Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 046
McDonnell Douglas MD-81 · Crashed on approach due to pilot error and poor visibility
From Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (AEP) to Libertador Gral D Jose De San Martin Airport (PSS)
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
- 22 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
McDonnell Douglas MD-81
- Flight
- AU046
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas MD-81
- 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
- N1003G
- Operator
- Austral Líneas Aéreas
- Onboard fatalities
- 22
- Route
- From Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (AEP)To Libertador Gral D Jose De San Martin Airport (PSS)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article's coordinates are more than 250 km from Libertador General José de San Martín Airport, the place its infobox names.
From the Wikipedia article
Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 046 was an Argentine scheduled domestic flight from Buenos Aires to Posadas, via Resistencia, that undershot the runway at Libertador General José de San Martín Airport in Posadas on June 12, 1988, in conditions of poor visibility. All 22 of the occupants of flight 046 were killed in the crash.
Accident sequence
Flight 046, operated by a McDonnell Douglas MD-81, departed Buenos Aires' Aeroparque Jorge Newbery to Resistencia at 7:04 local time, and departed from Resistencia to Posadas at 8:40 after a 20-minute stopover. At 9:09, the crew of Flight 046 made radio contact with Posadas air traffic control, and 7 minutes later, the flight was cleared for an approach to Runway 01. The weather at the time was very poor, with extremely dense fog reducing visibility to just 100 meters. Shortly after making contact with controllers at Posados Airport, the aircraft struck the top of a eucalyptus tree, flipped on its side and crashed 3 km short of the runway. All on board perished and the aircraft was destroyed on impact.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The investigation into the disaster, led by the Junta de Investigación de Accidentes de Aviación Civil (JIAAC) concluded that the main factor in the crash was that the crew attempted to land below the indicated minimum weather conditions for the instrument approach. The crash had severely damaged both the Cockpit Voice and Flight Data Recorders, as the post crash fire rendered large portions of both recordings unusable. Small sections of the recordings were salvaged and analysed thoroughly by the Argentinian investigators. Analysis of the recovered cockpit voice recording revealed the first officer's hesitation to land in extremely dense fog, as well as his dismay when realising the aircraft had descended below the lowest safe altitude permitted for the approach.
The JIAAC made recommendations to the National Transportation Safety Board and McDonnell Douglas to improve the insulation of both recorders, and to strengthen the wiring that connects the cockpit area microphone to the actual cockpit voice recorder located in the empennage.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 046” (revision 1339313940, 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: Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 046
- Revision
- 1339313940 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4823381
- 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 "Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 046" (page 35114294, revision 1339313940)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates and infobox site disagree
- 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.