Spantax flight 275

Spantax flight 275
	A CV-990 from Spantax, similar to the one that crashed
Accident summary
Accident type	Loss of control after taking off
place	Los Rodeos Airport , Spain;
date	3rd December 1972
Fatalities	155
Survivors	0
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Convair 990 Coronado
operator	Spantax
Mark	EC-BZR
Departure airport	Los Rodeos Airport , Spain;
Destination airport	Munich-Riem Airport , BR Germany;
Passengers	148
crew	7th
	Lists of aviation accidents

28.483611111111 -16.343333333333Coordinates: 28 ° 29 ′ 1 ″ N , 16 ° 20 ′ 36 ″ W.

The Spantax flight 275 (BX 275) was a charter flight of the Spanish airline Spantax from Los Rodeos Airport on Tenerife to Munich-Riem Airport . On 3 December 1972, the crashed aircraft type Convair 990 Coronado shortly after takeoff apparently due to a control error of the pilots. All 155 inmates were killed.

accident

plane

The aircraft with the aircraft registration EC-BZR was a Convair CV-990-30A-5 Coronado from the manufacturer Convair with the individual serial number 25, which was equipped with 4 CJ805-23 engines from General Electric . The aircraft had completed its maiden flight in 1962 and at the time of the accident it had clocked 24,161 flight hours. Spantax did not take over the aircraft from American Airlines until May 7, 1972 . When the machine took off, the take-off weight was around 111 tons.

the accident

The Convair took off from Los Rodeos with a crew of 7 people and 148 passengers at 6.45 a.m. local time. At an altitude of 300 feet (about 90 meters), the aircraft began a change of direction and shortly thereafter fell uncontrollably to the ground, where it hit about 325 meters behind the runway. None of the 155 occupants survived the accident. At the time of the accident there was thick fog in the area of the airport ; visibility was almost zero. The accident was the most serious in the history of Spanish aviation until the plane collision between two Boeing 747s at the same airport in March 1977.

Investigations

The investigation was led by the Spanish police authorities responsible at the time . Representatives of the German Federal Aviation Office were able to briefly inspect the crash site, but were not involved in the further investigation. Since eyewitnesses noticed a glow of fire in the air, the investigators initially assumed an engine fire or an act of sabotage . The official result of the investigation, on the other hand, showed a pilot's error, combined with visual orientation difficulties as the cause. Accordingly, the aircraft only caught fire on the ground, the reflection of which in the low clouds was perceived by observers as a fire in the air.

crew

The seven-man crew of the aircraft were three Spanish cockpit members , three Spanish stewardesses and one German stewardess. The captain Daniel Núñez (* 1940) was in service for Spantax since 1966. The co-pilot Francisco Saavedra (* 1936) began his employment with Spantax in July 1972, while the flight engineer José Alberto Sanz (* 1942) had been with the airline for two years.

Passengers

The 148 passengers it was mostly from Bavaria originating bus operators and their relatives, their journey through the National Association Bayerischer Omnibusunternehmer about Condor had been booked. They had previously been on a cruise . Three of the passengers were Austrian and two were Italian citizens. One couple had withdrawn from the flight at short notice; Another member of the tour group had apparently overslept and not reached the flight on time. In 1972 Spain made German tour operators an obligation to transport 30 percent of their tourists to Spain with Spanish airlines, which is why Spantax carried out some of the flights as a contractor.

Consequences

There were no immediate consequences from this accident, which was the first serious incident to date by the airline Spantax on a route to Germany. On the following day, the airline continued to transport German package holidaymakers to and from Tenerife.

However, in the following years there were repeated serious incidents , which in the autumn of 1983 caused the three package tourism companies TUI , ITS and NUR not to renew their contracts with Spantax because German tourists lost confidence in the airline's security had. Only Clipper Flugreisen in Stuttgart was the last German travel company to include Spantax flights to Spain in its program. The company was never able to recover from this extensive loss of one of its most important markets and ceased operations in March 1988.

As a result of the problems in identifying the victims, the Identification Commission (IDKO) of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) was formed.