Airplane Crash Near Las Américas

CristoRey

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The producer's brother Mr. Manny Hernández had some choice words for the lack luster
assistance he received from the Dominican authorities.
 

Big

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is the attractive lady wearing the Cartier wrist watch the same as the one on the boat. Very nice looking ladies. RIP!
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
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Right now the rumor is that the pilot asked La Isabela to allow an emergency landing and they were denied because La Isabela has no equipments to deal with emergencies. Yes, read that again. !!!! An international airport that can't handle emergencies!!!

Then the pilot asked the same to Las Américas and it was granted, but it needed to wait until an airplane that was on the runway to clear.

The troubled airplane was in the air for about 30 minutes.

This is completely unacceptable.

First, all international airports need to have emergency equipments, more so one owned by the government.

Second, a troubled airplane left in the air for 30 minutes. It would had been very lucky if it didn't crashed, IMO. This tragedy could had been avoided.

What's worst is that a good chunk of the time was spent going in a circle over Santo Domingo knowing the airplane was compromised. Imagine how bigger this tragedy would had been if it crashed into the city. Irresponsible on all sides.
 

BermudaRum

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Right now the rumor is that the pilot asked La Isabela to allow an emergency landing and they were denied because La Isabela has no equipment's to deal with emergencies. Yes, read that again. !!!! An international airport that can't handle emergencies!!!

Then the pilot asked the same to Las Américas and it was granted, but it needed to wait until an airplane that was on the runway to clear

This is completely unacceptable.

First, all international airports need to have emergency equipments, more so one owned by the government.

Second, a troubled airplane left in the air for 30 minutes. It would had been very lucky if it didn't crashed, IMO. This tragedy could had been avoided.

What's worst is that a good chunk of the time was spent going in a circle over Santo Domingo knowing the airplane was compromised. Imagine how bigger this tragedy would had been if it crashed into the city. Irresponsible on all sides.
Aviacionline English Feed 15/12/21

The information captured by FlightRadar24 shows that the aircraft struggled to gain speed and altitude, but it is premature to speculate about possible causes for the accident.

H11050.jpg
H11050a.png
 

windeguy

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Right now the rumor is that the pilot asked La Isabela to allow an emergency landing and they were denied because La Isabela has no equipments to deal with emergencies. Yes, read that again. !!!! An international airport that can't handle emergencies!!!
That explains the question I had on why they took a longer route to land and in the wrong direction from Florida.
Then the pilot asked the same to Las Américas and it was granted, but it needed to wait until an airplane that was on the runway to clear.

The troubled airplane was in the air for about 30 minutes.

This is completely unacceptable.

First, all international airports need to have emergency equipments, more so one owned by the government.

Second, a troubled airplane left in the air for 30 minutes. It would had been very lucky if it didn't crashed, IMO. This tragedy could had been avoided.

What's worst is that a good chunk of the time was spent going in a circle over Santo Domingo knowing the airplane was compromised. Imagine how bigger this tragedy would had been if it crashed into the city. Irresponsible on all sides.
Sounds like the crash could have been avoided if allowed to land immediately. Very bad.
 

El Hijo de Manolo

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That explains the question I had on why they took a longer route to land and in the wrong direction from Florida.

Sounds like the crash could have been avoided if allowed to land immediately. Very bad.
Very bad, very sad. Unfortunately, we live in a place where thinking outside the box, empathy, taking initiative and assuming accountability are not in the genetic repertoire.
 
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NALs

Economist by Profession
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There are other rumors of a possible hydraulic problem. Several things point to this, especially that the airplane always turn to the left. It is said that liquid was coming out of the airplane without control, could had been gasoline. Apparently, if an airplane has a hydraulic problem, the pilots are no longer in control of the aircraft. Under those circumstances, hardly anyone comes out alive because a crash is almost guaranteed.

There are many reports on Verónica Estrella, the stewardist. That was her first time flying as a stewardist. She used to work at the Environment Ministry and her last day there was a couple of days before this flight. The Director of Environment said he spoke with her on her last day and she said "she was following her dream of becoming a stewardist". She was a niece of the President of the Senate.
 

bob saunders

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There are other rumors of a possible hydraulic problem. Several things point to this, especially that the airplane always turn to the left. It is said that liquid was coming out of the airplane without control, could had been gasoline. Apparently, if an airplane has a hydraulic problem, the pilots are no longer in control of the aircraft. Under those circumstances, hardly anyone comes out alive because a crash is almost guaranteed.

There are many reports on Verónica Estrella, the stewardist. That was her first time flying as a stewardist. She used to work at the Environment Ministry and her last day there was a couple of days before this flight. The Director of Environment said he spoke with her on her last day and she said "she was following her dream of becoming a stewardist". She was a niece of the President of the Senate.
That depends on the system. Most aircraft system will work off two different system, like electrical and mechanical or hydraulic and mechanical. This is true for most flight control systems. There isnt enough information yet to determine what the cause was. I was a flight safety investigator for five years.
 
