TACA Flight 390

EI-TAF, the aircraft involved in the accident

The aircraft was an Airbus A320-233 (registration EI-TAF, c/n 1374). It was built in 2000 and entered service with TACA in 2001. The aircraft was leased twice to Cubana de Avación and Martinair in 2001 and 2007 respectively.[4][5]

The flight crew included Salvadorans Captain Cesare Edoardo D'Antonio Mena (40) and First Officer Juan Rodolfo Artero Arevalo (26).[6][7] All cabin crew members operating on the flight were Hondurans. Captain D'Antonio had 11,899 flight hours, including 8,514 hours on the Airbus A320, and first officer Artero had 1,607 hours with 250 of them on the Airbus A320. Both pilots had previously experience in landing at Toncontín International Airport; captain D'Antonio had landed at the airport 52 times, and first officer Artero had landed there 5 times.[8]

Flight 390 departed from San Salvador at 9:05 local time. At 09:40, the flight landed on runway 02 at Toncontín International Airport. Although both thrust reversers were deployed and the spoilers were activated, the aircraft overshot the runway at a speed of 54 knots (62 mph; 100 km/h), crossed an embankment, and crashed into a road beside the airport.[9]

The passengers consisted of:[10]

A list of passengers was provided in the fifth press release on the crash from TACA Airlines. This list was in the Spanish and English sections.[11]

Five people died as a result of the accident, including Captain D'Antonio.[12] The deceased passengers were later confirmed as the wife of Brian Michael Fraser Neele (Brazil's ambassador to Honduras, who was also on board), and Nicaraguan businessman Harry Brautigam, president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration; Brautigam died from a heart attack.[13] Ambassador Fraser Neele sustained injuries in the crash. The former head of the Honduran armed forces was also injured. There were two fatalities on the ground, one a taxi driver, in one of three vehicles crushed on the street by the aircraft. One of the survivors said that the business class passengers sustained the most serious injuries.[1]

Honduran authorities delegated the investigation of the accident to the Civil Aviation Authority of El Salvador as per the Convention on International Civil Aviation.[14] The accident report stated that the airplane had landed with a 12-knot tailwind, 400 meters from the displaced approach end of the runway. Since this was the first intermediate stop on a long transcontinental flight, the aircraft was near its upper landing-weight limit (63.5t vs. 64.5t maximum allowable). In addition, the runway was wet, due to the passage of Tropical Storm Alma.[9][8]

The Aviation Herald retrieved a copy of the final report in 2017. The report itself has not been made public. The Civil Aviation Authority concluded the cause of the accident was the flight crew's inappropriate decision to continue the landing despite not assessing the conditions of the runway, which did not follow standard operating procedures. The lack of grooving in the runway and the aircraft landing at a high speed of 160 knots (180 mph; 300 km/h) were also contributing factors.[8]

• List of accidents and incidents involving the Airbus A320 family
• TAM Airlines Flight 3054

• Civil Aviation Authority
  • Preliminary Report (Archive)
  • Index of related files (Archive)
• Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
• "Accident at Tegucigalpa (Honduras)." (Archive) Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile
• "Flight Recorder Group Meeting Report" (Archive Alternate archive) from the National Transportation Safety Board Vehicle Recorder Division, June 5, 2008
• Fatal crash at Honduran airport BBC News 31 May 2008