-2933, flew Lionel Messi and his teammates from the Brazilian city of Bela Horizonte to Ezeiza airport in in Buenos Aires earlier this month.
This fact was revealed after a photo of the plane was spotted on a Twitter account, belonging to an Argentinian plane-spotter, with the caption: “The Argentinian team will arrive tomorrow at the Ezeiza airport at 06.30 from Belo Horizonte in the BAE 146 of Lamia Bolivia.”
That same aircraft departed from Santa Cruz in Bolivia on Monday, but crashed shortly before landing in Medellin, Colombia. It is also believed the plane had previously transported Venezuela’s national team, owing to LaMia being a popular charter airline for South American football teams.
How old was the aircraft?
The LaMia aircraft registration CP-2933 was nearly 18 years old, according to Planespotters.net, and made its first flight on March 26, 1999 with now-defunct American regional carrier Mesaba Airlines. It was built at Woodford Aerodrome in Cheshire, England, by British Aerospace, now BAe.
In 2007 it was purchased by Cityjet, the Irish airline that operates out of London City Airport - the 146 model has been credited with turning round the fortunes of the small airport in the late 1980s. In 2013, the Avro RJ85 was purchased by LaMia.
Who else flies the 146 model?
The 146 model is used by airlines who favour short-haul services and is often selected on routes with hard-to-access airports thanks to its ability to handle short runways and steep approaches.
The plane has four engines suspended from a wing fixed to the top of the plane, with capacity ranging from 80 to 100 passengers depending on the figuration of the specific plane. The LaMia aircraft that crashed on Monday was configured with a more spacious 85-seat layout, David Dorman, a spokesperson for BAe told Business Insider.
The RJ85 has a cruise speed of 498mph and range of about 1,700 nautical miles (1,955 miles). It is an updated successor of the earlier 146-200 jet, an aircraft that first flew in 1982, with the first RJ85 delivered in 1993. From around 400 ever built, there remain some 220 146/Avro RJs in service around the world, with a further 30 in storage, according to BAe, though production of the aircraft ended in 2003.
British Airways and Air France are two major airlines to have used the aircraft model for its short-haul flights.
Beyond commercial use, the model has been modified for the RAF, which used two of the aircraft in Afghanistan to dispense flares, while around 22 of the aircraft have been converted for use in firefighting.
“It’s a demonstration of the aircraft’s ability to fly in difficult terrain,” BAe spokesperson told BI.
What is its safety record?
The spokesperson added that its safety record is “pretty good… no better no worse than anything else”.
According to statistics, the BAe-146/vro RJ has been involved in 13 “hull-loss” or “write-off” accidents, with a total of 223 fatalities, including Monday’s crash, and one criminal incident, with the loss of 43 lives.
The latter took place in 1987 when disgruntled US Airways employee David Burke shot and killed the flight crew on a flight operated by Pacific Southwest Airlines, which had recently bought Pacific, causing the BAe 146 to enter a steep nosedive and crash into a hillside in Cayucos, California, killing all 43 passengers and crew.
In 2003, Turkish Airlines flight 634, an Avro RJ, crashed on the approach to Diyarbakir Airport in Turkey, killing 75 of the 80 passengers and crew on board.
Before the crash on Monday, there had not been a death associated with the aircraft since 2009, when a 146 operated by Indonesian charter operator Aviastar Mandiri crashed into Pike Mountain, Wamena, after being told to abort its landing.
A spokesperson for BAE said: "BAE Systems is supporting both the operator Lamia and the UK Aircraft Accident Investigation Branch following the incident involving an Avro RJ85 in Colombia."
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