[Accident] 01JAN98 AirTours 757 Incident Puerto Plata

On New Year's Day 1998, an AirTours International Boeing 757-200 was preforming a charter flight from Bangor, Maine(BGR\KBGR) to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic(POP\MDPP) with 220 passengers and 10 crew members. The aircraft arrived in POP during a severe thunderstorm, and attempted the VOR approach for runway 26 but ended up going around on am missed approach. After holding for 25 minutes, the aircraft attempted another approach but again went missed. Rather than flying the published missed approach and diverting to Santo Domingo(SDQ\MDSD), the Captain elected to fly a tight visual pattern with 2.5nm visibility and 800 foot overcast ceilings in rain at night. His glasses fell off during the aggressive circling maneuver, and during a very late go-around, he ended up planting the left gear in the ground to the right of runway 26 and striking the tail on the ground causing severe damage to the APU and tail of the aircraft. Unaware that the aircraft had been damaged, the aircraft diverted to SDQ and made an uneventful landing in good weather. However, upon parking on the stand, it became clear that the APU, which had been running since the first missed approach, was badly damaged and pouring out fuel, almost prompting an evacuation. There were no injuries to the passengers or crew. Despite the severe damage, the 9-month old Boeing 757-200 was repaired on site and is still in service today.

This is a recreation of the flight in Prepar3Dv4 using the Captainsim 757 to replicate this bizarre accident. This is my first accident recreation, but I plan to make more.