Crewman in Colombia plane crash... ‘I survived because I followed safety protocols’

One of the five survivors of the plane crash in Colombia that killed 71 — most of them belonging to a Brazilian soccer team — said he dodged death because he followed safety instructions.

Crew member Erwin Tumiri said that as many passengers panicked, he followed the guidelines repeated at the beginning of every flight.

“I survived because I followed safety protocols. Before the crash, many got out of their seats and started to scream,” Tumiri said, according to Latin American news outlet NTN.

The pilots on the British Aerospace 146 aircraft declared an emergency due to a possible electrical failure, Rionegro airport spokeswoman Ana Lucia Perez Mesa said.

Yeah. We’re on the same page. I had a friend back in the early 1980’s that was a flight attendant for Alaska. They hit some turbulence as he was walking down the aisle, It threw him into the ceiling and he came down on an arm rail, breaking his arm.

I wear my seat belt during the entire flight too. :-)

It may have been your first time in an airliner with newer, larger, more fuel efficient engines. They are much quieter than older engines.

Thank you, I'll take comfort in that - if I ever force myself to fly again. I should note that no other passengers seemed to be concerned. So I just kept a poker face (while praying silently).

I think the plane was a 737-800. But I have no knowledge of engines, or what might have been switched out with a newer version. The flight on the way home was also a 737-800 I believe, but its descent was noisier, fwiw. The only idea I could come up with to explain it to myself was that wind conditions were different on the way back.

Ran out of fuel. Yep. The pilot circled for a bit in an attempt to locate a landing area. Someone at the airport should be going to jail on negligent homicide charges.

Actually, ATC told him to circle because another airliner had requested an emergency landing before this one made the request and was given priority. (See: 'There's no fuel! We're going down! There's no radar!' Last words of Colombia crash pilot as he pleaded with air traffic controller for help are revealed by fellow airman)

Flight data shows how the jet circled around a number of times before the disaster after declaring an electrical failure.

The 1,900 mile flight path used by the doomed aircraft from Santa Cruz in Bolivia to Medellin was at edge of the jet's capacity, the Mirror reports.

The plane would ordinarily have needed to stop in Colombia's capital Bogota if it had run low on fuel. But the landing did not take place meaning the jet would have been very low on fuel as it approached Medellin.

It has been reported that the pilot was told that another aircraft had asked for landing priority because of its own on board problems.

The second aircraft was given permission to land while the jet carrying the Brazilian footballers was told to circle at 21,000ft, putting it third or fourth in line to land, according to local media.

If it's true that the cockpit crew decided to take a chance to fly right to the edge of the aircraft's fuel range then they're the only one to blame for the crash and loss of life.

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