Plane Crash in Toncontin

Friday, May 30 at 9:40 AM a Taca plane with 109 passengers aboard went off the end of the runway of the Toncontin Airport in Tegucigalpa Honduras. It was a cloudy morning with a light drizzle coming down. From news reports it sounds as if the pilot made two circles around the city trying to get a visual of the runway and on the third path came in under the clouds and attempted a landing. It sounds like the pilot miscalculated and was coming in too fast and was already too far down the runway but he decided to attempt a landing nonetheless. They have security tape of the plane touching down about half way down what is already a very short runway.

The plane went off the end of the runway and landed in the middle of a road about 200 yds away. One car was crushed killing two young men. Several other cars were miraculously missed. As you can see in the picture the cockpit and the first class section hit the hardest and had the most damage. Two first class passengers died, one of a heart attack. The pilots were trapped for over an hour—this may have been one of the saddest parts. The door to the cabin was smashed and could not open and it took them a long time to break open a window to get them out—the pilot was alive when they got him out but died on the way to the hospital.

The Honduran president, Mel Zelaya, has announced that from now on only small planes (less than 42 passengers) will be allowed to land in Tegucigalpa. All larger planes will have to land in Comayagua (about 1 hour from Tegucigalpa) where there is a VERY big runway and the Palmerola military base which was built by the US during the 1980s to support the Contras and to keep an eye on guerilla movements in El Salvador, Guatemala…. The US Embassy has said that the Palmerola base is a “Honduran” base and that the US is only a guest there—and that the US’ only concern is to make sure its helicopters, etc… are protected. They claim that within 60 days the Palmerola base will be operating as a civil airport.

It will be interesting to see what happens. The Toncontin airport has just been completely rebuilt—multimillion dollar investment. Over the last 20 years there have not been any civilian aircraft accidents at Toncontin. In 1989 there was an accident when a plane started its approach about early and crashed about 40 miles short of the airport. In 1995 and 1997 there were two military plane accidents. At the same time, Toncontin is one of the most difficult airports in the world to land a passenger plane, a 757 is the largest plane that can land here. I have been told that there are so few accidents here only because the pilots are at the top of their game when they land here. Even with this crash it is clear that the pilot came close to stopping in time.
So while Toncontin is clearly not the best place for an airport, it has quite a good safety record and I think few people in Tegucigalpa look forward to a drive of over an hour to catch a flight or pick up passengers. I will keep you posted.