Peñalolén air tragedy
Carabineros Air Club Cessna 210 Centurion · Mechanical failure and pilot error
From Tobalaba Aerodrome to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC08WA114
- 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
- 13 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 7
- 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
- 17
- 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
- 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 210 Centurion
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 210
- 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
- CC-KKU
- Operator
- Carabineros Air Club
- Onboard fatalities
- 6
- Route
- From Tobalaba AerodromeTo not recorded
- 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., Non-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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
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 Peñalolén air tragedy was an aviation accident that occurred in Chile on 27 February 2008, in which a Cessna 210 training light aircraft of the Carabineros de Chile fell onto a multi-sport court in the commune of Peñalolén, leaving a toll of 13 people dead and about ten injured.
Accident
One minute after take-off, in the initial climb phase heading south, the aircraft turned to the left, when at 9:46 (12:46:56 UTC) it plunged onto the Peñalolén Municipal Stadium, at a time when a group of approximately 30 women of various ages was doing gymnastics at the venue, triggering the worst air tragedy of the last thirty years in the city of Santiago.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The investigation by the Directorate General of Civil Aeronautics (D.G.A.C) determined mechanical and human causes in the accident, the first being a failure in the magneto system that supplies energy to the spark plugs, leading to an engine failure, an event that happened about 3 minutes after take-off from Tobalaba. Added to this, it sets out the poor manoeuvre of the pilot who, faced with a lack of power, tried to keep climbing and ultimately decided to turn back to the runway, which led to a stall and to loss of control of the aircraft with the subsequent collision.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Spanish Wikipedia article “Tragedia aérea de Peñalolén” (revision 159811937, 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
NTSB narrative
On February 27, 2008, at 0948 Chilean standard time, a Cessna 210M, Chilean registration CC-KKU, operated by Club Aereo de Personal de Carabineros, was destroyed during a forced landing in the Penalolen Municipal Stadium, in the southeast quadrant of Santiago, Chile. Two pilots and four passengers onboard the airplane were fatally injured, as were five people on the ground. Over 20 people on the ground were also seriously injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed. The local instructional flight originated at Eulogio Sanchez (Tobalaba) Airport (SCTB), Santiago, Chile, and was conducted under Chilean flight regulations.
According to Chilean investigators, the airplane took off and departed the airport to the southeast. Approximately 1 minute later, the airplane made a left turn back towards the airport, but could not maintain altitude and impacted an area in the stadium where people had gathered for organized aerobics classes. Upon impact, the airplane burst into flames.
The investigation is under the jurisdiction of the government of Chile. Further information may be obtained from:
Direccion General de Aeronautica Civil Departamento Prevencion de Accidentes Elena Blanco 1050, Providencia Santiago, Chile
Tel: 56-2-4368141 Fax: 56-2-4368142
Email: segvuel@dgac.cl
http://www.dgac.cl/portal/page?_pageid=239,83172&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
This report is for informational purposes only, and only contains information obtained for or released by the government of Chile.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Spanish Wikipedia article: Tragedia aérea de Peñalolén
- Article
- Tragedia aérea de Peñalolén
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 159811937 · 2024-04-30 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q2881984
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record NYC08WA114
- Event ID
- 20080319X00339
- Case number
- NYC08WA114
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- es Wikipedia article "Tragedia aérea de Peñalolén" (page 1537077, revision 159811937), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case NYC08WA114 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: 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); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record NYC08WA114
- Operation
- not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
- Fatalities
- Reviewed (2026-09-19): DGAC Chile accident investigation summary No. 1479 (Mortales: 2 crew, 4 passengers, 7 others), http://www.dgac.gob.cl/portalweb/rest-portalweb/jcr/repository/collaboration/sites%20content/live/dgac/documents/1479.pdf
- Ground fatalities
- Reviewed (2026-09-19): DGAC Chile accident investigation summary No. 1479 (Mortales: 2 crew, 4 passengers, 7 others), http://www.dgac.gob.cl/portalweb/rest-portalweb/jcr/repository/collaboration/sites%20content/live/dgac/documents/1479.pdf
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Peñalolén air tragedy" and NTSB case NYC08WA114, 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.
- Death toll settled: the NTSB record (NYC08WA114) gives 11 and the Wikipedia article 13; DGAC Chile accident investigation summary No. 1479 (Mortales: 2 crew, 4 passengers, 7 others) gives 13. Later deaths. The NTSB's 11 predates the deaths of two injured women on the ground (10 Mar and 25 Mar 2008). The DGAC counts 6 aboard + 7 on the ground. The input's wikipediaAboard of 13 is a parsing error; Wikipedia gives 6 aboard and 7 on the ground.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.