TACA Flight 510
TACA International Airlines Boeing 767-2S1ER · Runway overrun due to pilot error
From El Salvador International Airport Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (SAL) to La Aurora International Airport (GUA)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA93RA036
- 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
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 236
- Survivors
- 236
- 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
- 8 · 3 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
- Not recorded
Boeing 767-2S1ER
- Flight
- TA510
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 767
- 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
- N767TA
- Operator
- TACA International Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From El Salvador International Airport Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (SAL)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
- Not recorded
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: La Aurora International Airport, the airport the Wikipedia article names as the site. Where on or near it is not known.
From the Wikipedia article
TACA Flight 510 was a scheduled passenger flight from San Salvador, El Salvador and Guatemala City, Guatemala. On 6 April 1993, the aircraft operating the flight overran the runway during the landing sequence and crashed into a residential area. All 227 passengers and 9 crew on board survived the accident. Three people on the ground were injured, but there were no fatalities. The investigation found that pilot error was a cause of the runway overrun with the pilots landing at an excessive speed.
Accident
The weather conditions at the time were rain showers with visibility under 5 km and a cloud ceiling at a height of about 2000 ft. At 18:27 local time flight 510 touched down on runway 19, 1070 meters from the runway threshold. The crew deployed the thrust reversers. However, the aircraft did not decelerate and overran the runway at a speed of 90 knots. It careened into the Santa Fe and La Libertad neighborhoods at the edge of the airport, smashing through a cinderblock house and coming to rest on top of another house. 4 people on the ground were injured. There were no fatalities onboard the plane but 5 occupants were injured. 2 homes were completely destroyed and another 2 were partially damaged from the impact.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The investigation into the accident found that several factors played a role. The crew had approached the runway above the glideslope, resulting in an unstabilized approach. As well, the pilots landed at a speed that was much higher than the normal landing speed and touched down at a point very far from the runway threshold. This would have reduced the amount of runway remaining to slow the aircraft, even with functioning thrust reversers. The rainy conditions at the time of the crash, with the runway wet and slippery, further hampered the crew's efforts to slow the plane, reducing braking efficiency. In addition, a tailwind present during the landing may have increased the plane's speed slightly, requiring more runway to slow the plane. Finally, with the conditions the crew faced at the time of landing, a go-around must have been executed and the landing tried again. The crew's failure to execute a go-around and proceed with the challenging landing contributed to the accident/outcome.
Text from the Wikipedia article “TACA Flight 510” (revision 1363609819, 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: TACA Flight 510
- Article
- TACA Flight 510
- Revision
- 1363609819 · 2026-07-11 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q6164972
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA93RA036
- Event ID
- 20001211X12109
- Case number
- DCA93RA036
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "TACA Flight 510" (page 79127304, revision 1363609819); merged with NTSB case DCA93RA036 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: airport the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata code, OurAirports)
- 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 DCA93RA036
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "TACA Flight 510" and NTSB case DCA93RA036, 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.
- The NTSB record dates it 1993-04-05 and the Wikipedia article 1993-04-06; Wikipedia's date is used.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.