Atlantic Airlines Flight 870
Let L-410UVP-E · Loss of control due to incorrect weight distribution
From La Aurora International Airport (GUA) to Ramón Villeda Morales Airport, San Pedro Sula, Honduras
Event
- NTSB case
- WAS01RA026
- 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
- 8 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 5
- 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
- 5 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
- Not recorded
Let L-410UVP-E
- 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
- TG-CFE
- Operator
- Atlantic Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 8
- Route
- From La Aurora International Airport (GUA)To Ramón Villeda Morales Airport, San Pedro Sula, Honduras
- 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
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
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
Atlantic Airlines Flight 870 was an international scheduled flight of the Guatemalan airline Atlantic Airlines from Guatemala City to San Pedro Sula in Honduras. On 18 September 2001 a Let L-410UVP-E crashed on this flight, killing eight people on board.
Accident sequence
The pilots received clearance to take off from runway 01 of La Aurora Airport in Guatemala City. After take-off the aircraft climbed to a height of about 200 feet when it suddenly rolled to the right and then back to the left. Shortly afterwards it stalled and the aircraft crashed to the ground.
Investigation and cause
Cause
It turned out that the distribution of the passengers in the cabin, and therefore of the weight, was incorrect. This resulted in the centre of gravity being outside the tolerance range, so that the aircraft became uncontrollable on take-off. In addition, the aircraft's first officer did not hold a type rating for the Let L-410 aircraft type at all.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Atlantic-Airlines-Flug 870” (revision 198866721, 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: Atlantic-Airlines-Flug 870
- Article
- Atlantic-Airlines-Flug 870
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 198866721 · 2020-04-14 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q92555342
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record WAS01RA026
- Event ID
- 20010925X01989
- Case number
- WAS01RA026
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Atlantic-Airlines-Flug 870" (page 11248960, revision 198866721), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case WAS01RA026 (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 WAS01RA026
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Atlantic Airlines Flight 870" and NTSB case WAS01RA026, 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.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.