TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402
Fokker 100 · Uncommanded thrust reverser deployment after takeoff and pilot error sending full power into the reversed engine, leading to loss of control
From Hugo Cantergiani Regional Airport (CXJ) to Recife/Guararapes - Gilberto Freyre International Airport (REC)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA97WA004
- 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
- 99 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 4
- Occupants
- 95
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Fokker 100
- Flight
- JJ402
- Aircraft type
- Fokker 100
- 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
- PT-MRK
- Operator
- TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais
- Onboard fatalities
- 95
- Route
- From Hugo Cantergiani Regional Airport (CXJ)To Recife/Guararapes - Gilberto Freyre International Airport (REC)
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402 was a scheduled domestic flight from Caxias do Sul, Brazil, to Recife International Airport in Recife, via São Paulo–Congonhas International Airport and Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro. On 31 October 1996, at 08:27 (UTC-2), the thrust reverser was accidentally deployed on the starboard engine of the Fokker 100 operating the route while the aircraft was climbing away from runway 17R at Congonhas. The aircraft stalled and rolled beyond control to the right, then struck two buildings and crashed into several houses in a heavily populated area only 25 seconds after takeoff. All 95 people on board were killed, as well as another 4 on the ground. It is the fourth deadliest accident in Brazilian aviation history, the second at the time. It is also the deadliest aviation accident involving a Fokker 100.
Accident
The safety system cable, responsible for pulling the power lever to the idle position, was no longer able to withstand the physical strain of being pulled one way by the actuator, while the copilot forced it the other way by pushing the throttle lever to the fully open position — the cable soon parted at a maintenance connection. With the lever no longer restrained by the safety system, the copilot continued to hold the right throttle fully open. The combination of the right engine at full thrust in reverse and the left engine still at normal forward take-off thrust caused the aircraft to roll violently to the right and descend into the ground.
Text from the Wikipedia article “TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402” (revision 1367071780, 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: TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402
- Revision
- 1367071780 · 2026-07-31 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q3177188
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA97WA004
- Event ID
- 20001208X06865
- Case number
- DCA97WA004
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402" (page 8101933, revision 1367071780); merged with NTSB case DCA97WA004 (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 DCA97WA004
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Reviewed (2026-09-19): Aviation Safety Network (95 of 95 occupants + 4 other fatalities); FAA Lessons Learned PT-MRK page agrees (89 passengers + 6 crew + 4 on ground), https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19961031-0
- Ground fatalities
- Reviewed (2026-09-19): Aviation Safety Network (95 of 95 occupants + 4 other fatalities); FAA Lessons Learned PT-MRK page agrees (89 passengers + 6 crew + 4 on ground), https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19961031-0
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402" and NTSB case DCA97WA004, 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.
- Death toll settled: the NTSB record (DCA97WA004) gives 97 and the Wikipedia article 99; Aviation Safety Network (95 of 95 occupants + 4 other fatalities); FAA Lessons Learned PT-MRK page agrees (89 passengers + 6 crew + 4 on ground) gives 99. The NTSB's 97 does not match either split (95 aboard + 4 on the ground). It looks like a notification figure with an incomplete or wrong ground count. The CENIPA final report was behind a bot check and could not be read.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.