AIRES Flight 8250 was a domestic passenger flight in Colombia carrying 125 passengers along with 6 crew members from the capital city of Bogota to the island of San Andres. Taking off just after midnight on August 16, 2010, flight 8250 was on final approach when it crashed just short of the runway in rapidly deteriorating weather conditions.
The investigation into the crash focused on the captain Wilson Gutierrez and first officer Camilo Rodriguez’s actions and the poor weather conditions. If they had been taken by surprise by the intensity of the weather system they were flying through, the pilots could have made errors during their approach. The investigators turned towards the flight data recorders for more information. The data revealed the plane was descending too fast and coming in too low, mistakes made by the captain. As the team dug further into the captain’s records they found that he had only been flying 737’s for eight months; 12 years before that, he flew turboprops. This was a major breakthrough in the investigation, it explained why the captain opted for the lower approach.
“In turboprops, everything is much easier. It’s a slower plane, it reacts faster, it raises up easily. A turboprop is very forgiving. A jet doesn’t forgive.” – Ever Sabogal, a Colombian Air Force Investigator
The captain, new to the Boeing 737, purposely tried to land it as he would a turboprop: on the runway’s threshold. It’s very risky in a jet but it still didn’t explain why the plane crashed short of the runway. The investigators listen to the cockpit voice recorder and they find something shocking. From the point Captain Gutierrez got a visual on the runway, he did nothing to correct his altitude, even when the first officer gave him warnings. The only explanation for the captain’s actions was the black hole illusion.
The black hole illusion occurs on dark nights when there are no ground lights between the airplane and the runway threshold. The contrast between the lights and total darkness creates an illusion that the runway is closer than it actually is. This leads pilots to try and land the plane too early. That’s why the crew were constantly below the flight path and were never able to make it to the runway.
Lessons Learned
Following the investigation, the Colombian Aeronautical Authority, recommended AIRES airlines revise its procedures for visual landings and strengthen its crew training, especially for pilots transitioning from turboprops to jets. AIRES Flight 8250’s crash serves as a reminder of how various factors can contribute to aviation accidents even when experienced professionals are involved.