On February 15, 1947, an Avianca Douglas DC-4 registered C-114 crashed into Mount El Tablazo en route from

Barranquilla Barranquilla () is the capital district of Atlántico Department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean Coast region; as of 2018 it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Col ...

to Bogotá,

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, killing all 53 people on board. Mount El Tablazo was shrouded in fog when, at 12:18 local time, the aircraft crashed into it at an elevation of about 10,500 feet. The cause of the crash was determined to be pilot error, with the crew deviating from the designated airway and flying below a safe altitude. At the time, the crash was the worst commercial airline crash in history, eventually matched by the crash of

Eastern Air Lines Flight 605 Eastern Air Lines Flight 605 was a domestic flight in the US from Newark to Miami on May 30, 1947. The flight crashed near Bainbridge, Maryland, causing the deaths of all 53 passengers and crew on board in what was then the worst disaster in th ...

near

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

three months later. Several Colombian professional soccer players from Barranquilla perished in the crash, including Romelio Martínez, after whom Barranquilla's municipal stadium was renamed years later.

References

1947 in Colombia Aviation accidents and incidents in 1947 Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error Aviation accidents and incidents in Colombia Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-4 Avianca accidents and incidents February 1947 events in South America {{aviation-accident-stub