Air Philippines Flight 541

Air Philippines Flight 541

An Air Philippines Boeing 737-200, similar to the crashed aircraft
Accident
Date	April 19, 2000 (2000-04-19)
Summary	Pilot error leading to controlled flight into terrain
Site	Samal, Davao del Norte 07°09′24″N 125°42′03″E / 7.15667°N 125.70083°E / 7.15667; 125.70083
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 737-2H4
Operator	Air Philippines
Registration	RP-C3010
Flight origin	Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila, Philippines
Destination	Francisco Bangoy International Airport, Davao City, Philippines
Occupants	131
Passengers	124
Crew	7
Fatalities	131
Survivors	0

Air Philippines Flight 541 was a scheduled domestic flight operated by Air Philippines from Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila to Francisco Bangoy International Airport in Davao City. On April 19, 2000, the Boeing 737-2H4 crashed in Samal, Davao del Norte while on approach to the airport, killing all 124 passengers and 7 crew members. It remains the deadliest air disaster in the Philippines and the third deadliest accident involving the Boeing 737-200, after Mandala Airlines Flight 091, which crashed 5 years later, and Indian Airlines Flight 113.^[1]

Aircraft

The aircraft, a Boeing 737-2H4, registration RP-C3010 and previously owned by Southwest Airlines as N50SW, was first delivered in February 1978 and was sold to Air Philippines 20 years later.

Passengers and Crew

In command of the flight was Captain Estraton Catipay - the youngest pilot to have served for Air Philippines in the 1960s, together with his co-pilot, Captain Don Sardalla - acting as co-pilot despite being a captain himself at just 22 years old.

There were 124 passengers and 7 crew members, totalling 131 people on board. The flight was packed as it was the start of celebrating the Easter season and transportation services across the Philippines are particularly heavily crowded, with people taking advantage of the long holidays going back to their hometowns from different places in the country. Among the victims were the sister-in-law, nephew, and niece of then-Governor of Cotabato Emmanuel Piñol.^[2]

On April 19, 2000, Flight 541, with 131 passengers and crew, left Manila at about 5:30 AM, bound for Davao City. At around 7 AM, the aircraft was approaching runway 05 following an Airbus A320^[a] operated by Philippine Airlines. When Flight 541 broke free from the clouds the crew observed that the aircraft had not yet cleared the runway, at which time they advised ATC, or air traffic control, a missed approach procedure should be performed. Flight 541 began to climb and re-entered the clouds. The correct procedure would have been to climb to 4,000 feet (1,200 m) on instruments and circle around to pick up a glide slope. Instead, the pilots attempted to fly VFR in instrument conditions at a lower altitude. Flight 541 hit a coconut tree about 500 feet (150 m) above sea level, and crashed a few miles east of the Francisco Bangoy International Airport.^[4] The plane subsequently caught fire and disintegrated; there were no survivors.^[5]

Villagers on the island said the plane was flying at low altitude and hit the top of a coconut tree, which knocked off part of its wing. They said it appeared the plane tried to pull up under full engine power, but failed and crashed. The plane caught fire when it came down in a coconut grove. Airport officials said skies were foggy at the time of the accident.^[6]

Francisco Bangoy International Airport did not have full equipment for instrument landings at that time, and visual landings had been suspended several minutes before the crash.

• Pre-crash photos of RP-C3010
• Crash site of Flight 541 from Associated Press Archive