September 11, 1990. A plane belonging to the Peruvian company Faucet Peru disappeared near the island of Newfoundland in the Atlantic with 16 people on board and was never found. According to the reconstructions of the accident, a distress message was sent from the plane, telling the pilots that they had run out of fuel and were being forced to ditch.
The dynamics of the accident
That September 11, 1990 the Boeing 727-247 of the company Faucett Peru, chartered by AirMalta for the summer season he returned to Peru from the Mediterranean island. Aboard the plane, which still sported the colors of Air Malta’s livery, were six crew members and ten passengers, including employees and their families, who were returning home. Pilots Eduardo Dongo, Alfredo Saavedra, First Officer Varela and Flight Engineer Ramirez were at the controls of the Boeing on that unfortunate day. Given the long flight ahead, the Boeing managed quite a bit stopovers before arriving in Lima: Milan Malpensa, Keflavik in Iceland, Gander on the Canadian island of Newfoundland and Miami, Florida.
After taking off from Keflavik Airport in Iceland, the plane was en route to Gander, where it was scheduled to land at 1:16 p.m. local time. But the Faucett Peru 727 never made it to the Canadian airport and its tracks were lost in the Canadian skies. L’only communication sent by Boeing was intercepted by Twa Flight 851 and American Airlines Flight 35 flying in the same area as Faucett Peru.
After hearing the message in which Captain Saavedra of Flight 727 stated he was at 10,000 feet and out of fuel, the pilots of both planes, alarmed, broadcast theSOS to air traffic controllers. However, these were unable to contact the Boeing pilots, who stopped responding to communications. The only thing the operators knew was when the plane took off disappeared When she sent out the distress message received from the two US planes, she was about 250 miles south-east of St. John’s, the capital of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, very far off course for Gander.
The searches and the disappearance of the plane
Several hours passed without receiving any news from Faucett Peru Flight 727: the Canadian forces therefore decided to send various means of searching for the plane to the area where the last request came from rescue. Three planes, three helicopters, three Coast Guard vessels, a destroyer and two patrol boats were used in the search. But other than a faint signal picked up by a satellite, there was no sign of the Peruvian Boeing.
The weather and visibility were good at the time the plane went missing, so rescuers hoped the plane could land and the passengers could still be found alive. The search took some time, but in the end the rescue teams had to give up: Faucett Peru Flight 727 was declared distributed and with it its passengers.
The investigations
An investigation was initiated against them mysterious disappearance of the Faucett Peru flight, but from the start there was great confusion as to the number of passengers on board the flight. It was first reported that there were 18 people on board, but Peruvian airline officials later explained that 3 passengers disembarked at the Icelandic stopover. The final report states that there were 16 passengers in total, including a newborn baby and 4 women, all family members of Faucett Peru employees.
During the investigations it was also claimed that this type of aircraft was not suitable for handling such a long flight, so the voyage involved several stopovers for refueling. Although the pilots of Flight 727 claimed in their final message that they were out of fuel, Lily Abbass, spokeswoman for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, stated in the final report that the plane had strayed hundreds of miles from the established route, straying and eventually sink into the icy waters of the island of Newfoundland.