Aerotransporte Petrolero Swearingen Metro accident
Fairchild Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II · Loss of control on final approach after a stall
From El Dorado International Airport (BOG) to Apartadó Airport, Colombia
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
- 5 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 2
- 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
- Unknown
Fairchild Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild Swearingen SA226
- 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
- HK-4275X
- Operator
- Aerotransporte Petrolero
- Onboard fatalities
- 5
- Route
- From El Dorado International Airport (BOG)To Apartadó Airport, Colombia
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
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 2004 accident of an Aerotransporte Petrolero Swearingen Metro, on 5 May 2004 a Fairchild Swearingen Metro on a flight from Bogotá Airport to Apartadó/Carepa Airport crashed shortly before landing, killing five of the seven occupants on board.
Accident sequence
After a routine flight from Bogotá to Apartadó/Carepa, the pilots were on approach to the destination airport. The first officer was flying the aircraft at that time. On final approach the captain took over control of the Metro and continued the descent, although seven warnings from the Ground Proximity Warning System sounded one after the other. For reasons that could not later be determined, the captain did not intervene to correct this. The aircraft descended below the minimum safe altitude. At a height of 200 feet an engine problem was indicated to the pilots; nevertheless the captain did not fly the aircraft while maintaining the parameters prescribed for flight with only one operating engine. The stick pusher activated and warned the pilots of an imminent stall. The captain took no action to prevent it. Eventually the stall did occur, while the aircraft was on final approach with the landing gear extended and the high-lift devices deployed. The aircraft crashed to the ground 300 feet (approx. 91 metres) short of the threshold of runway 33, killing five of the seven occupants, including both pilots and three of the five passengers.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The investigators concluded that the approach had been conducted with a lack of discipline and poor crew resource management. The pilots had misjudged a number of factors on final approach, such as distance, speed, altitude and minimum safe altitude. The pilots had lacked the necessary situational awareness. They had not adhered to learned procedures and operating regulations. The aircraft had been flown in conditions that exceeded the flying skills of the two pilots. One engine had failed. It was criticised that the pilots undertook no avoidance manoeuvres whatsoever when the Ground Proximity Warning System activated. In addition, the stall avoidance system for preventing stalls had activated at low altitude and pushed the aircraft's nose down at a critical moment.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Swearingen Metro der Aerotransporte Petrolero” (revision 262462572, 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 Swearingen Metro der Aerotransporte Petrolero
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 262462572 · 2025-12-16 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q110966664
- 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 Swearingen Metro der Aerotransporte Petrolero" (page 12056621, revision 262462572), 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
- not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
- 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.