Faucett Flight 251

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Faucett Flight 251 was a flight that crashed on March 1, 1996 (February 29, 1996 at Peruvian time) at Arequipa, Peru. The airplane was a Boeing 737-222, with the registration OB-1451, built in 1968. All 123 people on board died in the accident: 2 Canadians, 42 Chileans, 3 Belgians, 2 Bolivians, 1 Brazilian, 1 Argentinian and 72 Peruvians.

The accident was a controlled flight into terrain: the aircraft crashed into terrain while attempting to land. The crew had been issued an outdated altimeter setting after bypassing an ILS signal, which made it fly 1000 ft. under the real reading. The flight crew believed that the plane was flying at 9500 feet, while in fact they were flying at 8644 feet. The elevation of the airfield (Rodriguez Ballon Airport) at its intended destination is 8404 feet.

Contributing factors to the accident were the darkness of the hour (2025 local tim) and the heavy fog spread over the mountains at the time of landing.

While on a VOR/DME approach to Runway 09 at Rodriguez Ballon Airport, the aircraft crashed into the hills in the middle of its flight path at 8015 feet. The aft section broke on impact and the main fuselage section actually carried over the initial ridge and and impacted near the top of the second one. The tail section fell to an arroyo between the two ridges.

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