Air accident involving a Lockheed L-188 Electra of the Trans Service Airlift

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Air accident involving a Lockheed L-188 Electra of the Trans Service Airlift
Lockheed L-188 Electra, Lineas Aereas Paraguayas (LAP) JP21284.jpg

The affected machine during its service life at Lineas Aereas Paraguayas
Accident summary
Accident type probably loss of control due to overload
place at Jamba , Cuando Cubango , AngolaAngolaAngola 
date December 18, 1995
Fatalities 141
Survivors 3
Injured 3
Aircraft
Aircraft type United States 49United StatesLockheed L-188 Electra
operator ZaireZaire Trans Service Airlift
Mark ZaireZaire 9Q-CRR
Departure airport Ndjili Airport , Zaire
ZaireZaire 
Stopover Jamba , Cuando Cubango , AngolaAngolaAngola 
Destination airport unknown, AngolaAngolaAngola 
Passengers 139
crew 5
Lists of aviation accidents

The aircraft accident of a Lockheed L-188 Electra of the Trans Service Airlift occurred on December 18, 1995. A Lockheed L-188 Electra passenger plane of the Trans Service Airlift from Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) crashed shortly after one took off Airfield in Jamba , Cuando Cubango , Angola , killing 141 people. It is the worst incident involving a Lockheed L-188 Electra.

machine

The crashed machine was a Lockheed L-188 Electra with the serial number 1080, which was first delivered to Eastern Air Lines on August 28, 1959 with the aircraft registration number N5539 . From December 15, 1968, the aircraft with its new registration number ZP-CBZ belonged to the Líneas Aereas Paraguayas fleet before it was brokered by the Zotti Group Aviation from Florida , USA to Zaire on February 18, 1994 to the company New ACS , the allowed the machine with the new aircraft registration 9Q-CRR . On January 8th, theTrans Service Airlift the machine. The four-engine aircraft was equipped with four turboprop engines of the type Allison 501-D13 equipped. The painting of the machine essentially corresponded to that of the Líneas Aereas Paraguayas, the machine was white with red stripes on the sides, the lettering of the airline and the tail unit had been painted over in white.

Purpose of flight

The plane had flown from Zaire to Angola that day . After the crash, contradicting information was given about the flight plan and purpose of the flight as well as the crash site. Initially, authorities from Zaire stated that the machine had transported Zairian miners from Kinshasa to diamond mines in Cahungula , in the province of Lunda Norte , and that the machine had crashed there. It later became known that the machine was to be chartered for UNITA , which was a party to the conflict in Angola's civil warhas been subject to a trade embargo since 1993. During this time there were frequent flights from Zaire to Angola in order to circumvent the sanctions. The Trans Service Airlift was one of the airlines associated with these operations. Usually the flights served humanitarian purposes. UNITA claimed that the purpose of the flight was to fly families who had sought refuge in the rebel stronghold during the civil war to other regions of the country.

Course of the flight and course of the accident

The plane was flown with five crew members on board from Kinshasa-Ndjili airport to Jamba in the province of Cuando Cubango , where UNITA's headquarters had been for a long time and where there is an unnamed airstrip in the middle of the jungle northwest of the city. A total of 139 passengers got on there and cargo was loaded. Shortly thereafter, the machine took off to an unknown destination, probably a place in northern Angola. The machine crashed two minutes after it started.

Victim

141 people were killed in the crash, only the first officer and two passengers survived. Six survivors, including five passengers, were initially reported, but three of them died in the days after the accident.

reason

The exact cause of the crash was never known. Some reports speculated that the loaded cargo slipped backwards after take-off, shifting the center of gravity of the machine and making it uncontrollable. With 144 occupants, there were 40 more people on board than the manufacturer had allowed, regardless of the additional cargo being transported.

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