San Juan - Basseterre

On July 22, 1986 at 01:53 PM, San Juan - Basseterre experienced a crash involving Douglas DC-3, operated by Borinquen Air, with the event recorded near San Juan-Luis Muñoz Marín (Isla Verde) All Puerto Rico.

The flight was categorized as cargo and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a lake, sea, ocean, river crash site.

2 people were known to be on board, 1 fatalities were recorded, 1 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 50.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 1, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft's climb performance began to deteriorate and the right engine started to overheat. Subsequently, the right engine was feathered and the crew attempted to return to the airport. The radio transmitter became unintelligible, so the tower personnel cleared the aircraft to land on runway 10 and asked the crew to key their mike twice, if they understood. The mike waskeyed twice. The aircraft entered a right downwind for runway 10 at a very low altitude. According to witnesses, the aircraft went into a steep bank as it was turning onto a base leg over water, the right wing tip hit the water and the aircraft cartwheeled and crashed. The copilot reported that after feathering the right engine, the vmc of 84 kts was maintained; however, he believed the aircraft stalled just prior to impact. A teardown of the right engine revealed the edge of the #8 piston and its piston rings had failed. Metal filings were found in the oil and the oil pump was scored. There was evidence of oil starvation to the crankshaft journal, as well as piston slap associated with the ring failure.

Aircraft reference details include registration N27PR, MSN 11776, year of manufacture 1943.