American Airlines Flight 965
An American Airlines Boeing 757-223 similar to the one involved in the crash
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| Accident summary | |
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| Date | December 20, 1995 |
| Summary | Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error |
| Site | near Buga, Valle del Cauca, Colombia 3°50′45.2″N 76°06′17.1″W / 3.845889°N 76.104750°WCoordinates: 3°50′45.2″N 76°06′17.1″W / 3.845889°N 76.104750°W |
| Passengers | 163 |
| Crew | 8 |
| Fatalities | 159 (1 at hospital) |
| Injuries (non-fatal) | 4 |
| Survivors | 4 (initially 5) |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 757-223 |
| Operator | American Airlines |
| Registration | N651AA |
| Flight origin | Miami International Airport, Miami, Florida, United States |
| Destination | Alfonso Bonilla Aragón Int'l Airport, Cali, Colombia |
 Pre-crash photo taken from Airliners.net
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American Airlines Flight 965 was a regularly scheduled flight from Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Cali, Colombia. On December 20, 1995, the Boeing 757-200 flying this route (registration N651AA) crashed into a mountain in Buga, Colombia, killing 151 passengers and eight crew members. The crash was the first U.S.-owned 757 accident and the highest death toll of any accident in Colombia. It is also the highest death toll of any accident involving a Boeing 757 at that time. It was surpassed by Birgenair Flight 301 which crashed in 1996 with 189 fatalities. Flight 965 was the deadliest air disaster involving a U.S. carrier since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. Five passengers, all seated within two rows of each other, survived the initial impact, but one died two days later of his injuries.
The Colombian Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics investigated the accident and determined it was caused by navigational errors by the flight crew.
The aircraft was a Boeing 757-223 registered N651AA. Its first flight was on August 12, 1991, and was the 390th Boeing 757 built. The aircraft was powered by two Rolls-Royce RB211 engines.
At that time, Flight 965 mainly carried people returning to Colombia for the Christmas holiday, vacationers and businesspeople. A winter storm in the northeast United States caused the airline to delay the departure of the airliner for thirty minutes to allow for connecting passengers to board the flight, so Flight 965 pushed back from the gate in Miami at 5:14 pm, and then taxied to runway 27R, but seasonal congestion caused the Boeing 757 to take off two hours late. Some other passengers booked on Flight 965 missed the flight due to missed connections.
The cockpit crew consisted of Captain Nicholas Tafuri, 57, and First Officer Donald Williams, 39. Both pilots were considered to be highly skilled airmen. Tafuri had more than 13,000 hours of flying experience and Williams had almost 6,000 hours. The cabin crew consisted of Purser Pedro Pablo Calle and Flight Attendants Magdalena Borrero, Rosa Cabrejo, Teresa Delgado, Gilberto Restrepo, and Margaret "Maggie" Villalobos. All cabin crew personnel were born in Colombia and were veterans from Braniff International Airways who had moved to Eastern Air Lines and then to American Airlines, when the routes were transferred from one airline to the other. They had voluntarily chosen the flight, as a prerogative awarded by seniority, to spend Christmas time with their families in Bogotá.
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Wikipedia