Mechanical Failure, Diversion Results In Off-Field Excursion

A chartered jetliner carrying over 150 people crash-landed in eastern Bolivia on Friday, when stormy weather forced it to turn away from its destination and try for another airport. All onboard survived.

Photos from local media show a Boeing 727-200, flown by Lloyd Aereo Boliviano airline (LAB), in a flooded forest clearing with at least one wing sheared off and a set of landing gear in the water nearby, according to The Associated Press.

The 727 took off from La Paz, the Bolivian capital, but reportedly encountered fierce storms enroute to the northern city of Cobija. It then diverted some 370 miles south to the eastern lowland city of Trinidad, and was just three miles short of the runway when it experienced an unspecified mechanical failure.

Bolivian senator Paolo Bravo was on board. "We noticed the engines went out, and there was this calm," Bravo told the radio network Erbol. "Then they told us, ‘Crash positions! Crash positions!’ and it was just another two or three seconds before we hit."

"I think you could call it a belly flop," Bravo added. "The plane fell, the wings broke off, but the fuselage was okay."

The flight's original departure from La Paz was delayed for an hour due to unspecified technical problems, said spokesman Abdon Porcel of the Superintendent of Transportion, a non-governmental agency demanding an investigation into the crash.

Airline spokesman Gustavo Viscarra said the cause was still under investigation. "It was the decision of the pilot to make a forced landing."

The flight engineer indicated the plane had only a 154 seats, but was carrying 159 passengers, along with nine crew members. Most of the passengers were taken to a nearby hospital for review, and several were injured.

LAB was privatized in 1996, and has debt and bankruptcy problems in the last few years. It currently runs a skeleton fleet of just two aircraft on a charter basis.

The airline was operating this 727 as a charter for Transporte Aereo Militar (TAM), another small Bolivian airline. TAM chartered the LAB flights to carry overflow passengers during the heavy Bolivian rainy season that has washed out many of the country’s roads.

FMI: www.boliviaweb.com/gov.htm