How did a piece of tape damage 70 passengers on the plane?

Only a small act led to a catastrophic accident.

This is a disaster leading to a very pitiful accident on Aeroperú Boeing 757-23A aircraft . In October 1996, flight number 603 departs from Miami International Airport (Florida, USA) to Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (Chile) in the middle of the night.

While flying in the middle of the sea, suddenly the pilot noticed that the panel caused the aircraft to function abnormally, it showed errors such as the rudder transmission ratio, flying too fast, flying too slowly and flying too low. The pilot immediately returned and asked for permission to carry out the level landing.

Picture 1 of How did a piece of tape damage 70 passengers on the plane?
The accident was very pitiful on the Boeing 757-23A aircraft of Aeroperú airline.

58-year-old pilot Eric Schreiber Ladrón de Guevara decided to give the plane a gradual drop in height because he saw the plane's altitude display still fluttering. However he was wrong when the basic indicators of aircraft such as altitude, speed were displayed false throughout the flight.

Unfortunately, because the flight between the sea and the sky at that time was extremely dark, the pilot was difficult to determine the height and direction by visualization, so the aircraft collided the tip of its wings to the sea. Immediately realizing his mistake, the pilot tried to raise the altitude of the plane but failed and as a result the plane crashed causing all 70 people on board. There are only 9 corpses floating on the sea, the rest are stuck in planes that have sunk in the sea.

So what is the cause of the accident?It's a piece of tape.

Picture 2 of How did a piece of tape damage 70 passengers on the plane?
In order for the plane to read indicators such as altitude, speed, and temperature, it uses ports called "Static Ports".

In order for the plane to read indicators like altitude, speed, and temperature, it uses ports called "Static Ports" in the body or wing of the aircraft. When maintenance, people often use tape to cover these ports to prevent insects and dust from entering. In this case, the maintenance workers forgot to peel off the tape.

Picture 3 of How did a piece of tape damage 70 passengers on the plane?
Only a small act led to a catastrophic accident.

Only a small act led to a catastrophic accident. The workers who caused this had to go to jail for their careless actions.