TANS Peru Flight 204

On 23 August 2005, a Peruvian jetliner, Boeing 737-200 carrying 98 people was "en route" from Lima to Pucallpa. At 3:06 p.m. the aircraft crashed about 5.5 km south of Pucallpa killing 40 people according to news sources. Of the 58 survivors, many were treated in hospitals. Passengers reported heavy turbulence and flames when the plane crashed. The exact cause of the crash is still unknown, but it is believed that the plane was making an emergency landing during a hailstorm; the plane split in two after landing.

Airline spokesman Jorge Belevan reported 57 survivors, with 31 bodies recovered and 10 people still missing. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/23/AR2005082301409_pf.html] TANS Peru Flight TJ204 had 92 passengers and six crew members, including 11 American citizens, four Italians, two Brazilians, one Colombian, and one Spaniard.

It was the fifth major plane crash of August 2005, and the second major crash of a TANS Peru flight in slightly over two years.

In the media

Flight 204 has been the subject of a Reader's Digest story ( [http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=31982] ) and an MSNBC documentary ( [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9545549/] }.

Sources

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4178868.stm Plane crashes in Peruvian jungle (BBC)]
* [http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/08/24/peru.crash/index.html Doz die in Peruvian plane crash (CNN)]
* [http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-08-24T051549Z_01_MCC383700_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-PERU-DC.XML Peru jet crashes in jungle, at least 40 dead (Reuters)]
* [http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/view_details.cgi?date=08232005&reg=OB-1809&airline=TANS+Peru Airdisaster.com database: Flight 204]
* [http://www.aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20050823-0 Aviation-Safety.net accident description]