Aero-Tropics Air Services Flight 675
Aero-Tropics Air Services on behalf of Transair Fairchild Swearingen SA227-DC Metro 23 · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error
From Northern Peninsula Airport (ABM) to Cairns International Airport (CNS)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 15 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 15
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Fairchild Swearingen SA227-DC Metro 23
- Flight
- HC675
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild Swearingen SA227
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- VH-TFU
- Onboard fatalities
- 15
- Route
- From Northern Peninsula Airport (ABM)To Cairns International Airport (CNS)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 7 May 2005, Aero-Tropics Air Services Flight 675 crashed while on approach to land at Lockhart River Airport in Queensland, Australia, on a ridge known as South Pap 6 nautical miles (11 km) north-west of the airport. All thirteen passengers and 2 crew on board died as the aircraft was completely destroyed by impact forces and subsequent fire. The Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner commuter aircraft, registered VH-TFU was owned by Transair Ltd and operated by Aero-Tropics. The flight was scheduled from Bamaga on Cape York to the regional centre of Cairns, with a stopover in Lockhart River. It was the worst air crash in Australia in 36 years since MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750 on 31 December 1968. The event is sometimes known as the Lockhart River air disaster.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Queensland Coroner's Inquest in 2007 found that despite evidence that there were a number of issues leading up to the crash, pilot error was the prime cause. "Aircraft engine and flight control system parameters were normal" during the descent, and no other structural defects were determined according to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (2007). Families of those who lost their lives in the disaster have been highly critical of the Coroner's findings, the deficiencies in the operations of the regulator (the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, CASA), and the poor company structure and practices of Transair Ltd.
The investigation was aided by flight information from the aircraft's flight data recorder. The cockpit voice recorder was unserviceable, and had been for some time, so the conversations occurring between the flight crew will never be known.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Aero-Tropics Air Services Flight 675” (revision 1362454005, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Aero-Tropics Air Services Flight 675
- Revision
- 1362454005 · 2026-07-04 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q14935476
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Aero-Tropics Air Services Flight 675" (page 19587414, revision 1362454005)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.