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Línea Turística Aereotuy Cessna 208 Caravan crash

17 Apr 2009 · Unknown location

Linea Turistica Aereotuy Cessna 208 Caravan · Pilot error and adverse weather conditions

From Canaima Airport (CAJ) to General Tomas de Heres Airport (CBL)

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Event

NTSB case
ERA09WA253
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
1 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
12
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
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Visual Meteorological Cond

Cessna 208 Caravan

Aircraft type
Cessna 208
Category
Airplane
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
YV-1181
Onboard fatalities
1
Route
From Canaima Airport (CAJ)To General Tomas de Heres Airport (CBL)
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
Takeoff
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
Collision during takeoff/landing
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
  • Personnel issues › Action/decision
  • Personnel issues › Psychological
  • Environmental issues › Operating environment
  • Organizational issues › Support/oversight/monitoring

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

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

From the Wikipedia article

It was a tourist passenger flight, from Canaima National Park Airport, to Tomás de Heres National Airport; the flight crashed into an embankment at the end of the airport; sadly a child died in the accident and 10 passengers were injured.

Accident

The flight was to take off from Canaima National Park Airport, towards Tomás de Heres National Airport; the flight attempted to take off from the airport in severe weather conditions; that day there was strong wind at the airport, but it was not considered a danger to the aircraft; minutes after carrying out the pre-takeoff check, the aircraft heads to the beginning of the airport's runway, then the flight begins its run on the runway, but when the pilot tries to lift the aircraft, the flight suddenly banks to the right, striking the runway with the wing; the captain manages to put the aircraft on the runway, but the aircraft keeps banking to the right; the captain tries to decelerate, until he finally manages it, but the flight runs off the runway and strikes an embankment at the end of the airport.

Investigation and cause

Investigation

The investigators of the Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Board (JIAAC) gave the conclusion on the accident

"The accident occurred as a consequence of the aircraft's inability to carry out an effective takeoff; the aircraft was affected by the tailwind, and the large pools of water that covered part of the runway were a factor that was contributory to the tailwind, and that did not allow the aircraft to accelerate, impacting against the terrain.

It is considered that the most probable cause of the accident was poor management by the crew in command, in the sense of not having carried out the proper planning and analysis, combined with overconfidence and the failure to identify the existing conditions, potentially dangerous at that moment for carrying out the takeoff.

Based on the investigations carried out, we can summarise that there were various causes that contributed to the occurrence of this accident. In this order, we can list the following:

Adverse weather conditions and tailwind associated with the phenomenon.

Erroneous management by the crew in using only the last third of the runway in the prevailing weather conditions at that moment.

Failure of the aerodrome administration to identify and correct deficient runway drainage.

Absence of the Aeronautical Authority for the oversight of operational safety.

Disregard by the crew in command as a whole of the concatenated way in which the factors involved in this event presented themselves.

After all the analysis carried out on the different causes involved in this accident, we can identify the Human Factor as the main Causal Factor, due to the inadequate management of the flight crew in carrying out the takeoff in those conditions.

The physical and material Factor includes everything related to the prevailing weather conditions, the runway conditions and the absence of services provided at the aerodrome by the Aeronautical Authority; all of them are considered contributing factors.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the Spanish Wikipedia article “Accidente aéreo del Cessna 208 Caravan de Línea Turística Aereotuy” (revision 171644235, 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

Spanish Wikipedia article: Accidente aéreo del Cessna 208 Caravan de Línea Turística Aereotuy
Article
Accidente aéreo del Cessna 208 Caravan de Línea Turística Aereotuy
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
171644235 · 2026-01-21 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q112823384
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ERA09WA253
Event ID
20090420X32315
Case number
ERA09WA253
Dataset
full-current
Source SHA-256
5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
Record
es Wikipedia article "Accidente aéreo del Cessna 208 Caravan de Línea Turística Aereotuy" (page 10275215, revision 171644235), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case ERA09WA253 (events / aircraft)
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record ERA09WA253
Map position
NTSB record ERA09WA253: events decimal coordinates
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 ERA09WA253
Operation
operator is an airline according to Wikidata
Fatalities
Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
  • One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Línea Turística Aereotuy Cessna 208 Caravan crash" and NTSB case ERA09WA253, 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.