Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815
Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error
From Tefé Airport (TFF) to Eduardo Gomes International Airport (MAO)
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
- 33 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 33
- 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
Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia
- Aircraft type
- Embraer EMB-120
- 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
- PT-WRO
- Operator
- Rico Linhas Aéreas
- Onboard fatalities
- 33
- Route
- From Tefé Airport (TFF)To Eduardo Gomes International Airport (MAO)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight from São Paulo de Olivença, via Tefé, to Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, northwest Brazil. On 14 May 2004, the aircraft operating the flight, an Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia, crashed into the dense Amazon rainforest while on approach to Manaus. All 33 people on board were killed.
Accident
The aircraft departed Tefé Airport at 17:30 AMT (UTC−04:00) en route to Eduardo Gomes International Airport, Manaus. At 18:26, 64 nmi away from the airport, the aircraft was cleared to descend to 8000 ft, and subsequently cleared to 2000 ft. At 18:31, in order to maintain separation from another aircraft, the flight was placed under radar vectoring and instructed to follow certain headings. At 18:34, the aircraft was given its last heading guidance, still instructed to maintain 2,000 feet, and at 18:35:03 the crew confirmed these instructions. This was the final contact between the flight and air traffic control. Less than 30 seconds later the CVR recording ended when the aircraft impacted an equatorial forest at an altitude of 550 ft, wings level, at over 250 kn. All 33 passengers and crew were killed.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
Investigators managed to locate the aircraft's digital flight data recorder (DFDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR). Due to the severity of the destruction at the crash site, the aircraft's digital flight data acquisition unit (DFDAU) could not be found. Although the DFDR's outer casing was badly damaged by the crash, the inner protective casing was intact. Both flight recorders were sent to Embraer, but were too damaged to carry out a proper reading. The recorders were then sent to the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) laboratories in Washington, DC, United States, where an attempt at reading the DFDR was unsuccessful due to the recording head being dirty. The readout of the CVR was successful.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815” (revision 1354299385, 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: Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815
- Revision
- 1354299385 · 2026-05-15 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q7332264
- 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 "Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815" (page 25996384, revision 1354299385)
- 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
- flight number in the article title
- 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.