SANTO DOMINGO– Just minutes after takeoff, the flight ceased to be routine. The Gulfstream G-200 executive jet, which had departed from La Romana International Airport bound for Austin, Texas, suffered a loss of power in its right engine, forcing the crew to declare an emergency. What followed was a race against time: two landing attempts, difficulties maintaining control of the aircraft, and ultimately, a fire that claimed the lives of both pilots.
A month after the accident on June 7, the sequence of events remains under investigation. Although the preliminary report sheds light on how the emergency unfolded, it still does not explain what caused the mechanical failure that changed the flight's course, nor why the pilots' maneuvers failed to prevent the crash.
The Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Commission (CIAA) reported that the next phase of the investigation will focus precisely on reconstructing, step by step, the events that preceded the impact, with the aim of determining what caused the loss of power in the right engine and how that failure influenced the behavior of the aircraft during the most critical minutes of the flight.
The emergency that still raises questions
According to the preliminary report, after detecting the loss of power, the crew decided to return to La Romana International Airport to make an emergency landing on runway 11.
However, the approach could not be completed, and the pilots executed a go-around maneuver , a decision that is one of the main focuses of the investigation. According to the analysis, the specialists are seeking to establish what conditions prevented the completion of that first landing and how the emergency evolved while the aircraft was in flight.
During those minutes, the pilots informed the control tower that they were experiencing difficulties maintaining control of the aircraft. They subsequently made a second landing attempt, this time on runway 29, but the aircraft failed to stop within the paved area, veered off the runway, its landing gear collapsed, and it burst into flames that completely destroyed the aircraft.
The right engine, the key part
The CIAA explained that one of the main objectives of this new stage will be to determine the nature of the right engine failure, the exact moment when the power loss occurred and how that condition affected the performance of the Gulfstream G-200 during the emergency maneuvers.
The investigators will also analyze other factors that may have influenced the outcome, including the aircraft's weight and balance, the speeds recorded during the flight, the configuration of its systems, the weather conditions, and the actions of the crew.
The black boxes will reconstruct the final minutes
As part of the investigation, specialists will examine the information stored in the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), both recovered from the wreckage of the aircraft.
These pieces of evidence will be supplemented by radar records, ADS-B system information, and other electronic data that will allow the flight to be reconstructed chronologically and reveal, second by second, how the emergency evolved from the time it was reported until the moment of impact.
The final report will still take some time
The CIAA noted that the released document is only a preliminary report prepared under international protocols for the investigation of air accidents, and therefore does not establish responsibilities or determine the definitive causes of the accident.
The agency explained that the final conclusions will only be issued once all the technical, expert and laboratory analyses are completed, a process that will allow them to establish precisely what happened during the last minutes of the flight that ended in tragedy at La Romana International Airport.
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