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SATENA Fokker F28 accident

28 Mar 1985 · 15 km north of Florencia Airport, Colombia

Fokker F-28-3000C and Unknown · Controlled flight into terrain

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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
46 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
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
Unknown
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

Aircraft 1 · Fokker F-28-3000C

Aircraft type
Fokker F-28
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
FAC-1140
Operator
Satena
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From El Dorado International Airport (BOG)To Gustavo Artunduaga Paredes Airport (FLA)

Aircraft 2 · Unknown

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
Unknown
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded

Cause areas

  • Personnel issues › Action/decision

From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.

Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.

From the Wikipedia article

In the SATENA Fokker F28 accident, on 28 March 1985 a Fokker F28-3000C of the Colombian airline SATENA crashed on a domestic scheduled flight during the approach to Florencia Airport. All 46 people on board were killed in the accident.

Accident sequence

When the aircraft was on the last leg of the flight, the pilots were informed by air traffic control in Florencia that the weather conditions at the airport were below the weather minima due to rain and dense fog and that it would therefore be closed. Regardless of this, the pilots decided to attempt an approach and initiated a descent. The last radio contact took place at 09:40, at which time the aircraft was at an altitude of 3,600 feet (approx. 1,100 metres). On final approach, at 09:50 and about 15 kilometres north of the airport, the aircraft collided with a cloud-shrouded mountain. The Fokker was completely destroyed in the impact, and all 46 occupants were killed.

Investigation and cause

Cause

The type of accident was a controlled flight into terrain, caused by the cockpit crew's attempt to carry out an approach below the weather minima.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Fokker F28 der SATENA” (revision 203502700, 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 Fokker F28 der SATENA
Article
Flugunfall einer Fokker F28 der SATENA
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
203502700 · 2020-09-08 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q97138227
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 Fokker F28 der SATENA" (page 11291506, revision 203502700), translated into English with AI assistance
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
none
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: total_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.