TAM Linhas Aéreas Flight 3804
LATAM Airlines Brasil Fokker 100 · Fuel exhaustion causing an emergency landing
From São Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU) to Campo Grande Airport (CGR)
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
- Unknown
- Event fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 29
- 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
- 4
- 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 100
- Aircraft type
- Fokker 100
- 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
- PT-MQH
- Operator
- LATAM Airlines Brasil
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From São Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)To Campo Grande Airport (CGR)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Organizational issues › Development
- Aircraft › Fluids/misc hardware
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Birigui, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
TAM Linhas Aéreas Flight 3804 was a scheduled passenger flight that made an emergency landing on a farm in Birigui on 30 August 2002, after running out of fuel. All 29 passengers on board survived and only four suffered minor injuries. The aircraft involved, a Fokker 100, was operating a scheduled TAM Linhas Aéreas flight from Guarulhos Airport, São Paulo, to Campo Grande. The preliminary report found that there had been a failure in a metal pipe between the low- and high-pressure fuel pumps, which had been poorly designed (continuous contact between parts of different metals, steel and aluminium, causing rapid deterioration, accelerated by the formation of alumina/aluminium oxide).
Accident
The flight left São Paulo at 09:48 bound for Campo Grande. At cruising altitude, the crew observed "fuel filter " and "low fuel pressure" warnings for engine number 2. They took action, but shortly afterwards a fuel imbalance situation arose. The aircraft was losing fuel rapidly, so the crew decided to land at Araçatuba Airport; however, both engines stopped due to total fuel exhaustion when the aircraft was still 16 miles from the airport. The crew made an emergency landing on a farm. A cow was struck and the aircraft suffered significant damage. All 29 passengers and crew survived; only 4 suffered minor injuries.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The investigation was carried out by the Aeronautical Accident Investigation and Prevention Division (Dipaa) of the Department of Civil Aviation (DAC), and TAM's engineers concluded that the Fokker 100 that made the forced landing in Birigui had a mechanical failure in one of the fuel supply pipes of the right engine.
According to the Dipaa report, there was no human error in the maintenance of the component, since "all the fastening bolts were found correctly positioned and with the proper torque". The Fokker 100 lost all its fuel less than two hours after take-off. TAM issued a statement saying that the Fokker 100 had been correctly refuelled.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Spanish Wikipedia article “Vuelo 3804 de TAM Linhas Aéreas” (revision 174916947, 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: Vuelo 3804 de TAM Linhas Aéreas
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 174916947 · 2026-08-18 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q48868182
- 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
- es Wikipedia article "Vuelo 3804 de TAM Linhas Aéreas" (page 11122761, revision 174916947), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata 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
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Spanish Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.