Varig Flight 254

Introduction
Varig Flight 254 was a passenger flight from São Paulo to Belém with stopovers in Uberaba, Uberlândia, Goiânia, Brasília, Imperatriz and Marabá, which are all in Brazil. The flight crashed in the Amazon Jungle after the plane ran out of fuel.

Pilots
The flight crew consisted of Captain Cézar Garcez and First Officer Nilson Zille. The pilots were sentenced to 4 years in jail after the accident, but this was soon changed to community service.

One Tiny Dot
The flight had made it through all the stopovers, and was now going to fly to Marabá from Belém. Captain Garcez looked at the heading for Belem, and it stated 0270. The Captain read that as 270°, but it actually meant something else. The Captain was on holiday when Varig changed the way they display their heading on the flight sheet. The way it used to be displayed was 027.0, but now it's displayed 0270. The Captain, not knowing this, put in 270° into the autopilot. To fly to Belém, he would have had to put in 27°. First Officer Zille, now coming into the cockpit, didn't check the heading himself, as the company said he should. He instead saw that Captain Garcez had put it in, and moved on. The flight was due to takeoff from Runway 07, as the heading of that runway was closer to 27° than Runway 25, which was at the other end. Captain Garcez requested to takeoff from Runway 25, as his incorrect heading was closer to the heading of that runway. The airport wasn't that busy at the time, so ATC allowed it. The flight lifted off into the sunset, another clue that the flight wasn't heading in the right direction.

Where Are We?
The flight has flown for most of its duration, and Captain Garcez wants to get his plane on the ground. Believing he's close to Belém, he contacts the Belém Air Traffic Control. Upon failing to do so as he is too far from the airport, he uses another Varig flight as a relay for messages from Belém. The Air Traffic Controller tells him that the flight can descend, and Captain Garcez does so. As he gets closer to the ground, Garcez is confused by his surroundings. He can't see any of the landmarks of Belém, and he asks the Air Traffic Controller if the city had a power cut. The Controller was confused and said that the electricity was working fine, and this perplexed Garcez. Belém had no radar at the time, so the Controller thought that they were approaching the runway, when in actuality they were far from it. Soon after, the plane gave the pilots warnings that they were far from their destination, and the crew began to panic. They make a 180° turn to try and get back to Belém.

Get On the Ground
The Captain descends the plane down to a lower altitude, and begins to try and find his way visually. He follows a river which he believes is the Amazon, which flows East-West, but is actually Xingu River, which flows North-South. The passengers begin to get nervous, as their flight should have landed half an hour ago. It is then that First Officer Zille realises the heading error, and the crew get a sense of where they are. Captain Garcez contacts Santarém Airport, as he believes it is the closest to them. He makes another 180° turn to try and get to that airport, but First Officer Zille discovers that they don't have enough fuel to make it to that airport, so they head south, following the now properly identified Xingu River. They wanted to tune into the frequency of the airport that they began at, Marabá, to see if they could find where they were. The crew then mistakenly tuned into Goiânia, an airport far south of Marabá. Out of an act of desperation, the flight crew tuned into a football match at some point in the flight to try and find where they were. This factor lead many to believe they were distracted by the match, and that it was the cause for the accident. This was proved false.

Not Going to Make It
By this point, Belém ATC was demanding answers for how this plane hadn't landed yet, and the pilots gave them an explanation. They said that they were heading to Marabá (when they were actually heading to Goiânia) and that they had got a signal from the Carajás beacon, when this was actually the Barra do Garças beacon. ATC was confused by this message, and informed them that the beacon at Carajás wasn't working. The crew decided to head to Carajás Airport, as Marabá was now also out of the question. It was during this section of the flight that the pilots missed a life-saving opportunity, as they missed the Serra do Cachimbo Air Force Base, which the 737 had enough fuel to land at. After missing the air base, the crash landing was inevitable. The flight crew, preparing for this, informed Belém ATC of their situation, and informed the passengers too. The left engine soon stopped, followed by the right engine. The 737 was now a glider. The flaps were extended, but the failing hydraulics systems only pushed the flaps up to 10°. And, at 21:06 AMT, the flight crash landed in the Amazon Jungle.

Surviving the Amazon
Passengers who weren't strapped in were flung to the front of the plane, and seats detached from the aircraft. The wings were sliced off by trees, and the fake roof fell in. The plane soon came to a stop, lying on its right. There are survivors, but many are injured. If help doesn't arrive soon, they might not make it. But help was far away, and had no idea where they were. Passengers lived in the plane for a day, and Captain Garcez knew help wouldn't arrive soon unless he did something. There is an emergency beacon in every plane, and the beacon emits a signal to tell rescuers were the plane is. But this version of the 737 only allows the beacon to activate when it is underwater. So the Captain does something creative to get the beacon started; he urinates on it. The beacon starts up, but rescue teams don't notice the signal, as the flight crashed so far from Belém, they don't think it's the plane. 2 days after the crash, a group of survivors venture out to find help. They don't have food, and will die if they can't find help soon. Luckily, they stumble across a farm house, and they manage to get in contact with rescuers. A Brazilian Air Force jet then came over the wreckage, and dropped food packages to help the starving survivors. And on the forth day of living in a broken plane, the survivors were rescued via helicopter, taken to Brasilia, and hospitalised.

May the 12 who didn't make the landing rest in peace.