San Fernando - Rio Gallegos

On October 19, 2015 at 06:40 AM, San Fernando - Rio Gallegos experienced a crash involving Learjet 35, operated by Top Air, with the event recorded near Buenos Aires-San Fernando Buenos Aires City.

The flight was categorized as positioning and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

2 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 2 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

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

The listed crash cause is technical failure. The aircraft departed Buenos Aires-San Fernando Airport on a positioning flight to Río Gallegos, carrying two pilots. During the takeoff roll, the copilot (pilot-in-command) noticed that the left engine N1 reached a value of 101% instead of 95% like the right engine. At that point the aircraft had already traveled 380 metres. As the aircraft started to veer to the right, the copilot decided to abandon the takeoff procedure without informing the captain. The power levers were brought back to idle and the copilot started to brake. After a course of about 980 metres, the right engine N1 value dropped to 30-40% while the left engine remained at 101%. Then the captain took over control, deployed briefly the thrust reverser system when the aircraft departed the runway to the right. While rolling in a grassy area, it struck a drainage ditch located 80 metres from the runway, lost its undercarriage then slid for few dozen metres before coming to rest, bursting into flames. Both pilots evacuated safely while the aircraft was destroyed by a post crash fire.

Aircraft reference details include registration LV-ZSZ, MSN 35A-235, year of manufacture 1979.