The TAAG Angola Boeing 737-200 that suffered a fatal crash on 28 June had been involved in several other accidents, and officials say the aircraft had problems during the attempted landing.

There were five fatalities and 40 passengers were injured when the Boeing 737-200 (D2-TBP) crashed while attempting a landing at M'banza Congo airport in north-west Angola, at the end of a flight from the capital city, Luanda.

TAAG Angola route management adviser Almeida Arlindo has told sister online publication Air Transport Intelligence (ATI): "There are five people dead and 40 passengers injured. The total number of passengers on board was 78 with five crew."

The same aircraft was involved in at least two other serious incidents in its 22-year lifespan, according to Flight's ACAS database. 

It was delivered to TAAG Angola on in February 1985. Twelve days later, the aircraft ran off the end of a runway in Lubango and into a flooded area following an aborted take-off.

Nearly 10 years later, the same narrowbody ran off the runway when landing at Dundo, with the right main undercarriage collapsing as a result, says ACAS.

M'banza Congo has a single 1,800m (5,900ft) asphalt runway, 16/34. Local media reports originally said that the aircraft landed halfway down the runway, but information from official sources since then suggest the aircraft suffered the loss of its main landing gear after undershooting the runway.

Angola's National Directorate of Civil Aviation says three members of its accident investigation board are at the crash site, and while stressing that the investigation is at an early stage, a source close to the investigation says: "From the first information we have, it seems the pilot undershot - touched down before the runway."

He says there are indications that one of the main landing-gear assemblies separated and the other collapsed. The aircraft's forward fuselage was destroyed in the accident.

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Source: FlightGlobal.com

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