Costa Rica: San Jose airport will close to allow removal of DHL Boeing 757

Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) will be closed for five hours today and tomorrow (Wednesday 13 and Thursday April 14) to allow the removal works of the Boeing 757 of DHL Aero Expreso, the Panamanian subsidiary of the German international logistics company, which was involved in an incident at the air station on April 7th.

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The aircraft, registered HP-2010DAE, suffered a runway excursion when returning to the airport after reporting hydraulic problems. The aircraft landed on runway 07 and, after a run of about 2,000 metres, veered to the right and ended up on a continuous embankment. As a result of the impact, the 757 of DHL broke into two pieces. On board were the two pilots of the aircraft, both Guatemalan nationals, who were not seriously injured.

The flight had departed San José for Guatemala City (GUA). Shortly after takeoff, the crew requested to return to the airport. The plane landed 48 minutes later.

Now, works to remove the aircraft from the site will be completed. The airport’s only runway, orientation 07/25, will remain closed, and the air station will suspend operations at scheduled times to enable the task. The closures will take place between 00:00 and 05:00, local time. According to Aeris, the company in charge of managing the airport, eight commercial flights and six cargo flights will be affected.

The coordination of the operation necessary to remove the plane began on the day of the incident. Last Sunday (April 10th), the cargo onboard the aircraft was removed and some components were dismantled. The authorities in charge of investigating the incident are also involved in the process.

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Ricardo Hernández, General Director of Aeris, remarked that operations at the airport «have continued normally since the day of the incident». He also assured that they were expeditious to «efficiently apply the procedures» and that they expect «resuming runway operations as soon as possible».

Schedule of affected flights