LAN Chile Flight 107

LAN Chile Flight 107
Accident summary
Date 6 February 1965
Summary Pilot error, Controlled flight into terrain
Site near San José Volcano, Chile
Passengers 80
Crew 7
Fatalities 87 (all)
Survivors 0
Aircraft type Douglas DC-6B-404
Operator LAN Chile
Flight origin Los Cerrillos Airport, Santiago, Chile
Destination Ministro Pistarini International Airport, Ezeiza, Argentina

LAN Chile Flight 107 was a regular scheduled international flight from the Chilean capital Santiago to Buenos Aires in Argentina. On 6 February 1965, the Douglas DC-6B-404 operating the flight crashed in the Andes. All 87 occupants of the aircraft died in the crash.

Accident

The DC-6 departed Santiago's Santiago-Los Cerrillos Airport on the morning of 6 February with 80 passengers and seven crew members on board, on a flight to Ministro Pistarini International Airport in Ezeiza, near Buenos Aires.[1] When the aircraft was at flight level 120, in the Las Melosas area of the Andes, it crashed into the side of La Corona Mountain, approximately 1,200 feet below its summit. There were no survivors.[2]

Twenty-two of the passengers had been players and staff of Santiago's Antonio Varas football team, who were on their way to Uruguay for a match against the Camadeo team in Montevideo.[3]

As of 2014, Flight 107 is the worst aviation disaster in Chilean history.[4] It is also the second-deadliest aviation accident involving a DC-6, behind Olympic Airways Flight 954.

Cause

The accident investigation board attributed the accident to the pilot in command of the aircraft, who chose to follow a route that was neither in accordance with the approved flight plan nor the airline's operations manual. Weather was not a factor in the crash.[5]

References

  1. Aircraft accident Douglas DC-6B CC-CCG San José Volcano
  2. Chilean plane crash kills 87
  3. Edgar A. Haine, Disaster in the Air (Cornwall Books, 2000) p153
  4. Aviation Safety Network Database for Chile
  5. Gero, David (1996). Aviation Disasters Second Edition. Patrick Stephens Limited. p. 61.

External links

Coordinates: 33°52′16″S 70°02′37″W / 33.87111°S 70.04361°W / -33.87111; -70.04361

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