On February 3, 2022, shortly after takeoff from Bogota, an Aerosucre-operated Boeing 737-200 crashed into a 14-meter-tall tree located 239 meters from the end of the runway. This caused the left engine to fail. It is now clear that the cargo plane was overloaded and should not have taken off in the first place.
The investigation report from the Civil Aviation Authority of Colombia indicates that the incident could have been avoided. The machine was simply loaded too heavily and the maximum permissible weight was exceeded. Despite the fact that a tree was touched, the cockpit crew managed to restore the thrust. The display nevertheless warned the pilots that the temperature in the drives was too high. The climb to 2.500 feet continued before the crew could make an emergency landing in Bogota.
The Civil Aviation Authority's investigation also shows that the incident almost ended in disaster. The flying skills of the two pilots prevented the plane, whose predicament was accidentally recorded by a doorbell camera, from crashing. However, the pilots made a serious, almost fatal mistake by preparing to take off at all despite obviously being overloaded.
The report states that the most likely cause of the accident is that the "late rotation caused by extreme conditions in terms of aircraft weight and altitude that did not allow the aircraft to achieve a sufficient rate of climb and with a higher aircraft weight start when the performance calculations allowed". The behavior of the crew was also criticized for showing "overconfidence on the part of the crew in the assumption that they would lose enough weight during taxiing for departure so that their gross weight was within the performance calculations". The master also disregarded a request to turn given by the first officer.