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Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 108 took off from La Chinita International Airport in Maracaibo, Venezuela, on March 5, 1991, on a short-haul flight to Santa Barbara Ed-L Delicias Airport in Venezuela with 45 passengers and crew. Some minutes later the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 crashed on the side of a foggy mountain near La Valesa in the La Aguada sector of the Páramo Los Torres and burst into flames. All 45 people on board died.
;_YV-37C@PMV;10.10.2001_(8232561272).jpg) An Aeropostal McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 similar to the one involved. | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | March 5, 1991 |
| Summary | Pilot error |
| Site | near La Valesa, Venezuela |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 |
| Operator | Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela |
| Registration | YV-23C |
| Flight origin | La Chinita International Airport, Maracaibo, Venezuela |
| Destination | Santa Barbara Ed-L Delicias Airport, Venezuela |
| Passengers | 40 |
| Crew | 5 |
| Fatalities | 45 |
| Survivors | 0 |
Aircraft
The aircraft used on the 108 flight was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, which for 1991 had 24 years of service for the company Aeropostal, which bought it from McDonnell Douglas in 1967.
The "Los Andes" Guillotine
The Páramo "Los Torres" is known among the commercial and private aviation pilots of Venezuela as The Guillotine of Los Andes , because this was not the first time that a commercial flight had crashed, on December 15, 1950 a Douglas DC-3 of Avensa that covered the route Mérida - Caracas crashed without leaving survivors Between the 28 passengers and 3 crew on board. 10 years later a plane of Ransa (one of which the characteristics were never known) also crashed in the same place, without leaving survivors the 15 of December 1960.
Cause
A investigation into the accident found that the cause of the crash was pilot error. The pilots inadvertently entered the wrong radial into their navigation system and went off course. Because of the fog the pilots did not know they were on a collision course with the mountain.
TV Review
On February 23, 2008, this accident was reviewed in the program "History of aviation accidents in Venezuela", of the channel Globovision due to the crash of the Santa Bárbara Airlines Flight 518.
Similarity with the Santa Barbara Airlines flight 518
On February 21, 2008, Flight 518 from Santa Bárbara Airlines, a ATR 42, crashed against the "Los Conejos" moor, a few minutes after taking off from Alberto Carnevalli Airport Of Mérida (Venezuela).[1][circular reference] 43 passengers and three crew members were killed in the accident.The remains of the aircraft were found the following day in a mountain range approximately 10 kilometers north-east of Mérida at an altitude of 12,000 feet (3,700 m).[2][circular reference] No survivors were found. After the accident, the company started a new public relations program as well as a new marketing initiative, switching the airline's name to SBA Airlines. Like Flight 108, Flight 518 from Santa Bárbara Airlines did not have accurate information of the route it was flying.
References
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