Sky Airline Flight 101
Boeing 737 · Spatial disorientation and pilot error
From Andrés Sabella Gálvez International Airport (ANF) to Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA12WA121
- 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
- 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
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 121
- 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
- 0
- 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
- Not recorded
Boeing 737
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- 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-CRQ
- Operator
- Sky Airline
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From Andrés Sabella Gálvez International Airport (ANF)To Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- 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 · Estimated position: La Serena, Chile, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
Sky Airline Flight 101 was a flight operated from the city of Antofagasta to the city of La Serena on 18 July 2012, which was involved in a serious incident, without fatalities.
Incident
Flight 101, a Boeing 737-200, took off from Cerro Moreno Airport at 16:00 local time. When it was making its final approach to runway 30 of La Serena Airport (Chile), the pilots made corrections to line up with the runway and for a moment lost visual contact with it at less than 500 feet above it due to glare from the sun, which caused them spatial disorientation, causing the right wingtip to strike the runway, causing it considerable damage. The captain, on noticing the pronounced bank angle to the right, performed the go-around manoeuvre, but due to the high flap configuration and the pronounced angle of attack, the stick shaker (which indicates a stall) sounded in the cockpit for a few seconds. After a few moments the pilots regained full control of the aircraft and managed to level it, landing at Desierto de Atacama Airport in Copiapó.
Investigation and cause
Cause
After the incident, the corresponding investigation was carried out by the DGAC, taking statements from both pilots and from the crew of Sky Airline Flight 101, in addition to analysing the black boxes. On 10 January 2013 the investigation was concluded, classifying the incident as errors by both pilots, for failing to comply with the procedures established for a visual approach set out in the Airplane Flight Manual, in addition to the error by the crew in not carrying out the Go-Around procedure in time, even while approaching in an unstabilised manner, which caused the right wingtip to strike the runway. As a consequence of this event, the company carried out a thorough restructuring of its operations area and accelerated its fleet renewal plan.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Spanish Wikipedia article “Vuelo 101 de Sky Airline” (revision 156423314, 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 July 18, 2012, a Sky Airline Boeing 737-200, registration CC-CRQ, struck its right wingtip during a visual approach to runway 30 at La Florida Airport, La Serena, Chile. There were no injuries to any of the 120 passengers and crew onboard but the airplane was substantially damaged.
The investigation is being conducted by the Chile Directorate General of Civil Aeronautics, Accident Investigation Section. The NTSB has assigned an Accredited Representative to assist the investigation under the provisions of ICAO Annex 13 as the Country of Manufacture and Design of the airplane.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Spanish Wikipedia article: Vuelo 101 de Sky Airline
- Article
- Vuelo 101 de Sky Airline
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 156423314 · 2023-12-27 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q18603229
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA12WA121
- Event ID
- 20120808X23954
- Case number
- DCA12WA121
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- es Wikipedia article "Vuelo 101 de Sky Airline" (page 6504928, revision 156423314), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case DCA12WA121 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: 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); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA12WA121
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- 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 "Sky Airline Flight 101" and NTSB case DCA12WA121, 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.