AeroUnion Flight 302
Airbus A300B4-203F · Stall on approach caused by pilot error
From Mexico City Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA10RA053
- 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
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Final · DGAC final report, 30 Jun 2011
- Event fatalities
- 6 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 1
- Occupants
- 5
- 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
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- 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
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Airbus A300B4-203F
- Flight
- 6R302
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A300
- Category
- Airplane
- 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
- XA-TUE
- Operator
- AeroUnion
- Onboard fatalities
- 5
- Route
- From Mexico City Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX)To Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 129: Foreign
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
AeroUnion Flight 302, operated by an Airbus A300 cargo aircraft, crashed in poor weather on final approach at Monterrey International Airport, Monterrey, Mexico around 23:18 CDT on 13 April 2010, after a flight from Mexico City. All five people on board were killed, as well as one on the ground.
Accident
At about 23:18 local time on 13 April (04:18 UTC on 14 April), AeroUnion Flight 302 executed a missed approach after a landing attempt and crashed. The Airbus A300B4-203F was on a scheduled international freight service from Mexico City International Airport via Monterrey International Airport, Monterrey, to Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles. The crew had been cleared to land the aircraft on runway 11 at Mariano Escobedo Airport, but it crashed onto the Avenida Miguel Alemán motorway, almost 2 km short of the runway threshold. It struck a car, killing the driver. The airplane broke up and burst into flames. All five occupants of the aircraft were killed.
There was a storm that caused windshear and heavy rain, with a ceiling varying between 500 and 800 ft. The METAR in force at the time of the accident stated visibility of 7 mi with light rain. Cloud cover was "broken" at 2,500 ft, overcast at 5,000 ft. with intra-cloud lightning observed.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Direction General of Civil Aeronautics (DGAC) of the Ministry of Communications and Transportation of Mexico (SCT) opened an investigation into the accident. Assistance was provided by Airbus, the aircraft's manufacturer; and by France's aircraft accident investigation body, the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA).
The investigation noted that on final approach the speed decreased to 110 kn (more than 20 kn below typical final approach speed) followed by the crew pulling the control column which resulted in further speed decay and increased angle of attack. The stick shaker, stall warning and Alpha Floor protection activated and caused the engines to accelerate to maximum thrust. In response to the pitch up momentum produced by the accelerating engines, the control column was pushed forward, however the trim was at 10.25 degrees nose up and was not adjusted. The aircraft pitched up reaching an angle of attack of 41 degrees, the speed decayed to 70 kn, the stick shaker and stall warning activated again, the control column was at its forward stop, and the aircraft began to descend. During the last 10 seconds of flight the control column was reversed to its backward stop while the aircraft was losing height until impact.
Text from the Wikipedia article “AeroUnion Flight 302” (revision 1352794120, 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
NTSB narrative
At 2300 local time on April 13, 2010, an Airbus A300-200, Mexican registration XA-TUE, crashed on approach to Monterrey, Mexico. The airplane was destroyed, 5 crewmembers and one person on the ground, were killed. Rain showers and cumulonimbus clouds were reported in the area. This accident is being investigated by the Mexican Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil DGAC (www.sct.gob.mx)
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: AeroUnion Flight 302
- Article
- AeroUnion Flight 302
- Revision
- 1352794120 · 2026-05-06 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q2677721
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA10RA053
- Event ID
- 20100414X92635
- Case number
- DCA10RA053
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "AeroUnion Flight 302" (page 26952201, revision 1352794120); merged with NTSB case DCA10RA053 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date; matches the Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC), Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, Mexico final report
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: 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); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA10RA053
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities; matches the Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC), Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, Mexico final report
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities; matches the Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC), Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, Mexico final report
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "AeroUnion Flight 302" and NTSB case DCA10RA053, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- Checked against the Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC), Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, Mexico final report (2011-06-30) on 2026-09-18. The report states the same date, flight number, ground fatalities, fatalities, registration, operator and damage. Shown unchanged where the report gives another value or wording: departure (shown Mexico City International Airport, Mexico City, Mexico; report Ciudad de México); destination (shown Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, United States; report Monterrey International Airport). Not checked: place, crash-site coordinates, aircraft type and type of operation.