TAESA Flight 725 was a scheduled flight originating in

Tijuana International Airport Tijuana International Airport (); officially ''Aeropuerto Internacional General Abelardo L. Rodríguez'' (General Abelardo L. Rodríguez International Airport) , is an international airport located northeast of downtown Tijuana, Baja Califo ...

and ending at

Mexico City International Airport Mexico City International Airport (); officially ''Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez'' (Benito Juárez International Airport) is the primary international airport serving Greater Mexico City. It is the List of the busiest airports in Me ...

with intermediate stopovers in

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

and

Uruapan Uruapan () is the second largest city in the Mexico, Mexican state of Michoacán. It is located at the western edge of the Tarascan Plateau, Purépecha highlands, just to the east of the Tierra Caliente (Mexico), Tierra Caliente region. Since the c ...

, that crashed shortly after departure from the latter city's airport on November 9, 1999, killing all 18 passengers and crew on board. The crash led TAESA to ground its fleet and suspend operations a year later in 2000. Investigators determined that the crew did not use the appropriate checklists prior to departure, and during the climbout, the pilots were confused about which heading to follow. Spatial disorientation was also believed to be a factor in the crash.

Aircraft

The aircraft operating the flight was an McDonnell-Douglas DC-9-31, manufactured by McDonnell-Douglas, and first entered service with Trans Australia Airlines in February 1970. It was 29 years old at the time of the accident and accumulated more than 59,000 takeoff/landing cycles and 58,000 flight hours. Before being delivered to TAESA Lineas Aéreas, it previously operated for

Australian Airlines Australian Airlines was a full-service airline based in Australia, serving Australian and Asian destinations between 2002 and 2006. It was an all-economy, full-service international leisure carrier, and was a wholly owned subsidiary of Qant ...

, Sunworld International Airlines, Midway Airlines,

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

and Aeroméxico.

Passengers and crew

The captain was 36-year-old Jesús José Gracián. He had 5,368 flight hours. The first officer was 22-year-old Héctor Valdez, who had 250 flight hours at the time of the accident. There were 18 people on board the DC-9 at the time it crashed, with 13 passengers and 5 crew members.

Flight

The aircraft departed Uruapan for Mexico City at 18:59 local time. After

rotation Rotation or rotational/rotary motion is the circular movement of an object around a central line, known as an ''axis of rotation''. A plane figure can rotate in either a clockwise or counterclockwise sense around a perpendicular axis intersect ...

, the aircraft pitched up abnormally high, entered a stall, nosed over and crashed into an avocado field south of the runway on a heading of 110 degrees. All 18 people on board were killed.

References

External links

Boeing Expresses Condolences After TAESA Accident
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Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

NTSB Identification
Aviation accidents and incidents in Mexico Accidents and incidents involving the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 1999 in Mexico November 1999 in Mexico Transportation in Michoacán Aviation accidents and incidents in 1999 {{aviation-accident-stub