ACCIDENT RULING

LANSA FINED 100,000 SOLES; PLANE FOUND OVERLOADED

The General Office of Civil Aeronautics ["DGAC"] fined the national airline, Lansa,100,00 soles today. It said the airline  carelessly and negligently operated the Lockheed Electra that crashed on August 9, 1970. It also found Lansa tried to cover-up facts during the investigation.

The DGAC also fined five officers of the national airline 2,000 soles each. Nine other employees were fined 1,000 soles each.

The investigation revealed that the authorized take-off time had been arbitrarily changed, and that the plane was carrying 100 people, when it was only authorized to carry  96. It also found that 14 maintenance personnel were working either without the required license, or with an expired license.