SAETA flight 232
| SAETA flight 232 | |
|---|---|
 The crashed plane |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | unexplained |
| place | Chimborazo , Ecuador |
| date | 15th August 1976 |
| Fatalities | 59 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Vickers Viscount 785D |
| operator | SAETA |
| Mark | HC-ARS |
| Departure airport |
Quito Airport , Ecuador
|
| Destination airport |
Cuenca Airport , Ecuador
|
| Passengers | 55 |
| crew | 4th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On August 15, 1976, a Vickers Viscount 785D with 55 passengers and four crew members on board disappeared without a trace on SAETA flight 232 . More than 26 years later, Ecuadorian mountaineers accidentally discovered the remains of the plane on the eastern flank of Mount Chimborazo at an altitude of about 5400 meters.
Flight history
The machine of the Ecuadorian company SAETA was to complete a daily domestic flight from Quito to Cuenca , around 300 km further south . The flight time on this route was about an hour. The Vickers Viscount took off from the Aeropuerto Internacional Mariscal Sucre in Quito at 8:06 am local time with a weather-related delay . The pilots had received clearance to climb to 5490 meters MSL (18,000 feet ) and initially circled during the climb in order to gain sufficient altitude to fly over the Andes . The aircraft then went on a south-westerly course towards Cuenca and flew into the area of the Ambato control zone . 21 minutes after take-off, the air traffic controller there received a message from the crew that they had reached the approved altitude of 18,000 feet. The radio message contained no indication of an existing problem. It was the last contact with the machine.
Search and find the wreck
Despite hundreds of search flights, the missing machine could not be found. As early as 1976 it was assumed that the Vickers Viscount could have flown against the Chimborazo volcano protruding from the plateau in poor visibility conditions . There was also speculation about a kidnapping by the Colombian guerrillas.
On October 17, 2002, mountaineers came across the remains of an airplane east of the main summit of Chimborazo at an altitude of about 5400 meters. They also discovered corpses and numerous personal items, including newspapers from 1976. After an examination of the rubble and other finds by the Ecuadorian military, it was officially confirmed in February 2003 that it was the missing machine. The debris field was probably covered in snow and ice for years and was probably only visible as the glacier melted.
Web links
- AP: Investigators find frozen bodies in 30 year old plane crash , Associated Press footage of the scene of the accident, published on Youtube .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Ellensburg Daily Record, September 13, 1976 , accessed January 31, 2017
- ↑ Aviation Safety Network: Accident summary SAETA, Vickers Viscount HC-ARS, August 15, 1976 , accessed on January 31, 2017