LATAM Airlines Group has had two complex months, with a serious incident that took place at Asunción International Airport (ASU), Paraguay, on October 26 and an accident at Lima International Airport (LIM), Peru, on November 18. Let’s take a closer look at both events.
The incident at Asunción
On Wednesday, October 26, LATAM Paraguay was operating flight 1325 between Santiago de Chile Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL) and Asunción International Airport (ASU). The plane diverted to Foz de Iguaçu/Cataratas International Airport (IGU) in Brazil because of severe weather at the destination in Paraguay.
After staying in Foz de Iguaçu for about three hours, the flight departed again en route to Asunción. Nonetheless, the extreme weather remained in Asunción, which forced the crew to do an emergency landing. Videos of the event show heavy rain, a thunderstorm, and turbulence.
This heavily damaged the aircraft, an Airbus A320 registration CC-BAZ, which suffered damage to its radome, engines, and windshield. The plane remained grounded in Asunción for over a month and has recently been allowed to operate a ferry flight from Asunción to São Carlos, Brazil, which is where LATAM has its MRO.
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Onboard flight 1325, there were 48 passengers. There were no severe injuries due to the accident. Paraguay’s civil aviation authorities launched an investigation; LATAM Airlines and Chile’s authorities are actively participating in this investigation.
The accident at Lima
A few weeks later, bad luck –and possibly miscommunication– struck LATAM again. On November 18, LATAM’s flight LA2213 was leaving Lima International Airport en route to Juliaca in a domestic service. While accelerating, the aircraft collided with a fire truck that entered the runway at the same time.
The airport’s firefighter team was allegedly performing an exercise called Response Time. According to the airport’s administrator, the firefighters were authorized to enter the runway, but something went terribly wrong in what was supposed to be routine training.
Due to this accident, two firefighters died, and one was severely injured. Onboard the aircraft, there were no casualties among the 102 passengers and six crew members, although the plane, an Airbus A320neo, registration CC-BHB, is believed to be a write-off.
The aftermath of this accident has been filled with leaks, controversial statements, arrests, and overall confusion. Peru’s civil aviation authorities launched an investigation but also temporarily detained the LATAM pilots and suspended the air traffic controllers on duty at the time of the accident. The International Federation Air Line Pilots Association (IFALPA) released a statement saying that arresting the pilots completely disregards the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation.
There have also been leaked conversations that show a miscommunication between the airport’s fire truck department, LATAM Airlines, the air traffic, and ground controllers.
What could have been an excellent month for LATAM
Between LATAM’s incident in Paraguay and the accident in Lima, the airline had some great news. After two and a half years, the airline emerged from the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in the United States. LATAM emerged with over $2.2 billion of liquidity and approximately $3.6 billion less debt on its balance sheet (equivalent to a 35% debt reduction from the pre-filing period).
The company was the last of three Latin American carriers to emerge successfully from Chapter 11. The other two were Avianca and Aeromexico. While the end of LATAM's bankruptcy process made the news in November, it was overshadowed by two freaky accidents.