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Big

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There are other rumors of a possible hydraulic problem. Several things point to this, especially that the airplane always turn to the left. It is said that liquid was coming out of the airplane without control, could had been gasoline. Apparently, if an airplane has a hydraulic problem, the pilots are no longer in control of the aircraft. Under those circumstances, hardly anyone comes out alive because a crash is almost guaranteed.

There are many reports on Verónica Estrella, the stewardist. That was her first time flying as a stewardist. She used to work at the Environment Ministry and her last day there was a couple of days before this flight. The Director of Environment said he spoke with her on her last day and she said "she was following her dream of becoming a stewardist". She was a niece of the President of the Senate.
Omg, " stewardess" is a sin to use now. They might just get pissed enough to throw you off the flight
 
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MariaRubia

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For those who don't speak Spanish, some of the key points they make are:

Helidosa has a history of accidents and has been constantly criticised for poor maintenance and for pilots not getting scheduled rest. People have died in previous helicopter accidents. Supposedly the day before the accident the pilot was heard saying that there's going to be an accident here very soon.

They question how the company grew so rapidly and say this all happened after Danilo came to power.

They question how the authorities who should have investigated bad practices did not, and point to the fact that Gonzalo Castillo was president of the company and the presidential candidate

The pilot reported that the plane had a problem and was told that this had been corrected. His sister is also saying that pilots were expected to work more than 12 hours without a break. They show a list of all the flights that the pilot / co-pilot had been required to fly in the last few days and say this amount of work is "inhuman"

At timeline 14.00 they show the plane attempting to land at Las Americas. They say that according to pilots they have spoken to, the ailerons were jammed and it appears that the plane clipped the runway and caught fire on impact. It's also apparent that the plane was still in one piece coming in to land so it seems that everyone died when it hit the runway.

US air accident investigators are working alongside Dominican investigators to establish the cause of the crash.

The key point that they repeatedly make is that the authorities who should have shut this firm down didn't do so because Gonzalo Castillo was the president. People who campaigned for his election were employed by the authorities which should have regulated his airline.

The fact that the cabin crew member who died was daughter of someone so influential in the current government, just 18 and doing her dream job, means things are looking a little more ugly for Helidosa.
 

JD Jones

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They were so close. It looks like the pilot was almost able to get it down but couldn't control the direction it was heading and went into the trees.
The primary investigation report will be interesting.

Worse, I think Helidosa has loans with Banco de Reservas. If that's the case and they're found liable, guess who will end up absorbing the costs?

Edit: Just read this on the daily news. A Helidosa helicopter had to do an emergency landing yesterday:


Whoever was on that helicopter was very lucky indeed.
 
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windeguy

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The fact that the cabin crew member who died was daughter of someone so influential in the current government, just 18 and doing her dream job, means things are looking a little more ugly for Helidosa.
Veronica Estrella was 26, not 18, and used to work at Medio Ambiente.
 

josh2203

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Right now the rumor is that the pilot asked La Isabela to allow an emergency landing and they were denied because La Isabela has no equipments to deal with emergencies. Yes, read that again. !!!! An international airport that can't handle emergencies!!!

Then the pilot asked the same to Las Américas and it was granted, but it needed to wait until an airplane that was on the runway to clear.

The troubled airplane was in the air for about 30 minutes.

This is completely unacceptable.

First, all international airports need to have emergency equipments, more so one owned by the government.

Second, a troubled airplane left in the air for 30 minutes. It would had been very lucky if it didn't crashed, IMO. This tragedy could had been avoided.

What's worst is that a good chunk of the time was spent going in a circle over Santo Domingo knowing the airplane was compromised. Imagine how bigger this tragedy would had been if it crashed into the city. Irresponsible on all sides.


When I first checked the Flighradar page, my first question was that as the pilot obviously first turned back to the departure airport why did they continue flying, but there's the answer... I did not know that any airport could just deny an emergency landing??? So essentially, they should be held partially responsible for this...
 
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NALs

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Aerial view of the crash site. Several things can be determined taking into account the pilots had over a year worth of flying hours:

1. They had to crash at a high speed, because it doesn't appear the parts of the airplane spread over a large area. Could had been too fast for landing.

2. If they crashed at high speeds, the pilots hardly had any control of the airplane considering they weren't novice pilots.

3. Extremely close to the runway, but missed it showing again the lack of control of the pilots.

F0492775-CC13-419E-A79C-2C051E1D24F3.png
 

NALs

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Btw, this the first commercial flight crash in the DR in about 30 years (could be longer or ever for a private commercial airplane), which is a good track record.
 
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SantiagoDR

The "REAL" SantiagoDR
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Btw, this the first commercial flight crash in the DR in about 30 years (could be longer or ever for a private commercial airplane), which is a good track record.
I don't remember the date, but there was a crash off of Puerto Plata that was much less than 30 years ago.
 

chrisrose97

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Btw, this the first commercial flight crash in the DR in about 30 years (could be longer or ever for a private commercial airplane), which is a good track record.

I don't remember the date, but there was a crash off of Puerto Plata that was much less than 30 years ago.
1996, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgenair_Flight_301 , that was a real commercial flight. But Helidosa has had 2 Helicopter crashes one in 2006 and another more recently. Unacceptable.