Cubana de Aviación Flight 9646
A Cubana Il-62M similar to the one involved in the accident is seen here at Berlin Schönefeld Airport in 1990.
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| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 3 September 1989 |
| Summary | Pilot error |
| Site | Havana, Cuba |
| Passengers | 115 |
| Crew | 11 |
| Fatalities | 150 (24 on ground) |
| Injuries (non-fatal) | 0 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Ilyushin Il-62M |
| Operator | Cubana |
| Registration | CU-T1281 |
| Flight origin | José Martí International Airport |
| Stopover | Malpensa Airport |
| Destination | Cologne Bonn Airport |
Cubana de Aviación Flight 9646 refers to a chartered Ilyushin Il-62M, registered CU-T1281 and operated by Cubana, that was due to operate a non-scheduled international Havana–Milan–Cologne passenger service and crashed on 3 September 1989, shortly after takeoff from José Martí International Airport, because of bad weather. All 126 occupants of the aircraft plus 24 people on the ground perished in the accident.
The aircraft took off in heavy rain and winds gusting to in the vicinity of 30–50 miles per hour (48–80 km/h). The crew retracted the flaps from their initial 30° position to 15°, in an attempt to gain speed, but this action reduced the possibility of the aircraft to gain lift. The plane climbed to about 53 metres (174 ft), where it was hit by downdraft currents that caused the airframe to strike the end of the runway, subsequently hitting a navigational facility and a small hill before crashing into a residential area, about a minute after takeoff. All 126 people on board —115 passengers, most of them Italian holidaymakers, and a crew of 11— perished in the accident; another 24 people lost their lives on the ground.
Investigators attributed the crash of Flight 9646 to the pilot's decision to fly after an abrupt deterioration in the meteorological conditions. The pilot underestimated the risks of taking off at the same time misjudging the aircraft's performance in poor weather conditions.
As of October 2013[update], the accident remains the deadliest one to occur on Cuban soil, followed by Aeroflot Flight 331.
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