Photo: A LAPA – Lineas Aereas Privadas Argentinas
Boeing 737-2T4C/Adv photographed in July 2000, not the ill-fated LV-WRZ
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer James Richard Covington
Relatives of victims disrupted the Argentine court when a two-year long trial ruled 6 LAPA (Lineas Aereas Privadas Argentinas) officials were not negligent. The operations manager and the 737 airlines chief both received three-year suspended sentences. Neither is currently employed in those positions.
35 survived the 1999 crash; 65 were killed. On August 31, 1999, the LAPA Boeing 737 crashed at Buenos Aires, Argentina while taking off on a regularly scheduled passenger flight to Cordoba, Argentina. Witness reports indicate the pilot had aborted the takeoff. The airplane departed the airport property, crossed a highway, and came to rest on a golf course. There were 101 persons on board. The flight failed to take-off, broke through a perimeter fence and burst into flames on a golf course.
The investigation attributed the crash to pilot error and found LAPA and air force deficiencies also contributed. The Argentine Air Force controlled civil and commercial aviation until 2009.