Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 108 was a short-haul flight from

La Chinita International Airport La Chinita International Airport is an airport serving Maracaibo, the capital of Zulia. It is located southwest of Maracaibo proper in the municipality of San Francisco. La Chinita is Venezuela's second most important airport in terms of passeng ...

Maracaibo ) , motto = "''Muy noble y leal''"(English: "Very noble and loyal") , anthem = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_alt = ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

to Santa Barbara Ed-L Delicias Airport that crashed on March 5, 1991.

Aircraft

The aircraft used on Flight 108 was a

McDonnell Douglas DC-9 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. After ...

, which has been in service with Aeropostal for 14 years; the aircraft was manufactured in 1976.

The "Guillotine of Los Andes"

The Páramo "Los Torres" is known among

Venezuelan Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

pilots as '' The Guillotine (" Russian roulette") of Los Andes''. Prior to Flight 108, two other commercial aircraft had crashed. On December 15, 1950, an

Avensa Avensa (''Aerovías Venezolanas Sociedad Anonima'') was a Venezuelan airline headquartered in Caracas. It was in the process of financial restructuring, after it went into bankruptcy due to poor management in 2002, with Santa Barbara Airlines t ...

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...

flying from Mérida to

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

crashed, killing all 28 passengers and 3 crew. Ten years later, on December 15, 1960, a Ransa flight crashed, killing all of its passengers.

Accident

Tragedia paramo las torres x8x1 (820817238)

Flight 108 took off from

with 45 passengers and crew. Several minutes later, the

McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. After ...

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.

Cause

An 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

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influ ...

in the area, the pilots did not know they were on a collision course with the mountain.

In popular culture

On February 23, 2008, Globovisón briefly mentioned the accident while covering a report on

Santa Bárbara Airlines Flight 518 Santa Bárbara Airlines Flight 518 was an ATR 42–300 twin- turboprop aircraft, registration YV1449, operating as a scheduled domestic flight from Mérida, Venezuela, to Caracas that crashed into the side of a mountain on 21 February 2008, s ...

Similarities with Santa Barbara Airlines Flight 518

Tragedia paramo las torres x9x (1798447750)

On February 21, 2008,

, an

ATR 42 The ATR 42 is a regional airliner produced by Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse, France. On 4 November 1981, the aircraft was launched with ATR, as a joint venture between French Aérospatiale (now Airbus) and ...

, crashed into the "Los Conejos" moor, several minutes after taking off from

Alberto Carnevalli Airport Alberto Carnevalli Airport is an airport located southwest of downtown Mérida, Mérida, Mérida, the capital of Mérida (state), Mérida State in Venezuela. It is named in honor of Alberto Carnevalli (:es:Alberto Carnevali, es), a Venezuelan l ...

in Mérida. 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 northeast of Mérida at an altitude of 12,000 feet (3,700 m). No survivors were found. After the accident, the company started a new public relations program and rebranded SBA Airlines. Like Flight 108, Santa Bárbara Airlines Flight 518 did not have accurate information of the route it was flying.

References

External links

* * {{Coord missing, Venezuela 20th century in Maracaibo Aviation accidents and incidents in 1991 Aviation accidents and incidents in Venezuela Accidents and incidents involving the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error

108 108 may refer to: * 108 (number) * AD 108, a year * 108 BC, a year * 108 (artist) (born 1978), Italian street artist * 108 (band), an American hardcore band * 108 (emergency telephone number), an emergency telephone number in several states in Ind ...

1991 in Venezuela March 1991 events in South America 1991 disasters in Venezuela