Sol Líneas Aéreas Flight 5428
Saab 340A · Loss of control and crash at night in icing conditions
From Rosario Islas Malvinas International Airport (ROS) to General Enrique Mosconi International Airport (CRD)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA11RA059
- 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 · JIAAC final report
- Event fatalities
- 22 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 22
- 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
- Not recorded
Saab 340A
- Flight
- 8R5428
- Aircraft type
- Saab 340
- 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
- LV-CEJ
- Operator
- Sol Líneas Aéreas
- Onboard fatalities
- 22
- Route
- From Rosario Islas Malvinas International Airport (ROS)To General Enrique Mosconi International Airport (CRD)
- 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
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Aircraft › Fluids/misc hardware
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
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
Sol Líneas Aéreas Flight 5428 was a passenger flight which crashed near Los Menucos, Argentina, on 18 May 2011, killing all 22 people on board. The aircraft involved, a Saab 340, was operating Sol Líneas Aéreas' scheduled domestic service from Neuquén to Comodoro Rivadavia.
The following investigation concluded that severe airframe icing had led to a loss of control from which the crew was unable to recover. The crash is the deadliest aviation accident involving a Saab 340.
History of the flight
Flight 5428 had taken off from Rosario International Airport at 17:35 local time (20:35 UTC) on 18 May bound for Comodoro Rivadavia Airport. The service was scheduled to stop over at Córdoba, Mendoza and Neuquén. After completing the first three segments uneventfully, the Saab 340 took off from Presidente Perón International Airport in Neuquén at 20:05 for its final leg.
At around 20:29, while climbing toward its assigned flight level FL190 (19,000 ft), the aircraft encountered icing conditions and levelled off at 17,800 ft, continuing at this altitude for approximately 9 minutes. With icing conditions persisting, the crew initiated a descent to FL140 (14,000 ft), but during the following 7 minutes, icing conditions significantly worsened. Control of the aircraft was lost shortly after, and the Saab 340 impacted the ground in a remote region of the Río Negro Province, between the villages of Los Menucos and Prahuaniyeu.
The aircraft was flying at night, in instrument meteorological conditions and in an area without VHF radio coverage. A mayday call was received by the crew of a business jet flying in the area shortly before Flight 5428 was lost. Local people around 2 km away from the crash site saw an airplane flying extremely low. A few moments later they heard explosions and noticed black smoke coming from the ground. Firefighters arrived at the scene three hours later, finding no survivors.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The aircraft's flight recorders were recovered two days after the crash. The Argentinian Junta de Investigaciones de Accidentes de Aviación Civil (JIAAC) opened an investigation into the accident. In September 2011, a preliminary report was issued which stated that the cause of the accident was a stall due to severe airframe icing and subsequent loss of control.
The JIAAC published its final report in March 2015, confirming the findings of the preliminary report. No evidence of technical defects in the aircraft was found. It was determined that the icing conditions encountered were so severe that the aircraft's de-icing systems were overwhelmed. However, it was also noted that engine power and airspeed management by the flight crew was inadequate; in particular, the engines were never set to full power and the airspeed was allowed to decay until the aircraft stalled. It was also determined that the weather reports that the crew received called for minor icing, and thus they were not prepared for the conditions that they actually encountered.
The JIAAC described the crew's stall recovery technique as inappropriate and issued several safety recommendations to aviation authorities and organisations, calling for more pilot training in aircraft upset recovery, incipient stall recognition and stall recovery.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Sol Líneas Aéreas Flight 5428” (revision 1373205210, 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
On May 18, 2011, at about 23:47 UTC, a Sol Lineas Aereas Saab 340A, registration LV-CEJ, was enroute from Neuquén, Argentina, to Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina when the flight crew declared an emergency then disappeared from radar. The aircraft was later discovered crashed about 35 km from Los Menucos (Argentina). There were 3 crew and 18 passengers on board, all fatal.
The Junta de Investigaciones de Accidentes de Aviación Civil (JIAAC) of Argentina is investigating the accident. All inquiries should be directed to the JIAAC at:
Junta de Investigaciones de Accidentes de Aviación Civil (JIAAC) Avenida Belgrano 1370 - Piso 11 C1093AAO, Cuidad Autónoma de Buenos Aires Argentina
E-mail: info@jiaac.gov.ar Website: www.jiaac.gov.ar
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: Sol Líneas Aéreas Flight 5428
- Revision
- 1373205210 · 2026-09-04 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q3499141
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA11RA059
- Event ID
- 20110520X03914
- Case number
- DCA11RA059
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Sol Líneas Aéreas Flight 5428" (page 31823260, revision 1373205210); merged with NTSB case DCA11RA059 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date; matches the Junta de Investigación de Accidentes de Aviación Civil (JIAAC), Argentina (now Junta de Seguridad en el Transporte, JST) final report
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates; matches the Junta de Investigación de Accidentes de Aviación Civil (JIAAC), Argentina (now Junta de Seguridad en el Transporte, JST) final report
- 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 DCA11RA059
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities; matches the Junta de Investigación de Accidentes de Aviación Civil (JIAAC), Argentina (now Junta de Seguridad en el Transporte, JST) final report
- Ground fatalities
- Junta de Investigación de Accidentes de Aviación Civil (JIAAC), Argentina (now Junta de Seguridad en el Transporte, JST) final report
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Sol Líneas Aéreas Flight 5428" and NTSB case DCA11RA059, 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.
- Checked against the Junta de Investigación de Accidentes de Aviación Civil (JIAAC), Argentina (now Junta de Seguridad en el Transporte, JST) final report on 2026-09-18. The report states the same date, crash-site coordinates, flight number, fatalities, registration, destination and damage. Taken from the report: ground fatalities. Shown unchanged where the report gives another value or wording: departure (shown Rosario – Islas Malvinas International Airport, Rosario, Argentina; report SAZN · Neuquén). Not checked: place, aircraft type, operator and type of operation.