TEAM Linhas Aéreas Flight 6865
Let L-410 Turbolet · Controlled flight into terrain
From Macaé Benedito Lacerda Airport (MEA) to Santos Dumont Airport (SDU)
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
- 19 · 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
Let L-410 Turbolet
- Aircraft type
- Let L-410
- 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-FSE
- Operator
- TEAM Linhas Aéreas
- Onboard fatalities
- 19
- Route
- From Macaé Benedito Lacerda Airport (MEA)To Santos Dumont Airport (SDU)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- 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
TEAM Linhas Aéreas Flight 6865 (TIM6865) was a short-haul domestic passenger service between Macaé and Rio de Janeiro that flew into a mountain on 31 March 2006. The aircraft, a Let L-410 Turbolet, was conducting a VFR approach to Macaé Airport with 17 passengers and 2 crew on board when it hit the top of Pico da Pedra Bonita in Brazil. All 19 people on board were killed in the crash. Brazilian investigative team CENIPA concluded that the VFR approach was inadequate, stating that the visibility at the time was not good enough for a VFR approach.
Flight
TEAM Linhas Aéreas Flight 6865 was operated by TEAM Linhas Aéreas, a domestic airline based in Rio de Janeiro. It was a daily scheduled domestic flight from Macaé in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro to the city of the same name. The Let L-410 bore the Brazilian registration of PT-FSE and was carrying 19 people, consisting of 2 crew and 17 passengers.
The flight took off from Macaé at 17:19 local time. At the time, it was operating under instrument flight rules (IFR) with an estimated time of arrival at 18:02. After taking off from Macaé, the crew stated their intention to cancel their IFR flight plan and added that they wanted to continue the flight under visual flight rules (VFR). This cancellation was approved by an air traffic controller.
As bad weather approached, the crew descended to 2,000 ft. The crew had banked the aircraft to the left when it struck tree tops and slammed into the top of Pico da Pedra Bonita, near the municipality of Rio Bonito. The impact killed everyone on board.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
CENIPA conducted a 12-month-long investigation into the accident. The final report was released on 19 March 2007, concluding that the crash was categorized as a controlled flight into terrain caused by pilot error. At the time, weather in the area was poor, and the crew intentionally changed from IFR to VFR while the visibility was limited. Additionally, prior to the flight, the crew was not aware about the weather conditions in the area. CENIPA also blamed the crew's poor decision-making, stating that they were not properly trained, which caused them to fly at a lower altitude than a safe limit.
Text from the Wikipedia article “TEAM Linhas Aéreas Flight 6865” (revision 1361528224, 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: TEAM Linhas Aéreas Flight 6865
- Revision
- 1361528224 · 2026-06-28 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q28450583
- 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 "TEAM Linhas Aéreas Flight 6865" (page 52875662, revision 1361528224)
- 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.