VASP Flight 168


VASP Flight 168, a Boeing 727-212 registered PP-SRK, was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from São Paulo to Fortaleza, Brazil which, on June 8, 1982, crashed into a mountainside, while descending into Fortaleza, killing all 137 people on board.
The crash of Flight 168 remains both the largest death toll of a Brazilian aircraft accident from the 20th century and the third-highest death toll of any aviation accident in Brazil after Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 and TAM Airlines Flight 3054.

Passengers and crew

Flight 168 carried 128 passengers and 9 crew members. Captain Fernando Antônio Vieira de Paiva, age 43, had spent over 15,000 hours in the air. First officer Carlos Roberto Duarte Barbosa, age 28, had logged over 5,000 hours. Engineer José Erimar de Freitas, age 31, had accumulated only 279 hours in the air since his qualification as a flight engineer in 1979, though he had been with VASP since 1971 as an aircraft engineer.
Notably, the passengers included Brazilian business magnate Edson Queiroz, whose self-titled conglomerate had pioneered the nation's shift from wood-burning stoves to gas stoves. Queiroz had originally purchased a ticket for a VARIG flight the following morning, but, uncertain it would arrive in time for an early meeting in Fortaleza, exchanged it for a seat on VASP Flight 168 shortly before takeoff.

Accident

Flight 168's first leg was from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro, which was completed uneventfully. The flight then departed Rio de Janeiro for Fortaleza. As the flight approached its destination, it was cleared to descend from its cruising altitude of flight level 330 – approximately mean sea level – to. Flying at night, with the lights of the city of Fortaleza in front, the Boeing 727 descended through its clearance limit, and kept descending until it crashed into a mountainside at, killing all 137 on board.

Investigation

The investigation revealed that the captain, possibly disoriented due to bright lights from the city ahead, continued the descent well below the clearance limit, despite being warned twice by the ground proximity warning system and the co-pilot of the terrain ahead. As the aircraft kept descending, it struck a wooded mountainside at and crashed.