Puerto Plata - Gander - Berlin - Frankfurt

On February 6, 1996 at 11:47 PM, Puerto Plata - Gander - Berlin - Frankfurt experienced a crash involving Boeing 757-200, operated by Birgenair, with the event recorded near Puerto Plata Puerto Plata.

The flight was categorized as charter/taxi (non scheduled revenue flight) and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a lake, sea, ocean, river crash site.

189 people were known to be on board, 189 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 13, crew fatalities: 13, passengers on board: 176, passenger fatalities: 176, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. On behalf of Alas Nacionales, the aircraft was completing a charter flight from Puerto Plata to Frankfurt with intermediate stops in Gander and Berlin, carrying 176 Germans and 13 Turkish crew members. During the takeoff roll, at a speed of 80 knots, the captain noted that his air speed indicator (ASI) seemed to be incorrect while the copilot's ASI seemed to be correct. During initial climb, at an altitude of about 4,700 feet, the captain's ASI read 350 knots while the real speed was 220 knots. This resulted in an autopilot/autothrottle reaction to increase the pitch-up attitude and a power reduction in order to lower the airspeed. At that time the crew got 'Rudder ratio' and 'Mach airspeed' advisory warnings. Both pilots got confused when the copilot stated that his ASI read 200 knots decreasing while getting an excessive speed warning, followed by a stick shaker warning. This led the pilots to believe that both ASIs were unreliable. Finally realizing that they were losing speed and altitude they disconnected the autopilot. The autopilot, fed by the captain's faulty ASI, had reduced the speed close to the stall speed. Full thrust was then applied. At 23:47:17 an aural GPWS warning sounded and eight seconds later, the aircraft crashed in the ocean. All 189 occupants were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration TC-GEN, MSN 22206, year of manufacture 1983.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 19.7446°, -70.4178°.