Aeronica accident in Greenland
Fokker F27-100 · The Aeronica accident in Greenland occurred on 20 April 1985
From Sanaa International Airport (SAH) to Sondrestrom Air Base, Greenland
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
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 3
- 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
- 3
- 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
Fokker F27-100
- Aircraft type
- Fokker F27
- 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
- YN-BZF
- Operator
- Aeronica
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From Sanaa International Airport (SAH)To Sondrestrom Air Base, Greenland
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Organizational issues › Development
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The Aeronica accident in Greenland occurred on 20 April 1985. On that day a Fokker F27-100 of the Nicaraguan airline Aeronica with five crew members on board, which was being flown on an intercontinental ferry flight, collided with the Greenland ice sheet. Two of the five crew members were killed in the accident.
Accident sequence
The aircraft had been acquired by Aeronica and was on a ferry flight from North Yemen to Nicaragua. To increase the range of the short-haul aircraft being ferried, two additional fuel tanks with a capacity of 200 gallons had been installed in the cabin. On 11 April 1985 the aircraft was flown from Sanaa via Jeddah and Cairo to Athens. The ferry flight was continued from 19 April 1985, with the aircraft being flown from Athens via Genoa to Glasgow.
On 20 April 1985 the flight was continued from Glasgow via Stornoway to Reykjavík, where the aircraft arrived at 15:48. Since the crew had been unable to draw fuel from the additional tank system on the previous leg, they checked the system during the stay in Reykjavík and found that the system was functional. An additional check was carried out by experienced Icelandic ground engineers. In the opinion of the ground engineers, the auxiliary fuel system looked "not very professional", and the men "had the feeling that the crew did not know how to operate it". The ground engineers once again explained to the Fokker's crew how the additional tank system worked and carried out a test run of it in ground operation in order to check the functionality of the tank system.
After receiving the weather information and takeoff clearance from air traffic control, the aircraft took off at 17:21 bound for Sondrestrom Air Base (today's Kangerlussuaq Airport). At 18:32 the pilot in command transmitted a message to Icelandic air traffic control. In it he asked the controller on duty to pass on the crew's thanks to the Icelandic ground technicians. He stated that the additional tank system was working properly. At 19:35 Kulusuk was overflown. During the flight from Iceland to Greenland the crew reported that problems drawing fuel from the additional tank system had occurred again. At 19:50, approximately 50 nautical miles west of Kulusuk, the crew reported fuel problems to the BIG GUN radar station. The pilots had found that transferring the fuel from the additional tank system did not work after all. Since the available fuel reserves were reduced by this problem, the pilots decided to return to Kulusuk Airport. Since the weather conditions had deteriorated considerably in the meantime, the pilots could not find the airport. The aircraft then turned back west in order to make an emergency landing at the SOB STORY radar station. On the approach, 50 kilometres east of the radar station, control of the aircraft was lost, and the Fokker then collided with the Greenland ice sheet, on which it was to make the emergency landing.
Investigation and cause
Causes
The investigation of the incident conducted by the Danish air accident investigation authority found that the crew was properly certified for the flight. According to the crew, the aircraft assemblies functioned normally with the exception of the flight data recorder and the electrical de-icing system for the right cockpit windscreen, which was also confirmed by the on-site investigation. The additional tank system did not function properly. The cause of this could not be conclusively determined. The crew had not carried out a proper in-flight functional check of the auxiliary fuel system to ensure it was available before using it. The investigators were of the opinion that the procedures laid down for the ferry flight had played a significant role in the accident. The poor visibility during the night-time approach and the lack of visual reference points in the unpopulated area along the route, and the resulting difficulty for the aircraft's crew in assessing the nature of the terrain, were identified as contributing factors. In this context, the difficult weather conditions in the region had also played a significant role.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Aeronica auf Grönland” (revision 239697459, 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 der Aeronica auf Grönland
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 239697459 · 2023-12-03 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q98081387
- 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 der Aeronica auf Grönland" (page 11387652, revision 239697459), 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
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A Nicaraguan airline's newly acquired aircraft on a delivery ferry flight: an airline's own ferry flight. The article: "a Fokker F27-100 of the Nicaraguan airline Aeronica with five crew members on board, which was being flown on an intercontinental ferry flight"
- 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.