Aires Flight 8250 crash
 

Wow! Missed this somehow until a couple hours ago:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/...ry?id=11416690

Considering the plane broke into 3 pieces, it's pretty amazing there was only one death and that was due to a heart attack.

That might have given me a heart attack, too.

"We have the runway in sight"

"Rodger check wheels down and safe landing"

"Wheels?" ;)

No one has said it yet but I suspect that either the landing gear failed or were never down to begin with.

Alot of lucky pepole on that plane.

The gear was definitely down as this picture will confirm:

http://avherald.com/img/aires_b737_h...d_100816_4.jpg

From what I'm reading, sounds like they are looking at either a microburst, windshear or downdraft that caused it to land short of the runway by about 260 ft. The landing gear and engines where ripped off at the threshold of the runway. Initially, it was also reported that they where struck by lightening but now, one of the pilots says this was not the case.

That link is 403 [forbidden] probably just needs an edit.

That's odd. It comes up okay for me. Try this link:

http://avherald.com/h?article=42fb63a9&opt=0

That link worked but I dont see any definative proof that the gear was actually down and locked.

I do see what appears to be the nose wheel laying on the ground.

Sorry, I guess the point I was trying to make is the main cause of the crash was that the plane landed significantly short of the runway. I really don't think it had anything to do with the gear not being properly deployed. However, I could be wrong but we'll just have to wait for the investigation results.

I'm wondering what caused it to land short of the runway....couldn't be pilot error surely? :hmmm:

Hard to say at this point. Bad wording on my part. I should of said the main cause of what brought the plane to land so short of the runway is probably weather related but may of been due to a stall. Now Colombian authorities are saying the lone death was due to the crash and not a heart attack as first reported.