San José - Managua - Tegucigalpa - Houston

On October 21, 1989 at 07:53 AM, San José - Managua - Tegucigalpa - Houston experienced a crash involving Boeing 727-200, operated by TAN Airlines - Transportes Aéreos Nacionales de Honduras, with the event recorded near Tegucigalpa-Toncontin Francisco Morazán.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

146 people were known to be on board, 131 fatalities were recorded, 15 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 89.7%.

Crew on board: 8, crew fatalities: 4, passengers on board: 138, passenger fatalities: 127, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. Following an uneventful flight from Managua, the crew started a night descent to Tegucigalpa-Toncontin Airport. The standard approach to runway 01 consisted of a three-steps descent from the initial approach fix altitude of 7,500 feet. For unknown reasons, the crew failed to follow this procedure and started the descent prematurely and with a constant descent profile from a distance of 11 nm from the airport. This caused the aircraft to descend below the glide when, at an altitude of 4,000 feet, it struck the slope of Cerro de Hula (4,800 feet high) located 7,7 km short of runway 01. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and 15 people, including four crew members, were rescued while 131 other occupants were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration N88705, MSN 19514, year of manufacture 1968.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 14.0522°, -87.2381°.