Flight 127 B737-200 (BRC-FTE)

11 February 2004

Southern Winds flight A4 6232
Boeing 737-266
LV-YBS
seat 1L

Duration: 01:22

Our flight from Bariloche to El Calafate was booked on Southern Winds/Federales. The private company Southern Winds started cooperating with the start-up state-owned carrier Lineas Aereas Federales (LAFSA). LAFSA was formed in July 2003 to provide jobs for 800 former workers from bankrpt airlines LAPA and Dinar. The government in paid for a substantial amount of fuel and the salaries. Flight 6232 was a flight from Buenos Aires to El calafate via Bariloche. The inbound flight arrived at 12:09 and taxied to gate 1, which connteced the flight with a jetty. At 12:30 we boarded the flight, which was already almost full. Seats at row one meant that we needed to place our bags in the overhead lockers. Door were closed at 12:41 and push back was completed at 12:43. Four minutes later we started to taxy towards the runway. We taxied to the far end, runway 29, and started our takeoff roll at 12:51. The airplane named “Litoral” climbed away for a cruising altitude of 10.000 m (probably FL310). At 13:30 meals were served. That is…. a thin white bread-sandwich… Descent was initiated at 13:53 and we finally landed at El Calafate at 14:13. An American Falcon B737 was parked at El Calafate’s single jetty, so we deplaned on the apron at 14:19. The airport was relatively new (November 2000) with a modern glassy terminal building. The tiny arrivals hall turned out to be quite crowded because of two arriving flights. We made our way through the crowd an were outside in no time.