LAPA flight 3142

LAPA Flight 3142

The aircraft involved in the accident, in LAPA colours. (1998)
Accident summary
Date	31 August 1999
Summary	Pilot error
Site	Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, Buenos Aires, Argentina 34°33′32″S 58°24′59″W / 34.55889°S 58.41639°W / -34.55889; -58.41639
Passengers	95
Crew	5
Fatalities	65 (2 on ground)
Injuries (non-fatal)	more than 40 (including people on ground)
Survivors	37
Aircraft type	Boeing 737-204C
Operator	LAPA
Registration	LV-WRZ
Flight origin	Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Destination	Ingeniero Ambrosio L.V. Taravella International Airport, Córdoba, Argentina

LAPA Flight 3142 was a scheduled Buenos Aires–Córdoba flight operated by the Argentine airline Líneas Aéreas Privadas Argentinas. The service was operated with a Boeing 737-204C, registration LV-WRZ, that crashed on 31 August 1999 at 20:54 local time while attempting to take off from Aeroparque Jorge Newbery after it failed to get airborne. The crash resulted in 65 fatalities—63 of them occupants of the aircraft—and at least 40 people injured, some of them in serious condition. The death toll makes the accident the second deadliest one in the history of Argentine aviation, behind Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 644.

The plane involved in the accident was a Boeing 737-204C, registration LV-WRZ, production number 20389, line 251, with JT8D-9A engines. It first flew on 14 April 1970, and it was delivered by Boeing to Britannia Airways on 17 April of that year. It was listed in the United Kingdom's registry as G-AXNB.

Almost 20 years later, on 1 February 1990, the plane was sold to the French airline TAT European Airlines, and registered in France as F-GGPB.

Finally, LAPA took possession of the plane on 21 December 1996, and flew it under the Argentine tail number LV-WRZ. At the time of the accident, it had accumulated 67,864 hours of flying time and 41,851 take-offs and landings. The aircraft was 7008927158400000000♠29 years and 139 days old at the time the accident took place.

As the aircraft started the takeoff run, the take-off warning system (TOWS) sounded an alarm in the cockpit, indicating that the aircraft was not correctly configured for the maneuver. The crew ignored the warning and continued the takeoff, not realising that the flaps were not at the required take-off position and were instead fully retracted, thus preventing the aircraft from lifting off. The jet overshot the runway, breaking through the airport's perimeter fence, crossed a road, hitting an automobile, and finally collided with road-construction machinery and a highway median. Fuel spilling over the hot engines and gas leaking from a damaged gas regulation station resulted in a fire that totally destroyed the aircraft.