Pilot of crashed Colombian plane reportedly claimed to be out of fuel

Minutes before a plane crashed in Colombia on Monday, killing 71, the pilot reportedly informed air traffic controllers that he had "run out of fuel," The Associated Press reported Wednesday. AP said that the pilot can be heard on a leaked recording asking to land because of a "total electric failure." The route the plane was flying before it crashed spanned its maximum range; the craft crashed about eight miles from the Medellín airport.

The pilot's claim in the recording aligns with the explanation offered by Ximena Sanchez, a Bolivian flight attendant who was 1 of 6 to survive the crash. Sanchez said the plane "turned off" after it "ran out of fuel." The fuel shortage could be attributed to a leak or "dumped fuel," The Associated Press reported, noting that no official conclusion about the crash's cause has been drawn. "If this is confirmed by the investigators it would be a very painful because it stems from negligence," said Alfredo Bocanegra, head of Colombia's aviation agency.

Aviation consultant John Cox said the flight's path left little room for error, even with perfect conditions. "The airplane was being flight planned right to its maximum. Right there it says that even if everything goes well they are not going to have a large amount of fuel when they arrive," said Cox, also the CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based Safety Operating Systems. "I don't understand how they could do the flight nonstop with the fuel requirements that the regulations stipulate."

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