Date:	Monday 20 April 1998
Time:	16:45
Type:	Boeing 727-230
Owner/operator:	TAME Ecuador
Registration:	HC-BSU
MSN:	21622/1431
Year of manufacture:	1979
Total airframe hrs:	34586 hours
Cycles:	26475 flights
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 53 / Occupants: 53
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	10 km SW of Bogotá-Eldorado Airport (BOG) -   Colombia
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Bogotá-Eldorado Airport (BOG/SKBO)
Destination airport:	Quito-Mariscal Sucre Airport (UIO/SEQU)
Investigating agency:	Aerocivil
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
A Boeing 727 passenger plane, HC-BSU, was destroyed when it flew into the side of a mountain near Bogotá, Colombia. All 53 on board were killed.
The airplane had been wet-leased by Air France from TAME Ecuador, a commercial division of the Ecuadorian Air Force. The flight crew regularly flew the Bogota-Quito-Bogota route as the final leg of Air France's scheduled flight 422 from Paris. Air France operated Airbus A340s on the Paris-Bogota leg, but demand on the Quito leg was too weak for use of such a high-capacity transport.
Flight 422 took off from runway 13 at Bogotá after being cleared for a 'Girardot 1' departure. This departure consist of continuing on runway heading for 2 miles after takeoff, followed by a 90-degree right turn over the 'Romeo' beacon. The flight didn't make the right turn and continued straight ahead.
At 16:47 the aircraft crashed into the side of the 3.100 m (10.170 ft) high Cerro el Cable mountain, 150 feet below the summit. This is 500 m (1640 ft) above airfield elevation).
Rain showers were in the area at the time with a broken ceiling at 2300 feet and towering cumulus clouds. Temperature was 18deg. C and winds were from 270 deg at 5kts.
On August 27, 1973 a Lockheed L-188A Electra (HK-777, Aerovias Condor) had also crashed into the Cerro el Cable after takeoff from Bogotá.

PROBABLE CAUSE (translated from original Spanish report):
The loss of situational awareness by the crew, which led to the failure to comply with the GIR 1 departure, deviating from the procedure to maintain runway heading after takeoff until it collided with terrain.

Aviation Week & Space Technology 27.04.1998 (45)
ICAO Adrep Summary 3/98 (#14)

photo (c) Werner Fischdick; Düsseldorf Airport (DUS); 18 December 1980

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