LAN Chile Flight 1069

LAN Chile Flight 1069 was a passenger flight which suffered an accident at Puerto Williams Airport in Chile on February 20, 1991. The regional flight from Punta Arenas Airport, approximately 300 km distant, overran the runway on arrival at Puerto Williams, killing 20 of the 66 passengers. All 6 crew members survived.

Aircraft and crew
The aircraft was an BAe 146-200, registered as CC-CET. The aircraft was 4 years and 6 months old.

The pilot-in-command was Captain Rafael Acchiardo Nissim. He had accumulated over 15,017 hours of flight time, with 782 on the BAe 146. The co-pilot was First Officer Juan Antonio Loyola Román; he had a total of 2,493 flight hours, 637 of them on the BAe 146.

Accident
The flight departed Punta Arenas at 14:51 hours local time with no significant issues. At 15:15, the aircraft was cleared for a VOR A approach into Puerto Williams Airport on runway 26. Wind was given as 180° at 4 kn. Shortly, the air traffic controller announced the updated wind information, and the wind was 160° at 6 kn. Then the captain decided to perform a direct approach to runway 08. This was approved by air traffic control. The airplane touched down 427 m from the runway threshold at a speed of 112 kn. The Vref was 110 kn, with the target touchdown speed of 103 kn. Then, the aircraft overran the runway and slid into the Beagle Channel.

Investigation
The probable cause was found to be a failure of good planning made by the pilot during the approach when he decided to change runway and misapplication of the landing procedure. The weather conditions, negative slope, wet runway, wind and little braking action led to the overrun of the runway.