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SAP Flight 425: the Madeira Airport crash


SAP Flight 425: the Madeira Airport crash

The crash of Flight 425 at Madeira Airport on 19 November 1977 remains as the airline's only fatal accident. Flight 425 was operated with a Boeing 727 flying to Madeira Airport from Brussels via Lisbon and crashed while landing on Runway 24 in heavy rain. The pilot made two unsuccessful attempts to land and decided to make one more attempt, but the plane touched down too late and overran the runway, which was only 1,600 metres (5,200 feet) long at the time. The plane crashed onto a beach at the end of the runway, splitting into two pieces and bursting into flames. Of the 164 people aboard, there were 131 fatalities and 33 survivors, making it the second-deadliest aviation accident in Portugal after Independent Air Flight 1851. The crash prompted officials to explore ways of extending the short runway on Madeira, but because of the height of the runway relative to the beach below, an extension was very difficult and expensive to perform. In spite of these burdens, a 200 m (656 ft) extension was built between 1983 and 1986, and in 2000 the runway was further extended to 2,781 m (9,124 ft). This extension made Madeira Airport capable of handling wide-body commercial jets such as the Boeing 747 or Airbus A340.

Registration: CS-TBH
Aircraft name: Sacadura Cabral