History

The aircraft was a TAN Boeing 727-224, aircraft registration N88705 leased from Continental Airlines on a scheduled flight from Augusto C. Sandino International Airport in Managua, Nicaragua to Toncontin International Airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Tegucigalpa ATC cleared the flight for the VOR/DME approach to runway 01. Because of high terrain in the area, the approach uses a series of three step-downs from the initial approach fix of 7500 feet MSL. The crew began a continuous descent from about 7600 ft MSL at about 11 NM from the airport, rather than following the prescribed step-down procedure, which led to the accident site. The aircraft's descent profile was well below the published step-down course for the entire approach. The aircraft impacted a mountain known as Cerro de Hula at the 4800 ft MSL elevation, approximately 800 ft below the summit, 4.8 NM from the Tegucigalpa runway 01 threshold. At impact, the aircraft was in approach configuration.

The plane broke into three parts. The first part (Cockpit, First Class), contained almost all of the survivors of the accident, due to the close-to-stall, nose high configuration at impact.

Aftermath

After the accident, Captain Raúl Argueta and First Officer Reiniero Canales went to trial, but the trial was never resolved.

Five months later another aircraft, a L-188 Electra operated by "Sahsa Carga" (HR-TNL), crashed in the same place with a similar situation, making it the third accident by Sahsa in six months.

Due to its bad safety history, Sahsa went into bankruptcy in the early 1990s.