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LAN Chile Boeing 737 accident

4 Aug 1987 · Calama Airport, Chile

Boeing 737-2A1 · The crash of a LAN Chile Boeing 737 occurred on 4 August 1987

From Andrés Sabella Gálvez International Airport (ANF) to El Loa Airport (CJC)

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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
1 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
32
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
10
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

Boeing 737-2A1

Aircraft type
Boeing 737
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
CC-CHJ
Operator
LAN Chile
Onboard fatalities
1
Route
From Andrés Sabella Gálvez International Airport (ANF)To El Loa Airport (CJC)

Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.

From the Wikipedia article

The crash of a LAN Chile Boeing 737 occurred on 4 August 1987. On a domestic flight of the airline LAN Chile from Antofagasta Airport to Calama Airport, a Boeing 737-2A1 (CC-CHJ) crashed during landing. One person on board was killed in the accident.

Accident sequence

On the landing approach to Calama Airport the aircraft was flying into the sun, which dazzled the captain. When he let the aircraft touch down on the ground, the landing gear collapsed, the fuselage skidded across the ground and broke apart. Of the 33 occupants on board, one passenger was killed. Half an hour after the incident a fire broke out, which completely destroyed the aircraft.

Cause of the accident

It emerged that the landing threshold had been displaced by 880 metres because of construction work. The captain was unaware of this, and he touched the aircraft down 520 metres before the displaced runway threshold. While he was landing the aircraft practically blind, he was convinced that he was touching it down on the open part of the runway.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Boeing 737 der LAN Chile” (revision 248006935, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article

Sources

German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall einer Boeing 737 der LAN Chile
Article
Flugunfall einer Boeing 737 der LAN Chile
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
248006935 · 2024-08-24 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q65235437
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
de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall einer Boeing 737 der LAN Chile" (page 10771438, revision 248006935), translated into English with AI assistance
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
operator is an airline according to Wikidata
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.