Cubana de Aviación Flight 1216
Cubana de Aviación leased from AOM French Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 · Runway overrun
From José Martí International Airport (HAV) to La Aurora International Airport (GUA)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA00WA016
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 18 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 2
- Occupants
- 314
- Survivors
- 298
- 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
- 57 · 20 on the ground
- 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
- Unknown
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30
- Flight
- CU1216
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-10
- 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
- F-GTDI
- Onboard fatalities
- 16
- Route
- From José Martí International Airport (HAV)To La Aurora International Airport (GUA)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
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
Cubana de Aviación Flight 1216 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 that overran the runway at La Aurora International Airport, Guatemala City, on 21 December 1999. 8 passengers and 8 crew members on board were killed as well as 2 people on the ground.
Accident
Flight 1216 was a special charter transporting Guatemalan students home from universities in Cuba. The aircraft took off from José Martí International Airport in Cuba with 296 passengers and 18 crew on board. After a two-hour flight, the aircraft was cleared to land on Runway 19 at La Aurora International Airport. On landing, the pilots were unable to stop the aircraft and it ran off the end of the runway and down a slope, crashing into ten houses. The accident killed 18 people in all: 8 passengers and 8 crew members on board the aircraft, and 2 occupants of the houses. There were 288 passengers and 10 crew who survived; however, 37 passengers and crew and another 20 people on the ground were injured in the accident. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair and written off.
The crash occurred in the La Libertad neighborhood. All three flight crew members were among the dead. Also among the dead was stewardess Johanna Toledo, who was the captain's daughter.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The accident was investigated by the Accident Investigation Section (Sección de Investigación de Accidentes) of Guatemala's Directorate General of Civil Aeronautics (Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil). The investigation found that the aircraft touched down too far along the wet runway with insufficient deceleration, and that the crew had failed to initiate a go-around. The spoilers were found in the down and locked position, while the flight data recorder (FDR) showed them deployed. The handle for the spoilers in the cockpit was found in an undefined position. The reason for this discrepancy was not determined by the accident investigation.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Cubana de Aviación Flight 1216” (revision 1349250286, 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: Cubana de Aviación Flight 1216
- Revision
- 1349250286 · 2026-04-16 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q5192132
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA00WA016
- Event ID
- 20001212X20221
- Case number
- DCA00WA016
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Cubana de Aviación Flight 1216" (page 26956145, revision 1349250286); merged with NTSB case DCA00WA016 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- 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 DCA00WA016
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Cubana de Aviación Flight 1216" and NTSB case DCA00WA016, 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.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.