TABA Flight 800

TABA Flight 800 (flight number: T2 800) was a domestic flight of the Brazilian airline Transportes Aéreos da Bacia Amazônica (TABA) from Belém to Cuiabá with stopovers in Altamira, Santarém, Itaituba and Alta Foresta. On 6 June 1990 a Fairchild-Hiller FH-227B crashed on this flight after a pilot flew the aircraft into terrain shortly before landing. 22 of the 42 people on board were killed in the incident. As later emerged, the captain was sleep-deprived because he had not used his rest period before the flight for sleep to the required extent.

Accident sequence

The aircraft took off from Belém while it was still dark in the early morning hours of 6 June. During the approach to Altamira, where the first stopover was planned, night flight conditions prevailed. The pilots carried out an instrument approach to runway 07, knowing that they had to fly through a fog bank on the way. It was common practice for the pilots to conduct such approaches under visual flight rules. The pilots flew into the fog bank and expected that they would get through it before the runway threshold. For this reason the captain abandoned the instrument approach and switched to visual flight. On the approach to the runway the pilots flew a traffic circuit and informed air traffic control that they had extended the landing gear. Shortly afterwards the aircraft descended below the minimum altitude. It collided with trees and crashed to the ground 850 metres short of the runway. Of the 42 people on board, 22 died.